Confusion & Integral View

When we awaken to a more transdual awareness, everything seems different. One example is how we view harmful actions and those who exhibit these to a larger extent than others. (Of course, even this phrasing is based on certain assumptions that are not valid from all levels of awakening).

From Big Mind, we see that it is all Existence manifesting. Anything and everything, anyone and everyone is God, Buddha Mind, Big Mind, Existence manifesting and exploring itself.

From Big Heart, we see the total confusion that living beings are in when they act in ways that bring suffering to themselves and others. The awareness (consciousness) in them is exclusively identified with the small self, functions dualistically, and is caught up in habitual patterns of emotions, thoughts and behavior that are especially effective in bringing about suffering. This awareness has not yet awakened to its own nature - or if it has to some extent, is still caught up in the processes of the small self.

Within a dualistic view, there is a range of possibilities - although they all tend to split polarities and thus the world up.

A common one in the US is to see it as a battle of "good" and "evil", and even have a theological explanation for it. This opens up for a sense of endless struggle, for self-righteousness, moralism and blind judgment, which in turn leads to a deepened sense of isolation and disconnection with oneself and others.

A more sophisticated (still flatland) view is to see it as a product of a combination of biology, life circumstance and the current situation. This seems to be relatively accurate in explaining the habitual patterns of the personality, which is really all there is to see when awareness is exclusively identified with the small self.

When awareness awakens to its own nature, a new perspective is suddenly available. It realizes that it is not only the small self but also something that is empty of characteristics, something that seems timeless - without form, color, beginning, end, birth, death. This allows awareness to have a "birds eye view" of the world of phenomena - it sees that all phenomena is a seamless fluid whole. The inner world (the sensations, emotions, thoughts of the small self) and the outer world (the rest of the world of phenomena) are two aspects of a seamless whole.

It (we) awakens to a more transdual view. It sees the inner and outer world as a seamless whole, and its nature empty of characteristics and the world of phenomena as a a seamless whole. There are still clear distinctions, but they are now within the context of the seamless fluid whole.

And here, there is a new sense of overview and choice. We can allow the experiences of the personality to unfold within spacious awareness. There is no longer an automatic need to engage in them, either through fuelling them or pushing them away. We discover that when we allow them to unfold within spacious awareness, there is a sense of expansion (the space expands) and increased clarity and stability. We are no longer automatically in the clutches of the habitual patterns of the personality/small self.

So, a more integral view would include...

• Anything that shapes/patterns/triggers the habitual processes/responses of the small self. This is the domain of traditional academia, including psychology, biology, sociology, anthropology, history, medicine, etc.
  
  
• And the shifts that occur when awareness awakens to its own nature, and the processes - of practice, clarification, deepening, further awakenings and integrations - that unfolds from here. This is the domain of transpersonal psychology and spiritual traditions from around the world.