ATP Articles
Article 6

What is a 'Complete' Practice and why is it important?
by Ted P. Attreides

There are many ways to explain 'complete' or 'integral'. The most common is that it is an approach that attempts to include and integrate matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit. The idea is to simultaneously exercise all the major capacities and dimensions of the human body/mind: physical, mental, emotional, social, cultural and spiritual, as the most effective way to create positive changes within ones self.

As straight forward as that summary might sound now, it is historically a rather radical idea. 'Integral Yoga' was a term first used by Sri Aurobindo in the early 20th century. It specifically meant a practice that is not just a transformation of consciousness, but of the body as well.

(Certainly this is not meant to imply that there were no mind-body practices before the 20th Century. Several cultures have had versions of mind-body practices for hundreds of years. But almost all religious and mystical traditions, east and west, ultimately see the goal of their practice as some kind of vertical lift-off, out of this world into either a transcendent beyond, heaven, or a final nirvana cessation. Sri Aurobindo said that this view was incomplete! Therefore, unless one really reads Sri Aurobindo, they may miss the specific type of transformation of body and consciousness that he spoke of.)

Drawing on these pioneering insights of Aurobindo, but extending them in many profound and significant ways, a number of human potential pioneers, integral thinkers and authors like Ken Wilber, George Leonard, Michael Murphy, Tony Schwartz and many others have been arguing for many years that what is sorely needed now is a truly complete or integral practice.

The basic idea of such a 'complete' practice is simple: The more aspects of our being we simultaneously exercise the more likely that positive human change will occur. And that positive transformation will happen in a shorter amount of time, in other words it will be 'accelerated'.

Although this is a good start at defining a 'complete' or 'integral' practice, Ken Wilber, who has been called one of America's most inventive thinkers, has actually made that scheme even more sophisticated by pointing out that each of those levels of our being actually has three important dimensions.

The first dimension he correlates with self (the I;) the second dimension is cultural (the We;) and the third is correlated with nature (the It).

Let's give an example to make this easier to understand, starting with Self: the levels of existence as they appear in oneself can be exercised by a spectrum of practices: physical exercises (jogging, weightlifting, diet, etc.), emotional exercises (chi-gong, counseling, tantra, etc. ) mental exercises (value clarification, affirmation, visualization, etc.), and spiritual exercises (meditation, contemplative prayer, etc.).

But these levels of existence need to be exercised not just in self, but in culture and nature as well, (the other 2 dimensions). Exercising the levels in culture might mean getting involved in community service or participating in local government. More importantly, it means using relationships in general (marriage, friendship, parenting, and work relationships) to further your own growth and the growth of others. Mutually respectful dialogue -- which the Sufis call 'Spiritual Conversation' -- is indeed the time honored method of linking self and other in a dance of understanding and deeper connections.

Exercising the levels of existence in nature might mean getting involved in respecting nature in any number of ways (enjoying our national parks, recycling, environmental protection, etc.). It basically means that nature is viewed not as an inert backdrop to our actions but as participating in our own evolution. Thus honoring nature, promotes our own capacity to care.

The ultimate conclusion of this more sophisticated approach is that by putting these three dimensions together with the major levels of existence, we mentioned earlier (i.e. matter, body, mind, soul, and spirit) we get a much more genuinely all encompassing complete or accelerated practice.

Now, obviously this approach must be 'practiced' over a certain period of time, for any meaningful transformation to occur. Hence the name Accelerated Transformative Practice -- ATP was coined to describe this complete and more sophisticated approach of creating positive human change within oneself.

In short, ATP attempts to exercise all the basic levels of human beings -- physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual -- in self, culture, and nature, as this is the most powerful way to trigger positive transformation. Not to mention simply becoming as vital, healthy and full of energy as one can be!