Postmetaphysical Visions and Visionaries - Integral Post-Metaphysical Spirituality
2024-03-29T09:08:19Z
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/forum/categories/postmetaphysical-visions-and/listForCategory?feed=yes&xn_auth=no
Gebser Society Conference: Call for Papers
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2018-05-16:5301756:Topic:71927
2018-05-16T03:33:22.854Z
DavidM58
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/DavidM58
<h3><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><em>Gebser and Asia</em></span></h3>
<p><a href="http://realitysandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jvlxZPvr_400x400.jpg"><img alt="" class="alignright wp-image-322881" height="351" src="http://realitysandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jvlxZPvr_400x400.jpg" width="351"></img></a></p>
<p>In 1961, Jean Gebser’s peregrinations in consciousness led him to visit parts of Asia, including India, Nepal, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, and China. While in Sarnath, India—the place where Buddha delivered his first sermon some 2,500 years ago—Gebser had an unexpected and significant experience of…</p>
<h3><span style="font-size: 18pt;"><em>Gebser and Asia</em></span></h3>
<p><a href="http://realitysandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jvlxZPvr_400x400.jpg"><img class="alignright wp-image-322881" src="http://realitysandwich.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/jvlxZPvr_400x400.jpg" alt="" width="351" height="351"/></a></p>
<p>In 1961, Jean Gebser’s peregrinations in consciousness led him to visit parts of Asia, including India, Nepal, Pakistan, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Japan, and China. While in Sarnath, India—the place where Buddha delivered his first sermon some 2,500 years ago—Gebser had an unexpected and significant experience of satori, a kind of Buddhist awakening experience which resonated with his previous writing on aperspectival consciousness. At the same time that Gebser was experiencing and integrating this awakening in Sarnath, the Tibetan Buddhist master Chögyam Trungpa Rinpoche was in exile in Northern India teaching Buddhist monks. While Gebser was heading toward further journeys in the East and writing a book on Asia (Asien Lächelt Anders / Asia Smiles Differently), Trungpa was heading to the West to study at Oxford University, which propelled him into an innovative career of teaching and writing about Buddhism in North America. In 1974, Trungpa founded Naropa University, a Buddhism-inspired center of learning which draws from both Eastern and Western traditions and aims to integrate rigorous academics, contemplative practices, meditation practices, experiential learning, artistic expression, social justice, and cultural creativity.</p>
<p>For the 48th Annual Conference of the Jean Gebser Society, we seek proposals for presentations that address theoretical, practical, and engaged approaches to Gebser, especially in relation to Asian thinkers and traditions. The 2018 Conference will draw on the resources of Naropa University to bring together the uniqueness of our Colorado location along with joining Asian and western approaches and methodologies.</p>
<p><strong>Here are some themes to consider:</strong></p>
<ul style="list-style-type: square;">
<li>How are we to understand the relationships between the awarings of Gebser and various Asian traditions and thinkers, such as Buddhist traditions, Taoist philosophers, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo, D.T. Suzuki, Trungpa Rinpoche, Georg Feuerstein, Anagarika Govinda, and others—in the 21st century?</li>
<li>How might Asian meditative and contemplative practices help us access, explore, and integrate the Gebserian structures of awareness? What methodologies might help us to access what Gebser expresses as aperspectival awaring, diaphainon, synairesis, and achronon?</li>
<li>In 1963, Thích Nhất Hạnh developed the notion of Engaged Buddhism. The essence of Engaged Buddhism is the integration of insights from meditation practice and dharma teachings with actions taken in fields of environmental, social, political, and economic injustice and suffering. What are some of these insights? What does Engaged Buddhism bring to life in the aperspectival world? What does an Engaged Gebserian approach look like? How can Buddhist approaches benefit from Gebser’s work and vice versa?</li>
<li>Presentations reflecting complementary or other themes in Gebser’s work and life.</li>
</ul>
<p><em><strong>Proposals should be submitted by July 31st 2018.</strong> <strong><a href="http://www.gebser.org/news/gebserandasia2018">Please see the link on the conference page</a> to submit your abstracts and stay tuned for the conference registration. </strong></em></p>
some likely features and factors of the rare arising from normal vision to "visionary"
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2016-04-07:5301756:Topic:64189
2016-04-07T20:29:19.877Z
Ambo Suno
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/AmboSuno
<p>Since, "We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors," and since we exist within a we-space as a fish exists in water, and since we biobeings are for the most part produced and reproduced as "normal" and within "normalities", and because all language, it seems, is subject to some persistent structural thread, there may be little "new under the sun."</p>
<p>This TED talker's researcher goes with the term "originals." Originals (as indicated by the lead-in sentence, <em>we</em> know that…</p>
<p>Since, "We stand on the shoulders of our ancestors," and since we exist within a we-space as a fish exists in water, and since we biobeings are for the most part produced and reproduced as "normal" and within "normalities", and because all language, it seems, is subject to some persistent structural thread, there may be little "new under the sun."</p>
<p>This TED talker's researcher goes with the term "originals." Originals (as indicated by the lead-in sentence, <em>we</em> know that <em>originality</em> is only partial) are people who become known for being creative and maybe thereby for being cultural creatives.</p>
<p>As much as any group of people, those who are moved by integral considerations could have a relative abundance of originality. Sort of, eh.</p>
<p>There won't be anything totally new as you hear this, I think, yet I imagine the simple picture that Adam Grant draws can be encouragement for us to embrace some of our potentially constructive quirks and production-glitches with greater acceptance. Hah. And such.</p>
<p><a href="http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_of_original_thinkers">http://www.ted.com/talks/adam_grant_the_surprising_habits_of_original_thinkers</a></p>
Swami Satchidananda
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2016-03-13:5301756:Topic:64046
2016-03-13T00:37:24.910Z
Ambo Suno
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/AmboSuno
<p></p>
<p>I think Satchidananda qualifies as a visionary as much as most "spiritually" oriented people with whom we have contacted. If you follow the link to his website, under Milestones, you can get a feel for a life trajectory that includes the creation of an "'Integral' Yoga Institute." In regard to some "postmetaphysical" gestures, you see him, especially in his later years, making a lot about inter-religious and inter-spiritual conversation and perhaps [I haven't studied him]…</p>
<p></p>
<p>I think Satchidananda qualifies as a visionary as much as most "spiritually" oriented people with whom we have contacted. If you follow the link to his website, under Milestones, you can get a feel for a life trajectory that includes the creation of an "'Integral' Yoga Institute." In regard to some "postmetaphysical" gestures, you see him, especially in his later years, making a lot about inter-religious and inter-spiritual conversation and perhaps [I haven't studied him] translineage resonance. So the vision it seems is of high aspirational quality for peace and joy and the sharing of rich life.</p>
<p><a href="http://swamisatchidananda.org/milestones-of-swami-satchidananda/">http://swamisatchidananda.org/milestones-of-swami-satchidananda/</a></p>
Integral Renditions of Christ Consciousness
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2016-01-14:5301756:Topic:63088
2016-01-14T21:44:06.595Z
DavidM58
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/DavidM58
<p>I'm curious if anyone here has delved into this "Christ Consciousness" material from Integral Life, and what you might think of it from a "Post-Metaphysical Sprirituality" context? </p>
<p>I've skimmed Paul Smith's book on Integral Christianity, and am somewhat familiar with Thomas Keating's Centering Prayer process (which I think is very worthwhile), but I'm not a "Premium" subscriber to Integral Life, so I haven't watched any of the material represented below.…</p>
<p></p>
<p>I'm curious if anyone here has delved into this "Christ Consciousness" material from Integral Life, and what you might think of it from a "Post-Metaphysical Sprirituality" context? </p>
<p>I've skimmed Paul Smith's book on Integral Christianity, and am somewhat familiar with Thomas Keating's Centering Prayer process (which I think is very worthwhile), but I'm not a "Premium" subscriber to Integral Life, so I haven't watched any of the material represented below.</p>
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311750692?profile=original" target="_self"><img src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311750692?profile=original" width="637" class="align-full"/></a></p>
Andreas Weber
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2015-12-17:5301756:Topic:63308
2015-12-17T21:42:51.737Z
DavidM58
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/DavidM58
<p>I'm curious if anyone on this forum is familiar with the work of Andreas Weber. I just discovered him via a post at Resilience.org. His most recent post references David Bollier, Michel Serres, Edgar Morin, and numerous others.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.resilience.org/author-detail/1651711-andreas-weber" target="_blank">His page</a> on that site looks like this:</p>
<p></p>
<div class="featured_item"><h1 class="item_detail">Andreas Weber</h1>
Dr. Andreas Weber is a Berlin based…</div>
<p>I'm curious if anyone on this forum is familiar with the work of Andreas Weber. I just discovered him via a post at Resilience.org. His most recent post references David Bollier, Michel Serres, Edgar Morin, and numerous others.</p>
<p></p>
<p><a href="http://www.resilience.org/author-detail/1651711-andreas-weber" target="_blank">His page</a> on that site looks like this:</p>
<p></p>
<div class="featured_item"><h1 class="item_detail">Andreas Weber</h1>
Dr. Andreas Weber is a Berlin based book and magazine writer, translator, and independent scholar. He has degrees in Marine Biology and Cultural Studies. Andreas' work focuses on a re-evaluation of our understanding of the living. He proposes to understand organsims as subjects and hence the biosphere as a meaning-creating and poetic reality. He has put forth his ideas in several books and has contributed to major German newspapapers and magazines. He teaches at Leuphana University Lüneburg and at Berlin University of the Fine Arts. His latest book, The Biology of Wonder. Aliveness, Feeling, and the Metamorphosis of Science (New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, B.C) appears in early 2016.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_2977518" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="2977518-towards-cultures-of-aliveness-politics-and" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">ENVIRONMENT | DEC 17, 2015</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2015-12-17/towards-cultures-of-aliveness-politics-and-poetics-in-a-postdualistic-age-an-anthropocene-manifesto">Towards Cultures of Aliveness: Politics and Poetics in a Postdualistic Age, an Anthropocene Manifesto</a></h2>
Enlightenment thinking is coming to an end. The "Anthropocene" claims to step beyond the dualism of man–nature opposition.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_1833005" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="1833005-basic-principles-of-enlivenment-working-with" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">ENVIRONMENT | AUG 28, 2013</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-08-28/basic-principles-of-enlivenment-working-with-paradoxes">Basic Principles of Enlivenment: Working with Paradoxes</a></h2>
In the center of this stands the certainty that all lived reality, be it physiological, ecological, emotional, sociological, political, economical or artistic, is paradox.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_1822177" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="1822177-first-person-science-towards-a-culture-of-poetic" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">SOCIETY | AUG 15, 2013</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-08-15/first-person-science-towards-a-culture-of-poetic-objectivity">First-Person-Science: Towards a Culture of Poetic Objectivity</a></h2>
For the last 400 years or so science has relied on an “objectivity” provided by rational thinking and measurements.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_1813143" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="1813143-from-enlivenment-to-shared-livelihoods-the" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">ECONOMY | AUG 9, 2013</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-08-09/from-enlivenment-to-shared-livelihoods-the-emergence-of-a-commons-based-economy">From Enlivenment to Shared Livelihoods: The Emergence of a Commons-Based Economy</a></h2>
The enlivenment approach is not just an abstract philosophical re-imagining of the world. It is an emerging reality in countless corners of the earth.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_1802894" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="1802894-natural-anti-capitalism-biospheric-householding-as-the" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">SOCIETY | AUG 2, 2013</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-08-02/natural-anti-capitalism-biospheric-householding-as-the-foundation-of-an-enlivened-economy">Natural Anti-Capitalism: Biospheric Householding as the Foundation of an Enlivened Economy</a></h2>
Enlivenment means to get back to living reality as the inspiration and insight for all areas of science.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_1789954" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="1789954-life-as-meaning-biopoetics-as-paradigm-for-living" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">ENVIRONMENT | JUL 26, 2013</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-07-26/life-as-meaning-biopoetics-as-paradigm-for-living-relationships">Life-as-Meaning: Biopoetics as Paradigm for Living Relationships</a></h2>
Biology today is undergoing a profound reassessment of its core premises.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_1780402" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="1780402-bioeconomics-the-hidden-megascience" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">SOCIETY | JUL 19, 2013</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-07-19/bioeconomics-the-hidden-megascience">Bioeconomics: The Hidden Megascience</a></h2>
The premises of neo-Darwinism and neoliberalism constitute the tacit, taken-for-granted understanding of “how the world works”.<br />
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<div id="kdb_id_1651710" class="kb_type_dynode wv-edit-region"><div id="1651710-the-economy-of-wastefulness-the-biology" class="article_list"><div><div class="article_date">ECONOMY | MAY 15, 2013</div>
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<h2><a class="item_link" href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2013-05-15/the-economy-of-wastefulness-the-biology-of-the-commons">The Economy of Wastefulness: The Biology of the Commons</a></h2>
There is an all-enclosing commons-economy which has been successful for billions of years: the biosphere. Its ecology is the terrestrial household of energy, matter, beings, relationships and meanings which contains any manmade economy and only allows for it to exist. Sunlight, oxygen, drinking water, climate, soil and energy – the products and processes of this household – also …</div>
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Post-meta visions and visionariness
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2015-12-14:5301756:Topic:62995
2015-12-14T18:53:07.230Z
Ambo Suno
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/AmboSuno
<p></p>
<p>Under this broader forum topic category, I posted and associated Layman Pascal with <em>visionariness</em>. The <a href="http://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/forum/topics/layman-pascal" target="_self">post following that intro one</a> expressed an impulse to begin to elaborate what might be visionary and what might not be. Implicit was that much of that brew called Layman Pascal would be plenty post-metaphysical.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how important it is in reference to him to…</p>
<p></p>
<p>Under this broader forum topic category, I posted and associated Layman Pascal with <em>visionariness</em>. The <a href="http://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/forum/topics/layman-pascal" target="_self">post following that intro one</a> expressed an impulse to begin to elaborate what might be visionary and what might not be. Implicit was that much of that brew called Layman Pascal would be plenty post-metaphysical.</p>
<p>I'm not sure how important it is in reference to him to distinguish 'pre' and 'post' (as if there is less fallacy in the 'post') since so much beauty, perhaps a non-measurable amount of beauty and other merit of correct and helpful/useful recognition and attribution into the unknown would exist even if it were 'pre'.</p>
<p>Layman likes the phrase "shaman in chief" as a description of a person who can make politico-social, well, AQAL quality leadership contributions. I think that the shamanic process and contribution to culture and man is generally presumed to be pre-rational and maybe almost reflexively considered to be pre-metaphysical, when it wouldn't be a surprise that the shamanic is pre-some-metaphysics and post(having transcended/included)-some-metaphysics.</p>
<p>As a quick characterization (correct me or further elaborate as seems appropriate for you), shamanism is often associated with a dream or a manner of inner process that is close with dream, probably usually with a primal sort of dreaming. Pre. I may have already made here such a partial, limited, and questionably accurate characterization that someone wants to set me on a clearer path. I'll leave this here for now, without clear conclusion.</p>
<p>Another aspect of the definition of visionariness and vision might be that, well daah, it has to do with seeing. Hence, one of the connotations below is a person as a "seer", a see-er. My early associations with the word is that a person can see into the future, can perhaps divine the future or content of the invisible and unknown.</p>
<p>Going a little logical here, we all (or most of us) can see, exercise vision, and maybe have visions in the form of imagination associated with different states like dreaming or waking "intuition". When does this root visionariness become interesting enough to label it with this special word, "<strong>Visionary</strong>"? Or, when it ought to?</p>
<p>OK, the usually classic values trinity should come into play in some way. How "<strong>integral</strong>" is it, how much and how well does it extend in different directions and dimensions of life, and what is our sense of how coherent this expressed-by-visionaries content is? Stuff like that.</p>
<p>It might not be enough to have great coherent knowledge. It might not be enough to be endeavoring to practically apply what is known for a variety of purposes and motives that project the future. It may not be enough to see and express things that others can't or daren't express. It may not be enough to be charismatic, even shamanic-like charismatic. It may not be conclusive that along with the above referred to capacities and qualities, there are apparently "powers", "siddhis", or paranormal-like demonstartations. What does it?</p>
<p>I guess it is not a scientific word. It is often used quite subjectively with various purposes, motives, psycho-social impulses.</p>
<p>What else?</p>
<p></p>
<p></p>
<p>[prior post and thread] <a href="http://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/forum/topics/layman-pascal">http://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/forum/topics/layman-pascal</a></p>
<p><em><<I thought a little about what visionary means before I comfortably labeled Layman one, for the sort of listener/participant like myself.</em></p>
<p><em>Obviously, in the below definition, only some applies, though we each might agree and disagree which points they are.</em></p>
<p><em>One definition not included here well is the current marketing label for conferences, events, workshops and such. It is a very attractive label - sort of - and more and more, not so much.</em></p>
<p><em>I don't mean visionary in that way.</em></p>
<p><em>Many of those people labeled "visionary" probably wouldn't feel like visionaries for me. Though bright, articulate, engaged sociopolitically, and such. I suppose some scientific and techie guys drive me to that word in a limited sense. Sci-fi writers like Neal Stephenson and the likes.</em></p>
<p><em>I could probably riff a bit more on the the manners of thinking, expressing, and extending himself, Layman, within himself and into the world of individuals and culture and society and the 'facts of life', but I think I won't now. There is a lot that I like in the unexpected stretchings that he provides.</em></p>
<p><em>Yada yada :)</em></p>
<p></p>
<p><em>[From thefreedictionary.com]</em></p>
<h2><em>vi·sion·ar·y</em></h2>
<p><em> <span class="pron">(vĭzh′ə-nĕr′ē)</span></em></p>
<div class="pseg"><em><span class="hvr">adj.</span></em><div class="ds-list"><em><b>1.</b> <span class="hvr">Characterized</span> by <span class="hvr">vision</span> or <span class="hvr">foresight.</span></em></div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>2.</b></em><div class="sds-list"><em><b>a.</b> <span class="hvr">Having</span> <span class="hvr">the</span> <span class="hvr">nature</span> of <span class="hvr">fantasies</span> or <span class="hvr">dreams;</span> <span class="hvr">illusory.</span></em></div>
<div class="sds-list"><em><b>b.</b> <span class="hvr">Existing</span> in <span class="hvr">imagination</span> <span class="hvr">only;</span> <span class="hvr">imaginary.</span></em></div>
</div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>3.</b></em><div class="sds-list"><em><b>a.</b> <span class="hvr">Characterized</span> by or <span class="hvr">given</span> to <span class="hvr">apparitions,</span> <span class="hvr">prophecies,</span> or <span class="hvr">revelations.</span></em></div>
<div class="sds-list"><em><b>b.</b> <span class="hvr">Given</span> to <span class="hvr">daydreams</span> or <span class="hvr">reverie;</span> <span class="hvr">dreamy.</span></em></div>
</div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>4.</b></em><div class="sds-list"><em><b>a.</b> <span class="hvr">Not</span> <span class="hvr">practicable</span> or <span class="hvr">realizable;</span> <span class="hvr">utopian:</span> <span class="illustration"><span class="hvr">visionary</span> <span class="hvr">schemes</span> <span class="hvr">for</span> <span class="hvr">getting</span> <span class="hvr">rich.</span></span></em></div>
<div class="sds-list"><em><b>b.</b> <span class="hvr">Tending</span> to <span class="hvr">envision</span> <span class="hvr">things</span> in <span class="hvr">perfect</span> <span class="hvr">but</span> <span class="hvr">unrealistic</span> <span class="hvr">form;</span> <span class="hvr">idealistic.</span></em></div>
</div>
</div>
<div class="pseg"><em>n. <span class="hvr">pl.</span> <b><span class="hvr">vi·sion·ar·ies</span></b></em><div class="ds-list"><em><b>1.</b> <span class="hvr">One</span> <span class="hvr">who</span> is <span class="hvr">given</span> to <span class="hvr">impractical</span> or <span class="hvr">speculative</span> <span class="hvr">ideas;</span> a <span class="hvr">dreamer.</span></em></div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>2.</b> <span class="hvr">One</span> <span class="hvr">who</span> <span class="hvr">has</span> <span class="hvr">visions;</span> a <span class="hvr">seer.</span></em></div>
</div>
<hr class="hmshort" align="left"/><div class="runseg"><em><b><span class="hvr">vi′sion·ar′i·ness</span></b> n.</em></div>
<div class="brand_copy"><em>American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.</em></div>
<h2><em>visionary</em></h2>
<p><em>(<span class="pron">ˈvɪʒənərɪ</span>)</em></p>
<div><em><span class="hvr">adj</span></em><div class="ds-list"><em><b>1.</b> <span class="hvr">marked</span> by <span class="hvr">vision</span> or <span class="hvr">foresight:</span> <span class="illustration">a <span class="hvr">visionary</span> <span class="hvr">leader</span></span>.</em></div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>2.</b> <span class="hvr">incapable</span> of <span class="hvr">being</span> <span class="hvr">realized</span> or <span class="hvr">effected;</span> <span class="hvr">unrealistic</span></em></div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>3.</b> <span class="hvr">(of</span> <span class="hvr">people)</span> <span class="hvr">characterized</span> by <span class="hvr">idealistic</span> or <span class="hvr">radical</span> <span class="hvr">ideas,</span> <span class="hvr">esp</span> <span class="hvr">impractical</span> <span class="hvr">ones</span></em></div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>4.</b> <span class="hvr">given</span> to <span class="hvr">having</span> <span class="hvr">visions</span></em></div>
<div class="ds-list"><em><b>5.</b> <span class="hvr">of,</span> of <span class="hvr">the</span> <span class="hvr">nature</span> <span class="hvr">of,</span> or <span class="hvr">seen</span> in <span class="hvr">visions</span></em></div>
</div>
<div><em>n, pl <b><span class="hvr">-aries</span></b></em><div class="ds-list"><em><b>6.</b> a <span class="hvr">visionary</span> <span class="hvr">person>></span></em></div>
</div>
<p></p>
<p></p>
Wieman on Whitehead
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2015-12-09:5301756:Topic:62979
2015-12-09T03:04:32.733Z
DavidM58
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/DavidM58
<p><a href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Alfred_North_Whitehead.jpg" target="_blank"><img class="align-full" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Alfred_North_Whitehead.jpg"></img></a></p>
<p>Gleanings from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>: In his "early" career, <strong>Alfred North Whitehead</strong> (1861-1947) was a well respected mathematician, known for the book "Principia Mathematica," co-written with his former student Bertrand Russell.</p>
<p>In the late 1910s, Whitehead turned his attention…</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Alfred_North_Whitehead.jpg"><img class="align-full" src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/4/4e/Alfred_North_Whitehead.jpg"/></a></p>
<p>Gleanings from <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>: In his "early" career, <strong>Alfred North Whitehead</strong> (1861-1947) was a well respected mathematician, known for the book "Principia Mathematica," co-written with his former student Bertrand Russell.</p>
<p>In the late 1910s, Whitehead turned his attention toward philosophy, and in 1924 at the age of 63, he was invited to join the faculty of Harvard University as a professor of philosophy. </p>
<p>His notable "early" philosophical works include the following: </p>
<p><strong><i>The Concept of Nature</i></strong>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1920. Based on the November 1919 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarner_Lectures" title="Tarner Lectures">Tarner Lectures</a> delivered at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trinity_College,_Cambridge" title="Trinity College, Cambridge">Trinity College</a>. Available online at <a rel="nofollow" class="external free" href="https://archive.org/details/cu31924012068593">https://archive.org/details/cu31924012068593</a></p>
<p><strong><i>Science and the Modern World</i></strong>. New York: Macmillan Company, 1925. Vol. 55 of the <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Books_of_the_Western_World" title="Great Books of the Western World">Great Books of the Western World</a></i> series.</p>
<p><strong><i>Religion in the Making</i></strong>. New York: Macmillan Company, 1926. Based on the 1926 <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lowell_Institute" title="Lowell Institute">Lowell Lectures</a>. Available online at <a href="http://alfrednorthwhitehead.wwwhubs.com/ritm1.htm" target="_blank">http://alfrednorthwhitehead.wwwhubs.com/ritm1.htm</a>.</p>
<p><a target="_blank" href="http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/wieman.jpg"><img class="align-full" src="http://www.harvardsquarelibrary.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/10/wieman.jpg"/></a></p>
<p><strong>Henry Nelson Wieman</strong> (1884-1975) graduated from San Francisco Theological Seminary in 1910, and earned a PhD in philosophy at Harvard in 1917 (seven years before Whitehead began teaching there), studying under William Ernest Hocking and Ralph Barton Perry. </p>
<p>The topic of Wieman's doctoral dissertation in 1917 (two years before Whitehead gave his lectures that became <em>The Concept of Nature</em>) was <em><strong>The Organization of Interests</strong></em>. Even before any influence from Whitehead, "Wieman was already dealing with an implicitly aesthetic approach to value in his dissertation" according to Robert Mesle. </p>
<p>From the dissertation:</p>
<p>"<em>Our problem will be to discover that organization of human interests which is most conducive to their maximum fulfillment. The object of our desire is the greatest good. The principle of organization, which we propose, we shall call creativity. Our thesis is that all interests should be so organized as to function as one; and that one should be a creative interest. Interest which is directed to developing a fuller consciousness of some object, and not for any ulterior end, is what we shall call creative interest. It is creative of integrated experience. We believe that the organization which causes all the processes constitutive of human life to function in satisfying creative interest, is the organization of life which yields the most complete and continuous satisfaction.</em>" (Organization of Interests, p.3)</p>
<p>I've not yet read the dissertation, but from various quotes it strikes me that Wieman was intuiting aspects later developed and confirmed by Prigogine, i.e. self-organization, but that is a side note we may come back to later.</p>
<p>What <a href="http://www.religion-online.org/showarticle.asp?title=2809" target="_blank">Mesle notes</a> is "the centrality of creativity, the analysis of human life in terms of processes, and especially the beginnings of an aesthetic theory of value... [which] seems to adumbrate a vision of aesthetic organization of value experience."</p>
<p><strong>Wieman Explains Whitehead to Other Philosophers and Theologians</strong></p>
<p>By the mid 1920s, Whitehead was beginning to garner a lot of attention in philosophical circles, as indicated by his appointment at Harvard. Wieman noticed early on the resonance with his own thought, and quickly became "one of America's only Whitehead experts."</p>
<p>Here is an extended quote from the Wikipedia entry on Whitehead (referencing Gary Dorien), which details how Wieman became known for his ability to interpret and explain Whitehead, and how the University of Chicago became so closely associated with Whiteheadian thought:</p>
<p>"This is not to say that Whitehead's thought was widely accepted or even well-understood. His philosophical work is generally considered to be among the most difficult to understand in all of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Western_canon" title="Western canon">western canon</a>.<sup id="cite_ref-PhilipRose_45-2" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-PhilipRose-45"><span>[</span>45<span>]</span></a></sup> Even professional philosophers struggled to follow Whitehead's writings. One famous story illustrating the level of difficulty of Whitehead's philosophy centers around the delivery of Whitehead's <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gifford_lectures" title="Gifford lectures" class="mw-redirect">Gifford lectures</a> in 1927–28 – following <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Eddington" title="Arthur Eddington">Arthur Eddington</a>'s lectures of the year previous – which Whitehead would later publish as <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_and_Reality" title="Process and Reality">Process and Reality</a></i>:</p>
<blockquote><p>Eddington was a marvellous popular lecturer who had enthralled an audience of 600 for his entire course. The same audience turned up to Whitehead's first lecture but it was completely unintelligible, not merely to the world at large but to the elect. My father remarked to me afterwards that if he had not known Whitehead well he would have suspected that it was an imposter making it up as he went along ... The audience at subsequent lectures was only about half a dozen in all.<sup id="cite_ref-104" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-104"><span>[</span>104<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Indeed, it may not be inappropriate to speculate that some fair portion of the respect generally shown to Whitehead by his philosophical peers at the time arose from their sheer bafflement. Distinguished <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Chicago_Divinity_School" title="University of Chicago Divinity School">University of Chicago Divinity School</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theologian" title="Theologian" class="mw-redirect">theologian</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shailer_Mathews" title="Shailer Mathews">Shailer Mathews</a> once remarked of Whitehead's 1926 book <i>Religion in the Making</i>: "It is infuriating, and I must say embarrassing as well, to read page after page of relatively familiar words without understanding a single sentence."<sup id="cite_ref-GaryDorrien_105-0" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-GaryDorrien-105"><span>[</span>105<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>However, Mathews' frustration with Whitehead's books did not negatively affect his interest. In fact, there were numerous philosophers and theologians at Chicago's Divinity School that perceived the importance of what Whitehead was doing without fully grasping all of the details and implications. In 1927 they invited one of America's only Whitehead experts – <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Henry_Nelson_Wieman" title="Henry Nelson Wieman">Henry Nelson Wieman</a> – to Chicago to give a lecture explaining Whitehead's thought.<sup id="cite_ref-GaryDorrien_105-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-GaryDorrien-105"><span>[</span>105<span>]</span></a></sup> Wieman's lecture was so brilliant that he was promptly hired to the faculty and taught there for twenty years, and for at least thirty years afterward Chicago's Divinity School was closely associated with Whitehead's thought.<sup id="cite_ref-GaryDorrien_a_103-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-GaryDorrien_a-103"><span>[</span>103<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
<p>Shortly after Whitehead's book <i><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Process_and_Reality" title="Process and Reality">Process and Reality</a></i> appeared in 1929, Wieman famously wrote in his 1930 review:</p>
<blockquote><p>"Not many people will read Whitehead's recent book in this generation; not many will read it in any generation. But its influence will radiate through concentric circles of popularization until the common man will think and work in the light of it, not knowing whence the light came. After a few decades of discussion and analysis one will be able to understand it more readily than can now be done."<sup id="cite_ref-106" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-106"><span>[</span>106<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
</blockquote>
<p>Wieman's words proved prophetic. Though <i>Process and Reality</i> has been called "arguably the most impressive single metaphysical text of the twentieth century,"<sup id="cite_ref-107" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-107"><span>[</span>107<span>]</span></a></sup> it has been little-read and little-understood, partly because it demands – as Isabelle Stengers puts it – "that its readers accept the adventure of the questions that will separate them from every consensus."<sup id="cite_ref-IsabelleStengers_38-1" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-IsabelleStengers-38"><span>[</span>38<span>]</span></a></sup> Whitehead questioned western philosophy's most dearly held assumptions about how the universe works, but in doing so he managed to anticipate a number of 21st century scientific and philosophical problems and provide novel solutions."<sup id="cite_ref-108" class="reference"><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_North_Whitehead#cite_note-108"><span>[</span>108<span>]</span></a></sup></p>
Layman Pascal
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2015-12-09:5301756:Topic:63032
2015-12-09T00:59:54.066Z
Ambo Suno
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/AmboSuno
<p>Reading or hearing Layman can slide me into a sense and predisposition that he is my "<em>shaman-in-chief</em>", with "<em>transhumanist</em>" tendencies and occasional random-seeming <em>coyote</em> moves.</p>
<p>Here, on his website and introduced on integrallife.com, he again mentions and he describes, "Shaman-in-Chief" (partly in distinction to "Manager-in-Chief") and a "transhumanist" category-attempt.</p>
<p>I often feel a range of smiles sand-worming around upon my face and within…</p>
<p>Reading or hearing Layman can slide me into a sense and predisposition that he is my "<em>shaman-in-chief</em>", with "<em>transhumanist</em>" tendencies and occasional random-seeming <em>coyote</em> moves.</p>
<p>Here, on his website and introduced on integrallife.com, he again mentions and he describes, "Shaman-in-Chief" (partly in distinction to "Manager-in-Chief") and a "transhumanist" category-attempt.</p>
<p>I often feel a range of smiles sand-worming around upon my face and within visceral humours.</p>
<p>Ostensibly, this piece is about politics, and naturally it ranges further.</p>
<p><a href="https://laymanpascal.files.wordpress.com/2015/12/theambidextrouseagle.pdf" target="_blank">"The Ambidextrous Eagle"</a></p>
Grace Lee Boggs, RIP
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2015-10-10:5301756:Topic:62299
2015-10-10T22:31:01.517Z
DavidM58
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/DavidM58
<p><a href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311750633?profile=original" target="_self"><img class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311750633?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"></img></a> <em>photo credit: <a href="http://americanrevolutionaryfilm.com/">http://americanrevolutionaryfilm.com/</a></em></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Grace Lee Boggs</strong> died on Monday, October 5, 2015. She was 100 years old.</p>
<p>She was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 27, 1915, to parents who were Chinese immigrants. Boggs earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at Bryn Mawr…</p>
<p><a target="_self" href="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311750633?profile=original"><img width="750" class="align-full" src="http://storage.ning.com/topology/rest/1.0/file/get/2311750633?profile=RESIZE_1024x1024" width="750"/></a><em>photo credit: <a href="http://americanrevolutionaryfilm.com/">http://americanrevolutionaryfilm.com/</a></em></p>
<p></p>
<p><strong>Grace Lee Boggs</strong> died on Monday, October 5, 2015. She was 100 years old.</p>
<p>She was born in Providence, Rhode Island, on June 27, 1915, to parents who were Chinese immigrants. Boggs earned a Ph.D. in philosophy at Bryn Mawr College in 1940 ("an unprecedented achievement for a U.S. born daughter of Chinese immigrants"). Her philosophical influences included Hegel, John Dewey, and George Herbert Mead ('who transcended the individualist strains of American ideology and philosophy to emphasize the ways that self-identity is constructed through engagement with community"). Finding academic employment in white male-dominated academia was another matter. She ended up on the South Side of Chicago at the end of the Great Depression, and the beginning of the civil rights movement and found her mission in life as an activist. She became employed by the philosophy library of the University of Chicago, where she earned $10 a week</p>
<p>She was one person who could say "been there, done that" in relation to the major activist movements of the 20th Century, over seven decades. She started off working with the Worker's Party, and has been involved with the civil rights movement, the labor movement, women's movement, Black Power movement, and environmental justice movement.</p>
<p>She later moved to Detroit to work at <em>Correspondence</em>, a socialist workers newsletter., and in 1953 married James (Jimmy) Boggs, a black auto worker. Together, they became a great team working for change, combining his "organic" intellect and personal experience with her understanding of "philosophers, left-wing polemicists, and radical agitators."</p>
<p>After James’ death in 1993, Boggs "moved away from confrontational politics and toward growing political consciousness through local community organization."</p>
<p>She co-founded Detroit Summer, a community group for young people to learn skills, experience positive influences, and to engage in meaningful community projects.</p>
<p>This brief bio has been based on the Introduction to Grace Lee Boggs' 2011 book <em>The Next American Revolution</em> by Scott Kurashige, and Larry Gabriel's Yes! Magazine article: <a href="http://www.yesmagazine.org/issues/the-yes-breakthrough-15/grace-boggs-reviving-the-lost-city" target="_blank">Grace Boggs: Reviving the Living City</a>.</p>
<p>In the aforementioned book, Kurashige writes, "she embodies the unity of theory and practice in a manner that has become increasingly rare....Many U.S. activists are too quick to view intellectual work as the domain of those with academic jobs, deeming it elitist in general, and too prone to discount the role creative thinking plays in movement building."</p>
<p>"...Unlike those radicals devoted almost exclusively to action in pursuit of an "old truth" they discovered during their political awakening, Grace is constantly seeking to make sense of new developments and conditions, tracking changes both within the dominant culture and the forces of resistance."</p>
<p>As she moved away from confrontational politics, she became increasingly involved in grassroots, bottom up action, working "to transform blocks, neighborhoods, and cities."</p>
<p>Kurashige also notes, "In words that will resonate throughout this book, we must define revolution both by the humanity-stretching <em>ends</em> to be achieved and the beloved community-building <em>means</em> by which to achieve those ends."</p>
<p>Projects that are "local in scope are projecting and shining a light on the fundamental human values of hope, cooperation, stewardship, and respect. It is in this regard that we have come to see the sprouting of a farm in the middle of a concrete jungle as transformative in ways that even a large mass protest is not. As Grace argues, echoing author Margaret Wheatley, movements are born of critical connections rather than critical mass."</p>
<p>"Revolution, as Grace emphasizes, is not a onetime, D-day event that will happen when a critical mass of forces takes the correct action at the proper time. It is a protracted process tied to slower evolutionary changes that cannot be dismissed."</p>
<p>Boggs was also not a "flatlander," recognizing the supreme importance of transforming interiors as well as exteriors. Chapter 1 of the 2011 book is titled "These are the times to grow our souls." She writes, "These are the times that try our souls. Each of us needs to undergo a tremendous philosophical and spiritual transformation. Each of us needs to be awakened to a personal and compassionate recognition of the inseparable interconnection between our minds, hearts, and bodies; between our physical and psychical well-being; and between our selves and all the other selves in our country and in the world...</p>
<p>"...the interlocking crises of our time require that we exercise the power within us to make principled choices in our ongoing daily and political lives - choices that will eventually although not inevitably (since there are no guarantees) make a difference."</p>
<p>In my view, <strong><em><a href="http://www.amazon.com/The-Next-American-Revolution-Twenty-First/dp/0520272595" target="_blank">The Next American Revolution</a>: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century</em></strong> should be read by all who are concerned about resilience and sustainability, as well as those concerned about social justice. Probably in my top 5 list of books published over the last 10 years. Molly Lawrence's review (excerpts reprinted <a href="http://www.resilience.org/stories/2012-07-07/next-american-revolution-sustainable-activism-twenty-first-century" target="_blank">here</a> at Resilience) prompted me to purchase the book.</p>
<p>Grace Lee Boggs was also the subject of the documentary "<a href="http://americanrevolutionaryfilm.com/" target="_blank">American Revolutionary</a>." The PBS program "POV"is streaming the film for free until Nov 4: <a href="http://www.pbs.org/pov/americanrevolutionary/full.php">www.pbs.org/pov</a></p>
<p></p>
Deconstructing Integral Postmetaphysics: Keeping the Future Open...
tag:integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com,2015-08-11:5301756:Topic:62065
2015-08-11T18:46:56.363Z
Cameron Freeman
https://integralpostmetaphysics.ning.com/profile/CameronFreeman
<p class="xmsoplaintext">Deconstruction inhabits Integral Post-metaphysics from within in order to show how the out workings of IPM are “always, already” inwardly disturbed by the “un-decidability” (aporia/paradox) upon which Integral theory depends logically for its own (relatively stable) constitution. In simple terms, the deconstruction of IPM gets underway when we put all of its conceptual formations into scare quotes (“All”, “Quadrants”, “Levels”, “States”, “Consciousness”, etc.) as we…</p>
<p class="xmsoplaintext">Deconstruction inhabits Integral Post-metaphysics from within in order to show how the out workings of IPM are “always, already” inwardly disturbed by the “un-decidability” (aporia/paradox) upon which Integral theory depends logically for its own (relatively stable) constitution. In simple terms, the deconstruction of IPM gets underway when we put all of its conceptual formations into scare quotes (“All”, “Quadrants”, “Levels”, “States”, “Consciousness”, etc.) as we expose the contingency, revisability and reinventability of everything that it proposes, from it's clear-cut distinctions (pre/trans), to it's fixed and stable categories (interior/exterior), to it's centered structure (developmental holarchy), to it's privileging of pure presence (Nondual awareness), or to whatever is taken as simply “given” (indigenous perspectives, intrinsic features).</p>
<p class="xmsoplaintext">To give an example of how deconstruction makes the very foundations of Integral tremble, let’s look at the familiar developmental sequence: pre-conventional, the conventional, and the post-conventional. Firstly, things are never identical with themselves, including these three stages. Nobody is ever simply or purely at a pre-conventional (beige/red), conventional (amber/orange), or post-conventional (green/turquoise) stage of development. This is an Integral fiction or myth.</p>
<p class="xmsoplaintext">For example, pre-conventional fetal life is not simply pre-conventional – but deeply affected by conventions: not only by the mother’s bodily health - which is in turn affected by conventional political institutions, but also by her social and family environment - more conventions, including the linguistic cadences of her body, the music she listens to, her stresses, etc. Empirical studies show that babies who are relocated to another linguistic culture at around 6-10 months begin to speak later than they would have because they have already absorbed the sounds, intonations, etc. of another language and now have to start all over. </p>
<p class="xmsoplaintext">But the simply point is that the interweaving of pre-conventional and conventional is not a developmental hierarchy, but “hauntological”- each haunts the other, the specter of each hovers over and disturbs the other. In the same way, the pre-conventional and post-conventional logically depend upon and cannot so much as be discussed without reference to the conventions one has in mind in any case. Anomalies are anomalous relative to the nomos. Nothing happens without conventions, including spiritual breakthrough/enlightenment. Post-conventional creativity is inescapably the reinvention of the conventional, and if that is denied, let someone invent something that is supposed to be purely idiomatic and new, and afterwards we will show them their pedigree. (The owl of Minerva spreads her wings at dusk.) The “unprecedented” is unprecedented only compared to what precedes it. Again, nothing is ever identical with itself. </p>
<p class="xmsoplaintext">Long story short, IPMS is not a hierarchical-developmental growth towards higher consciousness but a roll of the dice, a kind of chancey circling, recycling and reinvention - whence Deleuze’s critique of evolution or world-history as having any kind of direction (which is a long story). Furthermore IMPS may not a gift but a disaster, where whatever it is we call Integral implicates itself in new complications and unforeseen consequences, and where nothing is ever guaranteed in advance. Integral takes strange turns, and it is by subsisting in this element of chance and contingency, of “what we cannot see coming,” that it keeps itself open to what breaks in upon us and takes us by surprise.</p>
<p class="xmsoplaintext">And this means that Integral itself proceeds by paradigm shifts, by anomalies that throw a horizon of expectation into confusion and thereby effect a reconfiguration of the horizon, whereas for the most part, in what we normally call “Integral” here on IPMS, we are just filling in the horizons. IPMS means preparing to be taken by surprise, to prepare to be unprepared for new horizons that create new problems. The very last thing Integral PMS ought to ever speak of is a developmental sequence leading us to some telos or destination. The purpose or destination of Integral is to vanquish the illusion of purpose or destination, in a recognition of the endless difficulty of life, where we produce what we repeat, where we produce something new by the repetition, like a composer picking at a piano, and where repetition keeps the future open, under-determined, a promise/risk, an open-ended venture into an unforeseeable future…</p>