Sunday, October 30, 2011

INTEGRAL SPIRITUALITY

I'VE BORROWED THIS QUOTE FROM A SERMON TODAY BY MARK SCHINDLER, MINISTER OF UNITY CHURCH IN AUBURN. IF YOU'D LIKE TO READ MORE ABOUT MARK, YOU CAN GO TO THE WEBSITE AT WWW.UNITYOFAUBURN.COM TODAY, HE SPOKE OF INTEGRAL SPIRITUALITY BY KEN WILBER.

"It's astonishing that I can deny I. That I can take parts of my self, my I-ness, and push them on the other side of the self-boundary, attempting to deny ownership of those aspects of my self that are perhaps too negative...to accept. Yet pushing them away does not actually get rid of them, but simply converts them into painful neurotic symptoms, shadows of a disowned self come back to haunt me...those things in the world that most disturb and upset me about others are actually my own shadow qualities, which are now perceived as out there." Ken Wilber---Integral Spirituality

I thought this sermon today at my "less-than-traditional-church" was so apropos for Halloween with the phrase "come back to haunt me". It reminds me that I need to figure out what it is about me that I might need to work on so that, as Ken Wilber says: "If we stay awake, we can use these experiences to reclaim lost parts of our self. If we are not awake, then we simply propagate suffering in our life and in our world." (page 90)

In the last month we have seen so much anger and frustration with Wall Street and people protesting against what they feel are injustices. The "one percent" are rising up and taking a stand for what they believe in. Ken Wilber says on page 94 that "when [we] are willing to accept our feelings of deficiency with compassion, we will eventually discover that what we truly seek is always within our self. Everything that we truly need, we already are." Involution. "The teachings of ancient wisdom tell us that who we really are exists in a realm beyond time and space." (page 95).

5 comments:

  1. if we are not awake...nice...and true...nice bits of wisdom sprinkled through out here and made all the more relevant by the wall street protests...nice thought provoking piece...

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  2. So true... one really must learn to be accept all parts of one's self. The good, the bad and the ugly. I think, in some ways, it is how you learn to accept others too.

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  3. Absolutely true and I thank you for a much-needed reminder.

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  4. stock market impacts our mood indeed,

    How are you, my friend?

    Happy Halloween,

    it has been a while, hope all is well.

    Thanks for your beautiful support to Jingle Poetry Community, welcome back any time, we are open weekly until Thursday.

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  5. I have always found Ken Wilber hard to read, yet this quote makes perfect sense. It does seem in western culture we so easily disown the difficult parts of ourselves and yet as he says "they come back to haunt us" so really there is no disowning is there? If we don't claim them, they claim us sometimes in strange ways!

    great post for today!!

    and I love your Quan Yin photo

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