Integral Ecology by Sean Esbjorn-Hargens Ph.D

Author:Sean Esbjorn-Hargens, Ph.D.
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Shambhala

Figure I.4. Trends observed in worldviews of participants.

As the research progressed, participants shared with me their interior self-reflections (e.g., about their individual roles and sense of themselves within focus groups, as leaders in the community as a whole and regarding the surrounding environment). Their reflections often emphasized shifts in their worldviews and perspectives (figure I.4). These outcomes suggest that this Integral approach fostered in participants a renewed sense of their own potentials in effecting change in their community, moving from a more passive, dependent stage (sociocentric amber) toward either a healthier embodiment of that same stage or emergence into a more active, independent yet relational stage of development (worldcentric orange). While more empirical psychometric techniques and tools are definitely useful, our outcomes suggest that an embodied manner of engaging the domain of “I” (phenomenological, intuitive, and qualitative) nevertheless had a significant role in all aspects of this project.

A final point on methodology relates to the immense responsibility of development practitioners to work on their own developmental unfolding and expansion of worldviews, to dis-center from an exclusive egocentric, ethnocentric, sociocentric, and even worldcentric perspective. The more a practitioner can authentically stabilize an Integral stage of consciousness (teal and turquoise), the more fully present, appropriately responsive one can be. This is particularly important when working in situations of great suffering; how we relate with suffering, holding while also releasing our attachment to it, also relates with our quality and depth of service to those who suffer. The development researcher Majid Rahnema (1997, 8–9) explains how:

The most significant quality [of working in development] is to be open and always attentive to the world and to all other humans. . . . Attentive implies the art of listening, in the broadest sense of the word, being sensitive to what is, observing things as they are, free from any preconceived judgment, and not as one would like them to be, and believing that every person’s experience or insight is a potential source of learning. . . . Intervention should therefore be envisaged only in the context of a constant exercise of self-awareness. . . . [italics in original].

My own self-development practices (yoga and meditation) during this project helped to foster the expansion of my own awareness, to be clear on my intention, to be receptive to intuition regarding the project, to surface my assumptions and locate my biases, and to be open to the differences in perspective that I encountered. I would return every evening after a full day’s work with consideration for the community and thoughts about our work together streaming through my awareness. It was a quality of ongoing reflection, of ongoing regard, that I have come to realize is central to applying an Integral approach. This constancy of presence with the process—of gazing fully into what is and not turning away, of giving myself over fully to what is arising while still cultivating precision where needed, and of wholly embracing those whom I interacted with—this is simply part of what is means to practice integrally.

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