What guidelines from readings of last two weeks help you become more aware of which “Self” is the source of your self-identity, self-images, desires, life intentions and goals?
According to Ken Wilber, we all are the seekers in this world, and we are constantly seeking for our personality (Wilber & Patten). We always try to determine the most important personal aspects for us. These are the questions of self-identity, our personal desires and life intentions. From the work by Roger Walsh I have learnt how our motives and emotions can influence our life and how it is significant to control and transform them. This knowledge is our ‘wisdom’ (Walsh). According to this, we can analyze the relationship between self-actualization and self-realization in our personality. However, it is rather a controversial question to determine what has more impact on me, and what is the source of my self-identity, desires and intentions. I prefer to concentrate on the aspects of self-realization as the way of developing of my spirituality.
There are many practices for developing my spirit, but I have chosen the most interesting for me. The meditation practice can be considered as the effective approach to the progress in your awareness of you as a spiritual personality. Meditation is a way of transforming your energy. The energy is the necessary ruling force of your personality (Wilber & Patten). I want to use all the opportunities of my inner energy which the meditation practice can discover for me. My purpose is “living for real” (Wilber & Patten). That is why the guidelines to the development of spirit and to the meditation practice helped me to aware that the aspects of self-realization can be considered as the source for my self-identity. As for me, self-realization is the way to be over my negative or indefinite emotions and the way to become a person of my dream.
How do your integral life practices affect your Being-in-Action and behavior in the world of political, economic, ecological and social unrest and suffering? Example?
We, as the members of the constantly developing society, face a lot of challenges every day. Most of them do not depend on our actions but can influence our life greatly. Our reactions can be rather different. However, each our reaction is a significant process of various kinds of transforming our energy. Thus, our task is to make this process less harmful for us if the reaction is negative. Stresses are our everyday reality, and it is very difficult to avoid them. Nevertheless, we can learn how to cope with those dangerous factors which are the result of the situation in political, economic and social spheres of our life. It is impossible to isolate ourselves from the reality because our Being-in-Action is the necessary part of the world processes.
Today I can state that my integral life practices can be rather effective for my efficient activity in the society.
My knowledge on the problems of spirit, body, mind and shadow contribute to the fact of my awareness of me as a personality. Moreover, I can analyze my inner motives and emotions. Furthermore, I think I am ready to develop all the possibilities of difficult emotions for my personality. The knowledge of the integral life practices gives me the opportunity to develop myself as a conscientious person who can also care for the others (Wilber & Patten). I can notice that now I pay more attention to my emotions and feelings, desires and intentions. I try to analyze them from the point of their potential and the effect for my inner energy and opportunities. Today my reactions on the stresses produced by my classes, social activity, family and relations with friends become calmer. My meditation practice helps me to discover the depth of my personality.
From Ken Wilber’s and Roger Walsh’s readings this week, describe your experience with the 3-2-1 shadow process and the relationship between spirituality and shadow.
When you work with your Shadow Module you always try to integrate the unconscious part of yourself. It is the fact that your energy which concentrates, according to Wilber, in your shadow part may have positive and negative origin and effects (Wilber & Patten). That is why there are many practices with the help of which we can work with this energy and even learn how to control and transform it. I can state from my personal experience that among the number of ways 3-2-1 shadow process is the most effective practice for reducing negative traits.
I had the experience in my life when I could not understand the person’s intentions and decisions, and I had to do my best to face the issue. Once my friend betrayed me and I felt sad and depressed because of this fact. I could not understand the inner motives of my friend, but it was really important for me. The first thing I did was the attempt to ‘face’ her and the problem. I chose some minutes and remembered all her features that I had evaluated or had not received before. She is jolly, kind, clever. Nevertheless, she is a real egoist and can betray her friends. It was difficult for me to admit it.
The next step was to ‘talk’ to her. However, it was a real opportunity for me to analyze all the possible answers to questions which were significant for me. The main question was about her motives and intentions of her actions toward me. It helped me to discover some points in our relations to which I did not pay necessary attention. The key aspect of the practice was the moment when I stated that I am angry with your (my) paying more attention to the other friends. I have understood that I also can concentrate on my problems, be quite egoistic. Nevertheless, I really do not want this quality developing in my shadow. Thus, the practice helped me to understand myself. I believe that we can influence on the relationship between our spirituality and shadow with the help of increasing of the level of our awareness of such relationship and making some steps to improve our personality.
What, if anything, gets in the way of your integral life practices? What is the level of your commitment?
Integral life practices are the best way for improving your personal qualities and for your personal progress. I think that they are necessary for everybody’s awakening and awareness of oneself. If I analyze the level of my commitment to such kind of integral life practices as the development of the possibilities of your spirit through the meditation practice, I can say that the advantages of following the practices are obvious. I am inclined to use the practices in my everyday life to achieve some progress in them and to discover all the hidden abilities of my personality. Nevertheless, there are some factors that can prevent me from regular practice.
The most important among these factors is the lack of spare time. However, I understand that it is all up to me to control my time and to fix the priorities. Besides, there are worked out the 1-minute practices which can help me to use my time appropriately to my everyday goals. I believe that integral life practices require more attention to their peculiarities because the process of improving oneself cannot be quick and easy. I should analyze all the challenges from our society and provide the right reactions which must not be opposite to my inner vision of the problem of self-development and my principles every day and every moment. It is necessary for me because I have chosen following the principles of real life with the opportunity to develop myself.
References
- Walsh, R. (1999). Essential Spirituality. NY: John Wiley & Sons.
- Wilber, K., & Patten, T. (2008). Integral Life Practice. Boston: Integral Books. (Wilber & Patten)