Homeless Vet - By W.A.R. - I.G.S.P.

Homeless Vet
By W.A.R. - I.G.S.P.


Early separation
Spousal alienation
Extended vacation
No place to go to
No occupation
Military trained, a
scrambled list of skills confused.
Mentally deranged,
Feeling angry and used.
Free food all around
But I panic at the thought
of going hungry, I must plot.
People want to help me
But I can’t trust authority.
The last time I did
Found a gun in my hand, they ordered me
to kill humans infested.
Poked around and found
They were only interested
In those billions of bucks.
So why should I give a fuck?
Won’t resort to stealing
But I can’t see a way out,
This feeling, cancerous doubt.
Shelters and camp sites, this identity
is wrapped too tight in my
soul. Feel comfortable now
Just playing this role.
I let them push me away,
went into the desert and died. Then
decided to fly my angst on
broadway for all to see and sigh.
I’ll force them to lie
to themselves when they look
at me and see the reflection of
their own insanity.
The hollow inhumanity.

New Music From IGSP

I would like to share with you a musical track I recently recorded.
Audio Link Here: www.muertoskateboards.com/audio/music.html

Title: Sacred Prayer for You and I Artist: IGSP

Thank you so much Susan for the inspiration!!!!!
For best results listen with headphones.

Gracias!

Question: what makes this integral art? - Chris

Answer:

Chris,
The quick and easy answer is that the artwork was created by using the Integral Approach to life and to meaning making. It is an audio journal of resent state and structural shifts that occurred in my life and simultaneously with my partner. Perhaps some of the meanings are personal, and some of them are trans-personal.

I understand that we all have various tastes and opinions about what qualifies, as art, good art, and this question about what is integral art might be just as ambiguous.

My personal journey has been teaching me to let go of traditional and modern structures and to even let go of flatland pluralism. My new approach to Spirit is one of Integral Methodological Pluralism, finding various altitudes of cognition and growth within each tradition I come across.
I have integrated in this prayer names of the Divine from various traditions that have directly influenced my spiritual growth and understanding, these paths are:

Christian Gnosis, Sufism, Huna (Hawaiian Shamanism), Rastafarian Mysticism, Vietnamese Buddhism, and Catholic Mysticism.

My Spriritual Homebase has been the Church of the Pearl, a wonderful Christian Gnostic Tradition where I am being initiated and inducted: http://www.thepearl.org/ But the green in me will always love to explore and integrate truths from various paths.

I have woven through this prayer the sound of the Sea, symbol of the Eternal Spirit.

Included is a sound clip with my loving partners voice. She left this message for me while she was on a break at the Integral Theory conference in S.F. She was truly "feeling the pulse of evolutionary history." My voice sings through hers. There is a message about waking up.

Good Morning!

And to the Sea we Shall Return.

~IGSP

Adaptive Change

Hello my friend.

I would like to share with you an essay I just wrote for the organization that I am currently employed with. The company announced an essay contest on management philosophy. This just happens to be synchronistically aligned with my resent studies on Adaptive Change and Integral Theory. I have given an inspired vision of what I believe to be a 2nd tier perspective on business leadership. It will be interesting to see what the reaction will be from the senior executives who might be reading and judging the essay contest. First price is $1,000, although I believe the work that I have put forth in this essay is thousands of times more valuable, if the message is received and put into practice. I have pasted this essay below. The name of my employer has been changed to "Acme Wireless" to protect the innocent and ignorant.


Enjoy!


~IGSP

______________________________________________________________________________
Adaptive Change
~IGSP
Friday, August 15, 2008


My Vision for Acme Wireless

I would like to share with you my vision for Acme Wireless. I am not going to say this is a vision for the future. The future is now. This vision can be translated into a plan of action for right now. I have divided this essay into four main points:

· React or Adapt?
· Who is the customer?
· Humans are not resources.
· Is “Tomorrow Rising” or are we stuck in the past?

It is my hope that these words will stimulate some productive thinking and help us move foreword into today’s world of globally systemic technologies, cultures, and economies.

React or Adapt?
The environment of today’s mutually interacting global systems and cultures is creating new and unique challenges to organizations. As the global business and social environment evolves toward increasing complexity, an organization within this evolving environment must adapt to meet complex challenges as they arise.

There are two types of challenges that an organization can face, a technical challenge or an adaptive challenge. 1 A technical challenge can be resolved using tools that exist in an organization’s cultural body of knowledge. A solution to a technical challenge can be found and administered through the specialized knowledge of experts and authorities. Adaptive challenges, however, have no readily available solution in the cultural repertoire. An adaptive challenge cannot be resolved by experts and authorities and requires leadership to engage the group in experimentation and in reassessment of core cultural values. Adaptive work is painful and this pain will often prompt individuals and organizations to avoid the necessary work to overcome the challenge. Adaptive challenges require a complete reevaluation of the assumptions and definitions of how an organization relates to its environment. This requires a collective effort by all members of the organization.

In the global wireless handset business, Acme Wireless is facing an adaptive challenge as the industry becomes increasingly competitive and dominated by merging carrier networks that squeeze the handset vendors and possessively control the relationship with the consumers. This adaptive challenge requires leadership to discover a new way of existing and operating that will meet the challenges of this environment. Leadership during times of adaptive challenge does not mean pushing down solutions from a position of authority. Adaptive leadership means mobilizing the search for an adaptive solution. The form of this search often becomes a key part of the adaptive solution. The reality of today’s environment requires a new way of existing and of relating to each other and to our customers.

Who is the customer?
Within the culture of Acme Wireless is much talk about the “Customer First Principle”. Certainly, it is a noble value. A successful business such as Acme Wireless cannot exist without the trust and satisfaction of its customers. I do, however, think that we need to add two caveats to the Customer First Principle. First, we need to more clearly define who our customer is. Second, Acme Wireless needs to exercise leadership in helping our customers discover what it is they need and truly want, rather than us blindly reacting to what they say they want.

Who is the customer? What is needed besides a Customer First slogan is to clarify who the different types of customers are and what influence each of these customers has on our business. We then need to integrate into the culture of Acme Wireless the general understanding of how every member of the organization can influence each type of customer that we have.

For example, throughout the organization of Acme Wireless Corp. most assume that the only important application of the Customer First Principle is in dealing with the carrier networks. The climate of the organization tends toward saying “yes” to whatever the carrier asks, even if doing so produces a negative outcome for the end consumer or even for the product launch itself. In the consumer driven handset market, the consumer is the most valuable target of the Customer First Principle. In many ways the carrier networks are simply a distributor of goods to our real customer, who is the consumer. If Acme Wireless does not find a way to win the hearts and wallets of the consumer, we will certainly sink in this market.

How can we better define and engage our customers? My first recommendation is that we listen to the market via the Acme Wireless consumer call center. The call center can be viewed as a large focus group that speaks to thousands of consumers a week. If we take the opportunity to thoughtfully question our consumers about what they want, they will be happy to provide us with their creative feedback. This could reveal potential revenue opportunities that we are currently missing.

Another way that we can be more relevant in the market is to acknowledge that all Acme Wireless employees are ourselves electronics consumers. We represent our own demographic and our own market. Let’s start by making products that we want and that we can be excited about. Most of us working in Acme Wireless would rather have a handset from another manufacturer for various reasons. Some are looking for a more innovative design. Others are looking for more advanced business features. Many of us in Acme Wireless purchase i-Pods, Zunes or other small music players for our selves and our families. Many of us purchase unlocked PDA devices, GSM devices, and Wi-Fi adapters. We could be branding these devices too and enjoying the fruits of our own labor while becoming less dependent on the carrier networks.

These specific suggestions are only a few possible examples, just the tip of the iceberg of ideas that are out there. My main concern is for Acme Wireless to do the adaptive work of asking ourselves and each other the tough questions of how we might be able to better exist and thrive in today’s market. We can discover new ways of looking at our role in the market and of how we do business. I believe that being a consumer-focused organization is going to be one key to thriving in the current environment.

Each member of our organization should be aware of how his or her performance affects the experience of the consumer. Is there a software bug or other quality issue? It will impact the consumer and we should not accept a consumer-impacting bug even if the carrier approves. Does the network operator that purchases our phones have a poor customer service track record? If so, this will impact the experience of our consumers and reflect a negative public perception back onto our own brand.

Outstanding customer service means helping the customer to discover what they need, not just reactively giving them what they say they want. This requires the action of leadership. For Acme Wireless to grow in this ultra competitive market, we must exercise leadership and stop comparing our performance to the status quo of other wireless manufacturers. Just because other manufacturers are also struggling, we should not then join with them in accepting mediocrity and lack of leadership in the industry. Often the Customer First Principle means that we need to ask difficult questions to our distributors and our consumers to learn what they really want and need. Putting the customer first may include, once we have superior understanding of the consumer’s wants, taking on the challenging role of educating the carrier on what we have found. This difficult stance will allow us to give to the carrier a value that other manufactures haven’t. To put the customer first also means being honest with a carrier and being able to tell the customer “no” when they are placing unrealistic expectations on our organization that will harm our business.

I am confident that if we look past our distributors while also working with them and invest in giving the consumers, including us, what they really want and need, we can then grow and assume a leadership role in this market. Being a consumer-focused organization will be one key to thriving in the current environment.

Humans are not resources.
Humans are not resources. People do not exist to keep business organizations running. Business organizations exist to meet the survival and actualization needs of people. If we forget this, then our organization may fail to meet the needs of its members, which would ultimately mean its demise and failure as a business. The modernist and industrialist ideas of what it means to be an employee are no longer relevant in today’s reality. The 20th century ways of defining leadership, authority, accountability, and work ethics cannot be meaningfully applied to an environment where creativity is key, resources are abundant, and work can be done from any place on the planet.

I suggest that Acme Wireless shifts from a monologist leadership approach to a dialogical team-based leadership approach. Rather than individuals working for the organization, the individuals should see themselves as the organization. It is imperative that there be a sense of entrepreneurial participation, throughout all levels of the organization and throughout all functional areas in the important decisions and directions of the organization. If we can all have a sense of participation in decisions such as product road maps, H.R. policies, market strategy, organizational changes, etc., Acme Wireless would come to life with creativity and promise. A work environment that is also a learning environment encourages experimentation and new ideas. There should be transparency and free flow of communication, from the entry-level hourly employee to the CEO. Team leaders should value input from any team member and from other teams, and successfully coordinate the integrated cross-functional effort toward realizing creative goals. This will result in a more flexible, collaborative, entrepreneurial, and customer responsive culture. Leadership should also strive to give credit and financial reward where credit is due.

Inviting Acme Wireless to participate in this essay contest perfectly illustrates this dialogical leadership style. I am grateful to have this opportunity to express my ideas! I am calling for an extension of this dialog into daily practice and into the decision-making process itself.

Is “Tomorrow Rising” or are we stuck in the past?
My vision for Acme Wireless is for us to live up to the promise and potential of our own technologies. What is the selling point of global wireless communication and internetworking equipment? Is it not so that the users of this technology (us included) are able to communicate ideas at any time and from any place? Is it not so that our customers can improve the quality of their lives? As the designers of this technology, should we not take a leadership role in applying our own technology toward the betterment of our own lives?

Given the reality of global communications systems and the ready availability of outsourcing partners, Acme Wireless’s work now consists of creative thinking, communicating, and administration. Moreover, it means that we can apply our own wireless technology to improving our own lives.

How can Acme Wireless employees be excited about our wireless products when almost all of us are working on old PC’s that are wired to the walls of a drab office building and expected to put in 8 hours sitting in the same spot working under florescent lights? Why does Acme Wireless refuse to offer a telecommuting option to San Diego based employees who are now paying through the teeth for gasoline to spend an average of two hours per day driving on a crowded freeway, polluting the air, only to then arrive in a costly leased building and then to log into a computer on a wired LAN… to work on the distribution of wireless technologies for other people? How are we supposed to be excited about the products we sell when we don’t even know how to use them ourselves?

My proposal is for Acme Wireless to maintain a smaller office space where we meet for regular and impromptu meetings. All of the Acme Wireless employees can learn to telecommute. This change offers many advantages. This will save us gasoline costs, commute time, allow for a more flexible schedule, and many of us will be able to accomplish more due to the lack of routine office distractions and unnecessary meetings.

The face-to-face time will be made available when needed, but the increase in efficiency through conference calling and online collaboration tools, once mastered, will facilitate a greater flow of creativity and visionary ideas. Working with our outsource partners will continue as it has been, with regular visits, online collaboration, and telephone conferencing.

I’m not saying that we should do away with the office environment. I am suggesting that we find a workable balance between office culture and telecommuting. Many Acme Wireless employees, if given the option to telecommute two or three days out of the week, would have greater job satisfaction, greater peace of mind, and, I believe, there will be a surge of creativity that comes when adults spend time in the setting of one’s choice. A creative surge is something that this company desperately needs. The organization will benefit by having more productive, and happier people, and by leasing a smaller office space and coordinating the use of conference rooms and community workstations we can dramatically reduce facilities expenses. To the degree that we maximize the potential of wireless technologies to better our own lives, we will be taking an active leadership role in the larger global culture. People will envy Acme Wireless employees. Other companies will imitate us, and we will be increasing the demand for our own products.

Again, these specific suggestions are only a few possible examples, just the tip of the iceberg. The point is for Acme Wireless to do the adaptive work of asking ourselves and each other the tough questions of how we might be able to better exist and thrive in today’s market. Together, we can discover new ways of looking at our role in the market and of how we do business.

Adaptive solutions are painful and generate resistance. Some, at first, will not be able to accept adaptive change. Each of us will have to make a choice to either keep trying to solve today’s problems with yesterday’s solutions or to boldly take the lead in facing the challenges of today with a fresh and adaptive perspective. Many will rather forgo the pain of change in order to stay comfortable. This is a normal reaction, however the rewards for meeting an adaptive challenge are the fruits of growth and progress and the joys of life itself.

To conclude, my vision for Acme Wireless is that we become experts in the consumer market through understanding ourselves and understanding the customer. By having a greater discernment of the real needs and wants of the customer, Acme Wireless will be able to take a leadership role in the market. My vision includes Acme Wireless taking a leadership role by stimulating dialog and dialogical decision-making among all levels of employees as well as shifting to a team-based management structure. This will result in a more flexible, collaborative, entrepreneurial, and customer responsive culture. My vision includes Acme Wireless taking a leadership role in applying the value of wireless global communication technology within its own corporate culture. If we maximize the potential of wireless technologies to better our own lives, we will be taking a lead role in the larger global culture. People will envy Acme Wireless employees and want to join us. Other companies will imitate us, and we will be increasing the demand for our own products.


References:
1. Heifetz, Ronald A. Leadership Without Easy Answers (Cambridge: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press 1994), pp. 8, 30-48.

AQAL Diagram Update

Everyone needs to take out a pencil and update their AQAL Diagram. It's nothing major. But after seeing the value in Steve McIntosh's work concerning the LR, and juxtaposing this with Wilber's chart that McIntosh is criticizing (pictured above), I have found the correct Middle Path that will make this chart more consistent and workable.

Ok, let's begin. When looking at the line of social systems development in the LR you will find "Group/Family", "Tribe", and "Nation/State", but McIntosh in his book Integral Consciousness correctly points out that these belong in the LL. You can not physically point to a Tribe, or a Nation, or to a Family. These are all just intersubjective political realities. Family members, Nation members, Tribal members may actually reside in completely different parts of the Globe. However, You can physically point to a Tribal-Village, an inter-tribal-trading-post, a Budding-Urban-Center, a Metropolitan-Hive, a Regional-Network-of-Metropolitan-Hives-and-surrounding-Rural-Settlements, and even to the Systemic-Global-Village. These are the real organic inter-objective systems.

A perfect example of this is my Metropolitan Hive. It is called San Diego County. But you would be a fool if you entertained the notion that the 2 million Mexicans and Americans living south of the fence in Tijuana were not part of the same Metropolitan Hive. The fence is an outward manifestation of the LL intersubjective political reality. The biological inter-objective reality of S.D./T.J. is that of one Holonic System, a Biologically Driven Human Nest. Every day hundreds of thousands of commuters cross both sides of the border as if it was not there. Money, food, semen, cables, drugs, pollen, roaches, radio waves, TV waves, birds, river sludge, ocean currents, tacos, and smog, all flow freely across this fence and interact.. The LR does not see the political meaning of the fence. The fence is simply an object within a system. This System is one biological human-influenced eco system.

Both Wilber and McIntosh have given part of the truth. Wilber makes a category error by mixing the two together in the LR. McIntosh calls him on it, but decides that we don't even need the LR.

My way is best, because I also am an arrogant philosopher too.

Peace out Gremmys.


And remember, You heard it hear first. Don't try to play like I don't exist. I know where you live!

Nuke Boulder!!

California Über Alles!!!

P.S.

Oh, so if you think that what humans do is somehow separate from Nature and biology, you just need to think a little bit, and maybe try some LSD. The fact that humans Will something to happen does not mean that instinct and nature are not behind that will. Again I will quote the prophets of Love and Rockets:

"You cannot go against nature
Because when you do
Go against nature
It's part of nature too."

Again I recommend LSD as a cure for the "Artificial" vs. "Natural" illusion. Bees build damns and beavers make honey hives. Human do what Humans do. Just because we have more consciousness and more awareness and appear to have greater choice does not mean that our cultural evolution is somehow counter to nature or severed from our insticts, that we are somehow unnatural and artificial. BTW, the PC claim that biological evolution has stopped in humans is just plain stupid. You are standing an inch from a tree and cannot see the forest. Step Back!! I digress.

Zen

::A Gnostic Interpretaion of the Zen Phrase "Suffering there is, but none who suffer"::


Valentinus tought that Mortal Minds must be freed from the effects of the Illusion of Seperateness.

Zen says Suffering there is, but none who suffer.

The way I see it is that this world was created from the Suffering of Sophia and the illusion that she was seperate from the Godhead. This world is Suffering (Suffering there is). Every Being from the moment they are born from the moment they die are suffering. Nobody gets away from this, not the wealthy CEO, or the Rich Jew, or the Nazi Cop, or the suburban white boy, or the Ghetto pimp, or the neurotic new agers in Sedona, or the Dali Lama, or the Playboy Bunnies, or those on MTV cribs, or the Lepers in the Phillipines living in dirt shacks with sparkles in their eyes and toothless smiles on their dirty faces. Existence is one big wave of suffering. Period.

The Illusion of Seprateness makes me think that I am a seperate individual apart from the Whole of existence and that there is no other Ego-God but Me. I am the DemiUrge and I convince myself that I am seperate from Suffering (and also seperate from the End of Suffering - Pure Spirit). I imagine my self as an Ego in a bag of skin and construct an illusion of Safety. And when something eventually happens to me, my body, or my loved ones I become terrified and angry. Not realising that my whole existance has been suffering. This threat to the loss of The Illusion brings even more suffering.

There is no existence Seperate from Suffering. (none who suffer) Rather ALL is suffering. It is not My suffering. It is existence (every-body and it's attachments) that Are Suffering. If I accept that Life is suffering and stop trying to run away from it, stop trying to be seperate from it. If I bravely allow this plane of existence to Crucify my body and Mortal Mind (mind attached to body) I will become one with The Redeemer and be liberated from the plane of Suffering by being resurected with a Mind Identified with Spirit.

So Fuck those Kids in Darfor and all the Dead Jews, I'm up to my Nuts in Suffering here in White suburbia. Stop with your Guilt Tripping Victim Sob Stories. We all Must die. The path of compassion is the path of liberation, the Path of Truth, the Path to liberation is way of Death of the Mortal Mind.

So the phrase "Suffering there is, but none who suffer" does not mean that suffering is not real. It does not not mean that nobody suffers. It means that we are all suffering, and that we can all become liberated from suffering through accepting our own suffering. When we accept our own suffering, we can then show compasion to others. If we believe our suffering to be other-than suffering, we will poject our suffering onto others, "oh, those poor people over there, look how they suffer, look how lucky I am, I must be special." You need to realize that their suffering is your suffering shown to you in a mirror. The conditions you see on the outside of you reflect your own conditions, good and bad, living and dying, suffering and shining like Stars in the Dark Night..

Integrally informed Punk Rock Song - A.D.S.

A.D.S. (Amber Death Squad)
~IGSP

(whispering chanting over a deep pulsing bass crescendo)
The Amber Death Squad...
The Amber Death Squad...
The Amber Death Squad...

(climax and symbol crashes. then the demonic beat kicks in)
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH
The Amber Death Squad...
WE'RE GOING TO GET YOU
The Amber Death Squad...
WE'RE GUNNING FOR YOU
The Amber Death Squad...
OUR TINY WORLD VIEW
The Amber Death Squad...
HAS NO ROOM FOR YOU
The Amber Death Squad...
SUCH A NARROW POINT OF VIEW
The Amber Death Squad...
SUCH A SHORT SHORT LIST
The Amber Death Squad...
OF WHAT IS GOOD AND TRUE
The Amber Death Squad...
YOUR NOT ON OUR LIST
The Amber Death Squad...
SO WE'RE GONNA KILL YOU
The Amber Death Squad...
SEND YOU TO HELL
The Amber Death Squad...
WITH THE REST LIKE YOU
The Amber Death Squad...
'CUS YOU ARE A THREAT
The Amber Death Squad...
TO OUR NARROW POINT OF VIEW

(break the beat down)
Get a fucking grip you violent piece of shit
if your religion isn't love
your fucking hypocrite

If your gonna shoot me or shoot him or shoot them
'cus your weak little mind is so hurt & threatened
just do me a favor before you pull that triger
or blow yourself up like a suicidal nigger
look in the mirror with your weapons and your hate...

and tell me who's the threat
TELL ME WHO'S THE FUCKING THREAT
and tell me who's the threat
TELL ME WHO'S THE FUCKING THREAT
and tell me who's the threat
TELL ME WHO'S THE FUCKING THREAT

The Amber Death Squad...
WE'RE GOING TO GET YOU
The Amber Death Squad...
WE'RE GUNNING FOR YOU
The Amber Death Squad...
OUR TINY WORLD VIEW
The Amber Death Squad...
HAS NO ROOM FOR YOU

Dream to Dare - For Susan

Dream to Dare

For Susan

Come Fly With Me, Dancing Through The Air

Come Play with Me, Swimming In Your Hair

Come Find Me, and Find Your Self There

Come Die with Me, If You Dream To Dare

Thank You for bringing falls of living water into my life ; ~ }