Integration
_AM: The third of the pillars of the Universe is Integration. When the mind of the Universe expressed itself, releasing all possible options of itself, becoming a creative, although chaotic, being, its expansion allowed the manifestation of trillions of perspectives, which through Experimentation, could be lived, experienced through the senses. . Each option became an individual in itself, a diverse point of observation that fed the mind with data. Being able to observe the same thing from different angles, experimentation enabled evolution, improving the way of capturing and transforming reality. The different points of view found the potential of their being when connecting the visions of the idea, allowing themselves to create a new option that surpassed the previous ones; which generated a coherent and ordered fabric, whose primary objective is to find the balance between perceptions, finding stability. That instance is called Integration.
_I: What does it mean?
_AM: Integrate comes from “in” (within) and “tangere” (to touch), therefore, it is the action of incorporating oneself into what is tangible, or making something a palpable reality. We could also take the option “tegere”, coming from “weaving, weaving”, which speaks of connecting things that are separate, like separate threads that intertwine to form a new structure in unity.
_I: I could say, then, that I am a tangible fabric that emerged from the individual stories of my father, my mother, my grandfathers and grandmothers, and so on...
_AM: That's right. DNA could be seen as that fabric that unites all the threads of history that make us who we are. Subatomic particles magnetically intertwine with each other, and atoms repeat the same thing by weaving molecules, and these into chemical compounds, and from there, into organic tissues that develop organs, bodies, and complex entities. Trillions and trillions of individual organisms that interrelate to form a larger individual, which performs the same task, like an echo of the micro cosmos but in the macro cosmos. Well, what you call from the human as cultural and social interaction, at the base level of life you could call homeostatic symbiosis. Each cell in a body fulfills the same function as an individual in humanity.
_I: I wonder, then what do we mean when we say “being whole” or a “whole person”?
_AM: The concept Integration taken to the attribute or adjective, describes a person, being or entity that takes into account all the things that make it up and lives in harmony with all of them. The quality of being tangible and unified is Integrity. A being devoid of integrity is one who does not act based on what he feels, or who does not feel based on what he thinks.
_I: So it's the same as being coherent or incoherent.
_AM: It has its connection, but coherence speaks more about the methodology, and integrity speaks more about the content. While a coherent being must look for a way to make its mind, emotion and action correlative with each other, integrity speaks of whether all those things that make up the action, emotion and mind are visible and viable to be connected, or whether they are hidden or abandoned, as well as recognized and active in an individual.
_I: We usually say that a person has integrity when he honors his values, his ethics, when he respects and lives from the truth. Therefore, he is someone who always does what is right for himself and for those around him.
_AM: Yes, but there are people who do that out of hypocrisy, precisely to cover up their lack of integrity. What defines a person of integrity is not by what he does, but by what he is. The whole person does not demonstrate through external acts, but rather that his private and public life are correlated, his internal and external world are linked as one. Someone of integrity has managed to integrate their shadows and lights, stopping fighting. Whoever has integrity recognizes his history and honor, someone with integrity does not escape his responsibilities, and takes responsibility for his defects, mistakes and learnings. Someone with integrity is one who sees unity in all aspects of their life, and who, based on external agents, has managed to constitute a conscious internal agent.
_I: What would this be like?
_AM: It is the reason why we are working on Integrity on Solar Plexus day. The plexus refers to the ego, to oneself, to the center of the personality, where the individual that I am is formed; and therefore, it is from here that we position ourselves and recognize one among many, and we relate from ourselves to others. The most accurate and real image of integration is precisely embodied in the plexus, through the umbilical cord. This cord is a network of tissues, veins, and ducts that nourish the zygote, and from there, the fetus until it becomes a baby. This tissue absorbs everything that the mother, an external being, provides, and like the root of a tree, the nutrients from the world and the mother reach the baby towards the solar plexus, shaping what it is. You can understand with this image, how this pattern continues to repeat itself in life, in which our being, our ego in constant formation, continues to absorb nutrients and information from other people through the plexus, through the navel, through relationships, from the emotion produced by the links.
_I: Every bond I create with someone feeds me, nourishes my ego, making me who I am. With my family, friends, partners, and even in relationships such as employment, or submission, or enmity. In other words, my umbilical cord is still active, integrating everything that flows in the external world to form my internal world.
_AM: The fabric of life, the fabric of the Self.
_I: I am a fabric made up of threads from all those with whom I have interacted and am linked.
_AM: Integration, therefore, is the act of recognizing all the things that make you who you are. In both the negative and the positive, you are the creation of an intertwining of networks. And if you don't recognize these networks, where these threads come from, or if you hide them, cut them, dirty them, all of this will harm your integrity. Precisely hiding them, cutting them off, damaging them, is what makes the ego a non-integral presence, with which most people relate to the egoic presence.
_I: So the ego that we all know is nothing more than the presence of the being but “with loose threads.” The task would be, then, to join the ends... To mend the wounded, cut parts, to know what I have been nourishing myself with until now...
_AM: Family relationships, love relationships, friendships, dependencies, news, reading or online content, art, culture, religion, beliefs, everything that has given us content of attitudes and skills, that have shaped our emotions, moods, that are the basis of our life, fuel of being.
_I: Well... I could say that this part is very difficult, integrating, because we have been raised in struggle, in resentment, in separation, in believing that I must compete above others and not with others. When we hear the word integrate, we usually recognize that we must accept the other, accept our shadows...
_AM: We have ever described integration in the following way, incorporating the other 3 fundamentals. Imagine that the Cosmic Mind is a 6-year-old child with a great imagination. Suddenly, that child stopped sharing a room with his parents and has his own room, where his parents tell him: You can do whatever you want here, it's your space. The fourth is the Universe, and this child with great creative capacity gets to work. He takes the paints, leaves, pencils, toys, and begins to project his imagination creating an amazing world. Building tunnels with chairs and sheets, cutting leaves with scissors, painting planets on them, and gluing them in the tunnels. Making Lego castles representing intergalactic civilizations, and building aliens with plasticine. All this expression is known as experimentation, in which he spends a moment trying how to design each thing he makes, playing and imagining possible destinations for each one. Then, you hear the voice of the mother or father who appears at the door and says: “It's time to tidy up your room.” At that moment, everything slows down. You have to become aware of everything that was done, to understand where things are, and where they are located again. You have to do the opposite way to recognize what he has created, but also where things come from.
_I: “To keep, to keep, everything in its place”… The teachers at my kindergarten sang like a song.
_AM: This path of recognition and ordering of things is called Integration; moment when experimentation stops for a moment, to become aware of the connection between all things, the logic and reasons for their existence. Thus, you integrate. And you free yourself from the bonds of what is, opening yourself to what could be, you detach yourself from the forms, because you know that new ones will come, since the next day, you will express again, to experiment, with the same elements, but creating something different and transcendental, that is, the process of Transcendence.
_I: It's clear to me.
_AM: So, I invite you to do an integration process.
_I: How?
_AM: Today's task is to look for the tools you have at hand, whether pencils, vegetables, thread, plasticine, plants, seeds, leaves; anything that is within your reach, and build a framework. Choose something that represents you at the center, and begin to weave this web towards yourself, but as you do so, you must give an intention to each object, each one is something that nourishes you, therefore, you must recognize them in your history, in your family, in relationships... Build the paths that integrate into you, and recognize that you are all of this.
_I: I understand… I will do it.
_AM: Enjoy the knitting, it is essential that your body sends signals to your mind that you are setting the intention to become a whole being, accepting your shadows and your lights. Unite your story within you, describe what you have inside you. Simply weave the being that you are.
_I: I am a network of networks.
_AM: And I am the Designer of that Network.