Four quadrants of cultivation

[sean]

My interest in David Deida led me to get a subscription to Integral Naked. Lot's of great content. I've been studying Ken Wilber's AQAL briefly and today was inspired by his four quadrants to use my lunch break and map cultivation practices on a grid of active/passive, subtle/gross. I also made a further distinction in each quadrant between methods conducted on the self by the self (inside the "i" circle) and methods conducted on the self by outside help (outside the circle in the "o" area).

 

Here's a pic:

 

Any thoughts? It's possible I've gone insane.

 

Sean

[sean]

Another version:

[Cameron]

center everywhere circumfrence nowhere IMO

[Yoda]

Taoist Bling.

[sean]

What I think is cool about the diagram is that it lays out nearly all the work we do on a continuum. Think of all the artificial divisions created in this community alone between alchemy vs. emptiness, visualization vs. zazen, practice vs. no practice, therapy vs. spirituality, surrender to flow vs. making shit happen. It's all on there!

 

The way my practice moves through all the quadrants is this:

 

1 - spinal breathing (actively clearing obstructions by moving prana up/down spinal channel), cognitive therapy, aggressive study of spiritual literature

2 - IAM mantra (resting in pure bliss consciousness), sedona, letting go of seeking

3 - intu-flow, body flow, jiu-jitsu, running

4 - raising my bhakti through reading/listening to inspirational teachers such as Adyashanti, Gangaji, Ramana Maharshi, Papaji, etc. ... zhan zhuang, stopping periodically through my day to rest/surrender into my physical structure

 

Sean

[freeform]

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Edited October 23, 2019 by freeform

[GrandTrinity]

Cool, I am a fan of Ken's integral approach to everything. I have short talks, 2-3 minutes I downloaded (perhaps available on integral naked) in which he talks about the microcosmic orbit-gros subtle causa, reverse...also one where he talks about moral development as being an ascending thing of the chakras but sometimes a chakra gets stuck...

 

Ken came out with a couple new products recently, many dvds....looks intersting...

[sean]

I must agree it's a very elegant model of the paths to personal development! So do you think that all the 4 qudrants need your attention if you want to progress?

9887[/snapback]

Hmm.. I think it's possible to progress independently in each of them which is what I think is most interesting. Because I think a lot of people see development in their favorite one as being the "ultimate exxtreme" one. Like I think many spiritual circles tend to view yin with the most reverence and probably for good reason because we are sorely lacking it's cultivation. I watched this hilarious clip from a David Deida seminar the other day where he is talking about how Ramana Maharshi, a universally beloved saint of Advaita Vedanta, would just be considered totally insane by spiritual circles in America today ... like he is the equivalent of a homeless guy under a bridge who just refuses to speak on any other level but the absolute. Just refuses. Barely acknowledges that anything truly exists. Unrelentingly pointing to the infinite. Has to be fed and, almost kind of flipped over from time to time. But India has a context for this kind of holy sage that is just so extremely developed in stillness, yet, you could almost say crippled in movement. And in the same token I think there are probably many highly realized masters of movement, just super high level Tai Chi geniuses and what not, that are sorely out of touch with emptiness, with the unmoved.

 

I posted my pics here on that Integral Naked forum and caused a little discussion. Someone posted one of their grids that I thought was interesting, check it out ... (note, he is using the terms yin/yang in a very different context than I did in my diagram) ...

 

GrandTrinity, yeah Ken seems like a cool guy. I had this intuition from flipping through his books in bookstores over the years that he was really dry and kind of like, adding this unnecessary layer of intellectuality to spiritual practice, but in listening to him speak and watching clips of him, he has a ton of humor and personality so I've been reading his work in a different frame now.

 

Sean

[Trunk]

It looks good to me.

You're covering all the basic areas to address. Not fixating on one area and ignoring others.