Heart

Lois Martin, member of Tulsa ITP, considers how centering creates a sense of balance and harmony. This is preparation for the Kata. It also is preparation for starting a new day. “My centering creates space to be who I am and to feel the energies of the present moment.”

In many cultures the heart was, and still is, considered to be the seat of intelligence and intuition, a special window into the world and its divine nature. When we see with the eyes of heart we can perceive things as they are without judgment. Our perception is filtered through the lens of love.

Body, mind, and heart interplay to inform our lives, for sure. But the soul speaks and lives through each of these aspects. This is the brilliance of the integral model we engage with ITP.

Josh Brahinsky is a Psychological Anthropologist, working over the past few years in Anthropology at Stanford University, Psychology at UC Berkeley, and now in Transcultural Psychiatry at McGill University. He joined a team of researchers to examine ITP and its effect on its practitioners. This project took him beyond academia.

Putting together all aspects of our integral being is a practice itself. Conscious, embodied integration of our many parts reinforces wholeness, balance, and integrity—much of what ITP promises for practitioners. Rather than focusing awareness on one aspect of ourselves, such as the heart with its vast array of feelings, the staying current practice prompts us to pay equal attention to all aspects—the totality of who we are – to mine our deeper truths for self-understanding, growth, and mindful action.

This exercise will allow us to bring vitality and awareness to our own integral parts of body, mind, heart and soul. It is meant to help us notice that we can connect with our different parts and sense into and awaken to the messages that they have for us. By attuning to each dimension of our being, we can shape the direction of our growth and the way we show up in the world.

Learn how to open your mind and heart to stay current with both yourself and others. In this guided exercise led by co-founder George Leonard, you’ll experience how the Crystalline State can provide a means for temporarily setting aside expectations and judgements to offer clarity. This exercise will help you to move with intentionality in a balanced and centered state of being.

In our life-long pursuit toward the further reaches of our potential, we must always proceed with that first step. I recently spoke with Bob about his own practice, particularly his extraordinary capacity to retain and recite poetry. As with so many special conversations we’ve had, it was a flow of wisdom punctuated with a poem.

ITP member, Rich Sigberman, shares what happens when he approaches a task using an integral approach combined with love, and the steps he takes to reach this state in his daily tasks.

The powers of body, mind, heart and soul which, when balanced and integrated, awaken us to infinite possibilities for greater life. While the Kata is an extremely effective way to integrate and support body, mind, heart and soul evolution, I sought to bring these quadrants of being together through another passion – exercise.

This section is drawn from Chapter Four of The Future of the Body by Michael Murphy entitled The Supernormalities of Everyday Life. Included in this document, is an inventory that can help you bring to consciousness unusual events you may have dismissed without recognizing them as the glimmering of potential extraordinary capacities.