Quotes taken from the previous 34 Urban Hub books. with the artwork taken from Adriaan van Schaik book Antarabhava an autobiography of a mystical journey

1. 35 a meta-pragmatic approach
Thriveable Worlds
balancing acts
Urban
Hub
IntegralUrbanHub
Paul van Schaik
integralMENTORS
&

2. Urban Hub
Integral UrbanHub
Thriveable Worlds
&
Founder
Curator

3. Copyright ©©integralMENTORS - March 2024
‘In fullness and Freedom
A graphic series of integralMENTORS integral UrbanHub co-lab on Thriveable Cities-Worlds.
Founder & Managing Editor Paul van Schaik
involution & evolution
Involution the act or an instance of enfolding or entangling
In integral thought, involution is the process by which the Divine manifests the cosmos.
The process by which the creation rises to higher states and states of consciousness is the evolution.
Involution prepares the universe for the Big Bang; evolution continues from that point forward.
integral
MENTORS

4. This book contains ‘quotations’ of
ideas, theories, to spark interest
for further explorations
All the artwork is from Adriaan’s
book ‘Antarabhava’, The Journey
of a Mystic
Best explored with the previous volumes in the series
All quotes are taken from Urban Hub books series

6. & quotes
Adriaan van Schaik - Artwork – a mystic journey
Jean Gebser – Entangled worlds
Leonard Cohen - Cracks
Black Sails - Shadows
Joseph Campbell - Myths
Spencer Brown – In find the world
Bayo Akomolafe – Bein Human …..
Nora Bateson – Alive order
Tyson Yunkaporta – Sand Talk
Niitsitapi : Maslow – Self Actualisation
Indigenous wisdoms - Listening
Animism – Different Worldview
Cynthia Bourgeault (Gebser’s – Integral mutation)
Susanne Cook-Greuter - W.E.I.R.D Bais
Ken Wilber – Quadrants …….
Rachel Garrard – Creative Act
Ursula K le Guin – Side trips and reversals
Laurens van der Post – Two “hungers”
Lewis Mumford – Deeper self
Zaid Hassan – Slouching Towards Flatland
Edger Morin – Self-reflection
Slim van der Ryn - Holism
Patrick Geddes - City
Jane Jacobs – Cities for everybody
Albert Einstein - Mistakes
Anatole Franc - Mistakes
Alan Watts - Time
Buckminster Fuller –Spaceship Earth
Martin Foss –Further inquiry
Nabeel Hamdi - Development
Integral Without Borders - Development
Tonpa Jon – Eagle folds his wings
Paul van Schaik – Founder curator
Books,
From Urban Hub book series

7. People do not perceive
worlds but enact them.
Different mindsets
bring forth different
worlds.

8. What is this series?
A collection of visions, ideas, ideas, theories, actions, etc. that give rise to a taste of the
many visions in our world.
How we use all the best elements of the many worldviews, modern and ancient, visible and
still hidden, together and in collaboration, will define how successful we are.
It is the morphogenetic pull of caring that will determine how we succeed as a human race.
It is the ability and need to generate an equitable, fair, resilient and regenerative ‘system’
that must drive us forward.
The means will be a combination of many of the ideas showcased here but many more still
to be discovered on our exciting journey into the future. Held together through an Integral
Mythological Pluralistic approach.
Sharing and listening to stories, philosophies, cosmologies and metaphysical
understanding of each other and through experimentation, research and archology
developing theories, praxis, and activities/interventions to move towards a more caring
world of people, cultures, caring for the planet and systems of which are all a part.
Too little courage and we will fail – too much certainty and we will fail. But with care and
collaboration we have a chance of success. Bringing forth emergent impact through
innovation, syngeneic enfoldment & collaborative effort.
A deeper understanding of a broader framework will be required – this would be more that
an integral vision and beyond the Eurocentric AQAL & SDi.
Explore and enjoy – use as many of the ideas as possible (from the whole series) enfolding
each into an emergent whole that grows generatively.
At each step testing – reformulating – regrouping – recreating.
Moving beyond, participating, through stake-holding, through share-holding, to
becoming thrive-holders.
Inordertofindyourway
youmustbecomelost
generouslylost-
it’sonlywhenyouarelost
thatyoucanbefound
bysomethinggreaterthanyou
BayoAkomolafe

9. Other Worlds
Walking in the world not talking of the world
No one vision is sufficient in and of itself – visions can
guide but only by collaborative action in a creative
generative process can visions grow and become part of an
ongoing positive sociocultural reality.
Without taking into account the many worldviews that
currently co-exist and crafting ways of including them
in a positive and healthy form we will continue to alienate
vast sections of all communities and humankind.
It is through the cultivation of healthy versions of all the
different worldviews that we can attempt to move towards
an equitable, regenerative and caring world living within
the planetary boundaries.
Through action we will move forward – through only
ongoing talk we will stagnate and fail.
These curation are to be dipped into – explored and used to
generate ideas and discussion.
A catalyst for collaboration and action.
And most importantly grown, modified in a generative
form.
For more detail of integral theory and Framework see
earlier books in this series.

10. Journey of a mystic
This art contains part of Adriaan van Schaik’s
visual autobiography. Just as the visual
representation of a tree might be confusing and
alien to anyone who has never seen one, so these
observations might in the same way seem strange.
The paintings are close representations of
experiences, encounters and descriptions of process
that occur on the energetic or etheric level of life.
Some of the process described can take at least a
physical lifetime, if not more, to implement the
transformations and purifications depicted.
It should be noted that there is no value judgement
attributed to ascending or descending aspects of
evolution as found in all religions. The paintings
are about process not emotion or poetry, but as we
bring as much to them as they to us, poetry can be
found and felt.
Adriaan van Schaik
All artworks are by Adriaan van Schaik from the
book Antarabhava – this is an ongoing journey

11. I am the watcher at the gate
I am the keeper of dreams

12. No longer are cities defined by a single slowly
evolving Worldview as they have tended to be up
until the failure of both modern and postmodern
Worldviews, to provide fair, equitable and resilient
cities for all.
Current trends in sustainable or smart cities have
proven insufficient to encompass and include the
degree of complex thinking needed. A complexity
that defies individual or expert group planning.
A complexity that needs to involve us all in the
development of self-organising evolving cities
which allow us to define who we are and what we
want from our co-created urban environment.
A city capable of holding various cultures and
Worldviews that can be technically resilient and
can be socially relevant and culturally inclusive
for all its citizens.
These volumes are part of the evolving process that
defines the actions we all need to be involved in if
our cities are to be places, we love to be a part of.
Paul van Schaik

14. Walking in the world
not talking of the world

15. Entangled
worlds

16. The aperspectival subject is an
assemblage: a self-realized not as
hypertrophied ego—in the Western image
of the solitary genius—but as an
ecology, the network of their relations
and imprints.
This view of knowledge and art making
releases us from perspectival fixation
(knowledge as created solely by the
individual) to aperspectival relation
(knowledge as flow, assemblage,
comprised not only of its visible factors
but also sustained by the invisible,
spiritual whole).
Entangled
worlds

17. Ring the bells that still can ring
Forget your perfect offering
There is a crack, a crack in everything
That’s how the light gets in.
Leonard Cohen
“The light is the capacity to reconcile your
experience, your sorrow: with every day that dawns.
It is that understanding, which is beyond
significance or meaning, that allows you to live a
life and embrace the disasters and sorrows and joys
that are our common lot. But it’s only with a
recognition that a rack in everything. I think all
other visions are doomed to irretrievable gloom. And
whenever anyone asks us to accept a perfect
solution, that should immediately alert us to the
flaws in that presentation.

18. “This is how they survive. You must
know this. You’re too smart not to know
this.
They paint the world full of shadows
and then tell their children to stay close
to the light.
Their light, their reason, their
judgements, because in the darkness
there be dragons.
But it isn’t true.
We can prove that it isn’t true. In the
dark there is discovery, there is
possibility, there is freedom in the dark
when someone has illuminated it.
And who has been so close as we are right
now?”
Black Sails

19. “Myth is much more
important and truer
than history.
History is just
journalism, and you
know how reliable
that is”
Joseph Campbell

20. People do not
perceive worlds but
enact them. Different
mindsets bring forth
different worlds.

21. “In finding the world as we do, we
forget all we did to find it as such,
and when we are reminded of it in
retracing our steps back to
indicators, we find little more than a
mirror-to-mirror image of ourselves
and the world.
“In contrast with what is commonly
assumed, a description, when
carefully inspected, reveals the
properties of the observer. We
observers, distinguish ourselves
precisely by distinguishing what we
apparently are not, the world."
Spencer Brown

22. In order to find your way
you must become lost
generously lost -
it’s only when you are lost
that you can be found
by something greater than
you
Bayo Akomolafe

23. The very performance of being human is irreparably bound up
with the painful legacies of dispossession, the geological cuts
of imperialism that sliced away the homelands of black, brown
and white bodies. In other words, the ‘human’ is a territory, not
just an item within a geographical space.
The human is the earth-shaping cartographical project and
metaphysics of discovery that pushed the tips of knives into
the nails of indigenous shores, cutting trees, clearing open
spaces, conducting genocidal rampages to create a home in the
faraway.
The human is the layered vortex of forward-facing
temporalities, mind over dead matter philosophies,
instrumentalized nature, the myth of the hero whose freedom
and persistence triumphs over the savages, and entrepreneurial
hope.
When we speak of hope today, whether it is hope for redemption,
hope for a political saviour, hope for a solution that deals a
mortal blow to the climatic troubles of our days, we do well to
notice that this hope is conditioned by and purchased with
painful exclusions.
With blood, mangled bones, riven backs and tired tears. This
hope is the material vector that pushes through the dark, that
explodes a mountain because it is in the way. This hope infects
us all, manages our expectations and keeps from view other
possible paths for bodily becomings.
https://www.bayoakomolafe.net/post/grounding-vunja
Bayo Akomolafe

24. When I think of "the human", I don't settle my
gaze on the anthropomorphic forms we
habitually imagine as representative of what it
means to be human.
Instead, I notice patterns, fields, web-like
connections, thresholds, processes, and multi-
species arrangements.
The "Human" is the traversing lines of the ships
that plied the Atlantic Ocean and the hungry
bacteria that fed on the sugar in the guts of the
sailors and elites that sponsored the slave trade.
The "Human" is the flattening and clearing of
the wilds to make room for settlement; the
logistics of the public; the compromise of
identity; and the yearning for transcendence.
The Human is the public order that shapes bodies
and measures privilege, composing subjectivities
in the ways it stretches and bends and contorts
itself.
Bayo Akomolafe

25. In other words, in a sense that escapes popular
analyses, the Human is a colonial worlding
agent. It is "a nature" (as opposed to "the nature"),
with its own creativity and agency. This "Human"
is the crisis.
This is what is called into question by the
impasses and limitations of our times.
The Human.
From an Anthropocentric perspective, limitations
are terrible reminders of our fragility.
From the Afrocenic perspective, limitations are
exquisite sites of re-pair...where the monster slips
through the parallax of the crossroads to shapeshift
relations of becoming.
We will not survive climate chaos and loss without
becoming-monster. We will either harden in
rejection of the composting intercession of the
wilds or we will fall to its gravity.
Either way, we will not make it intact.
Bayo Akomolafe

26. I think what we in the clearing of the modern have named
"climate change" is a crisis of rectilinearity, a matter of the
postures we have assumed as part of the partitioning,
terraforming, subjectivity-shaping logic of Whiteness.
This Whiteness is not reducible to identification but is how
specific sociomaterial worlding practices flatten the world
to make room for the isolated 'individual.'
Something more is asked of us during these transversal
moments of world spillages, swelling oceans, and
geophilosophical errancy.
Something that calls into question the presumptuous
primacy of the citizen, names the risk of staying human
too long, and invites a politics of roaming. Of exile. And
departures. All we can do within the colonial clearing of
modernity is throw 'solutions' at the gaping maw at the
edges of the city, the tide that threatens our precious projects
of permanence.
Perhaps the 'depth' that yawns its protest at the edge of what
we know is an invitation to become different, to sprout new
feet, grow antennae, cultivate gills and wings, and eat the
crossroads we now insist must behave like a highway.
Bayo Akomolafe

27. Einstein may have put it most appropriately when he
said that we will never solve our problems with the same
kind of intellectual tools and paradigms that created
them. Audre Lorde’s way of saying this was that the
master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house.
And while these mystic-poets could not have said it
better than they did, I prefer to listen to, and watch, the
madman as he dances outside the important walls of
our long-winded conferences, as he laughs at our
seriousness and logical pyramids, as he mocks our
altars dedicated to shiny-faced innovations, as he in
turn watches us take sides and draw bloodied lines in
the sand…casting red-tipped fingers at the ‘other’s
complicity and failure.
When he fades away into the oblivious horizons, I
cannot help but think that somewhere in his
preposterous mutterings, somewhere in his
insignificance, somewhere in his crazy dance-steps
across the moorlands of consensual realities is the key,
the door, the portal…the wound we desperately need to be
whole again.
Bayo Akomolafe

28. Slowingdownisthusaboutlingeringintheplaceswe
arenotusedto.Seekingoutnewquestions.Becoming
accountabletomorethanwhatrestsonthesurface.
Seekingroots.
Slowingdownistakingcareofghosts,hugging
monsters,sharingsilence,embracingtheweird.Ifa
humanistresponseto,say,thekillingofwhalesor
policeviolenceurgesustodomoreandmoretostop
thesephenomena,thecalltoslowdownremindsus
thatwedonotsimplyactupontheworld(asifthe
worldwereexternaltoouractions,orasifwewere
externaltoit),wearetheworldinitsongoing
actioning.
Asaresult,wemightcometoexamineourcomplicity
inclassissuesandhowthelossofimmediate
connectionswiththe‘wilds’rendersusmodernspoor
spokespeopleforthewellbeingofthenonhuman.
Bayo Akomolafe

29. “The knowing is only possible in
the aesthetic of uncertainty . . .
complexity demands a more
engaged inquiry to explore the
patterns that connect.”
“There is something holding all
of this together, all of us together.
There is an alive order that we are
within and that is within us.”
Nora Bateson
Nora Bateson

30. “People today will mostly
focus on the points of
connection, the nodes of
interest like stars in the
sky. But the real
understanding comes in
the spaces in-between, in
the relational forces that
connect and move the
points.”
Tyson Yunkaporta

31. The exponential destruction caused by cities feeds the exponential
growth of infrastructure and population.
For this they misapply laws like supply and demand: in order for
economic growth to occur, there must be more demand than supply.
Roughly translated, that means there must be more people needing
basic goods and services than there are goods and services to meet
their needs.
Put another way, there must be a lot of people missing out on what
they need to survive in order for the economy to grow, or in order for
anything to have value.
As the growth continues exponentially, so do the masses of people
missing out.
There is no equilibrium to be found here.
You need to stave off disruptions from those desperate masses with
bread and circuses, football and Facebook.
You need to fragment them, so they are not supporting each other in
communities or extended families, otherwise your demand base
decreases.
Above all, you need them to breed like rabbits, so you make sure their
only asset is the potential energy of their children.
Yunkaporta, Tyson. Sand Talk
Post-activism
Tyson Yunkaporta

32. Tyson Yunkaporta
Sand Talk
"Perhaps not everyone needs this, but I find comfort in aphanipoiesis
when I find myself wondering if I'm having any sort of positive
effect on the world. Was there a point to that last art project?
Will this article (or any of my writing) have any "real"
effect? Sometimes we can tell, but often we can't. "So, I think of the
streams of experience that run through us all, and the larger
experiential rivers running through cultures and ecologies.
I think of all of the paths those streams might flow through. And I
can look at what I've been doing and tell myself: Yes, I'm doing my
best to tend to these streams.
Somewhere, somewhen, downstream in the future, what I'm doing here
and now might be part of emerging positive change. And I may
never know. I may never see it.
But that doesn't make it any less real.”
How Indigenous Thinking Can Save the World
“It is the cultural lens that we carry everywhere with us. Remember
when I showed you a hand gesture demonstrating that perspective,
carrying the message that Indigenous Knowledge is not about the
what, but the how? It is about process, not content. Your culture is not
what your hands touch or make—it’s what moves your hands.“
“People today will mostly focus on the points of connection, the nodes
of interest like stars in the sky. But the real understanding comes in
the spaces in-between, in the relational forces that connect and move
the points.”

34. Dancing with the Ancestors
What is life?
It is the flash of a firefly in the night.
It is the breath of a buffalo in the
wintertime.
It is the little shadow which runs across
the grass and loses itself in the sunset
"Niitsitapi” (Blackfoot) proverb

35. Self-Actualization- Niitsitapi
(Blackfoot)
Maslow appeared to ask, “how do we become self-actualized?”.
Many First Nation communities, though they would not have used the same word, might be
more likely to believe that we arrive on the planet self-actualized. Ryan Heavy Head
explained the difference through the analogy of earning a college degree.
In Western culture, you earn a degree after paying tuition, attending classes, and proving
sufficient mastery of your area of study. In Blackfoot culture, “it’s like you’re credentialed
at the start. You’re treated with dignity for that reason, but you spend your life living up to
that.”
While Maslow saw self-actualization as something to earn, the Blackfoot see it as innate.
Relating to people as inherently wise involves trusting them and granting them space to
express who they are (as perhaps manifested by the permissiveness with which the Siksika
raise their children) rather than making them the best they can be.
For many First Nations, therefore, self-actualization is not achieved; it is drawn out of an
inherently sacred being who is imbued with a spark of divinity.
Education, prayer, rituals, ceremonies, individual experiences, and vision quests can help
invite the expression of this sacred self into the world. (As some readers have commented,
this concept appears in other belief systems, such as Paulo Freire’s challenge to the “banking
concept of education” and the Buddhist notion that all beings contain Buddha-nature.)
Ryan Heavy Head explains that such communal cooperation is especially important for the
Blackfoot because of their relationship to place, something Maslow entirely omitted in his
theories:
…the one thing that [Maslow] really missed was the Indigenous relationship to place.
Without that, what he’s looking at as self-actualization doesn’t actually happen. There’s a
reason people aren’t critical of their tribe: you’ve got to live with them forever.

36. Maslow’s Western Perspective based on Blackfoot Pyramid
derived after spending several weeks with a Blackfoot community in Canada

37. “We Indians know about silence. We are not afraid of it. In fact, for
us silence is more powerful than words. Our elders were trained in the
ways of silence, and they handed over this knowledge to us. Observe,
listen, and then act, they would tell us. That was the manner of
living.
With you it is just the opposite. You learn by talking. You reward the
children that talk the most at school. In your parties you all try to
talk at the same time. In your work you are always having meetings
in which everybody interrupts everybody and all talk five, ten or a
hundred times. And you call that ‘solving a problem’. When you are
in a room and there is silence, you get nervous. You must fill the
space with sounds. So, you talk compulsively, even before you know
what you are going to say.
White people love to discuss. They don’t even allow the other person to
finish a sentence. They always interrupt. For us Indians this looks
like bad manners or even stupidity. If you start talking, I’m not
going to interrupt you. I will listen. Maybe I’ll stop listening if I
don’t like what you are saying, but I won’t interrupt you.
When you finish speaking, I’ll make up my mind about what you
said, but I will not tell you I don’t agree unless it is important.
Otherwise, I’ll just keep quiet, and I’ll go away. You have told me all I
need to know. There is no more to be said. But this is not enough for
the majority of white people.
People should regard their words as seeds. They should sow them, and
then allow them to grow in silence. Our elders taught us that the earth
is always talking to us, but we should keep silence in order to hear
her.
There are many voices besides ours. Many voices…”
Indigenous Wisdom

38. Animism: A Worldview for the Anthropocene
One of the key arguments that Jason Hickel makes in his book Less Is
More is that we need to adopt a different worldview to address the
ecological and social crises that we face in the Anthropocene. He proposes
that we look to the indigenous traditions of animism as a source of
inspiration and guidance. Animism is the worldview that all things
have a soul or spirit, and that humans are part of a larger community
of life.
He contrasts animism with the dualism and alienation that
characterises modernity, which separates humans from nature and
reduces the world to a resource for exploitation. He argues that animism
can help us overcome this destructive mindset and foster a more
respectful and harmonious relationship with the world.
He does not romanticise animism or suggest that we should return to a
pre-modern state of existence. Rather, he acknowledges the diversity and
complexity of animist cultures and their historical transformations. He
also recognises the challenges and limitations of animism, such as the
potential for conflict, violence, and oppression within and between
animist societies. He does not advocate for a wholesale adoption of
animism, but rather for a dialogue and learning process that can enrich
our understanding and practice of ecology and economics. He suggests
that we can learn from animist cultures how to live more sustainably
and equitably, by respecting the limits of the planet, recognising the
interdependence of all living beings, and valuing diversity and
reciprocity.
He cites examples of animist cultures from various regions of the world,
such as the San people of southern Africa, the Kogi people of Colombia,
and the Adivasi people of India. He shows how these cultures have
developed sophisticated ecological knowledge and practices that enable
them to live in balance with their environments and avoid
overconsumption and waste.
Animism

40. Integral Mutation
AQAL & Sdi are Mental Mutation’s Integral in Gebser terms – these
are still perspectival
What Gebser’s Integral is NOT:
§ It’s not about political or social inclusiveness.
§ It does not equate to “tolerance,” “broadmindedness,” or
affirmative action. (This is all still synthesis, solidly
ensconced within the perspectival modus operandi)
§ It is not about “soul work,” self-awareness as we typically
understand it, or “integrating the shadow.”
§ It is not “non-duality,” “a higher state of consciousness,”
“self-realization,” or “enlightenment.” In that sense, it
has nothing to do with spirituality whatsoever.
§ It is not the top tier of the evolutionary pyramid (what
part of “perspectival” do you still not understand?)
§ It is not “living in the now.” It does not negate the past
and future, but radically re-perceives them.
§ It does not require the suppression of the mental structure
of consciousness, simply the release from its hegemony.
§ It is not an “it” at all—neither a “state” nor a “stage” of
development—but rather, a new integrating capacity that
allows all other structures of consciousness to come into a
dynamic, harmonious balance.
Cynthia Bourgeault

41. For me the most useful starting point for
beginning to get a sense of this new mode of
temporicity comes in a single brief comment
(EPO, p. 285) where Gebser lists several
presentational formats of time as:
• clock time,
• natural time,
• cosmic or sidereal time,
• biological duration,
• rhythm,
• meter;
• as mutation,
• duration,
• relativity;
• as vital dynamics,
• psychic energy ['soul' and 'the
unconscious’], and as
• mental dividing.
Cynthia Bourgeault
Integral Mutation

42. Integral Theory and its Implicit W.E.I.R.D Bias
Many adult development theorists (Wilber, Loevinger,
Kohlberg, Kegan, Commons, Beck) appear to be mono-
lingual English speakers.
Thus, their understanding and depiction of adulthood
is conditioned by the structure of English and Western
ideas of what shapes human growth.
While the theories are eminently useful to explain a
great deal of cultural evolution and human behavior,
they do not appreciate the richness and variety of
human meaning making across time and geography.
Summary:
1) Integral theory (AQAL) is a powerful means to
investigate human experience through the millennia
and across different domains and different epochs
2) With English as its most wide-spread vehicle, it has a
specific lens through which to study its objects.
3) It’s view of adult development reflects the common
W.E.I.R.D. bias inherent in most developmental
theories.
4) II and most AD are thus perpetuating a remnant of
colonialism in their assumption of Western
superiority and know-it all.
W.E.I.R.D
Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic
White, Educated, Integrally-informed, (post) Rational,
Developmental
Extracts from Urban Hub 23 Integral Africa
Our W.E.I.R.D, English-mediated View of Reality
Susanne Cook-Greuter PhD
Susanne Cook-Greuter

44. Quadrants of Understanding
Context
The context of each quadrant is different, and
the nature of this content will be different for
each developmental stage or level.
What is important to note is that the type of
content and the nature of its investigation is
very different in each quadrant – but in
‘reality’ they are not separate but tetra-meshed
into a whole.
Praxis and Tools for change:
Each quadrant has a different set of praxis, or
tools used to bring about change.
Its is important to try and use tools in each
quadrant that complement each other to
reinforce the change process – tetra-meshing
any activity. That is if culture (LL) is to be
changes then it is important to ensure that the
systems are in place to support this change
(LR) – That individual values (UL) and
behaviour (UR) also support this change

45. No society has ever been without its
vision holders; the only difference has
been in the nobility of the vision.
To whom are we to look? —awakened
sages or Wall-Street advertisers,
shamanic revelations or deconstructive
narcissism, growth to goodness or
wallowing in ego?
Structuralism, by whatever name, has
always pointed to the deeper and higher
waves of awareness that are the birth
right of all sentient beings.
Therefore, choose your visions carefully,
for as even the earliest sages counselled:
you become what you contemplate.
The Look of a Feeling: The Importance of Post/Structuralism Excerpt
D: Kosmic Karma & Creativity © 2006 Ken Wilber.
Ken Wilber

46. "We move from part to whole and back
again, and in that dance of
comprehension, in that amazing circle
of understanding, we come alive to
meaning, to value, and to vision: the
very circle of understanding guides
our way, weaving together the pieces,
healing the fractures, mending the
torn and tortured fragments, lighting
the way ahead –
this extraordinary movement from
part to whole and back again, with
healing the hallmark of each and every
step, and grace the tender reward."
Ken Wilber

47. “...the integral vision will come upon you slowly, but surely,
carefully but fiercely, deliberately but radiantly, so that you and I
will find ourselves sharing in the same circle of understanding, ....
dancing in the freedom of the whole, expressed in all its parts.”
Ken Wilber

48. "The universe is composed of perspectives that you have taken in order to play a
Kosmic Game of chess with yourself. The Kosmos is composed of sentient beings,
each of whom is the one and only, nonlocal and nondual, First Person to the
perspectives arising as its reflections, touching and loving its one and only Second
Person, courting each and every Third Person, all of whom are, in turn, the one and
only First, who is reading this right now. Your very own Original Face, the Face you
had before the Big Bang—the I AM that I AM—is still looking out through your eyes,
even here and now.
Remember?
"Well, if not, then you have slammed your foot down in the cascading stream, and
all around you has sprung up the AQAL matrix of your own indigenous
perspectives" - Ken Wilber.
Ken Wilber

49. "The one thing that you will have changed if you
adopt an integral approach is your own awareness,
your own consciousness, your own map of human
possibilities, a map that has dramatically expanded
from organic interventions to caring for a human
being in all of his or her extraordinary richness
across an entire spectrum that runs from dust to
deity, dirt to divinity, even here and now."
"..... the crucial ingredient in any integral practice
is not the integral tools themselves— with all the
conventional and unconventional methods— but
the user of those tools, the integrally informed
practitioner, who have opened themselves to an entire
spectrum of consciousness— matter to body to mind
to soul to spirit—and who have thereby
acknowledged what seems to be happening in any
event: body and mind and spirit are operating in
self and culture and nature, and thus health and
healing, sickness and wholeness, are all bound up
in a multidimensional tapestry that cannot be cut
into without fatal haemorrhaging."
Ken Wilber

51. “The creative act is seeing the future, it is seeing,
sensing and feeling something that has not yet
taken form. It is to be attuned with the creative
energy of the cosmos. It is to become the creator.
The creative act is one of solace, it is finding one’s
self. A truly creative act is life changing, world
building.
The creative act does not need an audience, it sings
alone to the stars, but its impact is felt everywhere.
The creative act is truly courageous because it goes
beyond the known. The creator is a world bridger,
who penetrates the invisible and bring it into form.
The creative act is one of deep mystery, for its
methodology can never be planned, its appearance
does not come by force, only receptivity, and its
outcome can never be predetermined.
The purely creative act is a sacred act, whose
purpose is to lift up the soul of all beings.”
Rachel Garrard

52. “sidetripsandreversalsare
preciselywhatmindsstuckin
forwardgearmostneed...
knowledgeispower,andwewant
toknowwhatcomesnext,we
wantitallmappedout...Idon’t
thinkwe’reevergoingtogetto
utopiaagainbygoingforward,
butonlyroundaboutor
sideways.”
“Meditatingonthepossibleformsofafuturecultureafter
modernityinheressay,“ANon-EuclidianViewofCalifornia
asaColdPlacetoBe,”UrsulaK.LeGuin
Ursula K Le Guin

53. The Bushmen in the Kalahari Desert talk
about the two "hungers". There is the Great
Hunger and there is the Little Hunger. The
Little Hunger wants food for the belly; but
the Great Hunger, the greatest hunger of all,
is the hunger for meaning... There is
ultimately only one thing that makes
human beings deeply and profoundly bitter,
and that is to have thrust upon them a life
without meaning.
There is nothing wrong in searching for
happiness. But of far more comfort to the soul
is something greater than happiness or
unhappiness, and that is meaning. Because
meaning transfigures all. Once what you are
doing has for you meaning, it is irrelevant
whether you're happy or unhappy. You are
content - you are not alone in your Spirit -
you belong
Laurens van der Post

55. Before modern man can gain
control over the forces that now
threaten his very existence, he
must resume possession of
himself.
This sets the chief mission for the
city of the future: that of creating
a visible regional and civic
structure, designed to make man
at home with his deeper self and
his larger world, attached to
images of human nature and
love.
Lewis Mumford

57. It has become clearer and clearer to me that
the work I am engaged in involves building
our capacities to cope with phenomena—that
is, the mess of the world, “the swamp,” the
heat, the smell, the emotionality, the conflict
and all the things that come from engaging
as whole people with whole people.
This means leaving our desks, holding our
models lightly and engaging our senses.
The reward being work that is deeply rooted
in the complexity of the world, owned by the
people who are affected by them instead of
opaque, unaccountable agencies.
Zaid Hassan
Slouching towards flatland

58. ”….Morin’s effort would be to develop a form of thinking—
and of being in the world—that is always self-reflective
and self-critical, always open and creative, always eager
to challenge the fundamental assumptions underlying a
system of thought, and always alert for the ways in
which, covertly or overtly, we create inviolate centers that
cannot be questioned or challenged.
Knowledge always requires the knowledge of knowledge,
the ongoing investigation and interrogation of how we
construct knowledge…
This once again gives us an idea of Morin’s constant
battle against reductionism, the attempt to reduce a
complex phenomenon to one potential aspect and
manifestation, and in the process dismiss it….
This reflects a guiding principle of Morin’s work, found
in Pascal’s statement that it is impossible to understand
the whole without understanding the part, and impossible
to understand the part without understanding the
whole...”
Edgar Morin

59. Slim van der Ryn
“Scale-linking systems imply a holism in which
everything influences, or potentially influences
everything else—because everything is in some
sense constantly interacting with everything else.
Nature is infused with the dynamical
interpenetration of the vast and minute, an
endless dervish mixing. Matter and energy
continually flow across scales, the small
informing the large and the large informing the
small …
Unless we work with nature’s own finely tuned
scale-linking systems we endanger the stability
of life on the planet…
If we are to properly include ecological concerns
within design, we must take seriously the
challenge offered by scale linking. We need to
discover ways to integrate our design processes
across multiple levels of scale and make these
processes compatible with natural cycles of water,
energy, and material.”

60. “A city is more
than a place in
space, it is a
drama in time”
Patrick Geddes

61. “Cities have the
capability of providing
something for everybody,
only because, and only
when, they are created by
everybody.”
The Death and Life of Great American Cities
Jane Jacobs

62. It is, in fact, nothing short of a
miracle that the modern methods of
instruction have not yet entirely
strangled the holy curiosity of
inquiry; for this delicate little
plant, aside from stimulation,
stands mainly in need of freedom;
without this it goes to wrack and
ruin without fail.
It is a very grave mistake to think
that the enjoyment of seeing and
searching can be promoted by
means of coercion and a sense of
duty.
Albert Einstein

63. The freedom to make mistakes provides
the best environment for creativity.
Education isn't how much you have
committed to memory, or even how
much you know.
It's being able to differentiate between
what you know and what you don’t.
Anatole Franc

64. “We live in a culture entirely
hypnotised by the illusion of time, in
which so-called present moment is felt
as nothing but infinitesimal hairline
between a causative past and an
absorbingly important future.
We have no present. Our consciousness
is almost completely preoccupied with
memory and expectation.
We do not realise that there never was,
is, nor will be any other experience than
the present. We are therefore out of
touch with reality”
Alan Watts

65. Spaceship Earth
Buckminster Fuller
“We are not going to be
able to operate Spaceship
Earth successfully nor
for much longer unless
we see it as a whole
spaceship and our fate as
common.
It has to be everybody or
nobody”

66. “We are on a spaceship; a
beautiful one.
It took billions of years to
develop.
We’re not going to get
another.
Now, how do we make
this spaceship work?”
Spaceship Earth
Buckminster Fuller

67. “Humanity is taking its
final examination.
We have come to an
extraordinary moment when
it doesn’t have to be you or
me.
There is enough for all. We
need not operate
competitively any longer.
If we succeed, it will be
because of youth, truth &
love.”
Spaceship Earth
Buckminster Fuller

68. An answer is valuable only in so far as it
stimulates further inquiry.
This holds true even in the exact sciences where
the hypothesis serves as a springboard for the
searching mind.
The favorite answer of an age, however, is often
one in which only a minimum of problems is
preserved, and which has been promoted to its
place as favorite because it seems to render
superfluous all further questioning.
It closes all doors, blocks all ways, and just
because of this permits the agreeable feeling
that the goal has been reached and that the rest
is granted.
Martin Foss

69. “Development - happens when people, however
poor in money, get together, get organised,
become sophisticated and go to scale.
It happens when they are savvy and able to
influence or change the course of events or the
order of things locally, nationally or even
globally - or are themselves able to become
that order or part of it.”
“Development - is that stage you reach when
you are secure enough in yourself,
individually or collectively, to become
interdependent; when ‘I’ can emerge as ‘we’,
and also when ‘we’ is inclusive of ‘them’...
Getting organised is the foundation of all
the other developmental goals we have set; it is
the essence of good governance and of
sustainable work; it empowers and opens
doors; it makes you money and wins you
respect.”
Nabeel Hamdi

70. The integral approach weaves together the internal and
external components of reality. Alongside an
understanding of the nature and complexity of
interconnected systems, there is also recognition of
interior dynamics (psychological, cultural and spiritual)
in the system.
An integral approach, therefore, retains the existing
practices that focus on the "exterior" components of life,
such as biological systems, economic initiatives, social
organizing, governance and sustainability, and also
works with the interior components, such as worldviews,
values, and awareness.
These interior parts of society inform our opinions and
decision-making, essentially guiding the ways we make
meaning of our surroundings and interactions.
With an understanding of interiority, it becomes easier to
identify the underlying values, needs, worldviews and
motivations that arise when engaged in the work of social
change.
This enables a more effective working dynamic between
and among individuals and communities, as well as
more psychologically sophisticated way of collaborating
with colleagues, staff, employees and project coordinators.
The integral approach reveals the life's interior
Integral Without Borders

71. Walking with you
not talking at you
.
Cultivation.AP looks for people in communities with the aim of creating safe spaces
to allow the adventurous to experiment and share their results and to develop
tomorrow’s community cultivators.

72. “let us be the ones that
dance through your
dreams”
“…finding the latent
paths not yet trodden
into tomorrow.”

73. To the one’s who think
outside the box
the one’s with the lightbulb
moments and passionate
hearts.
Rise up.
Make the difference.
Don’t hold back
Fly higher
Dream bigger than before

74. Fading now… this life force spent
I fall to earth on weary wings
Spiralling down from the wonderment
To rest among the earth-bound things
Once I knew dimensions of the heart
Unlimited by mind
Time and space were torn apart
Mortal fears were left behind
Wings of endowment… wings of might
Spread wide… they let me soar
Through the day and through the night
I ruled a boundless cosmic shore
But age has changed that sweet equation
My old wings no longer fly
‘Cept flights of mind on rare occasion
Still lift my eagle dreams that high
Now earthbound crickets sing to me
Of time and space… in which are bent
That dream of liberation that set me free
But a freedom barely half content
You see, I would trade the whole of space
For their bed of earth… so wild and free…
And a cricket song with its gentle grace
And a prairie moon for company
For my eagle wings are folded now
They went as far as wings could go
Now I must ‘bide an earthly nest somehow
And tell those crickets what I know
I’ll tell them that I never really touched a star
No eagle ever flew so high
For the wings of eagles only go so far
And then they fold… and then they die…
And when my wings have turned to dust
And my feathers into flowers spring
I’ll try to earn those crickets’ trust
And tame their dreams of wandering
I’ll tell them how I barely kissed the sky
And my imprint left no trace
How all I glimpsed with my eagle eye
Was the same mirage we all embrace
And… if an eagle feather should be set adrift
Upon the breath of dawn
Place it on your altar as my gift
That my memory be… not entirely gone
And shed a tear for a summer sky
With no eagle there to soar
No lonely eagle’s piercing cry
To claim his boundless cosmic shore
For my wings are folded in a dream divine
In a bed of earth… wild and free…
And that cricket singing… as the stars align
That cricket sings of me
especially for all those old eagles who aren’t
flying quite so high anymore.
The Eagle Folds His Wings
Ŧoƞpa Ɉoƞ ©2018

75. Urban Hubseries

76. Key to an Integral approach to urban design is the notion
that although other aspects of urban life are important,
people (sentient beings), as individuals and
communities, are the primary ‘purpose’ for making cities
thriveable. All other aspects (technology, transport &
infra-structure, health, education, sustain-ability,
economic development, etc.) although playing a major
part, are secondary.
Urban Hub Series
These books are a series of presentations for the use of
Integral theory or an Integral Meta-framework in
understanding cities and urban Thriveability.
Although each can stand alone, taken together they give
a more rounded appreciation of how this broader
framework can help in the analysis and design of
thriveable urban environments.
Guides for Integrally Informed Practitioners
The Guides for Integrally Informed Practitioners
(adjacent) cover much of the theory behind the Integral
Meta-framework used in these volumes. For topics
covered in other volumes in this series see the following
page.
Pdf versions are gratis to view
& download @:
https://www.slideshare.net/PauljvsSS
Hardcopies can be purchased from
Amazon

77. August 2016

78. SPANISH

79. 9
3
March 2024
TBA TBA TBA
April 2024

80. Other
books
published
by
iUH
Publishing

81. Urban Hub Aide Memoire series
allitemsintheseaidememoiresaretakenfrom
booksintheUrbanHubseries

84. “Tell me a fact and
I’ll listen. Tell me a
truth and I’ll learn.
But tell me a story,
and it will live in
my heart forever.”
There is a Native American saying:
Life shows its
harmony, when you
discover your
connection to what
unfolds.

88. Urban
Hub
Integral UrbanHub
ThriveableWorlds
A series of books from Integral UrbanHub
on Thriving people and Thriveable Cities
&
35
Without taking into account the many worldviews that
currently co-exist and crafting ways of including them
in
a positive and healthy form we will continue to
alienate vast sections of all communities.
No one vision is sufficient in and of itself – visions can
guide but only by collaborative action in a creative
generative process can visions grow and become part of an
ongoing positive sociocultural reality.
integral
MENTORS