Here is my 2 cents.
Integral meditation must include our role in society:
While the idea that meditation may lead to job changes seems ego driven (and it easily might)
in an integral perspective it is reasonable to assume that as one person evolves and changes, there could be a strong correlate into the other quadrants.
Integral theory itself suggests that as humanity evolves through different structures or thought, a corresponding economical structure emerges.
It is therefore fair to assume that as a person grows through stages, it may naturally find a new place of balance in new job.
The need to build a society that makes new structures adaptive
The issue may actually work the other way around: as a person evolves it may find that society doesn’t quite give a space for that particular structure of reason to express itself.
If you live in a village with just one factory… and in your previous structure you were ok with an alienating job, it is likely that a new awakening may lead to allergy to this alienation and that a radical change may be needed to find a job that suits the new one.
It is also fair to assume that one may evolve as a result of inhabiting a profession that stimulates new structures of consciounsess finding them adaptive.
The fact that Integral theory hasn’t yet clearly described such a society is in my opinion the true reason it hasn’t become mainstrem.
We are seeing a surge of new forms of flexible employment in which people are more able to self-express and this to me is indicative of this economical structure already emerging but not being mainstream yet.
Re-immagining one’s own place in society also as a Waking Up practice
While it may take ages for meditation to unhinge the self sufficiently to inhabit a whole new social identification, you can use the process of identifying with a whole new role/job in society as a way to unhinge your ego and help your practice.
It is infact likely that if you do an unsatisfactory job, you may be identified with a person in such state. In essence we all carry not only individual identification in the Top Left quadrant… but one in Lower Right Quadrant!
Immagining a whole new job and the self in a whole new job, is a novel form of tantric practice in which you play at identifying with other forms of the self. (tibetan monks do deity mistycisms in which the identify with different deities… i personally think immagining yourself as a millionarre (or the opposite of it) may have the same effect if not more ;D )
Ultimately you can (and should) let go of such identifications to awaken (one would assume) but the process of immagining congruence with them can be both beneficial for your job and for your awakening.
(Needless to say that accepting total failure is also great to unhinge the ego and disidentify from ones own social goals )
Re-immagining one’s own place in society also as a Growing Up practice
The integral stage in my opinion pushes towards:
- rediscovering intuition: intuition is the process of making decisions while listening to all points of information (not only conventional rationality or conventional duty). This process IS in essence the integral awakening in my point of view because its the process by which all “voices” of the self wich to be listened into a single one.
- finding ones own vocation: since it forces to combine ones own intuition with the actual role one can take in the lower right quadrant to find an integral balance.
Ones own job/profession/role in life is a perfect expression of these and therefore a perfect expression of ones own integral awakening.
The process of understanding what you wish to do can in itself be a practice of integration of structures.
Re-immagining one’s own place in society also as a Shadow Work practice
Lastly, you touch on the point of the fact that a new job may “manifest”.
This is tricky but possible, without even taking into consideration some kind of power of the mind to attract things but simply due to the natural change of ones own habits, attention and congruence.
That said it may also not happen no matter how much effort one is placing on the goal of finding a new place in society… or it could even be made worse by the expectation placed on this goal.
In my opinion this is due to the Lower Right Quadrant form of shadow: Sabotage.
What conventional meditation does not address generally, as heavily shown by Wilber, is the shadow. Shadow in the Lower Right quadrant often present itself as a form of sabotage from obtaining certain goals.
This, to my understanding can come in 2 forms:
a) Inability to identify with the corresponding Lower Right Quadrant Identity
If you see yourself as poor and cannot immagine yourself as rich, for how materialistic it may seem… is a form of shadow as you are unable to identify. It is unlikely one may accomplish a goal without being able to at least once identify fully with it.
b) Not recognising unconscious drives that push in an opposite direction.
What may prevent you from congruence with the job you want, is any “unconscious” drive that is looking to be recognised in not getting what you want.
While we do grow through structures, we keep the previous ones and if some of them are alienated, you may find that one or more are pushing in a different direction than your conscious self.
For example:
one part of yourself may be wishing for success in a certain area, while another may be:
a) Fearful of the outcome of actually obtaining such state (ex. increased responsibility)
b) Unwilling to accomplish such state because its needs haven’t been fulfilled (ex. a need to be loved unconditionally even without accomplishing a certain outcome.)
For example, unconscious anger towards those who set an expectation for success may express itself as anger and desire to be loved regardless of it. Such unconscious desire may be hard to spot (there are some ways, i could expand if needed) and may express itself as fatigue or avoidance.
The mind(s) often looks for unconditional love validation and acceptance and may sabotage obtaining goals until this need is met. One could therefore get stuck not accomplishing something as a deeper self is looking for being loved and accepted in its current state.
Acknowledging this self and recognising its need for self-expression (ex. accepting its refusal to do what is necessary to achieve something) is a novel way to re-own unconscious structures (a developmental shadow)
Since we are so embedded in economics and society, it is not irrational to assume that a LOT of shadow elements may express themselves in our social role, aspirations and issues.
My personal experience:
The process of unhinging shadow elements has lead me to develop the idea of my own company which I was able to pursue with some degree of success. In multiple situations, further working on them has increased my freedom in accomplishing my goals.
The ability to listen to my own intuition as a form of witnessing that combines sensations and reasoning (my own definition of intuition) has been essential in developing the different intuitions that benefitted our company.
Most lately, the practice of playing with new identifications, is working as a way to ensure that i have full congruence with our goals and further exploration of potential shadow elements to continually “clean up”.
I hope this is helpful and Id be happy to expand or chat about it via Skype as Im looking for any opportunity to discuss and better understand the subject.
Ciao!