INTEGRAL PARADIGM
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From: Bruce S.
Date: Wednesday, September 19, 2007, 11:31 AM
Subject: integral paradigm
Reply to: 261046
ID: 258518

Jonathan: I like that they have chosen to represent the different practices as various branches of the tree.

I'd also be interested in hearing how you see this glyph and the practices mentioned fitting into the integral model that is being created at GRN and/or the Bridge Across Consciousness.

Bruce: Hi Jonathan. I like that image too. I did a search on google for "tree", and that was the first thing that came up.

And if you search google images for "tree" -- you'll find several different kinds of things...

On the Bridge Across Consciousness -- my idea of a powerful integral model -- one of the ideas is -- mystical symbols and graphics tend to be metaphors for ideas that are often represented at some other time by some other person in scientific form. For example, here's an image with the title "Tree of Life".

Here's another version of the tree of life analytic mandala:

The point being -- that "trees" are a very common analytic tool -- sometimes drawn looking like a living tree, sometimes drawn as an algebraic or topographical form.

The Bridge Across Consciousness is about "levels" of thinking and analysis. At one end of the bridge -- is "the big picture" -- holistic thinking, which tends to be "right brain" and very metaphorical. The other end of the bridge is "the little picture" -- empirical detail, highly specific things. Very left-brain.

A tree structure -- can show how all these things are interconnected through a single structure.

In these tree-mandalas I show here, we might say that "the bridge" is the connection from the center of the mandala -- the "trunk" of the tree -- out to the perimeter -- the end-points (branches or leaves) of the tree.

The big problem in human understanding today -- is that all these levels of thinking and understanding are badly fractured. We don't realize that the branches are connected to the trunk, and we don't realize that the branches are connected to one another through the trunk. We don't see the connection of the center to the perimeter -- and the result -- is a lot of disharmony and misunderstanding...

Before he got into "quadrants" -- Ken Wilber was following a model like this -- a clear, well-defined progression "from higher to lower and back again". Well-defined levels -- just like trees have well-defined levels of branches -- and just like a computer operating system has well-defined "branches" in its directory structure (click on "My Computer" on a Windows PC to see the tree structure of your computer).

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Actually, Jonathan, I realize you might be asking a slightly different question than I am answering -- like, how does the Bridge Across Consciousness relate to spiritual practice.....

But I wanted to emphasize this "analytic tree" aspect. This is really the key to the power that is emerging. We don't need to live in a world where intuition and analysis are at each other's throats in a non-stop cacophony of mis-understanding -- as they generally are today.

As to whether the Bridge is more than just a theoretical model -- and is in some sense "a spiritual practice" -- what I would say is -- the Bridge does show the power of centering -- all interpretations converge towards a common center -- but that needs to be shown with great care, and it's going to be a while before we can get all that analysis in place. It's complex and detailed -- but it does seem workable, and -- if it is correct -- it is very powerful.

"Mystical symbols are often a kind of pre-mathematical intuition."

And, I guess we might say that a lot of spiritual practice -- for individuals AND groups -- involves centering, or converging towards a common center....