Even the smallest meanest work became A sweet or glad and glorious sacrament.
January 31, 2006
A power and a presence
Reflection and research
Madhwa and Sri Aurobindo
The Historical Vision of K.D. Sethna
Varuna
Sri Aurobindo
January 30, 2006
वन्दे मातरम्
Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture
- To supervise and administer the Project of History of Indian Science, Philosophy and Culture (PHISPC), which is fully funded by the Ministry of Human Resources Development.
- To plan and conduct the new sub-project called Consciousness, Science, Society and Value (CONSSAV), which has recently been approved by the Department of Education, Ministry of Human Resources Development.
- It is going to launch an interdisciplinary journal entitled Sandhan to be brought biannually.
- To jointly publish with Penguin India, A Dictionary of Indian Philosophy
- To organise monthly academic programmes in the forms of either symposia or talks by eminent scholars, spokesperson, bureaucrats, politicians, littérateurs, etc.
PROJECT OF HISTORY OF INDIAN SCIENCE, PHILOSOPHY, AND CULTURE (PHISPC)
There is a total plan of publishing 50 (fifty) volumes of books/anthologies. Out of these, 30 (thirty) will be major volumes (in parts) and 20 (twenty) will be smaller books called 'Monographs'. So far 7 (seven) major volumes and 11 (eleven) monographs have been brought out. In the financial year 2001-02, seven/eight major volumes and one monograph will be brought out.
CONSCIOUSNESS, SCIENCE, SOCIETY AND VALUE (CONSSAV)
Another project of the CSC is the project of Consciousness, Science, Society and Value (CONSSAV). This has been considered as a sub project of the on going project of PHISPC. In this project attempts will be made to explore the role of consciousness in its various levels of awareness, in understanding and expounding the development of science, society and values. Consciousness as has been conceived and theorized in different traditions, or rather civilizations, will be studied and explored in detail.
Oriya luminaries
The Forum for Vedanta and Science
- In Indian tradition we had stalwarts like Vyasadeva, Kannada, Jiva Goswami, Srila Prabhupada,
- and in the western tradition we have Newton, Faraday, Pasteur, Einstein, Heisenberg, Schrödinger, and Planck.
The students in this forum are actively pursuing their interest in the common concerns of science and spirituality such as ethics, origin of life, universe and consciousness. In last few months many new members from various Universities and Organizations joined in the forum and actively helping in the works of Forum for Vedanta and Science (FVS). Please look in to the Forum For Vedanta and Science Representatives for help and guidance regarding the forum activities. http://www.geocities.com/vedanta_science/
The epiphenomenal view of mind
- I want to mention in passing Elmer Green's extraordinary work of nearly 30 years at the Menninger Foundation in Kansas where he records vibrational changes in what he calls the biofield. He has successfully measured the fields of several practicing yogis, healers and shamans.
- In the traditional Hindu teachings these fields are called the sthula or energy sheaths and there are hierarchies of them.
- Barbara Brennan's book Hands of Light give us excellent clairvoyant images of these sheaths or fields as they relate to western concepts or energy blocks in the body discovered by Wilhelm Reich.
- Another western version of the yogic doctrine is David Tansley's theory and practice of what he called Radionics.
- In Tansley as in Brennan you will find descriptions of a hierarchy of subtle energy sheaths or bodies called the etheric, emotional, mental and higher bodies that surround the physical body. (Interestingly Tansley's picture was derived from Alice Bailey's esoteric works which include a theosophical commentary on The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, the locus classicus of Hindu teaching.)
- Then there is the well known Russian work on the Kirlian Aura popularized in English by the excellent anthologies of Stanley Krippner and John White.
- Recently in the Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network there has been reference to Professor Sarkar's concept of the microvita, minuscule elements of energy which he describes as the ultimate source of life.
- In the world of hypnotherapy and birth regression David Cheek has independently introduced using the notion of cellular consciousness, the idea that memory is stored "in" the cells--a metaphor once again, but one that is becoming more and more popular.
- In like vein, for many years psychotherapists who work with regression, psychodrama, rebirthing and other deep experiential therapies have been talking loosely of body consciousness--though in my own practice I have found myself more and more using the term "etheric memory or consciousness" in deference to the subtle body theory.
- I should also mention the contribution to energy thinking made by Viktor Inyushin in Russia. This is a later derivative of the Kirlian work on the auric field which talks of bioplasm as the fifth state of matter--the others being solids, liquids, gases and plasma.
Inyushin defined bioplasm as follows: A living organism can be described as a "biological field" or a "biofield," a "field" being a region consisting of lines of force whichaffect each other. The biofield has a clear spacial formation and is separated and shaped by several physical fields, electrostatic, electromagnet, acoustic, hydrodynamic and quite possibly others inadequately explored. Clearly for Inyushin the biofield or the subtle energy field which is made up of bioplasm is a product of existing physical energy fields in the body. What we have here, we could say philosophically, is a kind of energy monism, where everything can be reduced to energy and derived from greater or larger energetic fields that exist here in the level of the physical world.
Right brain thinking.
Supra-Cytology
Laboratory of Evolution
- Integral yoga and its confluence with the emerging new scientific paradigms in physics, biology, medicine, history, etc.
- An index of 'Mother's Agenda', the 13 volume record of Mother's pioneering steps towards a conscious and transformed body, the future body which evolution is already now preparing for a transformed human species.
- The secret consciousness in our body cells and how to awaken and develop it (a book is currently being written on this topic, and a number of workshops have been held).
- Messages and other texts by The Mother about Auroville. These have all been put together into one large compilation, which individuals or working groups in Auroville can photocopy for their own use. Others just ask orally for what they need.
- Development since many years of an innovative board game, "Gayatri": evolution played as 'the adventure of consciousness and joy' (Sri Aurobindo, "Savitri").
- Flowers and consciousness.
- Awakening of body consciousness through hatha yoga and martial arts.
- Research on chakras.
One important area of research envisioned from the start needs to be added to what is already being done: the kind of scientific research which a "laboratory of evolution" ought also to do. For example, to experiment with the diverse biofeedback instruments which show the physiological effects that the various states of consciousness have on the human body. With the help of such devices, even children should be able to learn (to a certain extent) how to be, at will, in a specific state of consciousness, and how to communicate more consciously with their body.
Muddled maps, models and metaphors
The system knows how to evolve
Scientific study of human nature
Leary-Wilson-Lilly
Piaget, Wilber and Sri Aurobindo
January 29, 2006
Circle of understanding
Involution / Evolution
- The scientific evidence for evolution is solid but it doesn't follow that creationism is irrational in the way that many evolutionists assume. Creationism follows rationally from theism. I recognize that this argument is not likely to please many people. The evolutionists fear to question the premise while modern/moderate theists fear to question the conclusion.Thus for someone who knows, really knows, that god(s) exists (and there are many people who claim to know that god(s) exists) then some form of creationism (see the extension) follows as a rational deduction from the premises. It's no point telling these people that creationism is unscientific because given the premise that god(s) exists creationism is scientific. If god(s) exists then evolution is almost certainly false, if not in every particular then surely in the grand claims of a undesigned nature.
January 28, 2006
As if only the great can be spiritual
Cognition issues
seeds {maybe some sprouts}: Designing for Embodiment
posted by Gert at 9:03 PM 1 comments
The Multiverse According to Ben: Cognitive Neuroscience of Consciousness
posted by Gert at 4:45 PM 0 comments
The Multiverse According to Ben: Immortality and the Potential Obsolescence of the Self
posted by Gert at 4:43 PM 0 comments
Savitri Era Learning Forum: Being No One
posted by Gert at 4:38 PM 0 comments
Thursday, January 19, 2006
Savitri Era Learning Forum: January 2006
posted by madhumita @ 6:23 PM 0 comments
Hobbes and Ryle, Kant and Sri Aurobindo
By Dr. Ranjan Ghosh Darjeeling Government CollegeUniversity of North Bengal(India)
Cosmic Solidarity: Divergence and Reconciliation
Scholars as Gnostic Diplomats
Husserl and HRM
Mystic vs. skeptic
Not to ask a silly question, but what do integralists mean by "mystic"? Are they using the word simply as a catch-all term for inexplicable subjective experience, or are they postulating the actual existence of a nonmaterial plane that all of these methodologies are supposed to point towards?
Hmmm... Well, I can't speak for this level of specifics for the integralist community at large, since my approach is more one of "I know how I operate, and I'm trying to see what matches up to me." But I do have a couple thoughts on the matter.Firstly (though I don't think this quite answers your question), I'd suppose that the best generally agreed on definition of "mysticism" would be as described here:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mysticism
Hi -- found you while browsing through skepticaldebate. Hope you don't mind me friending you -- I am also studying Integral theory. :-)
Friending is fine; the more, the merrier. :) Sometimes I feel like I'm a pariah on skeptical debate... I don't agree with what I would call the groupthink of the greater scientific community, so I seem to continually find myself debating with people who say things like: "There's no hard evidence for that" (when there is, and they just haven't even looked for it) or "All people who believe in psychic abilities are charlatans and fakers" (which is a obviously an inaccurate generalization). But anyway, I've spent enough time pondering the deep stuff, and trying to resolve matters of spirit within a logical framework, that I can generally hold my own in such debates... and refer people to books that back me up well, when needed. My favorite books to recommend in this realm (as you probably saw me mention on there) are The Holographic Universe and The Field. Also, I write a lot on here that's related to all this as well, which fit my "spiritual science" tag. There's probably some stuff of mine on here that you'd like, and some stuff that you wouldn't be as excited about, but I figure I'd recommend it in general. You can skim through however much you'd like of it here: http://anthonyjaycee.livejournal.com/tag/spiritual+science
I'm quite new to mysticism -- used to be a bit of a hard-headed skeptic myself until my kundalini awakening last year (if you've read my userinfo you can read a bit about my journey). You can read a description of my experience here: http://www.geocities.com/to_be_broadcast_live/revolution.htm Thanks for the link, will go through your journal entries. :-)
I'll have to check out your description and user info.It's kind of funny, but I actually haven't had any OBE's, NDE's, or a Kundalini experience myself. So, I feel like I'm missing out greatly on much of what many could take as "real proof." But I read a lot about a lot of related things. And I am very intuitive, so I'm great at channeling information from spiritual entities, and communicating with them intuitively in general... I just can't "prove that they're real." (But they do really help with the journal writing and the novel writing; that's tangible.) Plus, I get a lot of "hmmm, that was highly unlikely" types of signs that show up in my life. It does all add up, but I still feel like I'm missing out on some of the more powerful specific spiritual experiences that many have...
By the way, for one of the best sites on the Internet synthesizing science and spirituality, check out: http://www.kheper.net The mailing list is great, too. Alan Kazlev, who runs the site, is extremely well-versed in both science (especially paeleontology) as well as esotericism. (Reply to this) (Parent) (Thread) spiritofnow 2006-01-28 02:16 am UTC (link) Whoops, that comment above was me. :-)