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One of the main insights of the great mystics, and one of the essential truths of Integral Recovery, is that all suffering comes from identification with surfaces. This is not a dogma that one has to believe or buy based on what I or anyone else is saying—it is an experiential given that one will…

Put your practice first and your sobriety first.  Hanging out with family can often be very challenging, so make sure you have a plan of how you’re going to take care of yourself. I have found that if I ratchet up my meditation practice from 1 hour to 1.5 hours a day while visiting family,…

I am writing from the train station in Berlin, nearing the halfway mark in my month long trip to Germany. It seems like I have been gone from Utah much longer than 2 weeks. I have felt lonely at times, but the depths of the experience have more than compensated for the occasional bouts of…

Something really remarkable happened to me last week, and I’d like to unpack it and see where it takes us. I had the chance to be in the tomb of St. Francis of Assisi. We had just arrived in Assisi and were visiting the Basilica. Somehow, I had gotten it in my head that Francis’…

Every day you may make progress. Every step may be fruitful. Yet there will stretch out before you an ever-lengthening, ever-ascending, ever-improving path. You know you will never get to the end of the journey. But this, so far from discouraging, only adds to the joy and glory of the climb. ~ Sir Winston Churchill…

Jesus said, “If you bring forth what is within you, what you bring forth will save you. If you do not bring forth what is within you, what you do not bring forth will destroy you.” This is a quotation from one of the “lost gospels.” This quotation comes from the Gospel of Thomas that was…

In previous posts, I’ve discussed how to include ethics and morality in your inner meditative work. But inner moral awareness necessitates outer moral behavior. For our ethics to be Integral, they must include ethical action in all 4 quadrants from our highest current level of development. An Integral Life Practice without ethics is foundationally weak. To choose…

One way to get at one’s shadow motives is to simply look deeply into any emotions, thoughts, or feelings that arise in meditation—or any other time. As we continue to let awareness penetrate the objects of consciousness as they arise, they will reveal themselves to us ever more deeply, until they too are empty or…

Here’s another practice to help with your ethical line. I’ve been working with and adapting the 3-2-1 method developed by Ken Wilber for making sure one is covering all the fundamental perspectives (I, We, and It; or 1st-person, 2nd-person, and 3rd-person) in one’s meditative practice. When an issue or emotion arises (and will they ever!) I visualize…

“Being a cynic is so contemptibly easy… you don’t have to invest anything in your work. No effort, no pride, no compassion, no sense of excellence, nothing.”– Molly Ivins I’ve been struggling with the idea of adding Ethics as a fifth line of our Integral Recovery Practice. Not because I don’t think Integral Ethics is…