This is not a question but a contemplation about the ego development stages.
When we become the tear 2 thinkers, we are not only intellectually there. Our thinking and our day to day living becomes integral. What it means to live from that perspective? We have been at the all stages below, we we fighting for survival and we knew that the strongest survives, the weak ones will serve, then we saw the atrocities we create when we act so selfishly. We go into the next stage where we create the law, order, hierarchy, the moral norms. We are strict and rigid, we don’t like anything that doesn’t fit out strict norms. The problems arise again, as many people can’t fit into the rigid standards and they want to express themselves, achieve something. Do we enter the stage orange. We believe in science, personal achievements, development of technology, we don’t want to go to the church anymore, we become atheists. This stage is great, we progress, achieve, develop but we forget the nature, we forget the weaker ones, and we need to move up again. We need to become more sustainable, money is not the purpose of life, peace, equality, equal opportunities, sustainability, love to others becomes our focus. This is the last stage of the tear 1.
When we start understanding that we are standing on the mountain top which is built from all the stages below and without them we wouldn’t be where we are, then we have reached the integral stage. This comes with responsibility. We don’t judge the stages on which we are standing, we appreciate each of them and shine the light from the mountain top to the people who are climbing this mountain. We help the with our living example, support, encouragement, we inspire them with our actions and we don’t criticise them. As we include them before we transcend.
Tier*
Couldn’t help myself
Haha, thanks for correcting me, I am the same, I don’t like the spelling errors.
All these moments will be lost in time, like tiers in the rain.
Yes. One thing I see so much out there in the Integral conversations online is people asking if someone is an Integral thinker. I can see that some people begin having ideas arise that are coming from 2 tier but the rest of their body and life is not there yet. Tony Robbins knows Ken Wilber and has been influenced by his work yet the way Tony operates in society is straight up Orange! If you’re obsessed with wealth and are continually pursuing it despite being perversely wealthy you are not an Integral Being as far as I’m concerned! At some point you have to evolve beyond achieving from the level of orange and place your life force into larger more compassionate projects. Robbins still promotes get rich quick house flipping schemes that are doing nothing more than making the affordable housing crisis worse! His “whole-being” has yet to move into 2 tier. I’m not judging him despite the fact that my patience for orange is running low and the damage being done to society is severe. Greed at the Orange level is taking this world off a cliff and it doesn’t seem to want to grow and move on. Green and Amber and Red all have pathologies but IMO pathological Orange is very dangerous and won’t stop until it’s usurped everything and everyone it can!
Integral thinking is easy! Integral living is much different IMO.
Best,
Brian
I ran across a video about enlightenment that is also relevant to 2nd Tier.
There are many different kinds of enlightenment experiences, and none of them are permanent or continuous. Nobody on the planet is able to maintain the enligtened states in perpetuity. One can imagine all kinds of circumstances where being in an enlightened state would be a kind of absurd joke. For example, how enlightened does the Dalai Llama feel when he sits on the toilet?
In the same way, Tier two is not in perpetuity nor permanent. Individuals, communities and humaninty as a whole experience development cyclically and with many ups and downs and forward and backward steps.
Many in the Integral community want to deny this - Ken made the model linear so therefore that must be the reality, right? They would prefer Integral to be more like a Degree. Once you achieve it you hang it on your wall and put an abbreviation after your name.
Yet we only have to compare our current decade to the previous to see that the United States is far more Orange descending to Red than it is Green emerging to Turqoise. This is contrary to the expectations that society was working through Green and would steadily and inevitably evolve toward Turquoise - almost automatically.
Its with dissapontment that I can now say “Um, I told you so.” Back as early as 2017 some of us with just a slight amount of clarity saw what was coming - and what will yet come. It is far from Turquoise, lol.
No, society will not be enabling masses of people to enter 2nd Tier. To the contrary, societal structures are dragging the masses down to Amber and Red around us. Neighbors, relatives, governments, places of employment - all sectors of this modern civilization we have built are based on rotten foundations and ethical decay. An unethical society is destined to fall.
So - when are you Truly at the Integral stage? Only when you are trying to be. There is no resting on prior achievements and each moment at Integral has to be earned.
I agree with you Sidra. Once you are thinking in tier 2 terms, that means that you intellectually understand what how the stages of tier 1 function. Understanding intellectually is not enough, you must embody the ideas for the stages yellow and turquoise. If no, there’s a risk that thinking that you are more developed than others, will become an ego thing and you will start criticizing people who didn’t have a chance to get to the highest development stages. When you are truly at the tier 2, you don’t judge but understand, you don’t want to push others to reach the highest stages because you understand that it takes time, compassion, patience. You are not here to judge and criticise people who may not have the same opportunities like you, but you help them where you can, inspire them with the way you live. The process may be slow, but who sets time for everybody’s progression? If may take several lifetimes or it may take a few decades.
So, to be at integral stage, is to accept world as it is without criticism, everything is designed the way it should be. We can work on our own development and inspire others to follow us.
Actually, it occurred to me this morning, that any value system excluding the need for regular bowel movements is not a very complete value system. The context for these reflections was a discussion with a psychologist regarding thought, AI, and the information processing of living organisms. I was reflecting on processes that influence my selection of keystrokes in social media posts, and it struck me that awareness of physical state is one of those influencing processes. It seems to me that proper self management and hygiene is more enlightened than lack of same. Why shun physicality? Maybe that’s essential to who we really are.