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Why AQAL?

Last post 01-07-2008, 3:58 PM by zneval. 4 replies.
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  •  05-11-2007, 9:49 AM 22692

    Why AQAL?

    Dear All,

    I was lucky enough to have an essay I wrote on Psycho-sexual development of structure-stages in an AQAL context published on kw.com.

    I am beginning to write on Integral Applications and I am specifically interested in Contemplative Practice [particularly Zen, Mahamudra].

    The question I have is "What is given to Contemplative Practice by AQAL?"

    For ILP we can say that we exercise our 3 bodies, work with our psyche, recognize the reality of the 'we/us' and also meditate. Some say however that this is just common sense!

    Do you think so? Do people take this approach on average?

    What else can AQAL give and receive?

    Would love to know what you guys think.

    Rich

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  •  05-11-2007, 5:46 PM 22707 in reply to 22692

    Re: Why AQAL?

    Hi Rich,

    I think that what happens after you've been introduced to the AQAL model is you actually start to see all of these connections and they start to seem like "common sense."  But, what is now so obvious as to seem common sensical was not always the case.  I recently was asking myself this very same question.  I thought, "I've always meditated and exercised and studied... what is different about that and doing those very same things in light of AQAL?" 

    Aside from the many practical and useful details of the integral model I think the most beautiful, powerful aspect of AQAL is the View that one is introduced to.  Why do people want a room with a view?  They want to wake up, look out the window and take whatever feeling that view gives them into their day.  They want that view to be a part of their living environment.  When having friends to dinner they want to include that view.  When reading a book in their arm chair, they want that view to be there next to them.  In the same way, being introduced to the integral view inspires in people a deeply felt connection to all of life and an attitude of openness and care and, if I may say so, exuberance.  This is a powerful thing to be offering the world.  Ken is always warning us that this is just a map and not the territory so not to get too excited but we all already have a map that we are using to navigate our world and for the most part it is a beat up, divisive, fragmented, pain-causing map.  This is a map with the explicit intent of embracing all, with both conceptual clarity and also compassionate care.  It is also a map that says it is just a map.  No one is going to be burned at the stake for disagreeing with this map.  I think that is a very nice feature. 

    What else can AQAL give?

    It is arguably the best tool available for joining Heaven and Earth.  I say this because it is a map of how samsara works.  Many people are moved to help others(Heaven) and to help the situation of the world in all sorts of ways but prior to AQAL there was no way to do(Earth) so that touched on all of the necessary bases and so often attempts at helping actually cause other problems.  And I guess this is also where having an integrally informed contemplative practice is different from just doing different practices concurrently.  The latter is probably more effective than just grinding out only 1 practice but being integrally informed means you know how what your doing fits into the bigger picture and also insures that you are touching or at least aware of all the bases.

    So I guess the what I'm trying to say is that AQAL offers a brilliant, stunning, inspiring, loving view(Heaven) and it also offers the skillful means to bring this view into practical applications in the world in countless, effective ways(Earth).

     

    That's my quick attempt at an answer during my break at work.  Perhaps I'll have more to say later.

    Thanks,

    Jeffrey

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  •  05-12-2007, 2:25 AM 22718 in reply to 22707

    Re: Why AQAL?

    Hey Jeffrey,

    Great post! I really like the image of building a room with a fantastic, detailed, inclusive, discerning View out of which to see the trees and birds with our relative being.

    This is something I've been thinking on, the greatness of the relative detailing provided by AQAL that is not found in the Contemplative Texts in the same way, at least as I undersatnd them. It seems the World wasn't as well undserstood by the texts as by AQAL and this can cause problems.

    best

    Rich

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  •  05-12-2007, 7:22 AM 22724 in reply to 22707

    Re: Why AQAL?

    hi here ...

    i try to synchronise with you, referencing to AQAL ...

    and to this notice of jeffrey :

    ChangchupNyima:

    Why do people want a room with a view?  They want to wake up, look out the window and take whatever feeling that view gives them into their day.  They want that view to be a part of their living environment.  When having friends to dinner they want to include that view.



    What i sense is : having a new look at the world each day ...
    and by that refreshing ones energy with vitalizing grounds for experience with and without other fellows ...

    i think this is a kind of a ground to experience "noo"  spheres ...
    placing themes in quadrants giving some resonance that can be envisioned with " wraps" ;
    and can be visioned with textures giving "a"  perspective, or "another perspective on what was usuall before".

    see for the wrap en/visioning (and click around a little bit?)

    Thanks
    S' ace

    "Through the 28::7 T-T cosmogenesis of time, merge your mind into the ever-evolving higher conciousness of time!

    If there were not time, there would be no mind to become." - VV-Rinri-II
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  •  01-07-2008, 3:58 PM 35886 in reply to 22724

    Re: Why AQAL?

    This is partly duplicated from a different post of mine..

    What is truly wonderful about AQAL is it's ability to allow people to speak about these topics, to allow us to "assume" metaphysical conditions that we might discuss them, learn, etc without boxing us in in a dogmatic way. I am going to quote from Ken:

    "This, to my mind, is the central contribution of an Integral Post-Metaphysics--
    it does not itself contain metaphysics,
    but it can generate metaphysics as one possible AQAL matrix configuration under the limit conditions of premodern cultures.
    That is, the AQAL matrix, when run using premodern parameters,
    collapses into the old metaphysics
    (as Einsteinian collapses into Newtonian, even though it itself is non-Newtonian).
    On the other hand, alter the holonic conditions of the matrix
    by adjusting it to the parameters of the postmodern world,
    and the metaphysics drops out entirely,
    even though there still remains an entire spectrum of consciousness, waves of development, evolution and involution, and a rainbow of awareness that runs unbroken from dust to Deity--but without relying on any pregiven, archetypal, or independently existing ontological structures, levels, planes, etc."

    Our existence is there, not-there, simultaneously. AQAL reflects this. For any sort of metaphysics to arise, as Ken says, there must be a given holonic condition. This is like saying: for someone to start on the path of enlightenment, they must start somewhere. We all have our contexts, but AQAL is non-contextual at it's fundamental purpose-- to see contexts in contexts. This is also is similar to stages of development: subject becomes and object of subjective awareness. AQAL allows us to see our own context, in context. By understanding that we are in-context, we are free from word-anxiety.. that is, being afraid to talk about things like "waves of development", "involution", "matrix" because you are afraid you might be misunderstood. AQAL lets us comprimise with eachother, let each other use terms we need to express what we are trying to say. Ken is above all an integrater. (I know this is off topic, but I don't think Ken's ideas specifically reflect a man who has engineered one constant idea in one field, but rather his ideas reflect the "rational" process through which a person can become "trans-rational". He is such a pioneer in this respect, but who didn't know that?. The point is that we follow his example-- by that I mean, DON'T take Ken's word for it!, but emulate the man.)

    yogafrog, I didn't see your essay on kw.com, could you update this forum with a link to it? I feel like you are right in saying that AQAL is very common sensical, but I also agree that it isn't something you just come up with on your own or out of the blue. I am not sure of all that AQAL has to offer. I do not ever "think of AQAL", it is not something that comes into my awareness space hardly ever, but I know that through studying it and letting it soak into my brain, it has made me more understanding of my own problems, putting them in context, and encountering other people with the understanding that they, too, are situated somewhere in the AQAL matrix. Maybe that is the best part about it, that it is necessarily all-inclusive because it transcends and includes it all. I'm not sure what it can add to meditation-- maybe ask Genpo Roshi or Father Keating, I would be curious what they'd have to say. Saul Williams once mentioned that AQAL gives a reasonable way to organize the apparent chaos... AQAL lets us know that it is NOT chaos. It helps me to know that God has a plan for human civilization, it shows where consiousness is growing towards, but it also as compassionate as God in that it allows for there ALWAYS be ALL levels, and it says, just as the Lord does, that we are all children in the matrix, learning to live-- we all have our place. For those of us blessed enough to be on the threshold of vision-logic, integrality, trans-rationality, AQAL allows us to continue on without leaving anyone behind.

    But it is just a MAP!

    god bless,
    Tim

    "identity which is not convulsive ceases to exist" ---breton

    Nine Ways Not to Talk about God
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