[Dialogue] Primary/Secondary Integrity in the movies

[Darrell Walker]

  Marianna said:

  We have recently learned of Mother Teresa's "secondary integrity". In spite of (remember that phrase?) her unbelief, Mother Teresa remained faithful to her commitment to the poor. What a powerful example of secondary integrity!


  Darrell replies:
  In my understanding, what Mother Teresa experienced is best described as the Dark Night of the Soul, which is quite a different event than what has been described here as "secondary integrity."  In the Dark Night, direct experience evaporates and one is left with only the thread of faith, which Mother Teresa maintained.  She lost the ecstatic experience of enlightenment and experienced that absence as looking into the void; that happens after experiencing "the very presence of God" and then having it evaporate  But that does not mean that she rewrote the rules of engagement which is what I interpret "secondary intergity" to be.
      
  The Dark Night, in Ken Wilber's terms of reference, is the transition from the Subtle level to the Causal level.  Jim Marion (Putting on the Mind of Christ) quoted Bernadette Roberts speaking about the Dark Night:
      "The opening up of our deepest interior center may be likened to an underground explosion, wherein all parts of being are sent flying out of control and scattered in every direction.  Prior to this experience, and by vitrue of a strong will, we had fashioned our own unity accoding to what we know of its parts, and thereafter held these parts together with the tight reins of self-control.  In a word, we were masters of our own house.  The entrance into the dark night, however, shatters the man-made unity.  From here on, God takes over the reins of control and becomes master of the house."

  I always experienced EI/ICA as working very hard to be in control in spite of pious affirmations to the contrary.

  Darrell Walker
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