A fantastic resource for improving the self and adding meaning to your life

books:

	• Integral Life Practice: A 21st-Century Blueprint for Physical Health, Emotional Balance, Mental Clarity, and ... Ken Wilber, Terry Patten, ... Integral Books, 2008 - 388 pages average customer review:based on 14 reviews view larger image
	for more information click here

highly recommended

A fantastic resource for improving the self and adding meaning to your life

Any book that manages to summarize the most important teachings of Sigmund Freud in one short paragraph, is off to a fantastic start in my mind.

I could say mountains about Integral Life Practice, but I will try to summarize it in a nutshell: ILP collects zounds of practices from many different cultures and traditions, boils them down into their essential core value, and presents them in bite-sized activities and thought exercises that are easy to understand and perform, but are incredibly effective and meaningful. The book is geared towards the busy adult with little time on their hands, and ensures that you can experience an effective and well-rounded life practice taking as little as 20 minutes out of your day in all.

ILP includes chapters with readings and exercises relating to your physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual health, and more. In all it is a very thorough presentation of techniques for healthy growth and healthy living. Warning: The exercises presented in this book will challenge you and may ask you to ask questions about yourself which you are uncomfortable with. If you would have chosen the "Blue pill" in the Matrix, ILP will be uncomfortable (but probably still very valuable) for you.

for more information click here

Not finished yet, but I'm having some feelings.

I'm about 2/3 of the way through the book. I like it that the authors (it's not written by Ken Wilber) provide an organizing framework for designing a self-development practice. I also think their "AQAL" model is useful in asking questions about a situation.

Now, on to what I don't like. I don't like it that the whole thing is permeated by rehashed Vedantic philosophy. Even working out with weights becomes an occasion for communion with the Overmind.

Also, if I read the word "Kosmic" (sic) one more time, I'm gonna scream. You see, "Cosmic" means everything in the material universe (presumably including energy, dark matter, yada yada). But "KOSMIC" means all that plus everything else, too. That's fine, but I prefer the spelling KOZMIK, if we're going to go that route.

Also, I don't like being called a Holon. It sounds like something from Battlestar Galactica. I'd rather just be a guy, a person, a dude or a human.

Finally, and most seriously, it seems fairly obvious that the authors are obsessed with the idea of immortality. (I AM, I AM, I AM) I don't share this particular passion, having read Being and Nothingness by Sartre in my youth. Put it this way: if I'm immortal, I'll find out when the time comes. I tend to think this preoccupation comes from a misunderstanding of the effects of the birth trauma, discussed by Otto Rank almost a hundred years ago.

One more minor thing: When I looked at the pictures of the authors, two of them had the same baldie cuts as Ken Wilber. When I was a kid in college, a bunch of the Trotskyists had the same goatee and wore the same hat as Trotsky. So I get the creeps when I see that kind of imitation of another person. It makes me wonder, is this a cult? (I'm not claiming it is, just saying what my "Upper Left Quadrant" "arisings" are.)

It's not a bad book, but it's just kind of quirky. When I saw the network of websites, I got the creepies, because it made me think of The Secret (also a mix of good stuff and ridicularities--hey, I can make up words, too!). As a matter of fact, one of the Secret guys was on the website endorsing it, and guess who else? Tony Robbins, that infomercial guy with the giant teeth. Anyhow, I'll let you know whether to buy it or not as soon as I'm finished reading it.

for more information click here

Amazing...but with some reservations

Here is the condensed version of what was originally a very lengthy review.

Pros:

-Wonderful introduction to a wholly comprehensive personal and spiritual development framework (this fact alone makes it worth the purchase).

-Most complete work I've seen regarding personal development. Definitely a "desert island" book. Read it and see what I mean.

Cons:

-The book tries to do too much. By "distilling" many practices, and I think they sometimes water them down and make them less effective. Also, complex spiritual ideas such as the dark night of the soul (p.372) are reduced to half a page.

-Ok, so, here is my biggest difficulty, and one that I could elaborate on, so I'll be as brief as possible.

My difficulty has less to do with ILP than with Wilber's AQAL framework, which is the foundation for this book. I think he fails in trying to be truly integral and unbiased. Granted, I do not think this is possible, and I applaud his efforts and think he comes pretty darn close.

Still, I think he could be a little more honest regarding his perspective. The majority of the exercises in the book, and many of its underlying philosophies, are decidedly Eastern. Given Wilber's background in Mahayana Buddhism, this is understandable. But again, I wish he were more explicit about this.

For instance, I have thoroughly studied Eastern spirituality, but have recently been more interested in Western forms of paganism, because they resonate with more on a more aesthetic, emotional, and even tribal level. My current interest is in integrating mythology in spiritual practice Jungian style, but according to Wilber this brings me down a notch to his "mythic" level of development. Also, the practices I have had the greatest success with, magick and NLP, were not mentioned because of this bias. I was strangely offended by this.

Overall, though, I think this is a great book to establish a more comprehensive perspective. Just don't take it as gospel, and use your own intuition and emotions as guidance.

for more information click here

Integral Life Practice - Ken Wilber's Latest

OK, it says that this book was written by three people (Terry Patten, Adam Leonard and Marco Morelli) and that Ken Wilber was only the meta-author, it is so strongly drenched in everything Wilber wrote before that he might as well have written it himself. The three co-authors are clearly very faithful disciples of Wilber's.
That said, I believe the book's contents are awesome. This is a very broad, yet deep, method of approaching development in all its aspects as an integral whole. If there is something I always believed in, even before I had read anything Wilber wrote or even knew he existed, it is development. Wilber's Integral Psychology is still my favourite book of his, but Integral Life Practice comes close, mainly due its sheer practicality. It does give you the basics of Integral Theory, but not in the depth that other books have done. Thankfully so, for all that is well-known stuff to those who know Wilber and need not be repeated in this book. It's about the practice and this book does everything to make the reader want to practice. From each of the four main modules (Body, Mind, Shadow, Spirit) to the numerous "additional" modules, all is aimed at making you do things and that is a welcome addition to all theoretical books that were written before on the subject. Whether you have plenty of time or not, there are always exercises that fit into your schedule. And all that is presented without any unnecessary links to religions that may not be your own.
Thankfully, by the way, the "Shadow" as it was introduced in "Integral Spirituality" is now reframed to be what it is: psychotherapy. I always found the Shadow as Wilber described it overrated, but am much more at peace with its application in this book and the confirmation that it is just an application of normal psychotherapy.
I was most happy with two things. First of all the chapter about Integral Ethics, which is something that I have been wondering about and had a hard time explaining to myself and others, but which is finally extensively described (albeit without practices) in one of the later chapters. Secondly, the fact that the book really makes you want to do this stuff, including making development plans ("ILP Blueprints") and tracking your progress. It even made me create a plan and follow through on it :-).
Greatest irritations are twofold as well. Firstly the frequent use of vague wording for the non-dual state: Suchness, I AMness, True Face, etc. I appreciate that such a state is hard to describe in clear words, but these words tell me nothing, even lead me away from the essence of non-duality. My second irritation is worse, though and has to do with the same subject: Wilber et al keep confusing the causal state (that of the Witness) with the non-dual state, which, specifically in the Spirit module, is annoying. Back in 2005 already, The International Journal of Transpersonal Studies published a paper by Burton Daniels called "Nondualism and the Divine Domain" where this is made very clear. That paper is really good and goes much further in the definition of non-duality than Wilber ever went.
Anyway, this book is worth five stars out of five for me. Anyone who really wants to work on their own development and do it comprehensively should get this book and put it into practice.

for more information click here

ILP

Integral Life Practice is an excellent overview and blueprint for how to live our life. It helps us maintain balance in our lives and ensure that we do not neglect or overdevelop any particular aspect of our lives. While I might have differing opinions on some of the details, the overall plan is extremely useful and practical.

reviews: page 1, 2, 3

Over the last thirty-five years, Ken Wilber has developed an Integral "theory of everything" that makes sense of how all the world's knowledge systems?East and West; ancient, modern, and postmodern?fit together and can elevate our awareness. Drawing on science, psychology, human development, spirituality, religion, and dozens of other fields, Integral Theory is a revolutionary framework for understanding ourselves and the world we live in.

Now there is a way to not just think Integrally, but to embody an Integral worldview in your everyday life.

Integral Life Practice is not just a new approach to self-development and higher awareness, but a way of making sense of?and making best use of?the existing treasure trove of insights, methods, and practices for cultivating a more enlightened life. It offers a uniquely adaptive approach to awakened living that's suitable for everyone: people with busy careers and families, college students, retirees, even hardcore athletes and yogis. It's geared for devout?and irreverent?people of any religion, or no religion!

This highly flexible system will help you develop your physical health, spiritual awareness, emotional balance, mental clarity, relational joy, and energy level, within a framework that integrates all aspects of your life. Combining original exercises, vivid examples, cutting-edge theory, and illustrative graphics, Integral Life Practice is the ultimate handbook for realizing freedom and fullness in the 21st century.

For more information, visit www.Integral-Life-Practice.com.

for more information click here

hot