Terry's blog

At the Integral Theory Conference a couple of weeks ago, I had the pleasure of participating in a panel on Integral Politics. During the discussion, I found myself outlining a 3-part strategy for evolutionary activism—using the metaphor of Bodhidharma, the bushy-eyebrowed sage who is said to have brought Buddhism to China from India and to have founded Chinese martial arts at the Shaolin Temple.

The question I was addressing was: How can conscious citizens effectively help bring about a positive future in the face of our current crises and stuckness? Do we have a workable strategy?

According to ancient legends, certain Emperors of China ruled wisely and well, guided by the advice of great sages—including Lao Tzu, Confucius, and perhaps also Bodhidharma. Such stories suggest a broad approach that evolutionaries can adopt:

1. Become Bodhidharma.
2. Help create enlightened sustainable solutions— ‘spare parts’ for 4-quadrant systems redesign.
3. Gain the ear of the Emperor.

Okay, let’s unpack that a little. First, some meta-context:

Why the “Killer App”?

What made computers indispensable?

• The first database programs, plus word processing and accounting software.

What first made the Internet a necessity instead of a curiosity?

• Email, singlehandedly. 

Why did cell phones become nearly ubiquitous so quickly, despite concerns about their health impacts?

• Mobile connectivity, plus the magic of texting, made cellphones an essential tool for postmodern lifestyles.

Why do we salivate over the iPhone, and now the iPad?

• Because the sleek tool lets us use thousands of amazingly cool, intuitive apps.

We undertake the ordeal of upgrading our operating systems only in order to access new applications. A “killer app” legitimizes any innovative approach, making the expense and hassle of an upgrade worthwhile.  Read more »

For several years, something that's been "up" for me has been the evolution of practice: the actual emergence of new dynamics ("life conditions") and capacities relating to the process of growing to higher levels of consciousness.   Read more »

One of Andrew Cohen’s critics recently attacked me in a blog post. Detailing a few of the most inflammatory stories about Cohen, a group of teachers (including me, Ken Wilber and others) were accused of “enabling abuse” because we have dialoged and cooperated with Andrew, his students and his publications. None of us responded publicly to the attack. I chose not to because in the echo chamber of the blogosphere there is no way to respond thoughtfully and at length to irresponsible negativity without raising it to an implicitly equal status, and thereby validating and empowering it.  Read more »

Yesterday’s political news couldn’t have been more important. The U.S. Supreme Court, in a dramatic departure from established law, struck down regulations limiting corporate spending on political advertising, including much of the McCain-Feingold Campaign Finance Reform Act.

This ruling is of enormous significance to Integralists and Evolutionaries, because it is about a meta-systemic realignment of the very political mechanisms through which citizens’ choices can shape public decisions.

An Integral Analysis of Money Politics & Media

Americans live in a virtual sea of advertising and public relations messages that are structured (scientifically reverse-engineered, in fact) to influence us outside our conscious awareness. Subliminally, these communications have enormous influence over our buying decisions, attitudes, and votes, even though we think we’re aware of them and are disregarding their influence. This applies equally to commercial and political messages. They influence people up and down the evolutionary scale, but are particularly compelling at earlier levels of development. And ads cost money.  Read more »

I'm writing this in the spacious stillness of Thanksgiving weekend. My life has been moving at high speed, but over this holiday break an opening appeared. The phone barely rang, and a sense of deep peace naturally blossomed. My heart has been overflowing with spontaneous gratitude (or as Brother David Steindl-Rast so beautifully puts it, "great-full-ness".)

I'm grateful for many things—family and friends, my spiritual friends and communities, some inspiring creative projects, amazing partners, and my growing, vibrant communities of integral evolutionary spirituality and service. I'm especially grateful for the opportunity to serve humankind, and our current intensifying wild ride through what is certainly a kind of evolutionary whitewater rafting.

Optimism vs. Pessimism About Humanity's Prospects  Read more »

I'm honored to have been asked to join the faculty of The Finance Lab, an innovative collaborative action-oriented thinking project dedicated to envisioning redesign principles through which the world financial system can become a force for sustainable human civilization. The Finance Lab is a joint venture of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales, The World Wildlife Fund, and REOS, an international consulting firm. It convenes a diverse team of individuals and institutions from business and finance, government and civil society to initiate and incubate several experiments and prototypes that will practically demonstrate aspects of a financial system that truly serves business, society and the planet. 

The first phase of The Finance Lab was held in July 2009 and brought over 200 people together to explore possible future scenarios for finance. These workshops were held in conjunction with the Scenario Planning and Futures Research Group, part of the Institute for Science, Innovation and Society (InSIS) at the University of Oxford's Said Business School. 

The second phase of the Finance Lab is the Open Innovation Lab process, which uses Otto Scharmer's U process in a series of facilitated workshops, stakeholder engagements and design sessions.  It culminates in an event where the Lab's work will be shared with a wider audience.  Read more »

My last blog entry was written as Deborah and I prepared to fly to France so I could MC the 5 day Renaissance2 Great Shift Gathering in Perpignan.

I asked a lot of questions in my last post about the efficacy of such an endeavor. And my report is, I'm happy to say, essentially positive. The key principles I enumerated were very present during the gathering. And although there were certainly a range of vMemes interacting, the emphasis on creating tangible projects with business models remains a deep consideration of all involved. And I still have real hopes for what Renaissance2 can spawn in the weeks, months and years ahead.  Read more »

I want to let you know about an important new book, by a longtime close friend. It's about effective, research-proven ways to light up the circuits in your brain that will bring you more joy, more fulfilling relationships, and more inner peace.

It's called Buddha's Brain: The Practical Neuroscience of Happiness, Love,and Wisdom. It's written by Rick Hanson, Ph.D.—a neuropsychologist and meditation teacher. (Go to www.rickhanson.net/writings/buddhas-brain for moreinformation. You can order it from Amazon here.)

Rick ably unpacks key, un-obvious implications of brain research to help us more skillfully surf the waves of moment-to-moment mental experience. This beautifully written, easy-to-read book gracefully conveys a series of epiphanies that can enable us to achieve self-compassion, balance and happiness.

Combining the latest neuroscience with the deep Buddhist understanding of the mind,  Read more »

My root-guru, Adi Da Samraj, passed a year ago this Thanksgiving in Fiji. He was 69. I was a devotee of this great God-realizer from the age of 22 until I was 37. He not only profoundly transformed my life and consciousness, but, I think, helped transform the entirety of contemporary Western spirituality, even though he is not nearly as widely known as he is influential.

On this anniversary of his passing, I remember him with gratitude, and look back in amazement at his legacy. Please know, words fail here. To speak about Adi Da is to nominate oneself as one of the blind men reporting on the elephant. Adi Da was one part Jesus Christ, one part Picasso, one part Nagarjuna, one part Marlon Brando, and one part Genghis Khan. And more...

In recent years Ken Wilber has offered well-reasoned criticism and chose to be judiciously circumspect on the subject of Adi Da (after enduring extreme opprobrium for his previous high praise) but he never disavowed what he had previously written about Adi Da's remarkable body of original Dharma. "Da Free John's teaching is, I believe, unsurpassed by that of any other spiritual Hero, of any period, of any place, of any time, of any persuasion" and "it is becoming quite obvious that no one in the fields of psychology, religion, philosophy, or sociology can afford not to be at least a student of Da Free John."

Think of ideas such as "the self-contraction," the idea that "the ego is not an entity but an activity," the phrase "always already," the idea that "the end of the path is the Way from the beginning," the idea of the "paths of yogis saints and sages," and his "seven stages of life." All these seminal phrases and insights entered our contemporary spiritual conversation through Adi Da. Not to mention his remarkable Sacred Image Art.  Read more »