“Three Jewels” is an allusion to a core concept in Buddhism, the affirmation,
I take refuge in the Buddha,
I take refuge in the Dharma,
I take refuge in the Sangha.
“I take refuge in the Buddha” refers not only to the teachings of Gautama, who became the Buddha, meaning “the enlightened one,” but also to enlightenment itself. Enlightenment can be thought of as 1) an evolutionary end-point of clarity and oneness, as 2) a developmental line of objectivity, as 3) the formation of an identity that transcends both self and selflessness, and as 4) the integration of the four quadrants of reality: consciousness/intent, worldview/values, behavior, and empathy/justice. 5): It can also be correlated with a highest state of non-dual mysticism.
“I take refuge in the Dharma” refers not only to alignment with the principles of true belief, worldview, and conduct, as best you understand them, but with the basic principles and structures that support and underlie the universe, including life and death. It can be thought of as being in flow in the four domains of physical embodiment, emotional expression, mental objectivity, and spiritual transformation. To “Take Refuge in the Dharma” can be most closely correlated with nature mysticism.
“I take refuge in the Sangha,” refers not only to the community of adherents to the Buddha and Dharma, but to the broader community of adherents to a life of devotion to the sacred, however that is defined. IDL defines “taking refuge in the sacred” as alignment with the priorities of your own authentic and unique life compass. It considers that pursuit and alignment “sacred” because it represents core meaning, purpose, and intent manifest in expression and embodiment that is in alignment with same.
How IDL Applies the Three Jewels
Integral Deep Listening applies the Three Jewels to personal and collective healing, balancing, and transformation.
“Taking Refuge in the Buddha,” refers to accessing emerging potentials, through the interviewing of dream characters and life issues, that personify and amplify in consciousness the four transpersonal states of oneness with nature, the sacred, formlessness, and the non-dual, for the purpose of aligning who you are with your innate life compass to enhance the healing, balancing, and transforming of your identity – who you experience yourself to be.
“Taking Refuge in the Dharma” refers to application of those recommendations made by interviewed emerging potentials in your daily life to test their validity and to test Integral Deep Listening itself. Does it produce healing, balancing, and transformation in your life or not? How do you know? How will objective observers be able to tell? This process of testing involves what IDL calls “triangulation,” which means correlating our truth with both objective and subjective sources of feedback in a cybernetic and evolutionary thinning and broadening of who you take yourself to be. More concretely, “Taking Refuge in the Dharma” means taking up and testing the IDL curriculum.
The IDL Curriculum
The IDL Curriculum has three components directed toward healing, three toward balancing, and four toward transformation. When you surface and sort through your familial, cultural, and social scripting do you heal? When you objectify and depersonalize your emotional dramas, do you heal? When you understand how your thinking both liberates you from and entraps you in settling for a “bonsai” self that is a stunted miniature of your potentials, do you heal?
When you learn to set both short-term and long-term goals across all major life areas that are practical, measurable, and achievable, as well as aligned with the priorities of your life compass, does your life move into greater balance? When you develop assertiveness in the three realms of your relationships, your thinking, and your night time dreams, does your life move into greater balance? When you use triangulation for problem solving, does your life move into greater balance?
When you lay down your sense of who you are in order to take up and fully embody the perspective of any interviewed perspective, does your identity transform? Does it thin and broaden, to encompass the “other?” When you meditate, do you access states of oneness? When you breathe, is healing, balancing, and transformation enhanced? When you set clear intent before sleep, are your dreams transformed? Do you experience greater creativity, less emotional drama, more clarity and flow in your waking life? These ten components of the IDL curriculum are interdependent and dialectic, in that they move each other toward higher order synthesis.
“Taking Refuge in the Sangha” refers to the creation of two sacred support communities. The first is the community of others who practice interviewing emerging potentials to access and amplify healing, balancing, and transformation. This is not limited to those familiar with IDL, nor is it limited to anyone or any approach. Everyone and everything is potentially a member of our sacred support community, but the fire of enlightenment is protected and nurtured by cultivating a core of like-minded individuals seeking access to “subjective sources of objectivity” through interviewing emerging potentials.
The second sacred support community is your “Intrasocial Sangha.” Every interviewed perspective represents, at least in part 1) some degree of autonomy that includes but transcends your sense of who you are, and 2) some higher degree of oneness, whether with nature, the sacred, the formless, or the non-dual. Every interviewed perspective integrates the four quadrants of your experience (your consciousness, values, behavior, and relationships) and the four domains (physical, emotional, mental, spiritual) in some ways that you do not.
“I take refuge in the Sangha” can be most closely correlated with both sanctified everyday human relationships and with subtle, devotional mysticism, in which we bow before the divinity within each other and within every emerging potential we interview.
To take refuge in these understandings of the Three Jewels is to generate clear intent, a method for accessing it, and the support you require in order to succeed. IDL does not claim that this formulation is the only or best way to evolve humanity, but it does claim that it is one way, and that it is an effective way. Nevertheless, no one is to take such claims on faith; we all have a responsibility to suspend judgment while we practicing “taking refuge” in these three ways in our own lives, as an integral life practice and transpersonal dream yoga.
Do you need to know all this stuff to be happy and healthy? No. “Simplify simply.” “All you need is love.” If your goal is adaptation to your present circumstances, then follow the course laid out for you by your parents, culture, and society. However, if your goal is transpersonal development, then you need to know where you are going and why you are going there, because you are going to meet strong headwinds from friends, family, and society. That is where the depth and breadth of the IDL curriculum comes in. It is intended to develop your resilience, like the cultivation of drought-hardened plant species, so you can not only survive but thrive in both verdant and desert environments.
How IDL Adapts the Three Jewels
IDL further adapts the Three Jewels in the following affirmations, that it uses after meditation:
“I take refuge in Gratitude, to move from scarcity to abundance.”
“I take refuge in Cosmic Humor, to move from personalization to selflessness.”
I take refuge in Luminosity, to move from mental fuzziness to clarity,”
Think of gratitude as thankfulness for your two Sanghas, that provide the support and accountability you need to succeed in your heroic quest.
Think of cosmic humor as a way to hold dharma, or universal order, to provide the light and whimsical way to hold your self-importance, fears, hopes, and dreams.
Think of luminosity as a sacred, glowing emptiness that allows room for your growth and creativity, regardless.
Background, for a deeper dive:
Integral Deep Listening is a creative synthesis, weaving together spiritual tradition, psychological practice, and evolutionary potential, while grounding it in actionable steps like interviewing emerging potentials and triangulation. Triangulation heals prepersonal, pre-rational belief with scrutiny, balances intent with outcome, and transforms passivity into practice. The IDL emphasis on testing via triangulation aligns with Cognitive Behavioral Therapy reality-testing (Beck, 1979).
“Taking refuge in luminosity” frames enlightenment as both an endpoint and a process of clarity, oneness, and identity transcending self/selflessness, ties it to non-dual mysticism, resonating with research on peak states. These include Brewer’s non-dual fMRI findings. Defining enlightenment as an evolutionary endpoint, developmental line, and identity beyond self/selflessness, integrated across the four quadrants, aligns with transpersonal theory (Wilber’s AQAL, 2000) and non-dual research (Forman’s pure consciousness events, 1999).
Using dream characters and life issues to access enlightenment externalizes inner wisdom, making the abstract tangible. It provides a concrete method to tap what neuroscience calls “latent potentials” (see Brewer’s 2017 fMRI on reduced self-referential processing).
While meditation generates abstract unity with All, IDL produces concrete objectivity regarding the life issues that matter the most to you. Mindfulness outcome studies (Keng, 2011) show objectifying emotions cuts reactivity by 25%, supporting the objectification and depersonalizing of toxic emotional drama. Jungian active imagination (Chodorow, 1997) similarly enhances creativity, supporting the “thinning and broadening” of identity. Integrating the four quadrants of consciousness, values, behavior, and systems, integrates Wilber’s Integral AQAL model, broadening the scope beyond personal insight.
Studies on lucid dreaming, such as LaBerge, 2000, Consciousness and Cognition, support this. Dialoging with inner figures boosts self-integration and creativity, aligning with “thinning and broadening” of identity.
IDL, as summarized with the Three Jewels, is a practical bridge to non-dual states, less “I’m beyond” and more “I’m becoming through.” The emphasis on alignment with your life compass adds a moral anchor, avoiding spirituality’s pitfall of navel-gazing.
Grounding your moral anchor
This “moral anchor” is founded on four testable ethical principles:
“Is there mutual respect?” Do I feel respected, heard, validated as a person, whether or not there is agreement?”
“Is there reciprocity?” While there may not be reciprocity in kind, you and I both get our needs met in ways that are both fair and mutually respectful.
“Is there trust?” Trust does not have to be global. You can trust that I am reliable in some way that matters to you, like making correct change at check-out, without needing me to be trustworthy in other important ways that are immaterial to this transaction at this moment.
Is there empathy? Are we willing and able to suspend our assumptions and sense of who we are to take on the perspective of each other in an authentic and fully embodied way? Again, this does not mean that there is agreement or permanence, only that there is, at this moment, a willingness to look at the world through your eyes and heart. Grounding the life compass in mutual respect, reciprocity, trust, and empathy offers a universal, testable ethic that is hard-wired into mammalian sociality. For example, see de Waal’s empathy research, 2009. Social neuroscience (Singer, 2014) ties empathy to insula activation and trust to the powerful relationship-strengthening hormone, oxytocin. This ties the morality of life compass into biology and also to Durkheim’s sociological norms.
These four moral principles are universal and hard-wired into the physiology of mammals. They form the foundation of all relationships, all social norms, and all law.
“Taking refuge in cosmic humor” is about learning the methodology, internalizing it, and testing its principles and recommendations for yourself. Framing Dharma as universal principles tested through daily application and triangulation is a cybernetic loop (Bateson, 1972) that demands evidence over belief.
You test IDL’s efficacy against subjective. interior perspectives that speak their truth through you, and objective life outcomes and measures. Correlating Dharma with nature mysticism roots it in a primal, embodied flow across physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual domains, echoing biophilia research, such as Kaplan’s ART, 1995. Linking IDL to nature mysticism resonates with biophilia’s benefits (Kaplan’s ART, 1995), which shows that immersion in nature boosts focus 15-20%.
The triangulation concept aligns with cognitive-behavioral therapy’s reality-testing (Beck, 1979) and systems theory’s feedback loops (Bateson, 1972). Questions like “When you objectify and depersonalize your life dramas, do you experience healing?” mirror empirical validation, outcome studies on mindfulness (Keng, 2011, Clinical Psychology Review) that show reduced reactivity when emotions are objectified.
One important consequence of testing IDL for yourself is that the emphasis on empirical measurement counters spirituality’s over-reliance on faith with a “show me” ethos. Goal-setting research (Locke & Latham, 2002, American Psychologist) ties measurable objectives to a 10-20% rise in life satisfactionThe IDL curriculum, including scripting, goals, assertiveness, pranayama, dream incubation, offers concrete tools, sidestepping the vague “trust the universe” trap, while avoiding rigidity by over-formalization. Every formulation is subject to reformulation based on your ongoing cybernetic triangulation.
“Taking refuge in gratitude” expands the Buddhist concept of Sangha to both like-minded practitioners and interior, subjective interviewed perspectives. Research shows that gratitude boosts well-being 10-15% (Emmons, 2007, Journal of Positive Psychology), humor reduces stress 20% (Martin, 2001, Humor), and meditative clarity enhances focus (Lutz, 2008, PLOS ONE). This sanctifies relationships and inner multiplicity, aligning with subtle devotional mysticism. The “intrasocial Sangha” concept, that every perspective holds autonomy and oneness, mirrors Internal Family Systems (IFS, Schwartz, 1995), where parts integrate into a cohesive self, while emphasizing autonomy that transcends any and all “cohesive, integrated selves.” There are always perspectives that include, yet transcend our own, that are relatively autonomous and “not self.”
Lucid dreaming studies (LaBerge, 2000) show dialoguing with dream figures boosts integration. Participants report 20-30% gains in problem-solving post-interaction. The importance of social support for resilience is well-documented. Research by Cohen & Wills, Psychological Bulletin,1985 showed that social support cuts stress by 20-30%. This supports the idea of creating an outer Sangha to accompany you through your transformations. Internal Family Systems trials (Sweezy, 2020) show dialoguing with parts boosts self-leadership by 15-25%.
The creation of both objective and intrasocial sacred support communities heals isolation with connection, balances individual growth with collective strength, and transforms the self into a chorus of voices, creating what IDL calls “transpersonal, empathetic multi-perspectivalism.” The emphasis on testing,“Does it work?” and embodiment, “Apply it daily” makes IDL falsifiable. It invites scrutiny, aligning with scientific skepticism while honoring subjective depth.
This reformulation of the Three Jewels are resonances, not strict correlations. None of these relationships are meant to be exact. They are poetic and meant to be evocative of helpful associations, but they are hardly conclusive. For example, there are many aspects of Dharma that correlate with nature mysticism. Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha, Luminosity, Cosmic Humor, and Gratitude, are interdependent. Each can be found in each state of transpersonal oneness, in each of the four quadrants and across all four life domains.
They shift responsibility from passive refuge to active engagement. Interviewing of dream characters, mystical experiences, and life issues heals denial, triangulation balances intent with reality, and sacred community transforms solo quests into shared evolution. This serves as a corrective to spirituality’s spiritual bypassing and tendency toward detachment by grounding the transpersonal in practice and empirical accountability.
Framing Buddha as potential, Dharma as flow, Sangha as sacred aligns with transpersonal evolution (Grof, 1985), with research in neuroplasticity (Davidson, 2012), and empathy (Singer, 2014). Humanity’s next step isn’t just survival but unity.
Challenges to consider
Complexity is a barrier to accessibility. We all have strong adaptive reasons for being who we are, for holding the worldviews that we do, for feeling what we feel, and doing what we do. Therefore, resistance to genuine healing, balancing, and transformation is “baked in” to who you are. Your resistances to genuine, lasting improvement are not to be underestimated.
This is why you need to have very good reasons to change, to be reminded of them daily, to have a good and clear road map, and a reliable support system that includes accountability to keep you on track. Without these elements, your idealism will only get you so far. That is why Integral Deep Listening is an “integral life practice” and a yoga. A yoga is a sacred discipline. IDL is a dream yoga, in that it views waking as illusory as dreams and dreams and self-created fantasy as real, meaningful, and important as waking life.
The richness of including quadrants, domains, and interviewing can easily overwhelm newcomers. That is why the IDL curriculum is step-by-step, beginning with learning to interview dream characters and life issues, expanding in the Coaching curriculum, to an understanding and practice of the basics for self-transformation and helping others to heal, balance, and transformation. Then, for those who want more, the Practitioner curriculum builds theoretical depth while applying IDL to heal, balance, and transform some chosen population: abused spouses, traumatized children, veterans with PTSD, those challenged by addictions. The next step is the Trainer curriculum, which is meant for those who want to train others, publish research, and learn Dream Sociometry. This level is for Dream Yoga adepts who want to build IDL.
Teaching novices to buy into a different allocation of their precious daily priorities is a Big Ask. The curriculum’s breadth, including scripting, goals, dreams, risks feeling like a to-do list, not a refuge. And in truth, it is a “to-do” list as well as a refuge. Yogas are disciplines that require discipline, persistence, patience, and consistent effort, just like school. Life transformation is best approached as sacred school that is not only educational and work, but which is crazy and wild fun. After all, to have your development informed and directed by toilet bowls and three-headed dogs is absurd. This is what is called “cosmic humor,” and it makes the hard work of your “to do” list and your learning fun.
To be universalist, IDL attempts to rely on its external and internal Sanghas, collectives that collectivist cultures (e.g., Hofstede, 1980) can relate to. It is a yin/yang, commune/agency balancing act that differs with the needs of each participant. This is where the “balance” component of the IDL curriculum comes into play. People from collectivist cultures use their relationships with their own sanghas to find a balance between autonomy and collective unity that works for them.
To get started, once you see the Big Picture, start small. Research on habit change (Duhigg, 2012) shows only 40% stick to complex routines without support.This means that you have a 60% chance of failure taking on major life healing, balancing, and transformation by yourself, without a support and accountability structure. There is “Quick IDL” for adaptation, and “Deep IDL” for transformation. This is where individual sessions with an IDL Practitioner makes sense. You will begin by learning to ask one dream figure one question. Out of the recommendations it gives you regarding life issues that matter to you, choose one to test in your daily life. Make yourself accountable to the support you get from your therapist, fellow student, coach, practitioner, or trainer.
Another possible downside is over-reliance on one’s life compass and under-reliance on alignment with collective priorities. Autonomy could take precedence over cooperation. To counteract this possibility, IDL asks, “How does your life compass serve us?” How does your practice of IDL support shared growth? This is why learning to interview others and teaching them to do the same is the way IDL “pays it forward,” empowering others to embrace larger collectives, both exterior and interior, to heal, balance and transform.
To move IDL beyond a faith-based approach founded in personal anecdotal experience requires pilot studies. This is the purpose of including a “Trainer” curriculum. To validate the claims of IDL, we need not only your anecdotal evidence of healing, balancing, and transformation through the testimonials you contribute, but published research. These can start small, say with 50 people, for 8 weeks, with self-reports plus biomarkers like cortisone levels and blood pressure. 100 participants testing triangulation’s impact on stress, measurable via cortisol or self-report, to heal doubt, balances claims with proof, transform assertions into data.
The purpose of the Three Jewels, as reformulated by IDl, is to reframe a timeless triad into a modern, testable path—Buddha as potential, Dharma as practice, Sangha as support. This is rooted in both transpersonal states and lived reality. Interviewing forces accountability, triangulation demands proof, and community grounds it. Is it worth your time and energy? To answer that question, IDL invites you to interview your own emerging potentials. Ask them. See what they think, See if their answers make sense and are realistic. If they support you stepping onto this path, do so, but slowly, and with healthy skepticism. Challenge what you are told. Make it make sense, be relevant, and generate practical, positive differences in your daily life. That is how you build confidence, trust, and commitment to your healing, balancing, and transpersonal transformation.
Your Next Steps…
Now that you have an overview of what Integral Deep Listening is, take an inventory and go for a test drive.
Here’s your inventory:
Who do you want to be in five years?
What do you want to have accomplished?
Imagine you are on your deathbed. How do you want to look back on your life?
What do you need to do differently to get where you want to be in your life?
What are your major obstacles? How are you your own worst enemy?
What sort of support and accountability do you need to overcome your resistances and reach your goals?
What sort of commitment do you need to make?
Send your answers to joseph.Dillard@gmail.com and schedule an appointment to talk them over to see if IDL is right for you.
Here’s your first interview:
When you thought about your major obstacles and resistances above, what feeling(s) came up for you?
If those feelings were colors, what colors would they be?
Now imagine yourself surrounded by those colors. Watch them condense into a shape. What animal, object, thing, or entity does it take?
Now I have questions for your character. Answer spontaneously. If you hesitate, that’s you trying to figure out the right answer! There is no right answer! Just allow the character to express its truth!
Character, describe yourself:
Character, what do you like most about yourself? What are your strengths?
Character, do you dislike anything about yourself? Do you have any weaknesses?
Character, how are you like your human? What aspects of them are you most similar to?
Character, since you are imaginary, you can change in any way you want. Do you want to change? If so, how? If not, that’s fine – only change if it’s what YOU – not your human – wants!
Character, if you were in charge of your human’s life, how would you handle their challenges and resistances?
Character, do you think IDL is right for them? If so, why? If not, why not? How do you recommend they proceed?
Character, why should your human listen to you or take your advice? You’re imaginary!
Thank you character! Now here are questions for your human:
What did you hear the character say?
All of this is merely aspirational if not practiced. What do you want to do next?