“Having voted, Chandler felt no satisfaction with what he’d done.

He still saw no real connection between his vote and how Canada is run. Democracy, as he said repeatedly, has different dynamics: consensus building among citizens around a specific issue; informed and well-researched submissions to civil servants and cabinet ministers; influence from lobbyists.

‘I am not drawn to electoral politics,’ he said simply.

And if you don’t vote, you can’t complain? ‘I am not impressed by that argument,’ he replied.

Knowing he’s a practising Roman Catholic (I’d driven him to mass with his grandparents), I said: ‘Look, voting is like taking part in the Eucharist; it’s a symbolic and representative act. It’s not an end in itself, because to be a Christian you’ve got to be more fully engaged in your faith, and to be a citizen you’ve got to be more fully engaged in your civic society. But the sym- bolism of the vote is important.'”

OF THE MISTAKES MADE BY THOSE WHO PRACTISE WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE.

Those who are in love with practice without knowledge are like the sailor who gets into a ship without rudder or compass and who never can be certain whether he is going. Practice must always be founded on sound theory, and to this Perspective is the guide and the gateway; and without this nothing can be done well in the matter of drawing.”

“Stop reading! Take a few moment to examine the contents of your pockets or purse ……

Can you find any item there, that you obtained without the help of someone else? Look around you. What do you see? Did you make the clothes you wear? Did you grow the food you eat or the tools you use. Look around your home or workplace. Can you find anything that you made. Do you know the names of those who did make all these things? Do you ever know upon whom you depend. Can you find anything in your environment that was obtained without the help of someone else?

I am not talking about ownership here. I will grant that you own your possessions. But would you have them if they had not been for sale. I would argue that nearly everything modern humans possess was obtained with the help of others.

As I examine my world I discover that I depend on others to to grow and produce my food. I depend on others to design and build my home. I depend on others to generate my electricity. I depend on others to supply my water. I depend on others to deliver my mail. I depend on others to educate my children. I depend on others to entertain my family. I depend on others to manufacture my automobile. I depend on others to refine the gasoline for my car. I depend on others to care for my family when we are sick. I depend on others to protect us from crime and war. I depend on others to………. I depend on others, I depend.”

Presencing is the ability to act in such a way that the actions we perform originate in the coming-into-presence of the future. When acting on this level, we let go of our �small selves� and turn into vehicles for the coming-into-being of a deep evolutionary stream. How do we do this? By carrying out a certain inner work, an inner work that is related to a threefold reversal process: turning one�s thinking away from judging to exploring; the reversal of feeling away from emotional reaction to appreciation and seeing with the heart; and a reshaping of the will away from hard ego intentionality to a softer, more future-receptive will that the philosopher Martin Buber refers to as �Grand Will.� The opening to future possibilities requires such reversals, that is, an inversion [Umst�lpung] of the mentalemotional- intentional field structure. Is such a future open? Yes, every future is fundamentally open�the future is potentiality. Closure comes into play with the past, and then when this past, which continues on, juts into the present.

“Projects in integral practice include mapping and gathering information about the spiritual practice movement in America; increasing public awareness of the broad range of practices available; supporting deeper levels of collaboration among individuals and organizations; and engaging in research and evaluation to understand the impact of integral practice on human transformation.”