In retreat

Just back from a fantastic retreat with Sandra Maitri and the Ridhwan School. Marin county weather, some very coherent teaching, lots of inquiry and plenty of meditation. A fantastic group of people, good times. 15 minute monologues in triads on some penetrating questions.

If you haven't, I encourage you to check out the works of Ridhwan founder A H Almaas and Sandra's enneagram books.

www.sandramatri.com
www.ridhwanschool.org

What is effective communication? - speaking with HK Uni Students

I had a fantastic 6 days in Hong Kong two weeks ago.  I got the opportunity to go to IVE Chai Wan, part of the VTC (vocational technical college) university network in Hong Kong, and speak with 6 of the leadership team of the Woofoo student leadership development network. 
Thanks to Dorcas for organising the event and to all involved for their sincere interest and thoughtful questions.  With such engagement in personal development, HK's future is in good hands!
See below for a couple of their questions on effective communication and how best to get input on ideas:

First interview trilogy

Dr Michael Gaeta and I felt there was more to say after our evening interview the other night, so we did our third interview looking at the importance of activism and service, and what he calls the primacy of the divine.

Expect more time with Michael in the future!

Again, to find out more about Michael's work or to book him for your next event, visit www.gaetacommunications.com.  As I write, Michael is on a 4-day speaking tour of the Pacific North West and the previous week/weekend did a 5-day tour on the East coast.

My sister's choir is joint winner of BBC Radio Norfolk Choir of the Year

Okay, slight break off from my normal postings about my travels and learnings.  Quick newsflash from the UK...Many of you will have heard me talk about my sister's Jody's super-musicality.  One of her choirs, Viva Voce, has just become joint winner of the BBC Radio Norfolk Choir of the Year. In the radio interview, she modestly describes her conducting role here as 'just standing out the front'! 

It was on last Sunday morning, so it will only stay online until the end of Saturday UK time, we think.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/console/p00kts9s

If you'd like to hear it / you read this before the end of Saturday, scroll to 2 hours and 48 minutes (and 30 seconds!) to hear her talk and the choir sing.

Well done Jody et al.!  Super proud of you!

Fully alive, fully present

After positive feedback on my previous interview with Dr Michael Gaeta, here Michael goes much more deeply into the nature of personal transformation, the 'being' aspect of human beings and how to cultivate our biggest sense of our identities beyond our thoughts, feelings and bodies.

See the interview here:

For more information on Michael's work, see www.gaetacommunications.com - be sure to sign up to Michael's radio show!

The Great Disruption or The Big Shift?

Thomas Friedman muses on what's currently going on with Occupy Wall Street:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/10/12/opinion/theres-something-happening-here.html?_r=1&nl=todaysheadlines&emc=tha212&pagewanted=all

In spiral dynamics or evolutionary terms, capitalism is a modernist system with both its advantages and disadvantages. So it seems likely that as more people develop to post-modern or post-post modern consciousness, there will be other forms of organizing principles which arise.  The integral perspective would seem to be to have the awareness to choose which systems and practices serve in which situations, rather than doing away with everything that has come before;  said otherwise, each of the memes or worldviews has and will continue to have something very valuable to contribute.

Interview with Dr Michael Gaeta: health, nutrition and raising consciousness

I have very much enjoyed getting to know Michael and his wife Deanna over the last week.  Michael is an acupuncturist, herbalist and speaker.  He also runs a number of health websites, trains health practitioners, has his own radio show and is on a big mission to shift people's awareness of their nutrition and wellbeing.  For more on this work, visit www.gaetacommunications.com for information on his work, to listen to his podcasts - it's packed with some great free resources.

See our on-the-move interview below:

Now and Zen

So, some of you like me may have been proud owners of your a Zen alarm clock, one which produces natural chimes and unfolds according to the fibonacci sequence.  Well, if you are such a person, chances are you will have come by your alarm clock through Now and Zen who retail them out of Boulder, Colorado.  Founder and President of Now and Zen is Steve Mcintosh, who is also a leading integral philosopher and author.

I was privileged to spend a couple of hours with Steve today talking about integral consciousness (thanks Steve for a great meeting and being generous with your time). Lots of ground covered, very stimulating to hear him in flow.  I will just mention a couple of things here.

He made a really useful distinction between problems to be solved and polarities to be managed, and the fact that we oftentimes get into knots becuase we confuse them.  How much to attend to self and how much to attend to other (community) is not a problem to be solved, it's a dynamic polarity to be managed.  Different times of life may require a different balance.  The fact is:  you need to deepen self in order to serve others best;  and you need to work with others in order to deepen self.  So it's an ongoing iterative journey.

We touched on the size of the integral segment of society (those at 2nd tier consciousness - see here for an explanation).  Some in the Boulder community have estimated the US integral population at 2-5m.  Many people have mentioned the monkey island experiment which suggests that once 11% of a population take something on (with the monkeys, it was washing their fruit), it has the potential to become a mass movement.  So it's a small segment thus far but one that is established, emerging and growing. 

Steve's new book which he is working on now will have more on how to apply integral consciousness(whereas his previous book was more of an exposition).  Be sure to check back at www.stevemcintosh.com to keep posted...

Feeling bookish?

So, I went to one of the two main book stores in Boulder today, Trident.  This is what I bought:

- The Spiritual Dimensions of the Enneagram (Nine Faces of The Soul), Sandra Maitri (Sandra is a senior teacher at the Ridhwan School, which I would like to connect more with and my sense is she is very well regarded within the Enneagram community)
- The Enneagram of Passions and Virtues, Sandra Maitri
- Grace and Grit, Ken Wilber (story of the five years of his wife's terminal battle with cancer)
- Up from Eden, Ken Wilber (according to David Riordan of Integral Life, in putting together Ken's biography, this is the one they keep returning to, written in much more of a narrative and less academic style)
- Social and Political Science, Rudolf Steiner (come across several people teaching at or sending their kids to Steiner schools, thought it was about time to look into the man himself - plus about time I put that Social and Political Sciences degree to work ;))

Waking Up or Waking Down?

I was very privileged to spend an hour and a half with Saniel Bonder, founder of the Waking Down in Mutuality approach, at his home in Sonoma.
Saniel's work has sometimes been described as the 'finishing school for enlightenment', offering spiritual searchers who have been round the houses, a radical transformation or 'second birth' (nondual awakening).  Waking Down helps people integrate both being an infinite and unlimited being with the finiteness of being in human form.  He says it is both easier than harder than you think: easier in that all you need to do is put yourself in proximity with the transmission (easier now given the advent of internet video) and is a bio-spiritually natural process (including becoming friendly to your animal nature);  harder in you have to learn 'whole being integrity' which means accepting all of you including the parts you tend not to like and also because in your process you will lose higher states of consciousness that you have accessed (which typically we judge and think of as non-spiritual). The mutuality aspect talks to a non-hierarchical approach to the work fundamentally different than the approach often associated with a guru and disciple form of spiritual transmission.

Saniel is excited about the place we are in today, the numbers of people awakening, the opportunity technology is affording and that there may likely be further unfoldings beyond nondual. The first half of our interview is below.

Michael Gaeta interview - upcoming

Michael Gaeta is doing some fantastic work through his seminars and publications to get the truth out there regarding health and nutrition.  40,000 people subscribe to his radio show, so he is creating quite a following. He has agreed to an interview later in the week so watch this space. In the meantime, see his website here:http://gaetacommunications.com/site/   If you click on the top right purple icon, it will take you to his previous podcastsa and shows.

Thriving part 3

I was super excited I got the opportunity to meet again with Jeff Vander-Clute and interview him.

Jeff is a co-founder of Thrive Napa Valley and has helped found about 9 start-up ventures.

You can follow him on twitter here - http://twitter.com/#!/jvanderclute

Or more about his previous ventures here:  http://www.circlabs.com/about/vanderclute/

Thanks Jeff for taking the time to talk!  Interview below.

Thriving part 2

One of the people I have had the pleasure to connect with in the Bay Area is Jeff Vander Clute.  I tend to find people who can play in different worlds (or perhaps unify them) intriguing.  Jeff gets and has done startup, tech, Silicon Valley and VC etc. And he gets raising consciousness, emergence, unified field and resonance. Cool stuff! I had stumbled across the Edible Schoolyard Project during one of my first days in San Francisco as they had a few outdoor stands.  Alice Waters founded this and is a big voice in the Bay Area around sustainability and local sourcing of food.  So when her award-winning restaurant Chez Panisse got recommened as a meeting place, it seemed synchronistic (apparently, for very devoted suppporters of 'go local' in Berkeley, it is the place to eat if you are serious about your intention).

Jeff is currently putting his attention into Thrive Napa Valley which is a happiness initiative for his local area. As they state on their homepage: Thrive Napa Valley is helping to build resiliency in the region by shining a light on our communities' success stories; by connecting social innovators to one another; and by promoting the most effective sustainable practices from around the world.  They are founding their efforts on appreciative inquiry and the notion that we grow in the directions of the (powerful) questions we ask. 

Just to mention two aspects that Jeff talked about. One, sharing, which coming from BM and its gift economy (and having people lend me most the kit I needed), I have had recent direct experience of.  Their vision, which I think Pareto would be proud of, is that where we currently share 20% of the time, we share 80% of the time (our tools, our resources).  Given most people only mow their lawn probably no more than once a fortnight, does everyone need to own a mower?  Two, working hours.  A long time ago when I was in my car in Norwich, UK, I remember hearing a radio discussion about the fact that the anticipated 'age of leisure' had not materialised: people were working longer hours than ever.  This was then picked up in a conversation with Johannes Moeller, who has been inquiring around jobsharing and full societal employment.  Simplistically, given many people in full-time employment make more than enough to subsist, by sharing their jobs out, could we significantly reduce the number of under- and unemployed.  I am no macro-economist, but it seemed a worthy line of questioning. Jeff's idea is that people offer their time, energy and skills to one another out of joy and generosity, with the knowledge, gained from overwhelming experience, that what goes around comes around and that all basic needs are met in the process.  Accordingly, people work a few hours a day on average and devote the rest of their time to relationships, and to personal and collective development (I hear all you PD junkies salivating!)  Is that really possible?  How far away would we be from creating something like that?

For more information on thriving commuinities and the wider compassionate city movement Jeff is linked into, see here.

Thriving part 1

Quick heads up for those interested, the Thrive Movement, a film about 'What On Earth Will It Take?' to create a new global system based upon fairer values.
Check out the Thrive Movement trailer. The film comes out on 11/11/11 and the tickets sold out the first 2 hours!

From 1 to 3, and 9 to 12

One of the things I have been looking to explore out here is the Enneagram.  For an overview of the Enneagram, a good place to start is the Enneagram Institute.  The more I look into it, the more I am taken by how much is in the system.  People who are interested in uniting Western and Eastern wisdom might be willing to see the Enneagram as part of our Western wisdom, originating in the work of the Christian Mystics.  Gurdjieff is generally associated with transmitting the Enneagram into more recent Western awareness.  And then a line is traced through a Bolivian Oscar Ichazo and a Chilean Claudio Naranjo to the latter's former students including Helen Palmer and Sandra Maitri.

During my meeting with Diana Chapman last week, whose work I was really impressed by, she mentioned the tri-type approach to Enneagram.  This made the penny drop why most people I have mentioned Enneagram to out here have given me three types, not just one. So while Riso and Hudson at the Enneagram Institute have focussed on your primary type, some are acknowledging this alongside two others types, one in each of the thinking (head), feeling (heart) and instinctual (gut) centres.  One introduction I have found to this idea is here with the work with Katherine and David Fauvre.  The thinking is that you in effect have two back up approaches that you will bring to a situation when your primary type strategy is not working.  So, by way of limited example, and 8-7-2 faced with a situation might first try to control it (8), then make light of it (7) then forget their needs (2). 

Apparently the enneagramists are having some fun trying to type Barack Obama!  Is he a 9 with a 1 wing, or a 3 with a 4 wing?  One of their difficulties is that Obama and I quote from Enneagram Institute site seems 'unusually healthy' (psychologically) for a politician.  See the discussion here. I totally know what they mean and it occured to me how Plato or Mill might mourn that we still have not worked out how to choose the most psychologically healthy and wise among us to govern.  Anyways, more on that I am sure once I engage some more with integral politics.  I feel like I am meeting some people whose visions of society are exactly where we need to go but are almost so ahead of their time, such that if they presented such a vision, they would not be electable.

So I have talked about 1 to 3, primary type to tri-type.  Let's look at 9 to 12.  On Friday night, I had a lovely evening and dinner with David and Chellsa Lesser.  David introduced me to his Shadow Work and the four-quarter model.  Imagine in each of the four quarters (warrior, lover, sovereign, magician), you can either be high or low.  Combining two highs and a low, you get 12 combinations.  For example, high warrior, high soverign, low lover.  Interestingly, these match across to the 9 enneagram types (the example I give would be an 3, who finds it hard to be vulnerable and has to be bigger than who they are to be worthy) and provide three more, which are accounted for by splitting out three of the existing enneagram types. 4 (high warrior, high lover, low sovereign) which is more about individuality, for example, splits out to a type 10 (high warrior, high lover, low magician) which is more about releasing and leading through emotions.  I naturally get excited when models synthesize; and following conversations initially a few months back with Alex Hands about how Myers Briggs and Enneagram overlap, I have been intrigued by the merit in understanding these models, including astrology, together.  Of course, in an integral framework, it would make sense that they each have a partial view or truth.

So, if you haven't looked into the enneagram and are serious about inner work, breaking patterns, releasing tension or allowing your soul to shine through more often, I recommend you check it out.

Everything passes

Burning Man was an amazing event!  The concepts of radical self-reliance, radical self-expression, community and gift economy come together in a really interesting way.  From start to end, I barely did any planning, it was just a go-with-the-flow experience. You talk to people, you exchange gifts, they invite you to join what they are doing, and you're off. 

Event highlights:  seeing 3 sunrises, fantastic conversations, so many open and interesting people (an Enneagram 7's dream!) [http://www.enneagraminstitute.com/typeseven.asp] the night-time (described as like being in a video game which, with all the lights and artwork, it really is), our RV group whom I camped with (lovely people who really looked after me (thanks Cherie, Karl and Nicole), the loss of ones' sense of time (I haven't been wearing a watch all trip;  at BM, nearly everyone was in same boat, people sleep at all different times, so days merge into nights into days in a curious way), the metaphor of impermance and letting go (the whole city is temporary and most the artwork burns at the end of the week;  people write messages in the temple about what they want to let go and the whole temple burned on Sunday night)

Some quick piccies for you to check out:

As an experience, I would definitely commend this to people.  It's such an experience of how I think human beings can relate:  spontaneously, in generosity, openness and authenticity.  I am curious to see what remains of that way of being as I and other burners get back to the day-to-day.

On mission...

Or in the Mission, at least, where I have been staying the last four nights, a very young, lively and creative part of San Francisco.  I really like the vibe of this city.
Things have flowed well in the Bay Area.  One of my intentions for this trip was to try to plan less and respond spontaneously more and try and tap into what wants to come forth, what wants to be expressed. I have been really struck by how things can be provided for you.  I am off to Burning Man festival, a gathering of some 50,000+ people in the world's largest temporary city, and have had the majority of my kit provided for me by a cool guy I met only last week, a ticket come together from a friend and have fallen in with some guys who have an RV and 10 BMs under their belts.  This all materialised through connecting with the couchsurfing community (www.couchsurfing.org) here...
I have been staying with Gabriel Posner - awesome guy, see his site here - a somatic educator.  He was reminding me what Thomas Hanna (whose work somatics is) said about the difference between habitual response and spontaneous response, the latter being where how you respond arises spontaneously.  If your right response is anger, feel anger and then let it unwind;  if your right response is joy, feel joy and let it unwind.  Gabriel also mentioend Bill Plotkin (see his book here), whose has worked extensively as a depth psychologist. His view is that we are so separated from nature that we do not know how to listen to the innate wisdom of the universe.  Which Paulo Coelho would agree with, whose book The Alchemist, which explores this, I re-read in Vancouver.

Other things put on my radar this week - Diana Chapman, coach to extraordinary leaders (www.dianachapman.com) - due to be meeting her next week;  Besant Hill (www.besanthill.org) whose founders include Aldous Huxley and Krishnamurti, so I am sensing those kids are getting some cool ideas;  Science and Nonduality conference (http://www.scienceandnonduality.com/) which I may look to go to.  These latter two came from a woman Devon White (http://humanoperatingsystem.org/) whom I have been corresponding with introduced to me to, whose team have pre-qualified to be 1 of 12 bank branches launching in the USA for Unified Field Bank, a conscious bank - www.unifiedfieldbank.com.  Curious that when you start looking into things, in this instance, raising consciousness, there are a lot of people playing in the space, which is encouraging.

I have been enjoying reading some Jon Kabit-Zinn (http://www.mindfulnesscds.com/author.html), who is Professor of Medicine Emeritus and founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School.  I took this from his book, Full Living Catastrophe:
'As eddies and waves, our lives do have a certain uniqueness, but they are also the stuff of a large whole expressing itself in ways that ultimately surpass our comprehensiveness.' 
He then points to Einstein, known to most for his genius as a thinker and less for his interest in consciousness perhaps, who writes: 'the true value of a human being is determined primarily by the measure and sense in which he has attained liberation from the self'.

So some good books have come across my path to coincide with what life seems at times to be reflecting back at me.

No communications in the desert which will be an experience in itself, alongside the trademark BM values of radical self-reliance and self-expression.

Be in touch on other side,
Jack

[ps - sorry the links aren't quite right in this post - not finding the blogger interface completely intuitive to get things lined up :)]

Openly taking the mike

Thought I'd give open mic a go...
If you are brave enough, have a look here for evidence, probably about time I expanded my song repitoire beyond 3 covers... :)

This was The Wired Monk in Vancouver, 3 songs, max 15 mins set, probably 25 people, all stemming from a spontaneous conversation on the beach who a guy who was strumming a guitar... (he played me Lack of Color, Death Cab for Cutie, nice song - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jduFDgIr598)

or here if it's not loading up: http://youtu.be/v9ftjnIO6NU

Good fun - thanks to Lisa for doing the recording :)

Over the Rockies...

It's been a really fantastic stay in Edmonton - lovely to connect with family whom I haven't really known but now feel I know quite well, as it's probably the longest continuous stint I have ever stayed with family on my own.  Above video is...
Conversation topics included First Nations (aboriginal American Indians) - my uncle has done a lot of work with them over the years in his work for the Albertan government;  Buddhism;   having no regrets;  allowing life to flow 'through' you, realising you can't always be in control;  the materialism of North American culture;  Tim Hortons (there you go Harper! - managed a frappucino there when we went to Edmonton mall - it's good value vs Starbucks and other coffee houses (hadn't realised Tim Horton was a hockey star in 60s/70s)).

Enjoyed meeting my cousin Mark for the first time.  Amongst a lot of other things, he's into tech start up stuff.  He put www.airbnb.com on my radar, which I might make use of on my travels - like a more top end version of www.couchsurfing.org.   The Canadians also use www.kijiji.ca as a kind of gumtree.

Yesterday we went to Elk Island National Park.  Really hot day so think the animals were resting in the deeper vegetation so we didn't spot much, but did see some stellar dragonflies and a young bison:

Been passing through the Rockies today - 16 hour Greyhound journey from Edmonton to Vancouver.  Still 5 hours to go.  Stunning scenery.  Mount Robson, highest peak in Rockies, piccy below (doesn't quite do it justice) - my cousin and her husband climbed this just a few days back (including 1.5 hour sliding on backsides down snow...they are hardcore!)

Looking forward to seeing what Vancouver holds...
As the Telus (one of big mobile phone carriers) van said earlier on its side:
'The future is friendly' (Einstein said the most fundamental question to answer was 'Do you think the universe is fundamentally a friendly place?')
Jack ;)

Minneapolis St Paul

Landed safely in the US.  Top news story here:  riots in Great Britain! 

Re-read Jonathan Livingston Seagull on flight over (thanks McKenzie Cerri for the gift) - well worth a read if you haven't - neat p.d book about walking to the beat of your own drum and not being afraid to leave the flock, starting with seeking perfection (in a skill - in his instance flying) - then seeking freedom through recognising your own limitlessness and true nature beyond the physical, then giving back by teaching others what you have learnt.

Takes less than an hour. If you don't want to buy it, you can read it here: http://lib.ru/RBACH/seagullengl.txt

I got some blog advice from the young woman sitting next to me:  use pictures.  She takes quite good ones though! - http://powelltothepeople.tumblr.com/

Will explore blogspot features versus other blog packages.  Let me know if you have any views.

JB :)


 

All set

Bag is pretty much packed, London riots have been avoided and I'm tidying up a few final bits...

Curiously, my watch strap fell apart earlier, so I am wondering if this is an invitation to not get too time-bound in my approach to my trip...?

Emotional saying bye to the FF boys earlier.  What a bunch of top blokes!

Thanks to all of you who came to the Thursday and Sunday pre-going away sessions.  Fab occasions...highlights of the first included hearing about Lucy Moses locking herself out of her flat and then smashing a huge flowerpot on her way to breaking into one of her windows, nearly going on a carousel (no, not the alternative to the progression model for FF session design but a geniune Southbank horse-merry-go-round) but between us not having the guts to be seen on there, Rob Darbyshire turning up who I haven't seen for years and riding Alex Hands and I around central London in his 1951 landrover...highlights of the second include an awesome montage (thanks Pete), and awesome photo book (thanks Jon, Mary Daniels and others for cool comments), a lovely gathering of people (thanks all who came), and a cool bit of salsa to end the evening (thanks the Bustamante clan)...

If you want to see the cool montage they put together, have a look here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dkiAHGdyw9U

 

Thanks for all the memories!

Now time for some sleep...

JB :)

The integral movement

Below is a previous blog entry which didn't end up posting...for those of you who are wondering what this integral stuff I have been talking about is, it might give a few more clues...
I have been in contact with Steve McIntosh and we will meet when I am in Boulder, Colarado...
I thought I would start writing a blog to encourage me to synthesise some of what I am reading and learning at the moment. Having read a fair bit of Ken Wilber recently (www.kenwilber.com - not too current but gives a broad flavour), I am quite taken by the integral project which seeks to create a big enough narrative to encompass all truths in all theories or worldviews. I am trying to get my head round which integral players are doing what. They span every area - cultural develpoment, consciouness studies, education, politics and on. Today I came across:
- the Centre for Human Emergence (www.humanemergence.org.uk)
- Steve McIntosh (www.stevemcintosh.com) - I had previously read an integral politics blogpost by him; he was also amassing a petition declaring the value of global governance, though this has been discontinued, I would be intrigued to know how far they got with it
- Otto Scharmer's blog - www.blog.ottoscharmer.com
- RSA Animate from Matthew Taylor on the need for growing empathy - check out www.rsa.org.uk
- Mia Eisenstadt from Reos Partners - www.reospartners.com - interesting perspectives on nature solos (time spent alone in nature to contemplate big questions - similar to native American tradition of vision questing)
Excited to see that there are so many people in the integral space...the challenge is how to embed this thinking in culture and social/political institutions...more to come on that I am sure.
All good thoughts,
Jack

Getting ready

Testing...!