Posts in Evolution
An Integral Christian Mystical Lineage

The Evolution of the Integral Church
Part Two
The Influence of Three Contemporary Mystics

We find that conscious integral evolution in the mystical Christian path occurs when we take the best of the past and transcend the worst. If we then add what our contemporaries in the developmental path are finding, we greatly widen our horizons.

While there are many men and women offering wonderful contributions and insights to the evolving church, we are highlighting four mystics who we have found particularly influential and visionary. We began with Ken Wilber last week, and this week add Jorge Ferrer, Ramon Panikkar, and Teilhard de Chardin.

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EvolutionPaul Smith & Luke HealyIntegral Church Comment
The Evolution of the Integral Church

Part One

Moving Beyond Traditional Christianity and into the Integral Framework

The image above is a pictorial for the evolution of the church today. Starting on the left, traditional church is self-explanatory. Traditional religion, for many, has been replaced by the modern search for meaning in secular pursuits such as entertainment, sports, science, consumerism, social interests, and gatherings. Postmodern churches are making a valiant try at progressive theology and inclusivity but, in general, along with traditional churches, are often struggling and disappearing at increasing rate. Integral church is represented as a circled community without walls, centered on the tree of life.

In Integral Christian Network, we find some who are very active in their local church, some who just attend a church, while others have given up on church. An increasing number tell us that we are their church. We encourage everyone to do what fits for them.

During a WeSpace meeting, one of our friends asked, "Where did all of this come from?" Good question! So Luke and I decided to describe how we arrived at "all of this" in this series. As with all integral movements, we try to do three things: First, we bring the best of our past while transcending its worst. Then, we research what's going on in the present, what's missing, and how we might integrate the most resonant. And finally, as we evolve, we learn from what is newly emerging for us in our own mystical experience and with others on the emerging frontier. This means we also learn from the beautiful people in our WeSpace groups, where it all unfurls and blossoms.

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EvolutionPaul SmithIntegral Church Comments
Evolving Prayer with an Evolving God
Evolving Prayer with an Evolving God

Integral Prayer Part 3: Praying into, with, and from the Three Faces of God

Prayer is communication and communion. It is the WeSpace between God and us. This divine meeting place usually changes throughout our lives as we grow and develop. We change, and so does our understanding and experience of God. Often we don’t quite know how to pray in a way that seems to resonate fully with these changes.

Can we still find an evolving God in prayer? Can we still meet God in the dynamic unfolding of our relationship with the divine?

While at times we may need to demythologize, deconstruct, and differentiate through our ideas of God, hopefully, we can continue on our journey without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. We can find our way to more liberating ways to meet with the divine, which can include and reintegrate the healthy gifts of traditional prayer.

This becomes possible through recognizing The Three Faces of God <link>, which gives us the freedom to hold an understanding of God that encompasses the breadth of divine presence and manifestation. Moving then from this understanding into the WeSpace, into the participatory experience of communing with each of these faces is what we call Integral Prayer.

Our prayer can evolve with each of these three faces, meeting God in transcendence, relationship, and participation.

Let’s look at these evolutions in prayer with each of our faces of God.

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Practice, EvolutionLuke HealyIntegral Prayer, development Comment
Can the Trinity Evolve?

The Three Faces of God - The Foundation of Integral Prayer

If prayer is communicating and communing with God, we must know who this God is that we are spending time with. Am I praying to a distant cosmic force? A white dove? Do I still talk to Jesus? Do I simply dwell in my own divine being, silently and individually?

Most Christians have been taught a Trinitarian view of God, and the biblical, theological foundation of Integral Prayer is based on the Trinity, but an evolved form. Can the classical Trinity evolve while keeping its foundational truth for Christianity?

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EvolutionPaul SmithIntegral PrayerComment
Loving Evolution Together

Spiritual Energy Part 4

“Driven by the forces of love, the fragments of the world seek each other, so that the world may come to being. This is no metaphor; and it is much more than poetry.”
–Teilhard de Chardin

As we awaken to the spiritual energy within us, we find ourselves drawn more and more to the radial energetic dynamic, the drawing forward and further. This is no solo affair or hero’s journey. This radial energy “bundles.” It draws us together. It is the antithesis to the fragmentation, separation, and loneliness so pervasive today.

This attraction is not only for companionship but for the discovery and mutual expression of the evolving realities that are emerging in our midst. They more easily arise and can be discovered in a collective context. Even more, the community itself, the combining of energies, is instrumental to this movement forward.

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Evolution, WeSpaceLuke HealyConsciousness, development, Mystical, WeSpace, spiritual energy, Teilhard Comment
The Social Action of Mysticism

Spiritual Energy Part 3

Mysticism is often seen in duality as an opposite to social action. There is the life of prayer and contemplation, alone in the closet, removed from the world. And then there are those who go out and get things done, help people, and change things.

Even if you don’t believe that harsh framing, perhaps you sometimes find yourself asking, “How can I navel gaze when the world is on fire? Shouldn’t I be doing something about it?”

So let’s consider it this way: How do you put out a fire?

Do you throw nearby cups of water onto the flames? No, you need more force than that, more resources. You need to connect down into the deeper source of continual water flow.

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EvolutionLuke Healyspiritual energy, Teilhard Comment
Disruption as Invitation — Discovering New Ways of Being

We are living in a time of great disruption. This pandemic is shutting down the world, closing business as usual—for both individuals and the systems that we are used to operating in daily. Especially in the early days of disruption, there is a desire for a return to normalcy. When we can breathe normally again and go back to the way things were.

There is uncertainty and insecurity. The way of the future can diverge in many different pathways and directions. The old path is the one our minds gravitate toward because it is the most familiar. We remember that which we miss. The unknown is much more daunting.

Last week we looked at the Jesus path through the pandemic for dealing with fear, disease, and the eventuality of death. This week, I want to consider how we might accept the gifts of this present time and look at how we can begin to imagine a different way ahead. Business as usual won’t work anymore. It wasn’t working before. Our way of life is not only killing the planet but is also keeping us from moving into the consciousness necessary to save it and ourselves.

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EvolutionLuke HealyComment
God Beyond God – Evolutionary Devotion

“This is the most dangerous prayer you can pray, you know?”

I remember the words but not the speaker. I remember because I was bold enough and perhaps naïve enough to think I was up to the task. My spiritual ego was still quite strong and my zealous traditional Christian upbringing had prepared me well for the moment. Yes, I was ready. I could do this. I knew enough to know that I didn’t know what the consequences would be, only that they would be beyond what I could imagine at the time.

I’m pretty sure I literally, physically got down on my knees. And I opened my mouth to pray:

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EvolutionLuke Healyevolution, development, Devotion Comments
Everything That Rises Must Converge

Why We Need the “We” – Part Three

We are experiencing a great convergence in humanity today. As the world evolves further and further technologically and scientifically, the space is shrinking. Globalization is bringing people together in new ways both profound and troubling. This external convergence is absolutely heightening the need for greater evolution and convergence in our interior spaces: our morality, our values, our education, our empathy, and certainly our spirituality.

When there is a strong convergence, two ranges of outcome are possible: A horrible crash or a beautiful communion.

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WeSpace, Evolution, PracticeLuke Healyevolution, WeSpace, TeilhardComment
Evolving Collective Spiritual Practice

Why We Need the “We” – Part Two

Last week we explored the shift from shoulder-to-shoulder to heart-to-heart, focusing specifically on practice with just one other person. This week we’re going to broaden that out to a community context. Not only do we need to expand our spiritual practice beyond the confines of individualism, but we desperately need to evolve how we gather and practice together.

We also emphasized the importance of the need to further reflect oneness in our spiritual practice. If we seek the experience of oneness with all, and with one other person, what would it look like to seek this experience in a group? And wouldn’t such a group practice be reflective of a more evolved approach to our spiritual gatherings?

How do we get there? 

Let’s start with a very simple picture. Imagine a group of people sitting in rows of chairs (or pews) looking up at a person on a stage. Now picture a circle of chairs with people sitting, facing one another. What difference do you feel? Where in your body do you feel it? Stay there for a moment.

Now picture a glowing heart radiating from each person in the circle. See the spiritual energy and love flowing out of them. As the waves expand out, everyone’s spiritual energy fields are overlapping and engaging with one other, creating a palpable collective field where love, wisdom, encouragement, and much more can emerge. Is this a spiritual reality?

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WeSpace, Evolution, PracticeLuke Healypractice, evolution, WeSpace, Mystical, Heart PathComment