Coming Waves : Evolution, Transformation, and Action in an Integral Age (9780989228954) by Diperna Dustin; Augustine H. B. (EDT)

Author:Diperna, Dustin; Augustine, H. B. (EDT) [DiPerna, Dustin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
ISBN: 9780989228954
Publisher: BookBaby
Published: 2014-11-15T06:00:00+00:00

Collective Individualism

Though both traditional meditation and We Space practice appear to be effective in the process of self-awareness that leads to mature psychological development, with We Space having an edge in terms of embodied Shadow work, and while both open us up to presence in the moment, meditation itself does not engage the critical dimension of reality that is relationship. Bringing two awake human beings together does not necessarily bring about an awakened We Space, just as bringing a match and gasoline in the same room does not make fire—the match must be lit, and must be applied to the gas. The potentials illuminated by advanced We Space practice point to the importance of both of these facets of life: our human societies will only meet the needs of today if our unique individuality (our becoming most and fully ourselves), is woven together in a way that does not compromise our ability to join together in collective action, and if our ways of being together do not compromise our unique individuality.

One integral theorist, Don Beck, has coined the term “collective individualism” for such a culture. Where previous themes of human culture have been organized around the split or tension between the individual and the collective, either emphasizing conformity and sacrifice of the individual self in service of the whole, or emphasizing the inviolability of individual agency. A culture of collective individualism is a culture that blossoms out of the embodied knowledge that the dividing line between self and other is another way of asking whether the glass is half full or empty. It is, of course, both.

In a group where every member is in some way able to cognize this both/and perspective, that is, where the activity of cognizing self/ other has become transparent to consciousness, the boundaries between what psychological material is “mine” and what is the “other's” begins to break down. Projections can become connections, and roles become fluid. If, for example, anger is present in a We Space circle, where that anger is “coming from,” one group member or another, becomes less important. That there is anger, and that this anger is a universal human experience, becomes more so. In the sharing of our most intensely personal material, and the recognition that others share the same pattern, we can embrace our patterning as something universally human—our most personal material is also profoundly universal. Here another interesting thing happens: in entering consciously into these experiences and acting them out, in being given permission in a container of acceptance to fully express and experience the whole range of humanity, we begin to transmute these energies into their positive correlates. Anger can become clarity and even compassion as its energy becomes transparent, no longer repressed or indulged. When I and others are not resisting what is arising as a threat to our implicit constructions of what is real, when shame around the experience of our emotional selves is dropped, and when the patterns we are seeing are played out not

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