Thursday, March 27, 2008

{note; I posted this in my Healthy Culture group and just thought I’ d post it here too...--I-P}

I want to say something, as conversation opener, about Motivation and Intention

In Healthy Culture (and in Integral Science, the name I am giving to the part of healthy Culture that deals more or less with the mind, with Cosmology, Logic, Meaning etc..) there is the assumption of the primary togetherness of Subject and Object, of Inner and Outer, of Self and World. This assumption of fundamental togetherness has some surprising implications since it actually suggests that Both the idea of changing the world first and then (perhaps) changing oneself (the "political" idea) as well as the other Idea of first changing oneself and then the world (the "spiritual" idea) are both misconceived objectives. From the point of view of fundamental togetherness, it is only possible to change and heal the inner and the outer together, at the same time; because that is the fundamental way they exist at all.

what this means in practice is that, taking the political idea first, the goals of one-sidedly outward activism will inherently be distorted, and sabotaged by the degree to which the unattended wounds of fear-based inner issues have had a hand in assessing them and the means to them. The very inpulse to such onesidedness is can be understood as something motivated by those issues themselves as a way of self protection, but the nemesis to fear-based hubris that such an orientation implies can only be the ultimate failure of an agenda that was misconcieved and falsely motivated from the start (though unfortunately none of this might ever be admitted by those involved).

On the other hand, the illusion that political quietism is really even possible let alone Spiritual, is just as often an equally fear-based retreat; a crime of omission against the world and one of commission (essentially Fraud) against onself.

Moreover, the situation is even more subtle in that, even in the case that one tries to alternate the "spriitual" and the "political", the false seperation of the two can not but lead to my mind, to situations in which, just when my attention should be 90% focused on myself and my own shit, it is focused to that degree on the world, and visa versa...the ego, monkey-mind, or what ever you want to call it, really is just like that...

From this point of view then, the whole the issue needs to be become something like: "what gesture can I make both in this moment and in the future, to catalyze my own healing together-with that of others and the world?".

To call such an intention an "Objective" would be misleading, since the idea of an Objective implies a fundamental separation, if not necessarily of the subject from the "object" (the inner from the outer), at least of the future from the present, and past (and eternity too for that matter). So instead of talking about the above mentioned intention as an objective, I call it an "Integrative" (pronounced "In-TEG-ra-tive").

Having an Integrative means having an Intention of catalyzing ones own healing together with that of others and the world, and it means being involved in an ongoing process of experiment, hypothesis and theory regarding how best to do this. Of course this must involve some idea (at least a theory) of ones own subjective individuality, including ones "shit"; ones own subjective sick culture. It also means some idea as well about how that fits into and the outer sick culture that is around one, this then implying some idea of how to act so as to increasingly challenge both these things in the same gesture (which would then be the experiment).

Individual-Persons involved in healthy culture have or are seeking an Integrative by definition, But though its true that, in someways, the overall outline of this situation is the same for everyone so involved, the practical working out of that intention is something that must take into account the details of each individual-persons inner and outer situation, and so deal also the variations on the common theme of  healing sick culture inwardly and outwardly together.

For example, how do I as a Myers-Briggs INTJ, as an enneagram 5, (I could add many other ways of tentatively understanding and talking about my subjective situation) successfully challenge my tendency to withdrawal and, judge, and conceal, (all in inappropriate and unhealthy ways), how do I challenge this IN SUCH A WAY THAT the outer world is also maximally moved toward Healthy Culture? My whole life (at least the deliberate intentional part) is my reply, my experiment, regarding that question. This group (and this post) itself is part of that experiment for me.  For by starting this online Healthy Culture group I hope that I am making a gesture toward moving out of enneagram 5-like secrecy, and seclusion in a way that will hopefully lead me towards a somewhat more 8-like role in the world generally, which (if my assessment of my own personality and integrative path has not itself been distorted by my own sick culture) seems to be the path of healing for me.

For obvious reasons, having an integrative is not something that is particularly flattering to the competative, one-sided ego any more the growth and maturity of any kind are. The self-righteousness of focusing on ones "piece of the Truth" and rather then ones "piece of the Lie" is certainly more fun at least superficially. And even the self-deprecation of focusing only on ones "piece of the Lie" seems to be preferable (i suppose because it feels more secure) than the more dynamic, paradoxical attitude that having an integrative involves. But such preferences are born only form inexperience; it is just the presence the Lie and the Truth in all of us in ever changing proportions, each one of the two manifesting unexpectedly to different degrees at different times, that make us all essentially equal and (when acknowledged) capable of a kind of real Friendship and real togetherness that would not be possible otherwise.

So all of this is leading up to the question of what you think the details of your own Integrative may be. In the light of what you know and believe about healthy Culture, how do you think you might further your own healing together with my own, the other people in this good And that of the world outside of it? How can we increasingly befriend (listen to, support and challenge) each other, ourselves and the world in such a way that healing will come from it? Can participation in this group even lead to that?

Since, we don’t really even know each other much yet even virtually, I don’t necessarily expect any answers at the moment (although I would appreciate comments and questions). For now I just want to explain this idea of the Integrative as my intention and motivation for starting this tribe and ask if you think you could share in it--if only experimentally.

---I-P)

posted by: piankhy | 05:39 | comments (7)