About San Diego Integral Meditation

Hi.

There are 6 Meetup.com groups in San Diego alone that focus on meditation and probably 50 or more groups practicing meditation within various eastern traditions, religions and spiritual paths.

It's time for Integral Meditation too.

What is Integral Meditation? It's meditation using the Integral or AQAL framework developed by Ken Wilber and the members of Integral Institute.

Integral Meditation is a form of meditation that comes directly from the 'Integral Life Practice (ILP) Starter Kit' published by Integral Institute. This is the type of meditation we will study and practice at this Meetup group.

Integral Meditation is part of the 'Spirit Module' of the ILP kit and the Spirit module is really the core of the ILP kit. The other part of the Spirit Module is the Big Mind meditation by Genpo Roshi. The other 3 modules are the Body Module, Mind Module and Shadow Module.

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Here is a page with basic meditation instructions:

Integral Meditation Audio and Video Resources

Ken Wilber and Integral links

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Now, those of you who are familiar with the ILP kit or Ken Wilber are probably wondering "hey Mark, why are you just focusing on one of the modules of this kit. Isn't the whole idea behind the ILP kit a sort of a spiritual cross-training, that you do all of the modules thereby increasing the effects of each?"

Well, yes, that is the idea...

But let's be real here. It's hard to do this kind of work alone. It's been difficult for me to include all 4 of the modules in my daily practice, on the days where I even HAVE a daily practice. I assuming that's at least partially true for those of you who already have the ILP kit.

I'm thinking that if we can establish a daily meditation practice maybe it will be easier to include the other modules as time goes on. And I'm thinking that if we meet regularly to meditate together the odds are we will sustain a regular practice on our own in between meetings.

Starting an ILP group which includes all four modules is in the future, it just feels a little to big right now. This group could be the foundation of an ILP group...

For those of you that have never heard of the ILP kit (or even Ken Wilber), please don't think you have to own one just to come to these Meetups, not at all. If you are interested in the ILP kit I will be happy to show you mine...

Integral Meditation is a new perspective on an age old practice.

This new perspective has many titles, Integral Framework, Integral Spirituality, The Integral Approach, The AQAL Framework, The Integral Operating System or just Integral Theory.

Whatever you call it, all these names lead back to author and philosopher Ken Wilber.

Ken Wilber is a literal force of nature. For 30 years he has read 1000's of books and has written 22 of his own. He meditates for hours a day and is the founder and leader of the Integral Institute in Boulder Colorado.

Integral Meditation works as well as it does because it is part of a framework that draws wisdom from the timeless traditions of the east and west, modern science and even the latest discoveries of post-modernism.

Integral Meditation includes 'Integral Inquiry' (a type of meditation which has "form" and "formless" aspects), 'Compassionate Exchange' (a kind of Tonglen meditation) and 'The 1-2-3 of God' (experiencing God in 1st, 2nd and 3rd person).

We'll also do the Big Mind meditation by Genpo Roshi from time to time.

Also, this group is closely associated with The North San Diego Ken Wilber Group so if you want to know more about the philosophy of Integral or about Mr Smartypants (Ken Wilber) then check out that group too. That group meets at a Unitarian Universalist Church in Escondido.

At our first meeting on Sept 5th we'll decide if we want to meet more than once a month, my hunch is that we will...

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The Integral resources we will have available in our group.

• The Integral Meditation DVD that comes with the Integral Life Practice Starter Kit.
  
• The Meditation With Form CD that comes with the Integral Life Practice Starter Kit.
  
• The AQAL Framework DVD that comes with the Integral Life Practice Starter Kit.
  
• The One Two Three of God 4 CD set from Sounds True.
  
• The book Integral Spirituality by Ken Wilber.
  
• The websites Integral Naked and Integral Spiritual Center.
  
• The DVD Integral Spirituality in the Modern World. A dialog between Traleg Rinpoche and Ken Wilber.