About Me
Welcome to the Mindfulness In Our Times website. My name is
Lawrence Balara. My early years were spent as a musician playing
drums in various rock bands. I pursued music as a vocation, and
since graduating high school in 1975, I have been playing music
professionally. Up to this day I am still a musician playing and
teaching. With the exception of my Ph.D, my college years were
spent learning as much about music as I could. I obtained A.A.,
B.A., and M.M degrees in music.
In addition to music, my early years were also spent pursuing
martial arts. At this time, however, I was more into the philosophy,
spirituality, and health aspects rather than the martial. I practiced Tai
Chi Chuan and yoga religiously every morning, beginning at 4:00am
before going to junior high school. My practice also continues to this
day, but starting a little later since I am no longer in junior high
school.
This dimension of my life and personality coupled with what I
consider my gift for music led me to pursue a Ph.D. degree through
the California Institute of Integral Studies. Here is where my love for
music and the wisdom traditions came together. I chose CIIS
because the foundational philosophy courses helped me deepen my
understanding of Eastern philosophies, religions, psychologies, and
practices where my interest lies rather than courses "you have to get
through" in order to study what you really want to learn. This
foundation in Eastern and Western traditions is, of course, the basis
of Integral Studies.
Integral Studies is both an evolving field of study, and an approach
to inquiry. As an evolving field of study, Integral Studies is the
object of inquiry. This necessarily means inquiring into aspects of
cultures, value systems, epistemologies, ontologies, and cosmologies
that give rise to an integral worldview. And like other fields of study
there are sub-areas such as Integral Consciousness, Integral
Spirituality, Integral Health, etc.
Integral Studies is also an approach to inquiry. To inquire into any
area, concept, problem, etc., integrally is to include its historical
development, fields of influence, as well as its epistemological,
ontological, and cosmological basis. In other words, it is necessary
to include the worldview--from which gave rise to and in which the
subject of inquiry is embedded--and its implications. Currently the
Integral approach to inquiry has become very complex, and in order
to handle this complexity, integral thinkers have incorporated the
idea of Transdisciplinarity.
My purpose for my very quick and dirty description of Integral
Studies and its approach to inquiry was necessary because this is the
approach I will use when proposing and discussing ideas on this
website. And at times when I sound foolish, at least you'll know
where I'm coming from.
Back to me. My major and area of study within Integral Studies at
CIIS was, and still is, Transformative Learning. Transformative
Learning is an approach to fostering learning and change in human
systems. "What's a human system?" you might ask. Human systems
are entities that behave, evolve, and are structured in ways which
meet the definition of an organism; that of "living thing." In our case
we are talking about individuals, groups, organizations, cultures,
nation states, etc. not micro organisms. My focus was not only on
individual, but also group learning and change.
My particular research interests at the time was education,
transformational psychologies, and creativity. Currently my research
interests focus on two of these areas, transformational psychologies
and creativity, and I have added consciousness. TBC
Lawrence Balara. My early years were spent as a musician playing
drums in various rock bands. I pursued music as a vocation, and
since graduating high school in 1975, I have been playing music
professionally. Up to this day I am still a musician playing and
teaching. With the exception of my Ph.D, my college years were
spent learning as much about music as I could. I obtained A.A.,
B.A., and M.M degrees in music.
In addition to music, my early years were also spent pursuing
martial arts. At this time, however, I was more into the philosophy,
spirituality, and health aspects rather than the martial. I practiced Tai
Chi Chuan and yoga religiously every morning, beginning at 4:00am
before going to junior high school. My practice also continues to this
day, but starting a little later since I am no longer in junior high
school.
This dimension of my life and personality coupled with what I
consider my gift for music led me to pursue a Ph.D. degree through
the California Institute of Integral Studies. Here is where my love for
music and the wisdom traditions came together. I chose CIIS
because the foundational philosophy courses helped me deepen my
understanding of Eastern philosophies, religions, psychologies, and
practices where my interest lies rather than courses "you have to get
through" in order to study what you really want to learn. This
foundation in Eastern and Western traditions is, of course, the basis
of Integral Studies.
Integral Studies is both an evolving field of study, and an approach
to inquiry. As an evolving field of study, Integral Studies is the
object of inquiry. This necessarily means inquiring into aspects of
cultures, value systems, epistemologies, ontologies, and cosmologies
that give rise to an integral worldview. And like other fields of study
there are sub-areas such as Integral Consciousness, Integral
Spirituality, Integral Health, etc.
Integral Studies is also an approach to inquiry. To inquire into any
area, concept, problem, etc., integrally is to include its historical
development, fields of influence, as well as its epistemological,
ontological, and cosmological basis. In other words, it is necessary
to include the worldview--from which gave rise to and in which the
subject of inquiry is embedded--and its implications. Currently the
Integral approach to inquiry has become very complex, and in order
to handle this complexity, integral thinkers have incorporated the
idea of Transdisciplinarity.
My purpose for my very quick and dirty description of Integral
Studies and its approach to inquiry was necessary because this is the
approach I will use when proposing and discussing ideas on this
website. And at times when I sound foolish, at least you'll know
where I'm coming from.
Back to me. My major and area of study within Integral Studies at
CIIS was, and still is, Transformative Learning. Transformative
Learning is an approach to fostering learning and change in human
systems. "What's a human system?" you might ask. Human systems
are entities that behave, evolve, and are structured in ways which
meet the definition of an organism; that of "living thing." In our case
we are talking about individuals, groups, organizations, cultures,
nation states, etc. not micro organisms. My focus was not only on
individual, but also group learning and change.
My particular research interests at the time was education,
transformational psychologies, and creativity. Currently my research
interests focus on two of these areas, transformational psychologies
and creativity, and I have added consciousness. TBC
 | |  | |  | |  | |  |
| Copyright © 2009 by Lawrence Balara |