Integral Life Practice by Wilber, Patten, et al. I’ve gone on to read more of Wilber, but this was the one that made Wilber’s approach finally click for me. AQAL provided a framework for understanding how various practices, disciplines, and interests I have can be mutually supportive. Career, family life, physical exercise, spiritual practice .. nothing need be left out. Similarly, the idea of the Three Faces of God/Spirit helped me see the same about the various spiritual traditions I’ve benefited from.
that's a country size of Sacramento. Even if it was a societal paradise (don't know much about that, life expectancy seems not great at 71), a sample of 700k people doesn't seem to crush the predictive power of GDP per capita.
I’m curious about any practices you may have found to integrate these positive aspects of your atheist view into your life. You mention moral responsibility and forgiveness - is there a way you intentionally cultivate these?
One thing you didn’t mention is awe or wonder, something I often hear religiously-minded people speak of. In contrast to fundamentalist religion, which exchanges awe for constricted thoughts about what is and isn’t real, it seems to me that true awe really is especially available to athiests (or those who align with religion and have moved beyond the belief system aspect and into the contemplative).
I’ve practiced meditation daily for several years. I find this indispensable for my internal sense of well-being, as well as for my relationships (gives me the space and perspective for more empathy) and work (better, focus, less catastrophizing).
A big boost to my practice this past year has been Integral Life Practice (https://www.integral-life-practice.com). This isn’t something different from the meditation practice I already had, but it’s more a framework for integrating spiritual practice across the various aspects of life (body, mind, spirit, shadow, etc). It’s adaptable to whatever religious/spiritual practice one might have, and has helped me uncover areas in my life where I’m not paying enough attention (for me, body and shadow). I print off a grid each week of the specific practices I want to focus on, and a particularly satisfying way to end my day is to check off the activities I’ve done for the day. Here’s an example to give an idea of what this might look like https://youtu.be/TIrnv4Hlpw0
The loss of magic is real. Though one thing I've found helpful to understand this phenomenon what is called in some circles "quadrant absolutism." That is, reality can be understood from four perspectives, or quadrants: 1st person singular "I"; 1st person plural "we" or 2nd person "you"; 3rd person singular "it"; and 3rd person singular "its".
Quadrant absolutism is taking one or two of these perspectives as more real or true than others. Examples: A religious fundamentalist takes more real or true what his/her community or scripture (1st person plural) believes about reality, leaving out the 3rd person perspectives that would demonstrate, say evolution. Or scientific materialists who only take as ultimately real the "things out there" - chemicals, atoms, quarks, etc, considering 1st person experiences such as love to be somehow less real.
