The Integral Message
I give the following illustration of how one might begin to imagine the integral experience. I draw attention to the sphere as the symbol of the integral world. The sphere is endeavouring to mirror the notion of an open attitude of awareness to the inter-related totality of all domains of consciousness, experience and knowledge as operating simultaneously.
To grasp the significance of the shift from the dualistic mental-rational consciousness to the integral world one can contrast the experience of observing a sphere from outside of its realm. One can mentally observe its 360-degree span of awareness, while also noting that as a sphere it has a three-dimensional span of equal proportions. To imagine one moving inside the circular perspective to discover it has dimension to create the spherical, then the consciousness becomes a more complete and all-encompassing experience of total awareness. This represents the mutational change humanity is now transitioning.
In a living example, one could contrast the experience of observing the ocean and identifying all that is visually apparent on its surface. Such sensory sight is spoken of by Panikkar as the first sight. By engaging one’s imagination, it is possible to mentally visualise what might be beneath the surface. With additional knowledge learnt from a written record one could imagine the remains of a wrecked ship, perhaps even one that one was well familiar with from gathered historical records and geographical knowledge of the ocean floor to create an accurate picture of that part of the ocean. For Panikkar this use of the mind would be regarded as constituting second sight. In a further development one could don the appropriate equipment and enter the water and swim freely within the ocean. One might recall what one knew from the first sight, then recognize what one imagined from the second sight for orientation, but a further development would be arousing a more comprehensive awareness of the entire experience with an intuitive spherical awareness of one’s entire surrounds. This is the beginning of an illustration of what Panikkar calls the third sight. It integrally incorporates the first and seconds sights into a comprehensive awakening to the totality of spherical awareness.
The spherical perspective within the context of ocean water is a helpful example because water is an example of all things working together as one. Integral perspective remains open to the totality of our environment, respecting the inter-relational nature of the totality, and which can now be known in non-dual inter-related reality.