Shepherd, Philip. Radical Wholeness: The Embodied Present and the Ordinary Grace of Being. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books, 2017. ## Summary We are too focused on the 5 senses, and on head intelligence. We need to cultivate holosapience, a sense of wholeness. ## Metaphors The head intelligence gives perspective. The pelvic intelligence integrates. They are referred to as two poles in the body. This is very similar to what Kevin Behan says in [[Your Dog Is Your Mirror]], where he talks about the brain being a radar, and the gut being the thing that integrates everything the brain is receiving. Being grounded means that the gut is able to cope. Being ungrounded means the gut is overwhelmed. ^bd9b33 We talk about making headway, but not body way. ## Facts Every year, 98 percent of the atoms in our bodies are completely replaced. ## Etymologies abstraction - to draw away - remove something from its context consciousness - to know together (con-"together"; scio-"to know") - it's a mutual relationship between the mind and the world; the world creates the mind inasmuch as vice versa supervisor - to observe from above ## Practices All his practices involve bringing focus to the pelvic bowl. 1. Breathwork - bring the breath into the pelvis. Feel how the whole pelvis is engaged in breathing. 2. Rest - rest our awareness in the pelvis. 3. Receptivity - from a restful place in the pelvis, we go into a mode of receptivity, rather than the self-consciousness of the presentation mode. 4. Integration - our pelvis integrates everything we experience so that we can resonate with Wholeness. ## Ignorance Ignorance is the key to unlocking wholeness. Ignorance disarms our inner supervisor and allows for the possibility of discovery. We are attached to being supervisors, and that's why we run from ignorance. What would it be like if we ran towards it instead, like the culture of amateurism at Burning Man? ## Presentation mode Social interactions push us into presentation mode: looking good, holding our own, scoring points, rejecting the other person's points, getting our point across, making an impression. Shepherd calls this the 'trampoline effect', because it bounces us into our head. We need to cultivate 'faceless presence', a state of receptivity. > And however the conversation might veer, or leap, or pause, it wil be less about establishing a conclusion that puts a period on some issue, and more about an improvisation played out among the currents of a mystery. The "yes/and" improv exercise might be helpful in this context. ## Quotes > Social interactions easily fracture wholeness because they involve so many triggers that can reroute you into 'prescribed behavior'. ## Related Books [[The More Beautiful World Our Hearts Know Is Possible]] [[Your Dog Is Your Mirror]]