Science, Culture and Integral Yoga

Sri Aurobindo's Integral Education in Contemporary Higher Education

Debashish — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 09:00:47 -0700

Sri Aurobindo envisaged the goal of human becoming as a transformed society and civilization based on the expressions of an integral consciousness. However, in keeping with the collective dimension of this goal, a transformed society was envisaged by him not merely as the end result of individual transformations, but as the dynamically transforming life-context or field which would allow and facilitate individual transformation. Seen from this standpoint, the social discipline of education, meant to “socialize,” “in-form” and inculcate the cultural, knowledge and epistemological skills of the social habitus for individual engagement takes on a changed meaning related to a new phenomenology, epistemology and teleology of human and social becoming. Integral Education then becomes a socially acknowledged and authorized praxis of the Integral Yoga or at least the pedagogical condition for its social possibility and collective transformation.

Though much has been written and several attempts at implementation made to formulate Integral Education as a form of child education, the higher educational possibilities and ramifications of Integral Education have remained largely untheorized. This paper is an attempt to think through some of these possibilties and implementations. Debashish Banerji is the educational coordinator of The University of Philosophical Research in Los Angeles.

Conference: Fundamentalism and the Future

Rich — Fri, 10 Jul 2009 09:54:40 -0700

Conference Announcement: Fundamentalism and the Future
Friday, September 11 and Saturday, September 12, 2009
California Institute of Integral Studies
1453 Mission Street, San Francisco, CA
A two-day conference will be held Friday, September 11 and Saturday September 12 on the topic “Fundamentalism and the Future.” The conference will be at the California Institute of Integral studies in San Francisco, hosted by the Department of Asian and Comparative Religions. The conference organizers are Rich Carlson, Debashish Banerji and David Hutchinson. Registration is free. For details on the conference, location, and registration, please see http://fundamentalismandthefuture.com

A Matter of Mind by J. Kepler

Debashish — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 21:13:34 -0700

At the core of much of the recent discussion and controversy in the Integral Yoga (IY) online community seems to lay the role of the mind and mental reasoning. Many statements from Sri Aurobindo and Mother could be quoted both praising the essential, enabling contributions of the mind, as well as criticizing the mind’s obstinate, obstructing features and liabilities. This dual nature of their commentary itself may point us in the right direction. It’s the particular use made of the mental faculty in a particular context that determines its helpful or harmful status.

Many quotes could be furnished where Sri Aurobindo and Mother state definitively that their teaching is a living spiritual path and not a set of fixed doctrines or dogmas to be religiously recited and referenced. But especially in documents that pertain to their own practice, in Sri Aurobindo’s case his Record of Yoga, in Mother’s case l'Agenda de Mère, and in other miscellaneous talks and letters by both of them, they exhibit a characteristic attitude and approach to mental formulation. This attitude is marked by a highly flexible and, one could even say, experimental approach to mental formulation of the vast spiritual experiences they passed through.

Considered in this light, the current Heehs controversy is perhaps best seen not as simply a flawed biography by a flawed ashramite who upset many devotees with his academic approach to evaluating Sri Aurobindo’s life. The controversy might also represent a stark and revealing light being cast upon the mental formations and constructions that have hardened among many associated with IY. All should be able to agree that the Mother’s approach is never a static one and she always seeks to propel us toward the future, breaking our comfortable habits of thinking and feeling as need be whenever our advance requires it. “her feet are rapid on the upward way.”

100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution: The Illusion of Human Progress and the Ideal of Human Unity (part 5 of 6)

Rich — Fri, 29 May 2009 12:43:00 -0700

... In this context progress can be seen as a social ideology that corresponds to other hijacked evolutionary ideologies reflected in the German Idealism of “ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny”, and Herbert Spencer's “progressive evolution”. All the above ideas at one time or another have been utilized by those with couched power agendas for their use value in aligning different races and cultures along a scale of graduated being in which the European was seen to be the most highly evolved. A close reading of Sri Aurobindo however, will show that he had no such agenda. This fact should be understood properly before moving on to consider Sri Aurobindo's view of human progress.

Although in many ways Sri Aurobindo was certainly a visionary in his view of history he did not claim to be a prophet. The impossible burden of proof placed on prophecy is not lost on him. Even the future of poetry it seems can not be anticipated twenty five years years hence:

“ The gods of life and still more the gods of mind are so incalculably self-creative that even when we can distinguish the main lines of which the working runs or has so far run, we are still unable to foresee with any certainty what turn they will take or of what new thing they are the labor. It is therefore impossible to predict what the future poetry will actually be like. We can see where we stand today but we cannot see where we shall stand a quarter century hence” (Sri Aurobindo FP p.1972)

If this be the case with the life gods of poetry how much more is this so with the gods governing human history. Indeed how could one expect him to anticipate the developments in subsequent years when he wrote this optimistic assessment of the future in his 1909 essay Process and Evolution:

It is not likely that the immediate future of the democratic tendency will satisfy the utmost dreams of the lover of liberty who seeks an anarchist freedom, or of the lover of equality who tries to establish a socialistic dead level, or of the lover of fraternity who dreams of a world-embracing communism. But some harmonization of this great ideal is undoubtedly the immediate future of the human race. Once the old forces of despotism, inequality and unbridled competition, after they have been once more overthrown, a process of gradual samyama will be performed by which what has remained of them will be regarded as the disappearing vestiges of a dead reality and without any further violent coercion be transformed slowly and steadily out of existence.”

Of course what followed were the two great wars that almost destroyed civilizations and the partition of his beloved India. It seems like a harmonization in the immediate future was not to be in the cards dealt by history.....

For Sri Aurobindo the question of human progress is, as almost everything he wrote about, complex. While he believes in 1909 that human progress is the agent of change and writes: “ Whether we take the modern scientific or the ancient Hindu standpoint the progress of humanity is a fact.”(Aurobindo 1909) by the early 1940s his view seems to have notably altered and he writes:

“the idea of human progress itself is very probably an illusion, for there is no sign that man, once emerged from the animal stage, has radically progressed during his race-history; at most he has advanced in knowledge of the physical world, in Science, in the handling of his surroundings, in his purely external and utilitarian use of the secret laws of Nature....

David Hutchinson, Debashish Banerji and Rich Carlson Respond to Sraddhalu

Debashish — Wed, 06 May 2009 14:03:28 -0700

Two of those involved in allegations and support of censorship, Ranade and Pandey, are invitees to this year’s AUM conference. They have both responded to our letter with justifications of their actions. Ranade has reiterated in his letter a list of his charges against the author and his book. Ranade also continues to stand firmly behind the writ to ban the book.

Fundamentalism in Integral Yoga - New Website Announcement

Debashish — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 12:18:59 -0700

Dear SCIY readers,

Because Sraddhalu Ranade and Alok Pandey have been invited to the US for the AUM conference this year, we wish to place certain facts about them before those who may be considering support or sponsorship of these people or their projects. These facts concern their involvement in what we regard as promotion of religious fundamentalism, censorship, distortion of truth, and defiance of Ashram rules and authority carried out by Ranade and Pandey recently, so that you may assess any possible support for them.

To make people aware of the misleading activities of Ranade, Pandey, and others, and to increase awareness of an unfortunate growing trend among some who claim to be followers of Sri Aurobindo, a website has been started website, http://www.iyfundamentalism.info.

The Soul of a City: The Crystal Cathedral as Organizing Metaphor for (post)Modern Architecture at the Bauhaus

Debashish — Thu, 12 Mar 2009 22:38:12 -0700

The Bauhaus, founded in 1919 at Weimar, Germany by Walter Gropius, was arguably the most influential school of design in modern times, set up in the form of a residential creative community of designers, craftsmen, architects and artists. As part of its central ideal, Water Gropius, the founder of the Bauhaus, envisaged a world made up of creative communities united spiritually in and around a materialized soul, which he likened to "a crystal cathedral." Today, Bauhaus influenced architecture is ubiquitous as the symbol of world modernity, but Gropius' dream is far from fulfilled. This article explores the historical dimensions of this ideal, the causes for its failure and the possible conditions for its postmodern manifestation.

Larger Issues of "The Lives of Sri Aurobindo" Controversy

Debashish — Mon, 12 Jan 2009 09:52:26 -0800

The Heehs biography controversy is unfortunately a symptom of a much deeper crisis in the Integral Yoga community, with future repercussions which are hardly optimistic. In this consideration of some of the larger issues involved, the editors of sciy and other concerned viewers of the phenomenon draw attention to what is at stake for all those interested in the Integral Yoga. These are only a few of the more serious ramifications. Readers are welcome to add their own concerns as comments.

Living Laboratories of the Life Divine by Debashish Banerji

Debashish — Sun, 23 Nov 2008 19:50:41 -0800

What is the post-human destiny to which we are called as humans in contemporary times? In this transcript of a talk given for the AUM conference in Los Angeles in 2003, Debashish Banerji compares Nietzsche's call for the Overman with that announced by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother to point to the similarities and differences. How can we pick our way through the maze of choices held up at this end-time of human becoming? Is it by remaining complacent or by using our wills or by surrender to a greater force than ours? And if so, what force - the vitalism of an unconscious Nature-force, the deceptive "universality" of the world market or an unpredictable future which calls our arduous attention? These and similar questions are posed and discussed in this article.

Techno-Capitalism and Post-Human Destinies III

Debashish — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 19:05:34 -0700

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? ...

Primrose School of Pondicherry: An experiment in integral education

Ron — Mon, 23 Jul 2007 13:14:42 -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. ...

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

Ron — Fri, 13 Jul 2007 09:46:46 -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 Doctrine of the Subtle Worlds: Sri Aurobindo's Cosmology, Modern Science, and the Metaphysics of Alfred North Whitehead'

Ron — Thu, 15 Feb 2007 23:11:11 -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…

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

Ron — Wed, 27 Dec 2006 17:22:03 -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 04:53:59 -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): ...

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

Ron — Fri, 27 Oct 2006 15:10:20 -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 23:33:43 -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.

Ron — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 12:48:32 -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

Ron — 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)

Ron — 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)

Ron — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 14:42:01 -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

Ron — Mon, 30 Jan 2006 13:18:27 -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"

Ron — Fri, 27 Jan 2006 12:10:52 -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"

Ron — Mon, 31 Oct 2005 01:07:44 -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 00:24:23 -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

Ron — Mon, 05 Sep 2005 00:46:35 -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.

Ron — Sun, 04 Sep 2005 00:40:39 -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

Ron — 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

Ron — Fri, 02 Sep 2005 22:50:58 -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

Ron — 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

Ron — 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

Ron — 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

Ron — Tue, 26 Jul 2005 02:31:10 -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

Ron — 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"

Ron — Sun, 24 Jul 2005 16:21:20 -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?!!!

Ron — 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?!!!

Ron — 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?!!!

Ron — 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

Ron — 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)

Ron — 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

Ron — Thu, 14 Jul 2005 15:01:51 -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. ...