Listening to Ken Wilber and Andrew Cohen on their webcasted dialogue last week prompted ponderings on the three faces of God in the city.
The Third Face of God — represented as the face of the third person — the God we see in the other as we walk the streets of the city. This is the same God we see in the artifacts that have become the built city itself.
The Second Face of God — represented as the face of the second person — the thou/We God whom we serve as we live, work, re-create together. This is the same God with whom we relate in our families, clans (ethnic and corporate). But it is also the God to whom we bow the knee (Andrew’s expression) as being greater than our individual egoic selves. A God who is greater than we can be as an individual.
The First Face of God — represented as the face of the first person — the I /me /mine God whom we see in the mirror, experience every minute. The awesome face of God embodied in our selves.
It was especially interesting to hear the dialogue acknowledge how well we know the third and first faces of God. But us modern and post-modern citizens balk at embracing the second face of God, because of the fear of releasing our self-control to a greater expression of Good/God.
But in considering the three faces of God, I was brought back to the Master Rule I propose for the Integral City( in my book). I was struck by a blinding flash of the obvious!! The Master Rule embraces the three faces of God.
Look after yourself (first face of God)
Look after each other (second face of God)
Look after this place (third face of God)
So the struggle to “bend the knee” to the second face of God is the struggle to look after each other. As the City’s challenging life conditions multiply, it strikes me that our efforts to look after each other must complexify in order for us to look after both ourselves and this place. Ultimately this is a basic survival rule for our species. It shows up in our bio-psycho-cultural-social realities — and it is a basic spiritual precept.
It turns out the Master Rule for the Integral City is a Spiritual Rule.
Perhaps, another way to think about the three faces of God in the city is through a process that Spiral Dynamics calls “Five Deep”.
I think about it in terms of the integral quadrants this way:
3rd person observations of actions (1) and systems (2) (It – Upper Right /Its – Lower Right)
2nd person relationships of culture and belonging (3) (We – Lower Left)
1st person experience of intentions (4) (I – Upper Left).
The fifth depth (5) in SD is the zone of the Master Code which gives rise to the DNA that unfolds as life.