Terry Patten - Integral Heart Newsletter #1: Exploring Big Questions in the Integral World

Good stuff from one of the leaders of the Integral Institute.

Integral Heart Newsletter #1: Exploring Big Questions in the Integral World

This, the first in my series of monthly newsletters, is written as an open letter from The Crossings, a retreat center near Austin, where the Integral Leadership in Action (ILiA) conference has just concluded.

Tomorrow my wife Deborah and I set out for Perpignan, France, where I've been asked to serve as the Master of Ceremonies at Renaissance2: The Great Shift Gathering, a "network of world-changing networks" that aims to catalyze a whole series of high-impact practical projects in the fields of renewable energy, enlightened enterprise, integral governance, and resilient environments.

This newsletter is full of juicy ideas. Future newsletters will sometimes be more inspirational or contain a specific practice—and some will wade into philosophical territory more directly. But I hope you will find this one very "meaty"!

In the midst of a rich series of inspiring dialogues at ILiA with many Integral and evolutionary leaders "at the frothy edge" of human possibility, here are a few of the ideas on my mind. Each is controversial, and even my own thoughts are evolving on all these topics.

Please add your two cents in the comments section where this newsletter is posted as a blog entry on my website!

Coming out of Integral Leadership in Action:

1. How will we creatively manage the tensions between "purity" and "openness" in the world of leading-edge spirituality?

The tension: Integral spirituality has no single central organization, but there are many teachers who agree about certain Integral and evolutionary principles. Various conferences, seminars, publications, and blogs focus on Integral and evolutionary themes. So, a loosely-defined Integral movement seems to have appeared, and within it, the related field of Integral spirituality.

Some people have become critical of several Integral and evolutionary spiritual teachers, essentially questioning their "goodness" in some way, fearing that they have or might mislead, exploit, or damage their students. These critics at times suggest that the (unorganized) world of Integral and evolutionary spirituality should somehow police itself, to make sure it is a clean safe space, where all the teachers and offerings can be presumed to have been vetted as high-quality trustable offerings, and to have taken up a turquoise code of ethics.

Since there is no single central clearinghouse or authority to make this happen, some students are making a personal choice not to associate with certain teachers or organizations with whom they don't feel comfortable. A few of them go further, suggesting ominously to others that they should not cooperate or associate with a teacher they deem untrustworthy or unhealthy.

Going deeper: Both purity and openness are values worth respecting. Either too much openness or too much purity can do damage. So both principles need to be respected, within reason. Staying true to one's principles is essential, and yet refusing to associate with people can erode the spirit of generosity and collegiality so essential to building a movement.

This is an example of a natural "polarity" according to management consultant Barry Johnson. To work with natural polarities effectively we have to go beyond "either/or" thinking.

As with the breath, both inhaling and exhaling are necessary, but each would be lethal if it were practiced to the exclusion of the other. There comes a point where after inhaling, we need to exhale, and vice versa. No matter what virtue we're embracing, we will eventually need to embrace the opposite pole. Here's a table that quickly summarizes the virtues of purity and openness, and the downside of too much of either:

Purity	Openness
The virtues of purity: Without integrity we have nothing. With purity, we have "quality control"; areas of clarity and agreement are highlighted, educating people about healthy and unhealthy forms of spirituality, and protecting the psychological, financial, and sexual safety of aspirants, as well as the reputation of integral spirituality.	The virtues of openness: The radical, transformative power of living spirituality is not suppressed; passionate creative experiments can flourish; the free choices of aspirants are respected; tolerance and generosity thrive. Openness is also attuned to the competitive spirit of the larger marketplace of ideas.
Too Much Purity: Overvaluing purity is impractical; it empowers everyone with any complaint about any teacher, undermining the whole premise of spiritual teachers and teachings, suppressing boldness, creativity and experimentation, disrespecting the choices of spiritual aspirants, and potentially becoming spiritual McCarthyism, a mood legitimizing every complaint, regardless of its veracity, motivation, or validity. And since there's no consensus about this, one person's purity is another's unsavoriness!	Too Much Openness produces a chaotic, indiscriminate spiritual marketplace in which "caveat emptor" rules the day, instead of a larger "meta-sangha" that actually feels like a sanctuary for the soul. Unwary people might be exploited (especially financially and sexually) and psychologically injured due to the unhealthy power dynamics of unfettered spiritual authority. Too much openness might damage the reputation of "Integral" or "evolutionary" approaches to spirituality, or the luster of our collective "brand."

Obviously, important values reside on both sides of this polarity.

On the one hand, the Integral spirit is one of tolerance and generosity, and I instinctively distrust self-righteousness. Teachers are human, too, and we cannot relieve aspirants of their self-responsibility. The greatest spiritual heroes of the past were rarely priggish characters.

On the other hand, I do strive (and expect my colleagues to strive to) love and care for our students, to guard their well-being, to endeavor sincerely to create a psychospiritual environment that is nurturing, self-critical, and rigorous, and to constantly learn and grow.

As the Integral spiritual movement grows, we will inevitably become more diverse. What I hope and expect is that we can be allies to one another AND express our own unique perspectives through vigorous, exploratory debate. I hope we can strive toward a greater purity without narrowing ourselves down, or imagining that any of us are above reproach. I hope we will create a bigger tent, but not one in which we condone or silently acquiesce to anything with which we disagree. And I suspect we'll all learn a lot in the process of creating this kind of larger spiritual culture.

What do you think? Say so! (Leave a comment below.)

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Tags: Philosophy, Integral, Terry Patten, Integral Heart, Newsletter #1, Exploring Big Questions in the Integral World, Integral Leadership in Action, openness, conscious evolution, open source, organic evolutionary emergence