From my personal statement:How does your desire to enroll in this program align with your sense of yourself and your life aspirations?

Today, I want to show you my answer for " How does your desire to enroll in this program align with your sense of yourself and your life aspirations?" This was second question in personal statement, which JFKU admission suggested.

My life aspirations are to work globally doing exciting things and to contribute to the world using my own unique knowledge and experiences.

Since I was a little child, I have always had a desire to work on an international level and do valuable things for the world. Since I was 12 years old, I wanted to become an international lawyer for International Court of Justice in The Netherlands*. But this dream of mine changed at 18 when I had the opportunity to study business in one of the top universities of Japan- Hitotsubashi University, where I got this motivation to be an international business person. Now, I am an international tax consultant, so my dream has come true in a way. However, through my daily work, I felt that my view of things was becoming narrow where I wondered whether my work was really contributing to the world or not. This is where I said to myself “I want to get away from this daily routine at any cost.” or “I wanted to change myself by all means.”

During my struggle to find a new myself and a better way of contributing to the world, I found about this MA program in Integral Psychology on the internet and something screamed within my mind “This is what I really wanted!!” I believe that Integral Theory is a meta-theory and has a much broader range of applications than any other theory. Therefore, I believe this program provides me a golden opportunity to nurture my skills through, develop a deeper understanding of psychology and contribute to the world in my own way.

*When I was a child, I thought working at International Court of Justice is most prestigious in the legal profession.

The Integral Vision: A Very Short Introduction to the Revolutionary Integral Approach to Life, God, the Universe, and Everything

Book Description:

Philosopher, psychologist and mystic Wilber (A Brief History of Everything) delivers on the subtitle's far-reaching promise. In a scant 200+ pages chock-full of handsome illustrations and spare, Zen-like diagrams and tables, he forges ahead on his established path, posing, What if we attempted to find the critically essential keys to human growth, based on the sum total of human knowledge now open to us? His answer is a kind of meta-structure of human experience and, more importantly, human potential. His Integral Map, or Integral Operating System (IOS), of quadrants, levels, lines, states, and types is drawn from developmental psychology, worldviews, multiple intelligences, gender studies, the nature of consciousness, etc. If this sounds heady and extremely ambitious, it is. Wilber asserts that the IOS approach to life permits all fields of endeavor at last to speak with one another in a common language. Clearly, however, spirituality dominates much of his thought. Not for the faint of brain, Wilber's work is still accessible and at times surprisingly practical. Some language spirals up majestically, recalling great Eastern texts. Reminiscent in spirit and watershed import of Ram Dass's Be Here Now, Wilber's work may well become a popular classic for explorers on the frontiers of humanity.

I recommend this book for beginners of Ken Wilber's philosophy. This book introduces the essence of his theory, 5 elements (quadrant, level, state, line and type).　　The explanation is very plain and book illustration is beautiful.

My Indian colleague wanted this book.