Integrally Gay

Monday night's men group, the first official meeting, was amazing. I can't imagine a better way to bring men in my life for authentic communication, presencing, and supporting each other in transformative practices.

A new group men came together in North Seattle on a rainy night, ranging in age from 20something to 60something. The group could have benefited from being a bit more ethnically or sociologically diverse in many ways (so far as I know I was one of two openly gay/bi men there in a sea of white faces).

This followed two organizational meetings in November and December where some of us discussed rules, did some men's work, processed the role of men's work and integral practice in our lives. Some men came who decided it wasn't for them.

Nine of us remain, a few of whom I met for the first time last night or saw for the first time in several years. All but one of us have been initiated in the New Warrior Training Adventure (NWTA) of the ManKind Project, and the group is listed on the MKPNW list of I-Groups. (MKP only promotes the group to its community; we are completely responsible for what happens, and we have made several innovations.)

Unlike conventional MKP I-Groups, the integral Men's group is organized so that each evening includes at least one round of the circle for each major model of Integral Life Practice: Body Module, Mind Module, Shadow Module, and Spirit Module. Most of MKP I-Group protocols don't go any further than shadow work, so we will include those processes in that part of our meeting.

Our goal is to support each other in getting our ILPs rocking, stay on track with our goals, keep accountable to our visions and missions in life. The process of the group could help us in forming a container safe and intimate enough to go deep into the garbage bag of the psyche as we need to go. But they are only tools.

Ultimately, the success of failure of the group will much depend on the energy and commitment of every participant in bringing himself fully and authentically into a space where transformation can happen. On Monday night, the focus was the Mind Module. We each completed our ILP Worksheet which described the specific items in our integral development at this time in every area, how often we would do them, and what the next things were on which we would work.

The vision I held for my 2010 is one of accepting and bringing forth my full humanity and full divinity. My most important and time-consuming practice is in the Mind Module/Spirit Module: writing my Kronology project, an endeavor that frequently requires me to access my higher mind and enter into contemplative states of mind. Along the way, I also want to get in shape, spend more time cooking, maintain a money-consciousness practice, and continue several other practices that I have been doing and are working.

My own group came together with a bunch of e-mails and phone calls to men I know, and men that they know, and launched in less than two months. If you don't have a group like the ILP group in your life, what's stopping you?