ILP Entry Point

There was a thick fog yesterday. It swallowed the sun almost whole as I was sitting on the steps of our house, reading Tommyknockers.

When I was 18 years old I broke up with my first girlfriend. The ensuing months were arguably the most horrifying in my life thus far. I delved deeply in a personal crisis that turned to a full-blown existential, emotional and spiritual crisis. Now, some ten years later, I see that it was my Entry Point to a path of self-development, motivated by the very real pain I was feeling at the time.

What I call an Entry Point is the door through which we come to our practice. Usually the Entry Point is one single door, for example the door of human relationships. We experience so much pain that we are forced to resolve the human conundrum of suffering in a very personal level: how is this pain possible and how can I avoid it in the future. The Entry Point can be basically anything: problems (or revelations) with money, love, spirituality, philosophy or our physical body. Our very own and unique Entry Points are as numerous as we are.

The important this to remember is that the Entry Point is only the beginning. As we mature it soon becomes clear that as human beings all our parts are interconnected. This is the start of an ILP, Integral Life Practice. This is when we realize that no single path of practice is sufficient for us to live ever more liberated lives. By engaging in our own ILP we embrace the totality of being human in body, mind, shadow and spirit, and realize there is continuous work to be done - joyfully, mind - in all our aspects.

My Entry Point led in time to show the Entry Points of others, and how they were equally mine. If not not, later. As I am now working on my psychological shadows related to money and physical strength I see that this practice has many points of entry but no way out. It keeps on going, developing and liberating as it is evolving and that's how it should be, as Ken Wilber says, here "on the relative side of the street". On the Absolute side...well, I guess that is the Exit. To hold both in one timeless and time-bound human life is a noble thing indeed.

Personality Types and ILP

Today I slept late, as seems to be the fashion of the summer. No worries, though. Got to the gym later in the afternoon to do my program. The main point is that I have stuck doing my routines for more than four months now. For me, being an enthusiast who grows tired of routines fast, it is quite an accomplishment. For someone else it might actually be a hindrance to personal growth.

Take my friend, for example. He has a background in professional sports and during his time he used to train a lot. A lot. Sticking to a routine is more of a second nature for him.

The purpose of an ILP is to live a more balanced, integral life and to learn to manage our energy resources wisely so as to preserve our energy for conscious growth and happiness. Or something along those lines, at least. For some people being in balance means less control, more being in the moment. For others it means more future-oriented thinking and less being here now. My friend most definitely belongs in the first category while I belong most definitely to the latter.

Different personality types need to orient to an Integral Life Practice in different ways. An enthusiast needs structures, routines and long-term commitment. A worrier needs to learn to trust life and live in the moment. There is no ILP as such; there is rather ILP as it is tailored to meet each individual where they are at.

What is an Integral Spirit?

My ILP for today: sleeping too late, being groggy and doing just a few powerlifting movements at the gym to wake me up. I was about to write "wake my body up". That would distance me from my body and that would be less than integral. ;)

I started reading Stephen King's Tommyknockers. It's a good balancing act to do stuff just for one's own amusement. As I see it, Ken Wilber's Big Three is translated into everyday life as the balance between three perspectives: one's own; other peoples' and God's - however one may wish to conceive those. My take is that the Big Three of Life Integral is the balance between Work, Fun and Practice. That balance experienced and expressed simultaneously through Body, Mind and Heart gives rise to Spirit: one's life purpose. As expansive as it may be, it can - and should - be distilled into a simple sentence.

My purpose? To attain the Divine Function of Genuine Conscience through Evolutionary Enlightenment of the Authentic Self by means of my Integral Life Practice.

So Integral Spirit, then, is the unique expression of one's purpose in life prosessed through an AQAL lens. Integral Spirit is the honoring of my particular consciousness through valuable work that benefits all beings. Integral Spirit is the expression of the life's Big Three - Work, Fun and Practice - in head, heart and soma, all at once.