Gaia: Integral Archipelago

Re: The Analysis.

http://dawiddahl.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:04:35 GMT

"Do we agree that this is what a table is?"

Use whatever definition you think is the correct one, and we'll work from there. This is the cool thing about Prasangika analysis, it takes the beliefs of the opponent at flat value at works from there. The Prasangika interlocutor doesn't need to force the opponent to believe in anything whatsoever, instead he works with the person on his own turf. In this way, it is a very non-dogmatic spiritual practice.

So a table is:

"A table is a flat surface that is elevated from the floor, that people can sit around or at least along one side of, and that is flat enough to hold a completely full glass of water so that the water won't spill."

"So, if the fourth leg hadn't been inserted, we couldn't say that that table exists. Nor could we say that the table exists in an unmanifest state."

Based on this reasoning, I'd say your answer must be 1) - the objective table is utterly non-existent when the final peg has not been installed.

Can we confirm this, or do you want to discuss it more?

---

Remember that the table necessarily doesn't have to be tilting like in your three-legged picture in order for there not to be a table there as to your definition of a table. Because if it tilts, it doesn't fulfill your criterions for a table.

We could attach the last leg in a manner that isn't in accord with the plans (see pic), and it would still be no table there, even though it fulfills all the criteria you mentioned:

"A table is a flat surface that is elevated from the floor, that people can sit around or at least along one side of, and that is flat enough to hold a completely full glass of water so that the water won't spill."

Don't you find this strange? How could it by definition be utterly no table there, yet fulfilling all the functions of a table? There seems to be something amiss here, don't you think?

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://dawiddahl.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:34:09 GMT

"How about in the video? Do you think that everything other than conventional medicine is New Age, that only MDs with drugs manufactured by pharmaceutical companies and shown to be effective by tests conducted by those pharmaceutical companies can provide effective treatment?"

As the guy says in the video. What do we call "natural" or "unconventional" medicine that has been proven to work... oh, yeah - medicine.

Let me just make this clear, I don't want to destroy any one individual. I want to destroy the new age meme. I have given a reason: it is a force of evolutionary stagnation; it dumbs down the population and in that process undermines Orange and thus our ability to transcend it. And I have given a definition: people in a culture with a Green cognition CoG who don't have the mental capacity to understand Green cognition so they - because of fear, insecurity, ignorance, etc - revert back to pre-rational cognition to find a solution to their existential angst.

Rick: "I have to say, that compared to a few hippies with crystals, the mental processes leading to market bubbles, are more dangerous."

There are many dangers in the world. Actually, all 1-tier structures poses potential danger. So the Orange processes you mention are very dangerous indeed, and need to be overcome, together with all the rest.

Re: The Analysis.

http://monk.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 06:09:39 GMT

I think we have to get into LL semantics just a little bit for this. We need to agree what table means. A table is a flat surface that is elevated from the floor, that people can sit around or at least along one side of, and that is flat enough to hold a completely full glass of water so that the water won't spill. Do we agree that this is what a table is? Perhaps we can add more to that in terms of definition, but that is a start at least.

I will assume we agree. In that case there would be no table until the final peg is inserted. All that would exist would be, assuming we were just up to that point, three legs and the flat surface, which could not function as a table because it would be leaning at an angle, not flat enough to hold a full glass of water without spilling it.

But, especially if we had the fourth leg with the final peg attached, what I described in the previous paragraph could be regarded as something that could potentially be a table, including the IKEA table we have in mind.

If we define table just as the IKEA table, then the IKEA table also wouldn't exist until the final peg is inserted. There is a picture on the box depicting the table in its finished form, so we will know what it looks like. See below for picture.

So, if the fourth leg hadn't been inserted, we couldn't say that that table exists. Nor could we say that the table exists in an unmanifest state. The table, the IKEA table that we can see below, doesn't exist at all at that point.

What does exist is something that could be the IKEA table if the final leg is inserted. I don't know of a good signifier to use for it. If we said "partially constructed table" that kind of makes sense, but it also kind of makes it sound like the table is already there when it isn't, except for the image in our minds. It's defining it in terms of the finished product when it hasn't been finished yet.

What exists before the last peg is inserted is what we see in the second picture, and that clearly isn't the IKEA table, which can be seen in the first picture, or anything that we can call a table, if we agree to the above definition. So, it's just 1.

Re: The official flyer for the City of Dallas Greening project

http://monk.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 05:43:53 GMT

Rick: The city is also developing the largest, usable, urban (in city limits), park in the world. “It's much larger than Central Park,” everyone's saying.

I think that's a great idea. Parks are really important. I think beauty in our cities is something that got left behind in the modern era.

I recently read an article that talked about criticisms of really good architecture for museums and such, people who thought the money could be spent elsewhere. The Dallas performing arts center was mentioned. I think projects like that are really important, though, and undervalued. Beauty in architecture is very important in cityscapes, as are parks.

Yeah, I saw that movie when it came out. I liked it. Have you ever been to Austin City Limits? It's now the longest running music-television series in U.S. history.

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://monk.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 01:43:23 GMT

David: “What aspects of the New Age exactly do you think need to be destroyed with a vengeance? Isn't materialism and scientism also an issue, like Amber fundamentalism?”

Dawid: I can answer this question if you give me a context. . . . As to what aspects of the New Age I want to destroy, I'd say all of them.

How about in the video? Do you think that everything other than conventional medicine is New Age, that only MDs with drugs manufactured by pharmaceutical companies and shown to be effective by tests conducted by those pharmaceutical companies can provide effective treatment?

We do need to establish some criteria if we are going to set out destroying things. We couldn't do it in an arbitrary, ad-hoc basis. That would be a like a government saying, "We are going to capture and incarcerate every terrorist, and if they won't be taken alive we will kill them."

And then the press asking, "How do you define terrorism? How do you identify a terrorist?"

And then the government replying, "Oh well, you'll know a terrorist when you see us take someone and put him in jail, that is if you see us. Or if you see someone lying dead with government bullets in them. That's how you will know a terrorist. You will know terrorism then by seeing what they did."

(Not saying that's what you're suggesting, just having a little fun. :) )

We have to define what the "problem" is, in this case New Age thinking. Then analyze why it exists and for whom it exists, and then we would be able to take the appropriate action. Our response would probably be quite varied, I would imagine; it would probably differ from case to case, depending on the person and depending on the idea they were holding and why and in what context they were holding it in.

Rick: The phenomenon is well documented in terms of the homeopathic “evidence” that David was referring too in the book, “Snake-oil Science.” Here a famous biostatician shows very clearly how all of these studies are very flawed scientifically.

This doesn't appear to be quite true, as far as I have been able to read the book at amazon.com. I read much of what he said about homeopathy.

He doesn't, as far as I saw, get into any particular studies. He reviews other reviewers whom he holds in high esteem, and then says, "Well, so you see, if he said it it must be true." As far as I have read that is what it amounts to.

Also, even there he didn't say that all the studies were flawed. What he actually did as far as I could read was a meta analysis of meta analyses of homeopathic studies, so it was quite removed from actually looking at the studies. And the person he held in such high esteem actually found that two out of eleven meta analyses of homeopathic studies were legitimate.

So I don't know whether he was right or fair about the other nine, but even his favorite critic of homeopathy didn't pan every study entirely. Further, one of Bausell's criteria for a good study ruled out anything that was published in something other than a "high-quality, prestigious, peer-reviewed journal"---in other words, anything that wasn't published in a journal that he found "high quality" or "prestigious" was thrown out. This amounted to throwing out every study that was published in a journal that had any variation on the word "homeopathy" in its title and wasn't published in the U.S. Here is a quote (he was at least open about this):

This is probably one of the times I should press the personal bias buzzer. So allow me to cite the following simply fact: 98 percent of the eighty-nine homeopathy trials cited by Linde and colleagues were published in non-U.S. and/or homeopathy journals or were listed as student theses in foreign universities. Only two trials (2 percent) came from American scientific journals . . . And that is all there is to my reanalysis.

Earlier he said, "Basically in those reanylyses that considered only the highest-quality trials [those that were published in American journals, without the word "homeopathy" or a variation of it in the title, in other words, the most conventional American journals] the highly-touted positive effects for homeopathy disappeared [except in 2 of them]."

These studies by conventional physicians tend not to be fair. They have so much invested in conventional medicine they seem to have an inherent bias against anything else and seem to be trying very hard to prove them wrong (having already decided that they are).

I read about one homeopathy trial involving Randi (he was there to observe) in which during the experiment Randi was doing magic tricks and his colleague was shouting so loudly and continuously that the scientists had to ask him repeatedly to please be quiet and stop shouting.

Earlier this year Randi backed out of a particular challenge from homeopathy fearing he would lose his million dollars, after many attempts at delaying and subverting the process, which had been going on for five years. Shame on Randi!

Rick: Science itself is a new religion, because most people misunderstand it.

Yes, that is a huge part of the issue, when science becomes not science but dogma. Unfortunately so many scientists are dogmatists, and this is one of the biggest thing holding down the progress of science. They are attached to a particular worldview (and often depend on that worldview for their livelihood) and aggressively attack anything that threatens it. One would think as healers that they would be interested in other modalities that might help their patients. Some are but very few.

There is an amazing example of behavior like this in Wilber's Grace and Grit (Wilber's italics, my bolding):

In practice, this means that the doctor will, for example, sometimes prescribe chemotherapy even when he knows it won't work. This came as a complete shock to Treya and me, but the practice is quite common. In a highly respected and authoritative text on cancer---The Wayward Cell by Dr. Victor Richards (who is, incidentally, Peter Richard's father)---the author presents a long discussion of why, under many circumstances, chemotherapy doesn't work, and then he goes on to state that nonetheless under the same circumstances chemotherapy should still be prescribed. Why? Because, he says, it "keeps the patient oriented toward the proper medical authorities." Put bluntly, it stops the patient from looking elsewhere for treatment---it keeps the patient oriented toward orthodox medicine, whether or not that medicine actually works in this case. . . .

A very good friend of ours who had advanced cancer was given the very strong recommendation, by her doctors, that she undertake yet another course of very intensive chemotherapy. If she did so, the doctors told her, she could expect to live an average of twelve months. It finally dawned on her to ask: How long can I be expected to live without the chemotherapy? The answer came back: Fourteen months. The doctor's recommendation: Do the chemotherapy. (People who haven't actually gone through something like this have a very hard time understanding that these kinds of things happen all the time---which is a testament to how thoroughly we have accepted the orthodox medical interpretation and "treatment" of the sickness. [Grace and Grit, 45-6]

That is not a scientific attitude, surely (!), but it is the attitude of many "scientists" and MDs out there. I think it's partially a matter of dogmatism or scientism, partly a matter of a less-than-integral COG, partly a matter of control, partly a matter of financial interest, partly a matter of cultural conditioning.

Re: An Integral Look at the Guru Principle

http://monk.gaia.com — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:31:08 GMT

That's all very interesting, Irmeli. It looks as though Freemasonry provides a very wholesome community for people.

It looks as though it could provide a nice space for healing and development as well.

What gets people in trouble there? Why can't you do or say, and when people do something wrong, how is it resolved?

What about the "humiliating clothing"? Some people might regard that as a negative thing, the humiliation. That's one thing that comes up when people criticize some gurus, that they humiliate their students. Of course it's just one small ritual, but since you used that word I thought I would ask.

The symbolism is very interesting. What is the symbolism of the dagger and the rope in your view? I know it doesn't mean this in Freemasonry, but some might construe that as threatening---if you try to get away, the group will strangle you; if you are too ambitious (or something like that) the group will pierce you in the heart with a dagger. I think it is a good contemplation and initiation and seems harmless in the overall context of Freemasonry (as long as no one freaks out and runs into the dagger---have there been any accidents?), but if that were the initiation process for a group that was already being criticized, say Andrew Cohen's group, people would probably read some very insidious things into it. I imagine no one is pressured to stay in the Freemasons if they want to leave, right? There may be a significant cultural difference in Finland, also, that I am not aware of.

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://rousetheoneness.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 22:57:50 GMT

Rick: "I have to say, that compared to a few hippies with crystals, the mental processes leading to market bubbles, are more dangerous."

Yep, far more dangerous methinks.

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://dawiddahl.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 19:47:49 GMT

Believing that the world is centered around me, and that my thoughts are independent entities and that they have the power to influence the enviroment is based around the Magenta wave of development, which is pre-historic.

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://rickholden76.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 18:02:04 GMT

This thinking is hardly pre-historic. It is a way of thinking that is largely predicated on how our minds work. We understand things in patterns. We then notice things concurrent with those patterns, while ignoring other phenomenon.
This isn't something that is unique to new age.
The phenomenon is well documented in terms of the homeopathic "evidence" that David was referring too in the book, "Snake-oil Science." Here a famous biostatician shows very clearly how all of these studies are very flawed scientifically. Science itself is a new religion, because most people misunderstand it. Newspapers report flawed or incomplete studies in journals as though they are given by god. This isn't the fault of the scientists, usually, but the way the whole process is misunderstood.

I think a better recent example though, is the current crisis in global markets.
I have to say, that compared to a few hippies with crystals, the mental processes leading to market bubbles, are more dangerous.

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://dawiddahl.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:41:23 GMT

"What aspects of the New Age exactly do you think need to be destroyed with a vengeance? Isn't materialism and scientism also an issue, like Amber fundamentalism?"

I can answer this question if you give me a context.

As to what aspects of the New Age I want to destroy, I'd say all of them. People who are insecure and afraid in our current, wonderfully developed society should force themselves to grow mentally instead of reverting back to pre-historic thinking. It helps no one and fulfills no purpose other than dumbing the population, causing a slow down in mental evolution.

Re: An Integral Look at the Guru Principle

http://co-mason.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:13:56 GMT

Irmeli: This is the very first thing that is taught to an initiate to freemsaonry, when s/he steps over the treshold to the lodge. It is done very concretely in that situation.

David:How is this done?

I have given an oath not to reveal the secrets of Freemasonry.
However what constitutes those secrets today is also an inerpretation. A lot of the freemasonic rituals are actually out there in the net, and they have been described in many books written by freemasons themselves.

Therefore I do not consider describing some parts of the rituals to constitute anymore a revealing of the secrets of freemasonry.

Also the need to keep the rituals of freemasonry secret comes from old times, when revealing them meant a concrete threat to the existence of the organization as a cradle of freedom of thought.

So here it goes:
When a person is being prepared to be initiated to Freemasonry, s/he is asked to take her clothes off. Then he is asked to put on a pretty humiliating clothing. His eyes get covered by a black mask, so that he cannot see anything.
In this position a rope is put around his neck The initiate does not know anything about this.

Equiped this way the initiate gets guided to the door of the Temple. When he steps over the treshold as a blind initiate, he is asked to stop. He can feel something touching his left chest, but he cannot see it. Actually it is a sharp dagger. The same person that holds the dagger, holds also fast of the rope that is around his neck. (Actually there is also a guide, who holds the initiate in place, and asks him to move, when it is time for that.)

The initiate cannot see anything of this as his eyes are covered. Later during the initiation the mask is taken away, and then the rope around his neck and the dagger that was pointed towards his heart are shown to him.

It is then explained to him that he has avoided too great dangers. Had he tried to escape from the initation after he had stepped over the treshold, he would have got strangled by the rope. Had he rushed forward recklessly, the dagger would have pierced his heart. He is then asked to ponder about the wider symbolic meaning of this.

Irmeli

Re: An Integral Look at the Guru Principle

http://co-mason.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 11:11:40 GMT

David:So there isn't an overarching philosophy that people move into, just a kind of meta-philosophy that is geared toward each person individually and their own path?

In Freemasonry there is an overarching philosophy, but it leaves plenty of room for individuation or differentiation, room for personal interpration.

I quote the constitution of the Freemasonic organization Le Droit Humain:

"Composed as it is of Freemasons, men and women, fraternally united without distinction of ethnic, philosophical or religious order., the Order prescribes, with this end in view, a method of working which is both ceremonial and symbolic, by means of which its members build their Temple to the Perfection and Glory of Humanity.
In addition to respecting independence from all religious institutions and organisations and all beliefs concerning survival or non-survival after death, its members seek, above all, to realise the greatest possible degree of moral, intellectual and spiritual development for all people. It believes this to be the pre-requisite for all happiness attainable by each individual, in a fraternally organised Humanity".

In the lodges this is done by symbolically building the temple of humanity. Each member forms an individual stone in this temple with a crucial function in it. All the stones have a somewhat different function in the make-up of the temple.

The rituals have been skillfully crafted in a way, that the different roles in it represent the different internal functioning of an developmentally advanced mind. Pretty often our experience after a lodge session is that we were again working as one mind in spite of the fact that ideas from wildly differing perspective got expressed during the session.

The members during their career in Freemasonry get circulated in these differing functions. If you take care of your duties diligently and skillfully, you are gradually given a more demanding tasks. If you manage to make through all these employments, in ten years you can become eligible to be voted to be raised to the chair of the Worshipful Master in the lodge.
The Worshipful Master is elected once a year among those who qualify as eligible. You can function in the role of the Master only two consecutive years at a time. The role of the preceding Master is to supervise and support the Worshipful Master in his/her demanding work. Also all the previous past Masters can do this, but not the members who have not yet functioned in the position of the Master of the Lodge.
The Master has a lot of power in the workings of the Lodge. Basically her/his word is the law. The possibility of abuse of power gets minimized by this system of supervising and yearly election. Also we are encouraged to find our natural place and function in the bigger Temple of the whole humanity. All the stones in that building have their important role in the whole.
We also get the experience that the role on the top of the lodge is a demanding one with more responsibilities than others have. I have been together four years in that position, and don’t hope for getting elected too soon again. And luckily that does not look likely, as many of us tend to give our votes for the newcomers among the eligible ones.

In every organization you need something that connects people together. In many religions and spiritual organizations it is the dogmas and belief systems that hold people together. Freemasonry does have much less of those.

We highly appreciate freedom of thought, and also encourage the kind of own thinking that really touches you. This can be very threatening to some people. They feel like they are left on empty in Freemasonry. There is no teachings to hold on, or to follow. Everything is symbolic and is expecting your very own interpretation.

In Freemasonry basically it is the rituals and symbols that connect people together and form the shared symbolic language between the members. This language unites people there, not their beliefs, or other conceptual frameworks.

Irmeli

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://monk.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 08:25:16 GMT

I'm not sure that New Age is really such a scourge. :)

I think there are healthy aspects of it, an openness that creates an opening beyond scientism and materialism, for example, an exploration, and then there are unhealthy aspects of it. I mentioned earlier that if someone were really serious about astrology it would indicate Amber, but a playfulness about it might not.

Unhealthy New Age would mean Green infected with Magenta (magic thinking, The Secret) or Amber (astrology, 100% pre-determination), kind of like the mean Green meme is Green infused with Red. There are other pathologies at Green as well, like excessive relativism that leads to a sort of nihilism that regresses into narcissism, amoral familism.

What aspects of the New Age exactly do you think need to be destroyed with a vengeance? Isn't materialism and scientism also an issue, like Amber fundamentalism?

But we're also talking about specific lines here, specific cognitive lines. One can be Green, for example, with Green ethics and politics but not very good scientific or philosophical skills, so when we see New Age it might not be pathology but just not very high development along one of these lines.

In the latter case it wouldn't be something to "destroy," because destruction wouldn't necessarily move people higher along those lines. In many cases also it might just be that people haven't given these things much thought. They've been wrapped up in postmodern, relativistic, do-what-you-feel-like culture, and they've never thought deeply about these things or studied them with any kind of rigor.

Re: The Analysis.

http://dawiddahl.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:45:57 GMT

"So at this point, I'm not saying that the table exists “out there.” At this point the referent doesn't exist, except perhaps as a subtle referent in the mind of the designer"

Ok. So if you now come back to the question:

Before the last peg is inserted in just the right and complete way that you describe, what is its objective status? Is it 1) completely and utterly nonexistent, or is it 2) in a kind of unmanifest potential state?

Again, I implore you not just to answer with the first idea that pops into your mind, but to inquire intensely into this. Is it still both 1) and 2)?

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://dawiddahl.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 07:36:29 GMT

"I think the title of the sketch would more accurately be 'Orange vs. Green at dinner.'"

I thought about this, but to me it doesn't seem right to equate New Age with Green.

In my opinion, New Age is a toxic combination of a misunderstanding of Green cognition (probably due to being born in a culture with a Green CoG, but not having the mental capacity to grasp it cognitively), and a highly confused glorification of Magenta cognition.

Healthy Green to me is a beautiful, wonderful thing. New Age on the other hand is completely meaningless and, to put it mildly, an insult to human progress, and must be destroyed with a vengeance.

Integral Spiritual Retreat for Women : Bali, March 2010

http://sass.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:55:55 GMT

an Integral Spiritual Retreat for Women with Dr Sarah Nicholson and Tina Nance Experience deep, energising, rest and nurturance, Engage your consciounesss of mind, body and spirit, Explore the path of womens sprituality... through yoga, meditation, journaling, dream work, dance women's history and Integral theory

Yoga
Stretch and strengthen each morning with daily yoga practice in Honeymoon Guesthouse's yoga room.

Meditation
Lie down and let go. Come back to your self with deep rest meditation in the style of Open Dharma.

Journaling
Beginning with presence, in the body, this free writing technique will open the gateway to creative expression and insight.

Dream Work
Work with extending conscious awareness into the realm of sleep through recording, remembering, and naming your dreams, and dialoguing with your dream self.

Dance
Experience Alchemystical Yoga Dance. Focusing on dance, movement and meditation practices drawn from ancient and contemporay yogic and tantric principles of the body we will connect with intimate sensory awareness to the vast openness, receptivity, surrender, and radiance that is the divine feminine aspect of ourselves.

Womens Spiritual History
Beginning in ancient Sumerian myth, learn about women who have walked the path before us. Join in story with the lineage of spiritual heroines who have embodied the divine in flesh as women. Understand women's spirituality in the context of Integral theory's evolutionary unfolding.

Integral Theory
Explore and understand the pathways of women's development to the embodiment of the divine: Unitive development through Integral theory, as drawn from the work of Ken Wilber, Carol Gilligan, Susanne Cook Greuter, Jenny Wade and others.
What hurdles might there be on the path to embodying the archetype of the Self as woman? How might our relationship to the social and cultural world as women affect our personal development?

About the teachers:

Dr Sarah Nicholson's PhD “In the footsteps of the heroine: the journey to Integral Feminism” followed the figure of woman as heroine from the ancient Archaic stage of human history to the burgeoning Integral stage; exploring the development of feminist spirituality from within the context of Integral theory and human evolutionary development.
She has been a Visiting Scholar at York University (Canada) and the Australian National University, and has been an Adjunct Faculty member of Integral Institute’s Women’s Integral Life Practice seminar. At the first Integral Theory Conference (JFK University, U.S) in 2008, she presented on "Woman in evolutionary history: From the Archaic to Integral Feminism" and was an invited speaker on the conferences "Integral Feminism" panel.
As well as publishing and presenting research both nationally and internationally, Sarah has been a published poet for over ten years and was awarded the Ian Potter Cultural Trust Fellowship for Literature in 2004. She has studied and practiced extensively in the traditions of Zen and western Vipassana, and has taught contemplative writing practice and meditation. She currently teaches in the field of religion and culture at University of Western Sydney and is a Research Associate of Sydney University's Faculty of Education.
www.sarahnicholson.org
TINA NANCE

Tina Nance is an Australian yoga/dance meditation teacher and the director of Alchemystic YogaDance. Tina has spent well over a decade exploring spiritual traditions, practices and healing arts around the globe. Deeply passionate about creating opportunities for people to connect directly and experientially with their body-mind-spirit, she has trained in Taoist and Classical Indian Yoga, Yoga Therapy, Dance and Movement Meditation, Kinesiology, Shiatsu, Remedial, Thai and Chinese Massage, Vibrational Healing and Reiki. Tina has been teaching yoga and movement meditation throughout Australia, Europe, America & Asia for the past 7 years
Alchemystic YogaDance utilises techniques to both reveal and release the unconscious patterns within the bodymind, and to connect through and beyond them to Spirit. AYD directly explores the map of the energy system within our bodyminds, through the ancient tools of Yoga, Sacred Dance, Meditation Practices and Vibrational Energy Techniques.

Tina has travelled & taught throughout Australia, Europe, America & Asia, & is currently living & teaching in Taiwan.

About the venue:

The beautiful Honeymoon Guesthouse is perfect for relaxation. Elegant Balinese style guest rooms with private balconies are set amidst a lush tropical garden complete with beautifully carved stone statues, carp ponds and a grand salt water pool for relaxing.

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Honeymoon Guesthouse is also situated only a five-minute walk away from the heart of Ubud's shopping, eating, art and performance hub.

Other retreat information:
Retreat is limited to 18 participants

Full retreat costs:
$AU 1100 per person (single room)
$AU 975 per person (share room)

Includes: 5 nights accommodation 5 breakfasts All retreat activities: yoga, meditation, dance, creative writing, dream work and lectures Deposit: $AU 250.00 to confirm your place Full payment due by 26th February 2010 Early bird prices: $AU 1000 per person (single room)
$AU 875 per person (share room)
Book with deposit by November 30 2009.
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Re: The official flyer for the City of Dallas Greening project

http://rickholden76.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 05:21:00 GMT

The city is also developing the largest, usable, urban (in city limits), park in the world. "It's much larger than Central Park," everyone's saying. The people in city hall right now loosing thier minds with the stimulus money. Texas wasn't hit that hard by the market crash, so all the development money is adding to everything, and rebuilding everything, rather than just keeping things the same.
This project that I'm appart of is actually something the director of the environmental office dreamed up a couple of years ago, but there wasn't any money for it.
So, now everyone pulling out these dream projects and doing them. They're also building up the train system to connect downtown with the suburbs and towns an hour away.

And yes, Austin is where hippies go to die and where cowboys and punx drink Schinner Bock together. If there's one town here to see, it's probably Austin. The only problem with Austin is becoming more and more like Southern California. As SXSW got bigger and bigger and people from Cali, and elsewhere saw how cheap it was to live in Texas, and how interesting Austin was, they moved there.
When I was 20, in downtown Austin I would only have to buy one beer, and strangers would just buy me more beer. Then if I got too drunk, someone would take me to thier homes and I'd pass out on the couch.
Now, that doesn't happen as much. Service has gotten bad in restaraunts, etc...
I've attached a movie made by a local film maker, and all the people in the film are real, local people from Austin. It really used to be like that.

Anyway, now I'm in Denton, north of Dallas. Denton is a small college town that we call the "Little Austin," because it has a lot of live music places and people from all over come to play here.

As far as cities go, Dallas isn't close to number one in being green or progressive, but it's far passed Houston, which is like any other generic, strip mall city in America.

Re: Reason vs New Age at dinner.

http://monk.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 03:44:51 GMT

He is very talented. :) I really enjoyed listening to him. A great poet and a great performance.

I think the title of the sketch would more accurately be "Orange vs. Green at dinner."

At times the Green was explicit, such as the line, "You can't know anything. Knowledge is merely opinion."

Perhaps unhealthy Green with the Amber astrology remark, if was meant seriously.

~ ~ ~

There are studies that have shown that homeopathy has worked, as I showed in this post.

It's also true that nearly all the studies about modern drugs are suspect because nearly all of them are funded by the pharmaceutical companies that sell them. The entire enterprise, also, excludes all unpatentable substances from their experiments (including herbs and homeopathic remedies), so the idea that there are so many more drugs with "proven effectiveness" (if you don't mind the side effects that include dizziness, palpitations, erectile dysfunction, and sudden death) than natural substances doesn't really work.

It's also interesting to see that many homeopathic and herbal remedies are used in material does in conventional medicine (I have mentioned some of this before but never quoted it in full):

First of all there is the first homeopathic remedy ever proven by Hahnemann, Cinchona or the Peruvian bark. Its use (known as Quinine) in malaria and heart rhythm disorders is well-known. Then there is Colchine. Preparations of the autumn crocus, as it is known have been used in orthodox medicine to fight gout. Digitalis for heart failure is used in heart failure but in Western doses causes at least 60,000 deaths a year. The use of Argentum Nitricum can be evidenced in opthalmia neonatorum---silver nitrate drops that are put into the eyes of newborns---a common practice to avoid damage from gonorrhea infection.

One of the most common examples of homeopathic prescribing in conventional medicine is the use of Sulphur and sulphur-containing drugs. Sulfur is of great value in the treatment of various skin eruptions: acne, seborrheic dermatitis, psoriasis and rosacea. A quick look in my dermatology book shows me all the different uses of 3% and 10% sulfur lotions in the above mentioned skin diseases. . . .

There are still more examples, too many to mention here. The main point is that there are many people today with chronic illnesses of all kinds, maintained on expensive, toxic drugs, and yet not cured. Not cured because the root of their symptoms has not been rectified with the appropriate drug. Too many patients are suffering from iatrogenic or doctor-induced [also treatment induced] illness (35% of all the diseases according to the World Health Organization (WHO)!). Although the homeopathic practitioner might not be able to cure all of them, he will treat the patient as a whole person, as an individual prescribing affordable medicines without side-effects. [Luc De Schepper, Human Condition: Critical, pp. 104-5]

Re: An Integral Look at the Guru Principle

http://monk.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 02:42:19 GMT

Irmeli: I see now that being depleted energetically had mostly to do with my personal incapacity of owning my shadow issues.

That's an important subject. Also wanting things to be a certain way in an egoic manner, not recognizing, for example, that something unpleasant may actually be evolutionary.

Irmeli: My observation is that as long as the basic structure(LR) in an organization is amber, whatever higher intensions people might have there, the end result tends to be amber also in (LL), and also in UL people show very little if any advancment through the stages.

I think that's an interesting point: Unless things are written down in a post-Amber way (and perhaps also unless there are some right-hand correlates to those by-laws) things could slip very easily into Amber, and often do. Orange ethics are inconvenient for many people, and they want to have vague by laws that sound nice but at the end of the day often mean just what they personally want to do or their little group of friends.

Irmeli: I haven't encountered these problems in Freemasonry. There the members are encouraged to express their own thoughts and understanding. Something that really touches you deep inside. The structure of the organization is such that it helps people to find their own path to deeper truth.

So there isn't an overarching philosophy that people move into, just a kind of meta-philosophy that is geared toward each person individually and their own path?

Irmeli: Freemasonry is strongly a collective endeavour. It emphasises the collective aspect in our evolving. It is not even aiming at individual enlightenment, but towards collective enlightenment.

I guess this partially answers my question above. So it is more about moving toward a higher stage collectively, in the LL, rather than individuals shooting way up, perhaps higher than the rest?

Interestingly the evolutionary enlightenment of Andrew Cohen is similar to this and is also the subject of his quote of the week this week:

One Between Two

The goal of Evolutionary Enlightenment is the emergence of a miraculous potential that I call “intersubjective nonduality.” What does that mean? “Nonduality” is most commonly used to mean oneness, or not-two-ness. It points to the perennial spiritual revelation that there is no other. And “intersubjective” means between subjects. So “intersubjective nonduality,” to put it simply, means one between two. It means the experience of oneness in a context of relatedness. Usually, we experience other people as being separate, outside of our own experience of subjectivity. Except in rare moments, such as sexual intimacy, it seems as if there is an impenetrable wall between us. But I have discovered that when two or more individuals awaken to the truth of Oneness, in the same place and the same space, the liberating knowledge that there is no other—which is the ground of enlightened awareness—can become a shared experience.

When this occurs, we mutually experience a paradox: You appear to be there as a separate individual; I appear to be here as a separate individual; and yet my experience of myself and my experience of you is that we are not two. And this changes everything. Why? Because this is when enlightenment, which is the direct experience of Oneness, breaks out of the purely subjective experience of the individual, and becomes the shared intersubjective context in which relatedness occurs. Miraculously, nonduality is no longer just an abstract idea or even a personal revelation, but becomes the very foundation of the culture between us. To me, this is what enables the power of enlightened awareness to affect real change in the world. The discovery of intersubjective nonduality is nothing less than the ground for creating an enlightened culture.

Irmeli: Still our aim is that every person, who gets initiated to freemasonry, will one day lead the lodge as its Master. The Master has plenty of power and is very much respected inside the lodge, but this power gets supervised in many different ways. Structurally there is very little space for abuse.

I think this is a cool idea.

David: I think fear should be listened to, but at the end of the day there is no need to act from fear. If we act from fear, we will really be acting from the ego, from the separate-self sense; this will really mess a person up. It could also mess a person up if they never listened to fear or if for some reason their information system had gone haywire and they didn't feel fear at the proper time or something.

Irmeli: This is the very first thing that is taught to an initiate to freemsaonry, when s/he steps over the treshold to the lodge. It is done very concretely in that situation.

How is this done?

~ ~ ~

Tom: You've entirely overridden my point. . . . Fear wouldn't exist evolutionarily if it didn't serve a life-enhancing and life-sustaining role.

I didn't mean to override your point. I agree with it, at least up to a point. I meant to convey that when I said:

I think fear should be listened to.

And:

It could also mess a person up if they never listened to fear or if for some reason their information system had gone haywire and they didn't feel fear at the proper time or something.

Tom: Fear wouldn't exist evolutionarily if it didn't serve a life-enhancing and life-sustaining role.

I think it's true that fear serves an evolutionary function, a very important one, but I don't think simply because something exists means that it is evolutionary, or at least indefinitely evolutionary. If it did, then the cautionary notes about fear from some spiritual teachers would also necessarily be evolutionary.

What spiritual teachings are you referring to about fear, also? Who makes these admonitions about fear? I have heard some people say things like being fearful for your own salvation is an important, evolutionary function, which I think it is up to a certain point. Amber, of course, plays on fear a lot. Fear of God, fear of Hell, etc. And that is evolutionary.

Fear can also play an evolutionary role in keeping us out of cult or cult-like situations, but that has to be differentiated very carefully from, say, the fear the separate-self sense has of dying to its particular identifications and moving on.

I think we could say there is authentic or evolutionary fear and egoic fear, as well as delusional fear and other types. I think it would be interesting as Irmeli suggested, to really dissect fear and the different types of it. Maybe we can enlist Dawid's help in having a Prasangika analysis of fear as well. :)

Tom: Yes, one symptom of greater maturity is a lessening of fear, but fear actually guided the so-called mature person to that place of maturity. Why? Because it existed as a stage-specific function.

Yes, I agree that fear emerged at a specific stage and has served and evolutionary function. I meant to convey that when I said:

If we act from fear, will be acting out of panic, perhaps do something not particularly evolved like leave someone inside who we could have saved or try to save someone who we couldn't save and kill us both. If we act from fear we will probably be acting from Magenta or Red.

Tom: Your “deepest part of ourselves” is itself but a higher stage (therefore not “deepest,” because will be superceded) built on earlier stages.

I believe it is both the "deepest" part of ourselves and a higher stage, referring to what Wilber calls the deeper psychic, which can be retroread into earlier stages. "Inmost nature" is one term that Shunryu Suzuki used for it. Yes, we can't say it is ultimately deepest (that is why I put it in quotes above), but we can say it is the deepest nature that we know of at this point.

Tom: And until inner structures are sufficiently developed to allow an aware operating with less fear, fear, if heeded, will keep a person from inappropriate behaviour, like a time- and stage-inappropriate “submission” of “ego.”

Yes, of course a higher structure is necessary to respond from "inmost nature" in a conscious and consistent fashion, but that higher structure will include the ability to differentiate between fear-based behavior and non-fear-based behavior. Emotionally the person will have to be developed enough to not always have to respond to fearful impulses.

The fearful impulses are partially just kosmic habits that are not necessarily necessary every time they get unleashed. They can actually be deevolutionary in many circumstances: People can sometimes get upset, act from fear, and cause harm when there was really nothing to be afraid of. But it is tricky because sometimes there are things to be concerned with and either dealt with or avoided.

Re: Amazing Sand Art from Ukraine's Got Talent

http://monk.gaia.com — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 01:40:03 GMT

That was quite amazing, James. It was amazing to see images appear like that.

It was also cool to see images of light turn to images of darkness, changing with the music.

I really like the art form. I haven't seen it for so long I had forgotten it even existed.