SLC Vision Statement

 

As a preliminary to getting a single statement together for the group's approval, I've included in this page Venita's original heart/vision statement followed by one that arises from this (Simon's) heart/mind. Not sure where we go from here.

 

 

LF: I'd like to separate out some themes herre. The language is exquisite, altho I did a bit of revision on Venita's. This is so very long, yet I hate to eliminate what has been offered heart-felt here. Let's see if we can summarize the themes, and then we can 1) use the core themes as our vision/mission and 2) put out the longer, more eloquent posting to give people a better felt-sense of where we are heading.

 

But I must agree that I still find the vision of the SLC not clearly stated here!

 

THEMES

 

1. The SLC vision comes from KW's Integral theory

A. We are moving within the framework that he has provided.

B. We will not limit those who wish to join the SLC to those who are experts at AQAL

C. We will work along side Integral Institute and other integral organisations in our mission. (Framework covered in A.)

D. We offer integration, coordination, assistance and experience, rather than leadership, in a spirit of loving and respectful service. (We could call this the "blood, toil, tears and sweat" clause) :-)

E. We seek to transcend geographic and cultural biases in our membership, actions and approach.

 

 

But what else here describes the SLC???

 

Venita's Original via Joanne:

We are indebted to the beauty and brilliance, the depth and clear heart of Ken Wilber. Ken's offering to the world has catapulted us into a space that has not yet found its limit. Even so, we all know that the space we find ourselves in was not created by Ken or anyone that can be seen. Yet all of us who can be seen and who are witnessing and partaking of this fine celebration have something to contribute or we would not be here, facing each other.

 

We appreciate the honor of participating here and want to offer whatever we can to further any group that is committed to using Wilber's content-neutral framework to awaken its members in body, heart and mind. We are privileged to find ourselves befriending so many beautiful and amazing people around the world. And our desire is to help build a worldwide community of people whose hearts and minds are established in their bodies and who are awake to a reality that creates itself through us right now and affects everything (and nothing) in its path.

 

We want to create a community that works alongside Integral Institute, yet is independent in governance. As Integral theory is still being developed, we presently avoid too much focus on precision of theory and correctness of concepts or what it means to be "integral." We are more interested in multiple perspectives, right action, dropping into the heart, loosening structures, partnering with like-minded communities, and including as many people as possible who are interested in the same.

We see Integral theory as a framework or tool, and with it we are interested in creating a language that allows more "2nd and 3rd tier (and 1st tier)" people to enter. We observe that not all self-identified integral people have a center of gravity at 2nd tier, while non-integrally identified people might indeed be embodied at 2nd or 3rd tier.

 

Each of us feels it to be deeply important to further the group's aims. While many of us are deeply embedded in "fleshing out" Integral theory, our fundamental goal is to use whatever language or action or means is most effective in imparting love and awakening to as many people as we possibly can given all circumstances.

 

This vision underlies our responses to each other in this group. We desire to stay as awake as possible to the fine line that we may at times find ourselves walking, so that we may support the growth and development of the largest sangha of the most awakened practitioners across the world, without alienating any denomination, including Integral. It is our vision to do this together.

 

Authored by Venita Ramirez, Seattle, WA

Supported unanimously

12/06

 

Simon's Counterpoint

 

We are here as an expression of our individual and collective tetra-evolution of body, mind, heart, spirit, self, culture and community. We honour and value Ken Wilber's AQAL framework as the most complete, single, 3^rd person view of human development and self-evolution of which we're aware, specifically because it values, in its own language, all quadrants, all lines, all levels, all states, all types, all .... We value and seek to exemplify a developing expression of humanness which embraces, unites and fosters the development all of these, privileging none.

 

We are aware of the delicate balance of our dance along the knife edge of, on the one hand, acting from and holding each other to our highest aspirations, of encouraging others to join us in expressing and developing the actions embodying these aspirations, and, on the other, prescribing to others how they should view us or how they should act.

 

We are respectful to our hearts’ core of our fellow beings as glorious manifestations of the Kosmos and of the right of each and all to be as they are while recognising that they may not wish to join us and that we may not wish to include them deeply in our community.

 

In the light of humans' 40,000 year history of persistent delusion, we maintain both a fierce humility regarding our assumption of the status of being in the vanguard of human development and an equally fierce determination to give our joint perspective an audible voice in the world.

 

 

Rafi's vision

 

I imagined Integral Worldspace as an emanation of Second Tier consciousness

enveloping the outermost ring of the Noosphere, That noetic space would be receptive to diverse seeds of Integral consciousness that would grow and stretch Integral reality in unpredictable new directions.

 

I envisioned an International Integral Conference where familiar names could finally be matched to faces; I pictured Integral job searches and online dating services and counseling services (how many young Integral souls are imprisoned in Ethnocentric nightmares, I wonder?) and so on.

 

I-I has since launched the Multiplex. And yet, there are so many people who are leading quasi Integral lives that won't make it into that realm because they either won't pay the monthly fee, or they are intimidated by the high intellectual entry price.

 

I LOVE the intellectual rigor of Ken's work and recognize the vital importance of his brilliance in the academic world. I literally devoted 2 years of my life to educating myself so as to be able to read SES and really understand the material, footnotes included.

 

Many of my friends have Integral Souls, but not Integral minds. They'll probably never read any of Ken's books. I envisioned Integral Worldspace creating new space that could enfold their Integral needs too.

 

The Integral Brain is alive and well. What the Kosmos needs now is the emergence of the Integral Heart. I don't know exactly what form this development will take but I believe that Integral Worldspace could be instrumental in breathing lifeblood into it.

 

And Tim's

 

There are thousands of people all over this planet who are emerging, right now, into integral consciousness, people for whom mere postmodernism and its soggy, sentimental ironies are no longer enough. Some of them find their way through Ken, others using other ways of plotting a path.

 

What they/we all have in common is that thrumming sense of urgency, that dawning realisation that It's Our Job to apply discerning compassion and get to work, that we cannot wait for a saviour, for the governments of the world to get things right, for a miracle to dawn. Our hearts cry out in grief: we are in crisis, we must, must, must act.

 

Those same hearts are born into a vast, unyielding compassion for

this whole world, with all its cultures and colours of skin, eye and meme, all its species, all its myths. We demand connection.

 

We understand the Net because we are native to it. The designers of the Net made it to route around damage. As natives of the Noosphere we understand old power-hierarchies, ossified institutions, even nation-states - anything that keeps up from each other's embrace as damage. We route around them.

 

This is no damp, Green compassion. Manjushri is our homeboy. Our

discernment allows us greater love for all sentient beings and we are drawn to our brothers and sisters who see with clear eyes what we see, whose hearts can fill this limitless space, whose arms and legs are strong enough to maintain this dynamic energy we produce in limitless quantities.

 

What are we up to? We are finding each other. We are inviting each other into connection. We confine our attentions to those we can see have no choice but to act - those who take up sword and cup and startwalking.

 

Does it matter what they lead? No. Does it matter how many they lead? No.

 

It matters that they have no choice but to lead in whatever way they can, because to do otherwise is a betrayal of what they feel to the very core of their being..

 

...of what we feel to the very core of our being

 

...of what I feel, what I know to the very core of my being.

 

This is what will make a difference. This attempt may succeed or

fail, but I know in my deepest Self that we must, must, must act. My Heart cries out in grief and I must find you and I must make

connection and then we must get to work.

 

And more from Rafi

 

We share this planet - we are planetary beings - and that's not necessarily a pleasant experience. What happens in North Korea, affects the entire world; what happens in the Middle East impacts the global economy; global warming is the black plague of the Polar bears. The health of the entire globe is at stake.

The world knot is tightly snarled in a complex web of multi level agendas which may conflict at one level and be in harmony at another. The planet has gotten to the point in it's evolutionary journey where it needs to be presented with an alternative worldview. Well intentioned Green peace initiatives, Orange deal making stratagems, Blue ideologies, Red despotism and Purple conspiracies cannot unsnarl the critical issues that stalk humanity.

We have reached a critical moment in human history.

The rising tension on the world stage is priming a broad swath of human consciousness to become more receptive to Integral ideas. I intuit that IW can become instrumental in providing the noetic space where that process can unfold en masse.

IW, in my opinion is an ambitious proposition. Probably more so than anyone of us can imagine at this point. Each new connection between 2 Integral souls forms a new synapse global brain. Integral Worldspace can greatly accelerate the evolution of an Integral cortex.

I don't know what any of this means in practical terms, but I can feel the potent wave of Kosmic proportions forming under us.

~Rafi :)

 

 

 

Rafi's Salon Leader's Council Vision Statement

 

Vision Statement:

 

At the heart of the Salon Leadership Council’s vision lies the noble intention to use our talents, resources and relationships to support the web of Integral consciousness that is spreading worldwide.

 

As planetary beings we share a worldcentric identity that transcends and includes our national, communal and familial associations. From this perspective the health and wellbeing of the entire globe is our highest-order value since it enfolds all other concerns.

 

We shoulder the awesome moral responsibility that arises from this perspective and are committed to use our collective power to grow awareness of the challenges we face as a species and promote the Integral perspective, a worldview capable of addressing these problems more effectively.

 

A new wave of human development is forming in response to the formidable issues we face. Integral consciousness represents the frothing crest of this wave. This worldview honors the healthy expression of every other perspective, recognizes the validity claims all epistemological domains and seeks to bring each point of view into proper relationship within the scope of a comprehensive map of human experience.

 

Maps are conceptual frameworks that shape reality and the intellect can only conceive what the map permits. The problems the planet faces exceed in complexity the maps most decision makers are using to solve those problem. We believe Integral Theory offers change agents at all levels of society a more sophisticated map of reality capable of steering the planet towards a brighter future.

 

The Salon’s Leader’s Council intends to popularize the Integral perspective by networking Integrally informed groups worldwide and enlarging Integral Worldspace until a tipping point is reached and the Global Brain evolves an Integral cortex.