Dear Friends,

Hello again. It has now been a month or so since we began to huddle around the warm I-I campfire in an otherwise cold, dark, and first-tier world. We have shared our confusions and insights, offered each other inspiration, and started to create a bond of mutual understanding. And a terrifying thing is beginning to occur: We are realizing how little we know.

The bare frames, the orienting generalizations of Ken’s writing have guided many of us for some time as we have wandered through the new territory of Second-Tier existence. We have each formed our own limited understandings, and we have made do. Now that we are here together, roasting our marshmallows with chocolate and graham crackers (the four-quadrant cookie), we have an opportunity to flesh out our understanding, broaden our perspectives, gather a depth of detail that no one of us could form on our own. Taking advantage of this opportunity begins with questions, and for the time being we seem to have many more of these than answers.

In the (now overwhelmingly large) discussion of Chapter 1 of Ken Wilber’s forthcoming Integral Spirituality, we are asking profound and fundamental questions. What, exactly, is a holon? What, precisely, is a perspective?  And the all-important question: is there, in fact, a spoon? These are good questions, for which we have, so far, only tentative answers.

We are pursuing similar ends in other threads. Is it all that easy to apply a four quadrant model? What do we mean when we talk about the UL? How does formop cognition function, and how is it different from conop? How do Turqoise and Yellow values differ from one another, and what tensions will arise from grouping them together as "Second-Tier?" What do we really mean by the terms “ego” and “shadow?”

And the questions go far beyond theory, as well. “As we go through the process of adaptating a foreign wisdom tradition … What is cultural baggage and what do we really need from the lineages?” asks user SageMichael. “How can I meditate when my life is hectic and out of control?” asks BobCvitkovik. Rosecpw is confronting the difficulties of raising her daughter in an integral way – “My current challenge is… Learning how to pause the action long enough to feel into what's really best for my daughter” she tells us.

And my friends, this is only the beginning. We are surely far from knowing the true depths of our collective ignorance and misunderstanding. But as we are gathered together in inquiry, there is hope. Consider this a challenge – open yourself up to your unknowing. We are as lost in our new home together as we once were alone. But as we ask and argue, contemplate and consider, we may begin to find new answers.

This Multiplex is an opportunity, an opportunity collectively arising out of our personal strivings for knowledge and becoming. This is an opportunity to turn our individual intuitions into mutual understandings, to turn studied texts into lived realities. As we show one another our ignorance, may we begin to see our depth.