Integral Life Practice Starter Kit

ILP combines and integrates the best of hundreds of approaches to self-growth from across cultures and time. It was designed specifically for modern and post-modern life by distilling the most essential aspects of practice into the most readily usable forms, including Gold Star Practices and 1-Minute Modules. Moreover, ILP is based on exclusive AQAL technology, which represents the most leading-edge map of reality and human awareness available.

The AQAL Framework is essential to Integral Life Practice. Without a good map of reality and consciousness, the effects of merely practicing just don’t stick. AQAL simply points out dimensions of your being that are already there — but if you don’t know they’re there, there’s not much you can do about them. AQAL is a psychoactive framework precisely because it activates and orients consciousness around the latent possibilities of your awareness, well-being, and transformation. It’s powerful in itself, but as a part of an ILP, it contributes to a radically effective overall practice formula.

By practicing, we grow in horizontal health (becoming as healthy and full and functional as we can at our current level of development), vertical health (growing to higher or deeper levels of development more quickly), and essential health (becoming more consistently aware of and alive to essence, or ever-present suchness). In addition to improving our vertical, horizontal, and essential health, practice frees up energy and attention, enabling us to grow continually in our awareness and care, for ourselves, those close to us, and ultimately the whole conscious Kosmos.

By Practice we often refer to the global intention to practice. We sometimes refer to this as capital “P” “Practice” — the intention to bring awareness and care to every moment of our lives through every inner and outward act, and also to cultivate ourselves, continually deepening, opening and expanding awareness, care, and compassion as a foundational intention and way of life.

For a practice or group of practices to be Integral, it must be “integrally-informed,” which means engaged within the context of the AQAL Integral Framework as applied to your life and consciousness. It should also cover at least the Four Core Modules, which represent the most distilled and condensed areas of practice, plus Auxiliary Modules as you see fit. Integral does not mean totalistic; more is not better. Integrally informed is better. It’s better to chart your practice— which on the whole can be quite simple—with a more comprehensive and inclusive map.

These four dimensions of practice (Body, Mind, Spirit, and Shadow) are particularly high-leverage. Coupled with a caring intention and a life of ethical practice and service, we believe that, practiced simultaneously, they will generate the most dramatic and rapid growth. Also, they focus on the individual—starting with you! As you begin to get grounded in the Four Core Modules, you can expand your practice to your relationships, work, and other dimensions of your being-in-the-world.

Ethics and service are essential to practice from the beginning. They are also the fruition of practice, but they often do not give rise to personal “practices” we can intentionally schedule at certain times of the day. Primarily for this reason, we focus on the 4 modules—Body, Mind, Spirit, and Shadow. However, ethics and service are no less fundamental, and we highly recommend you choose them as an auxiliary practice.

The most efficient way to establish an Integral Life Practice is by taking on practices in the four “core modules.” Focused work in these areas is likely to give you the most significant effect for the time you invest. At the same time, the core of all practice is the intention to bring awareness and care to every moment of life, and thereby to deepen, expand, and grow in both awareness and care. This is why ethical living and service inevitably follow from a core commitment to Integral Life Practice. Areas of life where we focus significant time and energy become important arenas for practice, so most of us practice actively in our work and relationships. However, the form of practice in these areas varies significantly among different individuals, and many people do not take on specific practices relative to their work and relationships. A simple practice design is important. This is most effectively accomplished by focusing on the Four Core Modules as well as ethics.

The Four Core Modules are essential to make your practice stick. And in fact, on your busiest days, you can do an entire ILP in as little as ve minutes, using only the 1-Minute Modules. Cross- training is a key principle of ILP; your total capacities will develop faster and more effectively by engaging multiple practices rather than doing one or two in isolation. For example, research indicates that meditators progress faster if they also do strength training. We think you’ll find that a well-designed Integral Life Practice, rather than an isolated practice of meditation, exercise, or psychotherapy, will maximize your growth. This is why Integral Life Practice is the simplest and easiest practice you can do to wake up, grow up, and clean up.

Among the many ways to generate, refresh, and renew your commitment and motivation, the following deserve special mention:

There are many kinds of teachers, mentors, and therapists. An experienced practitioner can act as a mentor or coach, helping you make choices and sustain commitments. A teacher who has mastered a particular discipline can embody its maturity and guide you through the stages of mastering it yourself. For most people, a professional coach or mentor, experienced in ILP, can be a powerful aid to practice.

A creative tension exists between two apparently contradictory truths: (1) For a practice to bear fruit, it is necessary to maintain it over time, despite dif culties and resistance; and (2) For your practice to remain dynamic and evolving, it must periodically be refreshed and redefined.

This Starter Kit is the first, rather than last, word on ILP. Notice that the Starter Kit is version “1.0,” implying that there will be a version 2.0, 3.0, 4.0, and so on. (In fact, we are currently in the process of developing ILP 2.0, replete with new Core Modules and a ton of auxiliary modules, due to be launched in 2016!) In addition, we anticipate specialized offerings that apply ILP to particular spiritual traditions (Christianity, Judaism, Buddhism, etc.). As our understanding (and the Kosmos) continues to evolve and unfold, so will our recommendations for Integral Life Practice that you find here.