Science, Culture and Integral Yoga

Amal Kiran on the Mind of Light—by Anurag Banerjee

RY Deshpande — Sat, 28 Jun 2008 17:13:00 -0700

In 1949, when the Bulletin of Physical Education was launched, Sri Aurobindo was requested by the Mother to initiate it with an article of his. On her request Sri Aurobindo dictated a series of eight articles. The initial articles were meant to reveal the value and importance of sports and gymnastics, but the later articles took a different and new turn and revealed some extraordinary facts in detail regarding the functioning of the Supermind. The articles were brought out in the form of a booklet titled The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth in 1952, that is, two years after the departure of Sri Aurobindo. This booklet was rightly termed as the sequel to The Life Divine by K. D. Sethna (Amal Kiran). In the sixth article titled Supermind in the Evolution, for the first time we come across the term ‘Mind of Light’. The chapter begins with the following words: “A new humanity would… be a race of mental beings on the earth and in the earthly body but delivered from its present conditions in the reign of the cosmic Ignorance so far as to be possessed of a perfected mind, a mind of light which could be a subordinate action of the supermind or Truth-Consciousness and in any case capable of the full possibilities of mind acting as a recipient of that truth and at least a secondary action of it in thought and life. It could even be a part of what could be described as a divine life upon earth and at least the beginnings of an evolution in the Knowledge and no longer entirely or predominantly in the Ignorance...”

The Golden Krishna—29 February 1960

RY Deshpande — Mon, 03 Mar 2008 01:26:00 -0800

I had one of those experiences that mark one's life. It happened upstairs in my room. I was doing my japa, walking up and down with my eyes wide open, when suddenly Krishna came—a gold Krishna, all golden, in a golden light that filled the whole room. I was walking, but I could not even see the windows or the rug any longer, for this golden light was everywhere with Krishna at its center. And it must have lasted at least fifteen minutes. He was dressed in those same clothes in which he is normally portrayed when he dances. He was all light, all dancing: 'You see, I will be there this evening during Darshan.' And suddenly, the chair I use for darshan came into the room! Krishna climbed up onto it, and his eyes twinkled mischievously, as if to say, 'I will be there, you see, and there'll be no room for you.' ...

Supramental Manifestation—The Golden Day: 29 February 2008

RY Deshpande — Thu, 28 Feb 2008 21:15:00 -0800

“I was facing a huge and massive golden door…”—the Mother

RY Deshpande — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 03:47:00 -0800

Lord, Thou hast willed, and I execute:
A new light breaks upon the earth,
A new world is born.
The things that were promised are fulfilled.

The Diver of the Deep Sea

RY Deshpande — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 21:22:00 -0800

Beyond the trembling veil of sight he disappeared
When with purple dusk the wind surged towards the sea.
In slow advancing night the dim boat sailed
To an island crowded by shadow-birds of Time:
The shouts of broken wings, of waves, beings
Falling not with their weight but with deathfulness
Of thickening gravity—they soon led him leeward.
His name drifted under the flood…

Physical Transformation—the Early Beginnings

RY Deshpande — Sat, 23 Feb 2008 04:25:00 -0800

... In July 1938 the Yogi-Poet had an assignation with the primordial Night, the Night of Creation. He went to meet her, carrying “God’s deathless light” in his breast. He was aware that this was going to be a very bold and dangerous rendezvous; it was going to be an exceptional and most decisive affair, fraught with possibilities. His fate and hence the fate of the world remained locked in them, in the possibility leading towards earthly deathlessness. So, he the pilgrim-soul made an assignation with the Night. But what was the outcome of that bold and dangerous rendezvous? What had actually transpired in the course of the meeting? But apart from dropping some broad hints, no communiqué was issued. If at all, it seemed that the way was lost and that there was no end to the “weary journeying”. Yet there was hope, there was conviction and certitude that the outcome was going to be a path leading towards immortality. There was the inalienable freedom, and the Yogi-Poet lived in the Spirit’s calm, and was in possession of the vast immobile bliss of the Being. Soon his rooms would get lit up with an endless Light, and rapture would be coursing through his nerves, and through every cell of his body. In a mute blaze of ecstasy, and preserving the “living sense of the Imperishable”, even in the bodily existence, he would proceed towards his goal. That was great indeed, marvellous. If the bodily existence was set ablaze in this way, it meant that there was the wonderful realisation or the siddhi of the Mind of Light in him, that the physical had started receiving the supramental. Sri Aurobindo had definitely moved towards it, a remarkable event, a landmark event in the evolutionary sequence. It is said that Pythagoras had a thigh of gold, and that Vamadeva, after crossing the hundredth year, lived in a golden body for sixteen full years. Something golden had happened in that far past, but now the Mind of Light has made the body its permanent base, permanent home. ...

The Supramental Boat—the Mother’s experience narrated on 19 February 1958

RY Deshpande — Tue, 19 Feb 2008 03:24:00 -0800

I was on a huge boat which was a symbolic representation of the place where this work is going on. This boat, as large as a city, is fully organised, and it had certainly already been functioning for some time, for its organisation was complete. It is the place where people who are destined for the supramental life are trained. These people—or at least a part of their being —had already undergone a supramental transformation, for the boat itself and everything on board was neither material nor subtle-physical nor vital nor mental—it was a supramental substance. This substance was of the most material supramental, the supramental substance which is closest to the physical world, the first to manifest. The light was a mixture of gold and red, forming a uniform substance of a luminous orange. Everything was like that—the light was like that, the people were like that—everything had that colour, although with various shades which made it possible to distinguish things from each other. The general impression was of a world without shadows; there were shades but no shadows. The atmosphere was full of joy, calm, order; everything went on regularly and in silence. And at the same time one could see all the details of an education, a training in all fields, by which the people on board were being prepared. …

The Physical Transformation—a Marvellous Attempt

RY Deshpande — Fri, 15 Feb 2008 06:47:00 -0800

…the tremendous hour must arrive. The Mother’s own yoga-tapasya bearing the agony and ecstasy in the process of bringing to the gross earth-consciousness the supreme Beatitude got more and more intensified in the course of swift time. Her way to meet the grim hour lay in complete surrender to the Divine: “What Thou willest, what Thou willest” became her solicitous and powerful mantra for the physical transformation. Therein indeed is the true remedy for the body-problem. The Mother describes, as follows, the triumph in what she calls the descent of the superman consciousness, her experience of 1 January 1969:

In the night it came slowly and waking up this morning, there was as though a golden dawn, and the atmosphere was so light. The body felt: ‘Well, it is truly, truly new.’ A golden light, transparent and… benevolent. ‘Benevolent’ in the sense of a certainty—a harmonious certainty. It was new.

How wonderful, this Divine work in the earth-consciousness! The Divine in the Physical! That's tremendous indeed! and beyond our comprehension! Glory to the Divine in all his worlds! …

All Life is Yoga by RY Deshpande

RY Deshpande — Fri, 27 Jul 2007 17:30:00 -0700

While commenting upon an early biographer’s attempt to present his life Sri Aurobindo, in the course of a conversation with his attendant-disciples, once remarked as follows: “Nobody except myself can write my life—because it has not been on the surface for man to see.” Yet we should be concerned with a few worldly facts from a certain point of view. And the strange thing is that, for a discerning eye, these facts also bring an intuitive vision which can provide a distant bio-spiritual peep into the secrecies of the person whom we so much adore. No wonder, philosophers have described him as the greatest synthesis between the East and the West; critics have acclaimed him as a poet par excellence; social scientists regard him as the builder of a new society based on enduring values of the life of the spirit; devotees throng in mute veneration offering their heart and their soul in a silent prayer that can secure for them the beatitude of the Supreme; Yogins long to live in the sunlight of his splendour to kindle in it their own suns; in the tranquil benignity of his spiritual presence is the fulfilment of all our hopes and all our keenest and noblest aspirations; gods of light and truth and joy and beauty and sweetness are busy in their tasks to carry out his will in the creation; in him the avataric incarnation becomes man to realize the divine in man. Such is the real birth of the Immortal in the Mortal. He comes here as Sri Aurobindo. ...

Primrose School of Pondicherry: An experiment in integral education

ronjon — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:14:00 -0700

Primrose School, inaugurated in June 1999 in the former French colony of Pondicherry, is a pioneering effort in India to utilise Dr. Glenn Doman’s teaching methods as the basis for a full program of pre-school, primary and secondary education.

The Mother's Service Society, Pondicherry, has been in the field of social development for a quarter of a century now and has been recognised as a "Scientific and Cultural Research Institution" by the Central Government for three decades. The Society has longed believed that new methods of education can transform India into a leading knowledge society and fulfill Sri Aurobindo's dream of India becoming the Jagat guru of the world. Primrose School was founded for this purpose, and after discovering the wonderful educational insights of Dr. Glenn Doman, they have taken them and creatively adapted them to suit Indian conditions.

Most of us believe that geniuses are a very rare breed and only a few children are born with that potential. The truth is, many children have the potential of developing genius. Every child has far more potential than comes to the surface under normal circumstances. The secret is to create conditions that enable the child to discover and express their full potential.

Dr. Doman has shown decisively that young children have an incredible capacity for learning. They can learn to read multiple languages with ease at a very young age, even before entering school. They can imbibe a wide range of general knowledge just as a form of recreation. Children can learn at least twice as fast as they normally do in traditional schools without homework, cramming or strain of any type. ... -- The Mother's Service Society believes that this method could revolutionalise education in India. ...

An Eternal Dream by Arun Vaidya

RY Deshpande — Sun, 22 Jul 2007 04:12:00 -0700

There should be somewhere upon earth a place that no nation could claim as its sole property, a place where all human beings of goodwill, sincere in their aspiration, could live freely as citizens of the world, obeying one single authority, that of the supreme Truth; a place of peace, concord, harmony, where all the fighting instincts of man would be used exclusively to conquer the causes of his suffering and misery, to surmount his weakness and ignorance, to triumph over his limitations and incapacities; a place where the needs of the spirit and the care for progress would get precedence over the satisfaction of desires and passions, the seeking for pleasures and material enjoyments.

Integrating the Big Bang: An interview w. Michael Murphy re Integral Enlightenment

ronjon — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:46:00 -0700

"Michael Murphy very well might be the single most significant spiritual pioneer of our generation, if for no other reason than the extraordinary spaces that he created in which others could transform," Ken Wilber writes in his book 'The Eye of Spirit.' Indeed, ever since Murphy discovered the pioneering work of Sri Aurobindo almost fifty years ago, his passionate interest in the cultivation of human evolutionary potential has continued unabated. Not only did he found, with his friend the late Richard Price, the by-now-historic testing ground of human potential, Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California, but he has also written several best-selling books about the relationship between sports and the mystical dimension of life and has, together with his colleague George Leonard, painstakingly mapped out a systematic theory and program of what he calls "Integral Transformative Practice." Integral practice, inspired by Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga, is now Murphy's main passion, and its role in our understanding of human evolutionary potential is, in his thinking, absolutely essential. ...

The Possibilities of Man

RY Deshpande — Tue, 13 Mar 2007 07:17:00 -0700

The earliest preoccupation of man in his awakened thoughts and, as it seems, his inevitable and ultimate preoccupation,—for it survives the longest periods of scepticism and returns after every banishment,—is also the highest which his thought can envisage. It manifests itself in the divination of Godhead, the impulse towards perfection, the search after pure Truth and unmixed Bliss, the sense of a secret immortality. The ancient dawns of human knowledge have left us their witness to this constant aspiration; today we see a humanity satiated but not satisfied by victorious analysis of the externalities of Nature preparing to return to its primeval longings. The earliest formula of wisdom promises to be its last,—God, Light, Freedom, Immortality. If a spiritual unfolding on earth is the hidden truth of our birth into Matter, if it is fundamentally an evolution of consciousness that has been taking place in Nature, then man as he is cannot be the last term of that evolution: he is too imperfect an expression of the Spirit, Mind itself a too limited form and instrumentation; Mind is only a middle term of consciousness, the mental being can only be a transitional being. If, then, man is incapable of exceeding mentality, he must be surpassed and Supermind and superman must manifest and take the lead of the creation. But if his mind is capable of opening to what exceeds it, then there is no reason why man himself should not arrive at Supermind and supermanhood or at least lend his mentality, life and body to an evolution of that greater term of the Spirit manifesting in Nature.

'The Doctrine of the Subtle Worlds: Sri Aurobindo's Cosmology, Modern Science, and the Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead'

ronjon — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:11:00 -0800

This is an unusually long article for SCIY. It's copyrighted by Eric M. Weiss, and was his dissertation for his Ph.D. at CIIS, the California Institute of Integral Studies, with a concentration in Philosophy, Cosmology and Consciousness. I'm taking the liberty of posting it here because, in my opinion, it's one of the most thorough and insightful treatments of the core concern of SCIY; the multiple & interpenetrating relationships between science, culture, and consciousness, placed within the contextual framework of Sri Aurobindo's Integral Yoga. - Warning: This is challenging material, but I believe working through it and contemplating its implications is well worth the effort. - My deepest appreciation goes to Dr. Eric Weiss for his extraordinary and groundbreaking work. ~ ron

...Here we are, at the dawn of the Twenty First Century, and I have awakened to find myself living in a science fiction novel. If this novel were to be written from the standpoint of the 23rd century, looking back to the beginning of the 21st, it might start something like this:

At that time, the certainties of science had faltered. The great charism of the men in white lab coats had faded. The bastions of materialism had crumbled from within, and the civilization that it had fostered was losing its way.

Meanwhile, three centuries of rapacious assault on the biosphere were, at last, showing decisive results. The globe was poisoned, people were sick, species were being slaughtered by the tens of thousands, global temperatures and global sea levels were both beginning to rise. A civilization was ending, and in its death throes, it was bringing to a close the Cenozoic Era. The Earth was preparing for a fresh creation.

Looking back, too, we can see that the promise of the new civilization had already begun to shine. The iron cage of the material world, in which the species had been trapped for centuries, was starting to dissolve. Here and there, the experiences of the subtle worlds were breaking through. A few intrepid explorers had seen the promise, and had just begun to glimpse the vast freedoms and the limitless horizons that we now enjoy, but the darkness was still thick and Kali was dancing wildly across the face of the globe. This is the story of those early pioneers…

Techno-Capitalism and Post-Human Destinies III

Debashish — Sun, 07 Jan 2007 06:25:00 -0800

The concluding section on Techno-Capitalism and Post-Human Destinies by Debashish Banerji continues its second installment's reflections on the Omniscience, Omnipotence and Omnipresence presented to us as the emerging destiny of post-Enlightenment Modernity and compares this destination with its appropriation and supercession in the Neo-Vedantic teleology of Sri Aurobindo. What are the differences, dangers and promises of these destinies and what are the conditions for achieving an alternate destination? ...

"The Only Journey There Is: An Exploration of Cosmic & Cultural Evolution," Robert Godwin Interview (WIE)

ronjon — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:22:00 -0800

Robert Godwin is ... an “outsider” thinker, and a masterful litterateur to boot. In his book "One Cosmos under God," he attempts nothing less than to reenvision the entire story of creation, both scientifically and spiritually, and audaciously and stunningly presents an often poetic, quasi-scriptural rendering of what a new cosmic narrative could be. It’s a book that breaks boundaries, thrills and teases, and ultimately makes very much sense in its Herculean embrace of cosmology, biology, quantum physics, psychology, anthropology, history, mysticism, theology, and more.

A practicing clinical psychologist, Godwin, in his words, became voraciously interested in everything at some point in his mid to late twenties. He also credits himself with having a synthetic versus analytic mind. So in order to make sense of what he was learning, he sought to find relationships and patterns among the truths he had gleaned from disparate fields of study. In short, he wanted to know. To that end, he recognized that the only way to grasp spiritual truths was through direct experience and he became a serious practitioner of Sri Aurobindo’s integral yoga. One Cosmos under God is the result of what he discovered as a follower of the Indian sage’s teachings, together with the fruits of his relentless curiosity. ...

The Vedic Vision and the Triple Transformation.

Vladimir — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 04:53:00 -0800

There are many myths in the Veda which describe the Beginning of Creation from different angles or stages. Some of them start with the description of the Supreme Person, Atman, Self (4), others - of the Impersonal Spirit, Brahman (5), some start from Nothingness or Darkness (6), which they call “night”, ratri-, or apas, apraketam salilam (7), “dark waters”, or sometimes as mrityu (8), “death”, etc., etc. They all refer to different stages of Creation, where Darkness or Nothingness was depicted as our beginning, but not as our Origin. We can easily reconcile these myths, knowing that Darkness was the result of the Fall of the Supreme Light, (Involution): ...

Passing through the Portals of the Birth that is a Death

RY Deshpande — Thu, 21 Dec 2006 06:39:00 -0800

In "The Life Divine," Sri Aurobindo writes:

“Purusha and Prakriti, Conscious Soul and executive Force of Nature, are in the supramental harmony a two-aspected single truth, being and dynamis of the Reality; there can be no disequilibrium or predominance of one over the other. In Overmind we have the origin of the cleavage, the trenchant distinction made by the philosophy of the Sankhyas in which they appear as two independent entities, Prakriti able to dominate Purusha and cloud its freedom and power, reducing it to a witness and recipient of her forms and actions, Purusha able to return to its separate existence and abide in a free self-sovereignty by rejection of her original overclouding material principle. So with the other aspects or powers of the Divine Reality, One and Many, Divine Personality and Divine Impersonality, and the rest; each is still an aspect and power of the one Reality, but each is empowered to act as an independent entity in the whole, arrive at the fullness of the possibilities of its separate expression and develop the dynamic consequences of that separateness.” ...

Comments on "Reflections on Sri Aurobindo's THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY" (cont.)

ronjon — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:10:00 -0700

I've taken the liberty of re-posting here all of the comments ("Replies") to Debashish's earlier posting: "Reflections on THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY By Debashish Banerji." -- My reasons:

1) The set of responses in this thread was getting so large that we were starting to experience some oddities in BlogHarbor's reply functions.
2) I was concerned that we could delete the entire thread due to some technical or human error, thus losing this fascinating & important discussion.
3) By posting all of the comments as this article, we can go back in and re-format them if we wish; e.g., correcting typos & adding italics for quoted passages.

PLEASE CONTINUE OUR REPLIES ON THIS TOPIC HERE, IN THIS ARTICLE, NOT IN THE PREVIOUSLY POSTED ONE.

Thanks,
~ ron

Reflections on THE IDEAL OF HUMAN UNITY By Debashish Banerji

Debashish — Mon, 09 Oct 2006 23:33:00 -0700

In these last chapters of The Ideal of Human Unity, Sri Aurobindo draws together the threads that he has introduced earlier in the work, leading to his conclusion. Though Jan Smuts was yet to coin the word "Holism" to encapsulate the idea that a directed tendency towards the formation of ever-larger aggregates is observable in Nature, each such distinct stage marked by the presence of an identity and properties exceeding those of the sum of their parts, Sri Aurobindo's model of History follows this course. Indeed, this teleology follows naturally from Sri Aurobindo's master-idea of the progressive manifestation of intrinsic spiritual Oneness in Time, expressing itself politically as the drive towards world-union.

Integral Transformation: The transmutation of the individual, the transformation of the world, the divinisation of matter.

ronjon — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 12:48:00 -0700

I had a fun experience with this site. I was reading through it, intrigued by the author's (M. Alan Kazlev) deep experience and knowledge about many different esoteric and spiritual paths. I was attracted by his commitment to the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and his comparisons of their work with other approaches to individual and collective tranformation. So I checked out Alan's recommended links to see if there were any that sounded interesting. (This is where the fun begins.) ...

The Role of Money and the Internet in Social Development

ronjon — Thu, 08 Jun 2006 12:00:00 -0700

... We witness today the confluence of factors that characterize the mental stage: unprecedented political freedom, a global affirmation of the individual and the rights of the common man, abundant and overflowing social energy, an irrepressible drive of mental inquisitiveness, the accumulation and codification of knowledge in all fields, the universal aspiration for and spread of education, a worldwide revolution of rising expectations, a veritable explosion of technological inventiveness, and the accelerating pace of organizational creativity and innovation, which is the technology of social development. These factors coming together in the mental stage have given birth to a new form of organization whose creativity and potential contribution to social advancement rival in importance the role played by money over the past millenium.

The emergence of the Internet as a worldwide system of communication, information exchange, education and commerce is opening up vast opportunities for more rapid development. It is eliminating barriers to communication imposed by space and time, leveling the playing field between rich and poor, and making possible universal access to information and services at very low cost. ...

A Comprehensive Theory of Social Development (TMSS)

ronjon — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 15:04:00 -0700

... This paper identifies the central principle of development and traces its expression in different fields and levels of social advancement. Development is a function of society’s capacity to organize human energies and productive resources to respond to opportunities and challenges. The paper traces the emergence of higher, more complex, more productive levels of social organization through the stages of nomadic hunting, rural agrarian, urban, commercial, industrial and post-industrial societies. It examines the process by which new activities are introduced by pioneers, imitated, resisted, accepted, organized, institutionalized and assimilated into the culture.

Organizational development takes place on a foundation of four levels of infrastructure – physical, social, mental and psychological. Four types of resources contribute to development, of which only the most material are inherently limited in nature. The productivity of resources increases enormously as the level of organization and input of knowledge rises. The theory identifies the human resource as the driving force and primary determinant of development. ...

The Mother's Service Society (TMSS)

ronjon — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 14:42:00 -0700

The Mother's Service Society was founded in 1969 in Pondicherry, South India, with a view to studying the basic laws of human development based on the theory of creation propounded by Sri Aurobindo, the sage of Pondicherry, who declared that humanity is not the final goal of creation. Humankind will evolve beyond mind into Supramental being.

This web site includes numerous original essays written over a period of thirty years by members of the Society on a wide range of theoretical and applied subjects including development theory and strategy, economics, business management, literary criticism, science, education and spirituality in life.

Quantum Consciousness, the "Mind of the Cells" and Auroville

ronjon — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 13:18:00 -0800

I gave a presentation at Auroville in Jan. 2006 exploring the possible relationship between recent published research on the neurophysiology of advanced Tibetan Buddhist meditators, new tunneling electron microscopic images revealing complex networks of nano-scale microtubules interpenetrating human neurons which may provide a substrate for room temperature quantum effects in the brain, and the work of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother on the connections between the "Mind of the Cells" and an accelerated evolution of the human species. Examples were presented of a number of unanticipated positive events around the world during the last two decades and their possible relationship to the Mother's vision for Auroville and the Matrimandir. The event was sponsored by Auroville's Centre for International Research on Human Unity (CIRHU). Here are some photos and introductory text from the presentation which was attended by a standing room only audience at the Executive Conference Center of Auroville's Town Hall. ...

"Centered on the Edge: Mapping a Field of Collective Intelligence & Spiritual Wisdom"

ronjon — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:10:00 -0800

"I [believe] that the group is the art form of the future. ... {E}very great culture has created forms of sacred art that were needed in order to transmit and ... discover by experience the truths which were necessary to absorb into one's life. ... In our present culture, as I see it, the main need is for a form that can enable human beings to share their perception and attention and, through that sharing, to become a conduit for the appearance of spiritual intelligence."

"A capital of connections - ... the Universal Citizens of Auroville initiative"

ronjon — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 01:07:00 -0800

"Is Auroville only the 2000 people who live here, or is there a larger, invisible Auroville made up of all those who feel connected to this place?" The questioner is Enzo Fazzino, who has visited Auroville a number of times over recent years. "..Auroville is a capital of connections and heart linkages that represent a strong presence beyond the physical City.. ." Enzo's idea is to make this invisible Auroville more visible, and to strengthen the relationship between those who live here and those who are part of the larger Auroville, through an initiative which he provisionally terms 'Universal Citizens of Auroville'. ..Enzo sees good communication as being the key to the success of the initiative. As the man who coordinates the website portal for the whole of UNESCO, he knows what he is talking about. ...

• Antithesis of Yoga by Jocelyn

Debashish — Sat, 29 Oct 2005 00:24:00 -0700

This is a review by Anie Nunnally of Jocelyn's book on Auroville titled 'Antithesis of Yoga.' It critiques the books chronicling of the stories and events of some of the pioneers in Auroville's history from 1969 to 1993.

147 jm. "Emergence" is ubiquitous

ronjon — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 00:46:00 -0700

I caught the word "emergence" in one of the recent posts. Here's a letter from the "Journal of Consciousness Studies" egroup which, I think, shows how far the predominantly objectivist viewpoint is from an understanding of consciousness - and this letter is from someone who is trying to get beyond objectivism. ...

146 wm. SA says: The Avatar acts in complete freedom.

ronjon — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 00:40:00 -0700

In Essays on the Gita, Sri Aurobindo writes about the Avatar, and the necessity for Avatarhood. Don't forget that, in the Aurobindonian world-view, the emergence of the new Consciousness, while involved in, and prepared to some extent by the development in Matter, is precipitated by a Descent from the pre-existent inner world or plane which is the home of that which is to be realized. The Descent of the Supramental, announced by Mother on February 29, 1956, was not in any way caused by the circumstantial or developmental stage of the earth, of Matter. Rather, it was brought about by the concentrated Action of the two-in-one Avatar. ...

145 rh. Imho, Divine is independent of cultural circumstances

ronjon — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 22:51:00 -0700

Hearing BMH at the end of a weeklong Savitri immersion, puts things in a unique perspective of course, one probably not shared by those not coming out of such an immersion. Tangentially, it should me mentioned that the Mother and her force of consciousness are as present as ever in such a circumstance, and it is not at all the case that she no longer is in the body or prevented from participating directly in these situations, or even these discussions. But if we disappear into technology rather than Being it will appear to be otherwise.

144 rh. Divine’s intervention not dependent on cultural circumstances

ronjon — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 22:50:00 -0700

The Mother and her force of consciousness are as present as ever in such a circumstance, and it is not at all the case that she no longer is in the body or prevented from participating directly in these situations, or even these discussions. But if we disappear into technology rather than Being it will appear to be otherwise. ...

101 rh. Re: a response to the question why, how - Jaspers, pt.3

ronjon — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:06:00 -0700

I would like to share with you a reﬂection on science-spirituality by Karl Jaspers, a 20th century philosopher. I will present this in two or three parts because I think it is relevant and maybe a bit long for the forum.

"Part 3: Reason and Communication

Through the secure validity of a common principle that permeated all everyday life, there was, almost until the present time, a cohesion among men which rarely permitted communication to become a special problem. People could content themselves with the saying: we can pray together, but not talk together. Today, when we cannot even pray together, we are at length becoming fully aware that humanity implies unreserved communication among men. ..."

100 rh. Re: a response to the question why, how - Jaspers, pt.2

ronjon — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:03:00 -0700

I would like to share with you a reﬂection on science-spirituality by Karl Jaspers, a 20th century philosopher. I will present this in two or three parts because I think it is relevant and maybe a bit long for the forum.

Part 2: Science and Philosophy

" 1) Science must be made absolutely pure. For in practical operation and average thinking, it is shot through with non-scientiﬁc assertions and attitudes. Pure and strict science in its application to the whole sphere of the existent has been magniﬁcently achieved by individual scientists, but on the whole our spiritual life is far removed from it. ..."

099 rh. Re: a response to the question why, how - Jaspers, pt.1

ronjon — Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:01:00 -0700
I would like to share with you a reﬂection on science-spirituality by Karl Jaspers, a 20th century philosopher. I will present this in two or three parts because I think it is relevant and maybe a bit long for the forum.

"Part 1: The problem of our era (as seen fty years ago)

The course of events has led us from an era of bourgeois contentment, progress, education, which pointed to the historical past as proof that it had achieved security, into an age of devastating wars, mass death and mass murder (accompanied by an inexhaustible generation of new masses), of the most terrible sense of menace, an age in which humanity is being extinguished and chaotic disintegration seems to be the master of all things. ...

098 ra. A suggested framework for an Intersubjective Dialogue

ronjon — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 02:31:00 -0700
Since reading Richard's recent posts re Habermas, I've been thinking about possible frameworks for an intersubjective dialogue between science and spirituality, hopefully one grounded in, following Debashish's suggestion, "an affective collective space of community." ...

094 db. I'd like to see an "affective intersubjective space" based on a real community

ronjon — Mon, 25 Jul 2005 11:30:00 -0700
I have been browsing with interest the posts ﬂying at supersonic speed on this list without being able to take much part due to a very pressured present schedule. However, on the subject of intersubjectivity and the collective yoga, I would like to add a few words for now (and maybe elaborate later, when time permits). ...

090 bm. Way to change others not in IY, is by our example & integrity, not by theoretical bashing"

ronjon — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 16:21:00 -0700
... the only way to change others, who are not on the Integral Yoga path, is by our own example and integrity and not by theoretical bashing. ...

089 rh. Re: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!!

ronjon — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:53:00 -0700

089 rh. Re: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!!

Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 15:53:14 -0700 (PDT)
From: Rod Hemsell <rodhemsell@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!!
To: scienceandspirit@sriaurobindocenter-la.com

Message - 89/149

Even on the individual level and for the small collective I often feel that rationalism of the Habermas type can almost certainly lead to the obscuration, corruption, even the abolition of the possibility of truth if there is not a strong guiding intuition. That's the reason for my (provisionally suspended) doubt.

086 vb. Re: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!!

ronjon — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:47:00 -0700

086 vb. Re: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!!

Date: Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:47:50 -0700 (PDT)
From: vikas bamba <vikmere@yahoo.com
Subject: Re: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!!
To: scienceandspirit@sriaurobindocenter-la.com

Message - 86/149

Rod,

Nicely put. Love the quotes. Very apt.

085 rh. Re: well,..why (how) even talk about it?!!!

ronjon — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 10:40:00 -0700
I think the comments of Rich, Ron, Vikas, Don, etc. over the past few days have covered an extraordinary range of important ideas. And I really appreciate the treatment of Habermas and subjectivity. It is clear that this term refers to a domain of shared values and language that is created through "culture":

Rich said:

"While an individual may arrive at knowledge through a sudden ﬂash of insight, Habermas insists that such knowledge enters the intersubjective sphere only by being translated into rational, accessible discourse. The sphere of intersubjectivity is not the creation of a single individual psyche, but is a medium of communicable knowledge, created and maintained through the interaction of many subjectivities." ...

063 rh. Neo-Darwinism and Metaphysics

ronjon — Tue, 19 Jul 2005 12:14:00 -0700
The beak of the ﬁnch is a well documented example. It evolves relatively quickly in relation to speciﬁc environmental changes. In general it's the elegant suitability of every adaptation to its species' ecological niche; chance alone cannot account for the degree of precision between means and ends found in nature both within and across species. The same degree of formal elegance is found on the level of cosmic macroevolution. For example the recurrence of Fibbonacci numbers in spirals and geometric solids from crystal molecules to sunﬂowers to galaxies. ...

042 ap. Re: yoga, culture, choice (post 1973)

ronjon — Fri, 15 Jul 2005 07:30:00 -0700
... 1. The events of the world as in the individual are symbolic of a deeper rtruth that is trying to manifest or is being obstructed (though in the last analysis both help in the working but that would be a dangerous stance to begin with). To understand the symbolic truth or the play and balance of forces that are at work one needs ﬁrst of al to get rid of nervous and emotional reaction as well as of the surface reason that is incapable of knowing. This itself would mean a considerable inner advancement following the path of yoga. Till that is available it is better to suspend our judgement and learn to dive deep to get the soul vision of things. Such a vision is possible and accessible and it forms in fact one of the basis of yogic efforts. ...

040 db. Questions re Rich’s post

ronjon — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:01:00 -0700
Rich, From your post, I extracted the following concerns: 1) Do we need to interpret the events happening around us as a part of the integral yoga? ... ... These are all very loaded quations that merit our deepest consideration. At this moment it is difficult for me to find the time to give adequate answers, but I do hope others will give them due attention. ...