Marc Gafni on the possibility and necessity of a World Spirituality

Excerpt from the blog "Spirit's Next Move"

For the first time in the history of planet Earth, in the history of consciousness, a World Spirituality is utterly possible and utterly necessary. A World Spirituality is one that trance-ends. It ends the trance of any particular religion or nationality. It weaves together the best medicines of every great system of knowing into a larger whole.

The most urgent need we have today is to participate in the gathering of all of us who want to participate in this great evolutionary unfolding. It’s already happening all over the world.

A live globe

Kiva has released a data visualization video showing what happens when 620,000 lenders fund 615,000 people in need around the planet. The video starts out slow, with just a couple data points, but quickly bursts into a hive of activity.

Intercontinental Ballistic Microfinance from Kiva on Vimeo.

Dr. Dan Siegel at Wisdom 2.0 Youth

Image via Wikipedia

Wisdom 2.0 Youth Conference this weekend was just what I needed. It was great to visit the Computer History Museum in Mountain View . A conference centered around mindfulness and meditation is naturally going to include a lot of that. 

The presenters had really good stuff to say. I enjoyed Dr. Dan Siegel whose mission is to "provide a scientifically grounded, integrated view of human development for mental health practitioners, educators, organizational leaders, parents, and others as we promote the growth of vibrant lives and healthy minds."

I was intrigued by his concept of the healthy mind platter. From his website

The Healthy Mind Platter has seven daily essential mental activities necessary for optimum mental health. These seven daily activities make up the full set of “mental nutrients” that your brain and relationships need to function at their best. By engaging every day in each of these servings, you promote integration in your life and enable your brain to coordinate and balance its activities. These essential mental activities strengthen your brain's internal connections and your connections with other people and the world around you.

His integral view resonated strongly with me. 

Related articles

• Mindfulness, Technology, Education, and Parenting
• The Culture of Mental Health

Spirit Exploration in the Modern Age

I am excited to attend three great expansive events in the coming year.  

Wisdom 2.0 Youth
Sept 17 2011
Computer History Museum in Mountain View, California

Teachers, educators, parents, mindfulness teachers, and others discuss the need to balance the "inner technologies" of wisdom, awareness, and compassion with cell phones, computer games, and social networks.

While pushing away and renouncing all modern technology is seen as pointless and unnecessary, likewise does a life where family members spends the majority of each evening glued to their individual screens, and where kids cannot sit still and need constant external stimuli to keep them entertained.

The Wisdom 2.0 Youth Conference explores this balance and asks the question,

"How do adults embody the very qualities we want to pass along to the youth in our life?"

Integral Spiritual Experience 3 (ISE3)
Dec 28 - Jan 1
Pacific Grove, Ca

This extraordinary event is the largest Integral Spiritual practice event ever created. Featuring over 60 hours of live event content including keynote addresses, plenary sessions, morning & evening practice sessions, entertainment & live performances, large and small group activities and shared meals. ISE 3 curriculum and design is held within the integral spiritual framework – the most inclusive and robust evolutionary spiritual teaching humanity has ever produced.

Identify and examine major stages of evolutionary creativity as it manifests in individuals and in the larger integral community.
Examine how creativity arises when we begin to disengage from the mind, yet requires the skills that only a disciplined mind can cultivate.

Discover the many facets of personal and collective creativity, and look at the way creativity manifests in the evolution of consciousness itself.
Explore how creativity appears to a visual artist, a musician, a writer, or any other artistic pursuit.
Explore the nature of integral creativity and how ideas actually emerge from integral consciousness.

"Be my creative partner in the healing and transformation of the world. Evolve consciousness, and fix the broken places with Me – because I cannot do it without you. I need your service. My gift to you in love," whispers God in our ear even as She caresses our heart, "My gift to you is to make you my partner and allow Myself to be – at least in part – dependent on you!" - Marc Gafni

Wisdom 2.0 Conference
Feb 23 - 26 2012
Mountain View, Ca

The Wisdom 2.0 Conference is a one-of-a-kind event in Silicon Valley that brings together people from a variety of disciplines, including technology leaders, Zen teachers, neuroscientists, and academics, to explore how we can live with deeper meaning and wisdom in our technology-rich age.
The conference addresses the great challenge of our age: to not only live connected to one another through technology, but to do so in ways that are beneficial to our own well-being, effective in our work, and useful to the world.

Integral Life

An integral life is total freedom to be who you already are.

A life where peace and passion come alive,

Providing a place for everything.

Better relationships with

friends

strangers

lovers

your career

your own blood cells

A life with more effectiveness and more purpose.

Less confusion and less fear

In order to be. And to become.

Integral Life

Where growth enthusiasts make sense of everything.

Absolutist Fallacy

The following is an excerpt from Integral Life Practice

Attempting to balance the four quadrants is is the goal of integral living. Each quadrant exists without prejudice. If any of the four quadrants are favored exclusively, given favor over the other three quadrants, the result is an extremism.

Each quadrant manifests it's absolutist extremism differently:

The upper left quadrant (I-space/internal development) taken to it's extreme is Extreme Idealism. "Conciousness is THE reality."

The upper right (It-space, external) taken to it's extreme is Extreme Scientism.
"Matter is THE reality."

The lower left (We-space, internal) taken to i'ts extreme is Extereme Postmodernism.
"Culturally constructed meaning is THE reality."

The lower right (Its-space, external) taken to it's extreme is Extreme Systems
"The cosmic web of life is THE reality."

 The goal is to tame all of the extremes so they can work together.