The Integral Model describes five dimensions of existence that arise for every person in this and every moment. These dimensions are so familiar that they can be quite difficult to see in an objective way. One way of untangling these dimensions from each other so that we can stand back from them and take a look at them is to use the age-old metaphor of sailing.
Imagine that you are a sailing boat crossing the ocean of life...
As the captain, before you depart you establish an intention to pull up anchor and set sail. You have reasons for your journey that lead you to approach it with a particular attitude. Your intention and perspective are parts of your individual interior conditions, and are invisible yet potent forces at work throughout the entire journey.
You also prepare your vessel. This is your ship. It may a ship in prime condition, or perhaps a bit old but still getting the job done. It has certain qualities that are common to all sailing boats, such as a hull, a rudder, a mast and various bits of ancillary hardware. Still it is unique, and it’s quirks are known only to you.
You assemble your crew. Based on your skills as a leader, you may inspire a competent and willing crew who understand the language of sailing and with whom you share mutual respect. If your name is Captain Bly, you may rule through brute force and find your crew unwilling, ineffective and liable to mutiny should you loosen your iron grip.
Once underway, you notice the direction and strength of the wind, the size of the ocean swell, and the direction and speed of ocean currents. All of these are the external conditions of your world that are critical considerations in the way you approach your journey, the degree of difficulty you will encounter and (if there is a hurricane underway) even whether this particular course is viable at this time.
This may be the first time you have ever sailed, or you may have been sailing for 20 years. If you are somewhat experienced (but not an expert), you may sail quite successfully so long as the conditions remain predictable, but you may make quite a mess of things if subjected to a sudden fierce storm or the breakdown of a key piece of equipment. Either way your level of development as a skipper is a critical factor in the way your ship sails in this moment and the way that you respond to changing life conditions.
You may have had quite a bit of experience on the ocean, but mostly on engine-driven vessels. Now that you are on a sailing boat, you find that you are quite skilled at reading weather, currents and swell conditions, but you are not very skilled setting the sails to catch the wind in a efficient way. You may also have been an expert at navigation, but you relied heavily on GPS (satellite navigation) and find yourself quite unfamiliar and struggling with an old-fashioned sextant and a compass. So it turns out that many different skills are required to sail a ship, and the lack of one or more of those skills may have a critical effect on your chances of successfully completing your journey.
Aside from the specific skills you need to sail the boat, other considerations that influence your position as captain include your values, your morals, your emotional maturity, your capacity for creativity, your spiritual maturity, your fear of death and perhaps a dozen other traits. All of these combine to create a ‘self-sense’ that operates at a certain ‘centre of gravity’ of development that determines moment-to-moment how you perceive and react to your world. If you are good at sailing a boat but an emotional and moral midget, chances are you may not be that good of a captain.
The type of boat that you are is also a very important factor. Did you imagine a single-hulled yacht or a twin-hulled catamaran? Did it have one mast or two? Is it large or small? All of these are different types of boats, and they all have their strengths and weaknesses. They respond in very different ways to the same external conditions (for example, catamarans are faster but less stable in a big swell, catamarans are usually more luxurious but less safe in that a single-hulled yacht will automatically right itself if it capsizes). What type of boat you are sailing will determine how changing conditions impact upon you and will influence the decisions you make on how to best adapt.
Even if you are a very experienced skipper and the sailing conditions are favourable, you may or may not notice the huge floating log in your path out in the middle of the ocean. You may be day-dreaming or perhaps over-tired, in which case the whole journey may come to an abrupt and unfortunate end. Or your long experience as a skipper might give you an intuition that danger is lurking, and for no good reason you find yourself scanning the ocean before you looking for the unexpected.
So in summary, the dimensions of existence that are present on our sailing journey are...
There are four elements that go together that may be described as the inside and outside of the individual (skipper and boat) and collective (crew and ‘the world’)...
the intention of the skipper
the condition or ‘health’ of the boat itself
the relationship between the skipper and the crew
worldly conditions, such as the ocean swell, currents, wind, etc.
The overall ‘centre of gravity’ of your development as a person and how that impacts on your capacity to be a good captain.
The degree to which you have mastered the specific skills you need to captain the ship and navigate the waters.
Your capacity to focus and maintain an appropriate state of awareness.
The type of boat you are sailing.
In integral language, these dimensions of existence go by the name of quadrants, levels, lines, states and types respectively. Collectively, these elements constitute a map of reality, and can be used to deepen understanding of any moment, of any interaction, of any challenge, of any opportunity.
Quadrants help us to remember that my body and mind are two distinct (yet related) dimensions; that our relationships call forth another unique (yet related) set of considerations; and that the world of nature and social systems constitute yet another distinct (yet related) aspect of this and every moment.
Levels remind us that every human is born as a vulnerable infant and develops through numerous stages or waves of consciousness. Mystics and sages throughout the ages remind us that there are levels of consciousness beyond what we readily understand, and tell us that with practise we too can reach into the world of mystics.
Lines remind us that there are perhaps two dozen distinct ways in which any given human being may be skilful, and that great skill in one line of development does not imply a similar maturity in others (which explains why a cognitive genius may be a moral midget, or a great teacher may be sexually depraved).
States remind us that every 24 hours, every human being journeys through the three great states of waking, dreaming and deep dreamless sleep, and that all three of these states are actually available at every instant even in waking consciousness. When we envision in our creative imagination the unmanifest possibilities of our intention, we tap into the subtle energy state of dreaming that co-creates the world of form. Meditators and mystics understand very well the supreme importance of states of consciousness. Buddhism offers numerous and profound practises to gain awareness and control over our states.
Types reminds us that masculine and feminine people tend to approach and respond to the world in fundamentally different ways. The Enneagram, Myers-Briggs, even astrology can be used to distinguish between ‘orientations of perception’ that, all other things being equal, can cause a radically different perception of the same moment between otherwise similar individuals.
What is Integral? - Metaphor of Sailing