The Great Integrity, … and You
 
Our Western civilization has been living with fragmenting ways of knowing and behaving, having departed from the Great Integrity a long time ago. The Great Integrity is one of my favorite terms for ultimate reality, and Nature with a capital N. It is a God-term. You can think of it as the field of consciousness that is the source and creative intelligence embodied in every form and binding the whole together in the most intricate ecologically wise ways. In my studies of shamanism across cultures, including the ancient Chinese systems, I have noticed a reverence and respect for all which manifests in the visionary and material realms, and see that they are integrally related. Different cultures give different names to The Great Integrity: Tao, Wakan, Tanka, Kitchi Manitou, Great Spirit, the Divine Artist, and so on. Martin Heidegger and Eckhart Tolle have called it Being. William James called it the Field. In Andean Quechua systems it is associated with the Pachamama, and Jatun (The Great force of Life). Still, I find the simplicity of these two words “Great Integrity” speaks so helpfully to our time and place in history.
 
Contemporary Chinese Taoist sages reflecting on human history and evolution have seen three epochs emerge. The Yin Epoch of human cultural evolution rained for about 2.5 million years, giving birth to forms of hominid life that were intimately attuned to Nature and ecosystem. This is the Era of the Great Integrity I. In this era the clan and tribe emerged from the hoard, consciousness was pre-dominantly holistic, driven by the non-dominant hemisphere and the phylogenetically much older reptilian brain (The MaClean-Papez R-complex), and the emergence of a more feminine mode of consciousness. Appreciation of holistic weather and migration patterns, of seasonal cycles, rhythmic movement, and ritual processes flourished in this epoch. Intuitive, visionary thinking emerged and shamanism sprang into being as an evolutionary force. Without over-idealizing our archaic ancestors ways of life, we can see the wisdom in forms of life that did sustain them and their environments rather well. In that long era tribal and small village life came forth and brought collaboration and kinship …with each individual; in these small communities being important to survival and meeting the challenges of life.
 
The Yang Epoch, the Era of Fragmentation, has only emerged in the past few thousand years, with the rise of agriculture, the hording of grain which made the rise of densely populated cities, then city-states and colonial empires possible. This is the period of fragmentation and disrespect of life, of Nature, but in its midst arose the more linguistic, logical analytical consciousness, associated with the dominant hemisphere, and a more one-sidedly masculine mode of consciousness. The intimacy of the smaller tribal groups and a local village life was lost. Suddenly we neither knew the members of our society, nor could we know who to trust. Many of us have been unconsciously grieving the loss of intimacy and bonds of the age-old with tribal and village life, and, unbeknownst to us, subliminally yearning for a return to it.
 
Our Place in History:
We are now entering a third Epoch, according to Taoist philosophers, and this is the Epoch of The Great Integrity II. It is in an embryonic but rapidly growing stage. It is uncertain the new baby will be born, but it is looking like it has a good chance.  It is an era of the integrated brain function, of planetary consciousness and ecological awareness, of inclusiveness and appreciation of geographical, cultural and spiritual diversity. All entities, ideal and material are beginning to be seen as related and interrelated. Eco-systemic awareness is arising, the Noosphere is the name Teilhard de Chardin  gave to the planet growing itself a nervous system through the internet. Spiritual experience and ideas are becoming democratic and spawning revolutions…influential collectivities are growing that once hitting a critical threshold tend to spring into power. The rise of Face Book as the most successful social network of our era is reintroducing the feel of the Global Village McLuhan predicted, and the joys and pleasures many are finding have to do with defragmenting and re-connecting with the human tribe, which such networks are now making possible. They bring some ills as well, but expansion of human connectivity is a major ingredient in the direction of what is needed to return to the Great Integrity and co-create a genuine planetary culture that is worth living in and passing on to future generations of our species, and to the other creatures with whom we share life on this amazing planet.
 
If we want to consciously participate in this emerging era of 
The Great integrity, we can begin by opening our hearts and with them attuning to life all around us, at every level, in every dimension. We can say  “Tu Kuy” ( a kind of Hello from the heart, in Quechua) to each being we meet in every time and place. We can thus begin our apprenticeship to The Great Integrity, through open-hearted and earth-honoring relationships. The more we align and come into harmony with It, the more our co-creative and collaborative power burgeons forth, and the more sacred activism takes hold.