The convulsive forces of the bio and psycho spheres are breaking through the outer crust once again today, since a new Divine manifestation is in the making and the earth will not rest content with our half-successes. The apathy of the faithful will not serve us here. To believe that the Divine will quell these forces while we remain their puppets in our inner and outer lives will bring no succor. What we are called upon to respond with today is the active aspiration that allows Shiva to act though us, to give us the Force and even more, the Skill, not merely to defeat or destroy, but to transform, to turn to song.   more »

"When I give talks about energy, the audience already knows about the problems. That's not what they've come to hear. So I don't talk about problems, only solutions. But after a while, during the question period, someone in the back will get up and give a long riff about all the bad things that are happeningmost of which are basically true. There's only one way I've found to deal with that. After this person calms down, I gently ask whether feeling that way makes him more effective. As Rene Dubos, the famous biologist, once said, 'Despair is a sin.' " ...   more »

“. . .It is not a fact that the Gita gives the whole base of Sri Aurobindo’s message; for the Gita seems to admit the cessation of birth in the world as the ultimate aim or at least the ultimate culmination of yoga; it does not bring forward the idea of spiritual evolution or the idea of the higher planes and the supramental Truth-Consciousness and the bringing down of that consciousness as the means of the complete transformation of earthly life."   more »

"Everyone around the water cooler knows that meditation reduces stress. But with the aid of advanced brainscanning technology, researchers are beginning to show that meditation directly affects the function and structure of the brain, changing it in ways that appear to increase attention span, sharpen focus and improve memory."   more »

"The Dalai Lama is here to give a speech titled "The Neuroscience of Meditation." Over the past few years, he has supplied about a dozen Tibetan Buddhist monks to Richard Davidson, a prominent neuroscience professor at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Davidson's research created a stir among brain scientists when his results suggested that, in the course of meditating for tens of thousands of hours, the monks had actually altered the structure and function of their brains." ...   more »

Savitra reminded me of 'Earth Ships' during a lunch meeting a few days ago here at Auroville. (When he's in Auroville, Alan uses the name the Mother gave to him. His birth name is Alan Lithman, a long-term Aurovilian & author of "An Evolutionary Agenda for the Third Millennium.") He was describing a 2005 trip through the American Southwest and was inspired by his visit to the Earthship community located near Taos, New Mexico. I had heard similar stories of these innovative homes designed for sustainability before, so I just went to their website and also became inspired by the descriptions and photos of these remarkable habitats. ... Some samples: "The Earthship is a completely independent globally oriented dwelling unit made from materials that are indigenous to the entire planet. The Earthship has been designed to reduce our impact on the planet and increase our connection to it by utilizing recycled and low embodied energy materials, passive solar heating and cooling, photovoltaic power system, catchwater, solar hot water, gray water and black water treatment systems."   more »