The Field of Loving Integration
In the first article in this three-part series, we looked at A.H. Almaas's writings on the logoi of spiritual teachings and the quantum view of realization. To reiterate, I use the term “field of consciousness” in a way that parallels Almaas's meaning of “logos,” when it refers to the current of living wisdom behind a teaching.
Continuing in this way, another key insight we receive from Almaas’s work is that different logoi spark a resonance in different individuals whose “personal logos” – like the blueprint of their unique soul – overlaps with the logos of certain teachings. We will be drawn to some storehouses of wisdom and not others. We may be drawn to learn from many different logoi as part of our development. But if we listen earnestly, we will find that some logoi call to us more strongly – they feel deeply aligned and resonant with us – while others do not stir our soul in the same way. The feelings of being stirred by, aligned with, or resonant with a particular logos/field reflects to us, like a mirror, our own blueprint.
Along with that, like rivers can branch off of even larger rivers, Almaas explains how some wisdom currents are more closely related to each and may in fact derive from the same larger current. He uses the example of how the logoi of Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism are all part of a great (unnamed) logos associated with the East.
The field of Loving Integration is a consciousness field, a logos, that expresses itself through many different teachings. Like the great logos behind Eastern spiritual traditions, many different teachers have come and offered teachings that are aligned with it and are expressions of it. The sub-fields have different flavors of expression, but they are all contained within a greater, shared field.
The field of Loving Integration at its core essence is a field of consciousness that weaves wholeness through love — through perceiving that All is Divine and relating to all aspects of the Divine as Self.
To give a few examples, the spiritual dimensions of IFS, the teachings of Teal Swan, and Matt Kahn’s body of work (in his “All For Love” teaching era) all express this field of Loving Integration. We can explore how each one of them does so in more detail:
Spiritual dimensions of IFS – The basic attitude in IFS, Internal Family Systems, is that there are “no bad parts.” Despite the perception that a part’s activities can seem opposed to the best interests of the self, open inquiry reveals all parts are in some way serving us. The inner critic, for example, is really an inner ally believing it must employ negative strategies to ensure safety, connection, and other essential needs will be met. This core attitude that sees all parts as having good intentions, and practices relating to them with curiosity and compassion, is deeply aligned with the field of Loving Integration. The founder of IFS, Richard Schwartz, has suggested that inner parts are spiritual/sacred beings, which reinforces the idea that IFS is informed by, or an expression of, this larger field.
Teal Swan’s teachings – At the heart of Teal's teachings is the understanding of oneness. The oneness of consciousness seeks to heal its fragmentation into aspects that perceive themselves as separate by coming into alignment with love. We can see how all of her other teachings, such as “The Lesson of Christ and Lucifer” – the core lesson of which is to learn to be a loving presence to the egoic self – come from this deep orientation towards unity consciousness. Teal also puts forward her own teachings on parts work as one of the core techniques she uses for spiritual advancement, as well as a unique process for healing trauma called “The Completion Process.” Both are rooted in an unconditionally loving, wholeness-oriented consciousness, inspired by a near death experience she describes in her blog piece, “Only Love, Only Love.”
Matt Kahn (“All for love” era) – While Matt seems to have graduated from one stage of life and transitioned out of independent teaching circa 2024, in the decade prior, Matt brought forward a body of work that powerfully expressed the teachings of Loving Integration. From his first book, Whatever Arises, Love That, to his program “Total Integration,” to writings such as Everything Is Here to Help You, in which he unpacked the view of ego as part of the soul, and many more — in all of these places, Matt presented understandings that are love-driven and deeply embracing of the whole human experience. He simultaneously pointed out the silence and space in which everything arises, while holding space for the unique human journey unfolding within it, and offered seekers a spiritual path that honors both.
What I would like to suggest is that, paralleling the way in which Eastern teachings like Buddhism, Taoism, and Hinduism are all expressions of a parent-logos, these more contemporary teachings are all expressions of another logos, another field of consciousness that we can call “Loving Integration.” These two words are quite descriptive of how this field guides us. “Integration” suggests that it weaves wholeness—it includes the human, incarnate self as an extension of the divine self. “Loving” describes the way wholeness is woven—through regarding each aspect of life with love and respect, and always relating to life from those deeply held values.
The field of Loving Integration weaves through the work of a great many people. I have only mentioned a few well-known, impactful expressions of its wisdom here—some that I am more familiar with. It's worth mentioning that visionary thinkers like Carl Jung and Ken Wilber have also contributed greatly to humanity’s appreciation of integration as a process. Their work certainly overlaps with this field/logos. But I make a distinction between integration-focused teachings more generally and integration teachings in which unconditional love is the cornerstone of the path. The latter are fully aligned with “Loving Integration.”
Directly Experiencing the field of Loving Integration
All of these abstract concepts — such as “logos”, “quantum view,” and “field of consciousness” — do not have to remain abstractions separated from real experience. Rather, this new understanding can have a significant impact on our own lived experience of the spiritual journey. Almaas’s concept that a spiritual teachings has a logos, and that we are engaging with the logos anytime we do a single practice from a teaching, has enormous practical implications.
Perhaps the most important implication is this: knowing that there is a logos or field one is engaging with, one can intentionally be more open and receptive to that field, which in turn allows a deeper receiving of its love and wisdom into oneself, a greater expansion, and an acceleration of spiritual progress. The word “progress” tends to sound an alarm in the minds of spiritual practitioners, since it implies a goal beyond the present moment. But in many cases the accomplishment of progress can be paradoxical: instead of getting closer to an imagined goal, our consciousness expands when we cease fixating on a goal. Coming to that realization more quickly would be a good example of accelerated progress.
There’s also a gap or bridge to be crossed between: (a) intellectually recognizing that there is a living reality to a logos or field of consciousness around spiritual teachings, and (b) experientially recognizing this. The latter is the point at which this knowledge becomes very empowering to the person who has it.
From this place of recognizing the existence of many different logoi or fields of consciousness as realities that we, as consciousness ourselves, are in a relationship with, we can then choose to engage with a particular field in a very conscious way. We know that the more deeply we connect to the field around a teaching, the more it speaks to us, guides us, and influences us. Almaas’s advice to delve deeply into one logos is relevant here: if we wish to receive the deepest transformation that a field has to offer us, it’s essential that we engage with it in a committed way and stay open to its influence. Whatever the soul focuses on repeatedly grows and expands, and as our soul continually gives attention to and deeply engages with a certain field, we imbibe its current of wisdom. We come to know what the logos knows. We experience what the field experiences.
Like the logos of the Diamond Approach, the field of Loving Integration can be experienced directly. It speaks to us, guides us, and influences us in the direction of wholeness, including both our divinity and humanity, with love being its cornerstone. The love at the deepest part of this field is all-inclusive and unconditional: everything is seen to be an expression of the self, an expression of oneness. The energy of love or positive embrace of all aspects arises from the recognition of this “sameness.” A fundamental mechanism operating in the universe is that whatever is regarded as oneself is automatically loved, in the same way that a parent takes their child as part of themselves. Unconditional love does not negate the need for boundaries, nor does it throw wise discernment out the window. Things can be taken as the self/oneness while individual boundaries are respected. The acknowledgment is that all is one at the level of Spirit or True Nature, not that all souls are the same soul. It’s important for grounding to maintain the distinction between Spirit and soul.
How we are guided by the field of Loving Integration
Within the field of Loving Integration, it’s natural to relate to the multitude of aspects of consciousness comprising us as “parts,” like “inner beings” worthy of respect and love. Reality manifests itself in fractal patterns, and just as our individual souls are nodes of a great fractal, our inner parts are the continuation of the fractal pattern. We might imagine the Enneagram and the universal laws it represents as symbolizing the fractal pattern of the universe with that pattern being replicated as our soul’s “Enneagram parts.” We can have the direct experience of them. All of our parts have their own conscious awareness and inner world, so as we become present with one of them, it’s very much like we are exploring a universe within another universe.
Certain perspectives, attitudes, and ways of being feel congruent with the field of Loving Integration, while others feel incongruent. A notable example is the pattern of negative judgement, which is the way in which life creates separation through holding a rigid negative view of something, rooted in fear. This is a good example of a pattern or attitude that is incongruent with the field of Loving Integration. The field does not judge the judgement, but rather it divests negative judgement of its power by seeing it from a higher mind that doesn’t fixate on one position. In the big picture, the field moves us in the direction of opening not only the mind, but also the heart and belly, and finally mending the splits between these centers so they begin to function as one awakened, integrated system. This is called integrating the core split.
At the very core of the field of Loving Integration lies what Teal Swan calls the “Christ” energy or “Christ Consciousness,” which knows the oneness of all things and regards nothing as separate from itself. This is why, in Enneagram Parts Work, when we encounter the facets of the ego as the Enneagram type personalities within us, we relate to them with love, respect, and dignity, treating them as aspects of the Divine. There is nothing in existence that is not the beautiful expression of Divine energy, sometimes called “Source Consciousness.” While attaining this realization is itself a noteworthy milestone on the inner journey, to take it a step further is to begin relating to expressions of “Source” or “The One” as the Divine energy they are inseparable from. This relational way of being honors each arising manifestation as the holy mystery that is the deep, liberating truth of all things.
The Sophia Field
In some mystical branches of Christianity there’s an understanding of Sophia as the Divine feminine aspect of the Christ energy. “Sophia” is the esoteric name for the field of Loving Integration. Sophia consciousness or Christ-Sophia is associated with figures such as Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene is thought by some to have had a level spiritual maturity similar to Christ himself.
The Christ energy is now making a resurgence in our world. However, it is not the return of an individual Christ. In the Buddhist tradition, the wise teacher Thich Nhat Hanh said before he passed that the future Buddha, Maitreya, may appear as the sangha, the awakened community. In a parallel teaching, the “second coming” of Christ is not about one person but the opening of the hearts of all humanity. If you imagined the beauty of millions of flowers blossoming at the same time, you’d be coming closer to the unimaginable beauty of this awakening of consciousness.
Mother Mary can be seen as a guide within the Sophia field, and her teaching is that when you see what arises as your own deepest self, as oneness, you can’t not love it. Love is the inevitable byproduct of seeing oneness. We can’t not love ourselves, since all of our parts are trying to serve us and do good things. They are all self-loving in that sense. But, in the throes of unconsciousness, that basic self-loving attitude can morph into its exact opposites. Mother Mary and Mary Magdalene, as well as other spiritual guides associated with Sophia consciousness, are “wayshowers” to remind us of how to consciously love ourselves, integrate our fragmented selves, and live in a state of wholeness on earth.
In the final article in this series, we’ll look at the fields of consciousness in which the Enneagram has historically been taught in comparison to its expression within the Sophia field, and how its placement there manifests as Enneagram Parts Work.
