June 14, 2019

Aesthetics like nutrition should seek the right-mix


The irony of disowning one's culture

The New Indian Express-04-Jun-2019
It is not wise to confuse the treasures of our heritage with the Hindu religion as it is understood and interpreted today ...

'I am a man of India as a whole': Manoj Das

The Hindu-23-Mar-2019
Manoj Das, one of India's foremost bi-lingual authors, writes in his mother tongue, Odia, and in English. The 2001-Padma Shri recipient who ...

Manoj Das to be conferred with Nilimarani Award 2019 on Jan 6

Pragativadi-27-Dec-2018
Bhubaneswar: Award-winning Indian author Professor Manoj Das will be conferred with the first Nilimarani Award 2019 for his extraordinary ...

Unsung Warrior~I

The Statesman-12-Jun-2019
At this time, he visited the ashram of Motilal Roy, a renowned devotee of SriAurobindo and was imbued with his religious philosophy. After a few months Motilal ...

Unsung Warrior~II

The Statesman-1 hour ago
Inspired by the ideological moorings of Sri Aurobindo, he was far above a noxious egomaniac and could always view things with insouciance and equanimity.

What Kind of Nationalism Do We Need Today? Exploring Tagore on ...

Economic and Political Weekly-11 hours ago
Unlike many 19th century thinkers like Ram Mohan Roy, Swami Vivekananda and Sri Aurobindo who rooted indian cultural unity in canonical texts, Tagore ...

Understanding the Indian right

THE WEEK-10-Jun-2019
While he seeks to trace right wing political and economic beliefs through the writings of Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay, Sri Aurobindo, Nirad C Chaudhuri and ...

Into the mind of the modern-day Chanakya

India Today-08-Jun-2019
Shah's great-grandfather and grandfather had been the nagarsheth of the princely state of Mansa. It is said that the family had also hosted Sri Aurobindo, then ...

As Modi swears in, read Sri Aurobindo's powerful nationalism speech ...

MyNation-30-May-2019
On this very same day (May 30), Indian philosopher Sri Aurobindo delivered a fiery speech on nationalism that cemented the bedrock of India's freedom struggle ...

Evolution, Religion, and Indian Traditions-whose Clash Is It Anyway?

IndiaFacts-07-Jun-2019
Sri Aurobindo refined these ideas further. His ideas on evolution become explicit by some of his statements he made in various essays, lectures, and interviews.

Goddess of generalisations fails Gandhi and Ambedkar

The Sunday Guardian-01-Jun-2019
Here was the Mahatma who, to use Sri Aurobindo's words, was “a European…in an Indian body”. But Roy, after explaining how Gandhi “has become all things ...

Hinduism and New Age
P Oneness, R Cosmopolitanism - Modern Hinduism, 2019
… emotional relaxation. They also include the growing crowds outside the Pranic Healing Centre in the Aurobindo Ashram in New Delhi, which people approached in search of relief for mental and physical ailments alike. And, most

Modern Hindu Dharma and Environmentalism
P Jain - Modern Hinduism, 2019
… Similarly, the teachings of Sri Aurobindo (1872–1950) inspired the founding of a community near Pondicherry in South India called Auroville, in which ecological restoration and progress towards sustainability have been central goals (Sullivan 1994) …

Hinduism in the Secular Republic of Nepal
DN Gellner, C Letizia - Modern Hinduism, 2019
Page 288. 15 Hinduism in the Secular Republic of Nepal David N. Gellner and Chiara Letizia INTRODUCTION Nepal looms large in the modern Hindu imagination for three reasons.'First, it encompasses a large stretch of the holy mountains, the Himalayas …

Modern Hindu Diaspora (s)
V Sinha - Modern Hinduism, 2019
… These included the International Society for Krishna Consciousness (ISKCON),
Sathya Sai Baba movement, Radhasoami Satsang, BK Raja Yoga Centre, Eckankar Satsang, Sri Ramakrishna Mission, Sri Aurobindo Society, Tran …

Assumptions and Ground Realities
S Bhattacharjea - Early Childhood Education and School Readiness in …
… In India, this basic principle has been articulated in different ways, for example, in Gandhi's belief in “correlated teaching” that would draw on the child's environment for ways of exploring topics or concepts, or in Aurobindo's model 

Kipling, Yeats, and the empire of men
A Pradhan - Kipling and Yeats at 150: Retrospectives/Perspectives, 2019

Assorted tweets:

Happy to announce SAFIC now has a brand new website (same easy-to-remember URL of course!). Please browse through and learn about  our various projects and activities. https://t.co/Y0Be8MyBe4
https://twitter.com/AUROSAFIC/status/1139211306505035778?s=19
Upcoming Event from SAFIC- an International Conference on “Spiritual Perspectives on Creating a Conscious Humanity” October 18-20, 2019 For more information, visit: https://t.co/zyp6mKW6Z0 https://t.co/3RlBYRIdyx
https://twitter.com/AUROSAFIC/status/1139210917365858306?s=19

Sri Aurobindo brings in a far greater psychology elaborating the Upanhadic planes of being in The Life Divine n the Letters.
https://twitter.com/GoutamGhosal2/status/1139205861476188161?s=19

Everyone wants to be a hero, but no one wants to use the brains & strategy, or do the work of a hero.
That's the unpleasant reality of Hindu activists.
Everyone wants to fight for dharma, but only a handful know what's dharma, leave alone uphold it & live it.
https://twitter.com/parantapah/status/1139165058800312321?s=19

Well said. Unfortunately its not even true that everyone wants to fight for dharma. Most Hindus r only concerned w/ job, family, house & some periodic celebrations which is all the "Hinduism" they care to indulge in. Dharma is by definition the province of heroes of force & thot. https://t.co/ToN8fVwkEi
https://twitter.com/auroviryavaan/status/1139167756396445696?s=19
Our personality can be a vehicle & a medium & a channel for the Divine Consciousness. But for that it is necessary to break out of the illusory shell of the ego. The lower deformation must surrender to the Highest Truth, the outer surface play of nature to the innermost Divinity. https://t.co/aogER7bjWi
https://twitter.com/auroviryavaan/status/1137545755722489856?s=19
We see only our human weaknesses & limitations.
She sees through them our supreme Divine potential. https://t.co/aogER7bjWi
https://twitter.com/auroviryavaan/status/1137548382539571201?s=19
I think it wud prob b more correct to say Sri Aurobindo had accomplished what he had to in the political field for the time being, i.e. lay the seed & groundwork for full independence, light the fire that once lit cud not b extinguished. Even his yoga grew out of his nationalism.
https://twitter.com/auroviryavaan/status/1139261852620382209?s=19
He had reached a point where he cud see that the awakening he had initiated wud inevitably result in freedom, only a Q of time, soon or later. But what India wud do with this freedom was the real Q now. And the rest of his life he spent in laying the foundations for future India.

Remember the incident in #SriAurobindo Ashram when in WW 🏗 was badly affected by shortages of cement! Sadhaks used to complain to the Mother! Once while returning from Her room,They saw a  line of trucks coming out of nowhere !Said the Mother:you mortals don’t believe in Divine!
https://twitter.com/Sanjays81301051/status/1139208334614192129?s=19

Sri Aurobindo, and not Goel or Shourie, is the last word on human behaviour and collective psychology. Reading him can orient one in the Vedic Evolutionary vision for the mankind and liberate from ill effects of parochialism. Recognising the true teacher of the nation is the key.
https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1139055242421579776?s=19
May be your impression is in order to a large extent since it's a human weakness to safeguard self-interest. Fortunately or unfortunately, however, one can't think of modern India without the Bengalis. From Ram Mohan Roy to Mahalanobis, they have contributed in diverse fields.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1139236423897214976?s=19
Despite facing setback on several counts, Europe still provides leadership on diverse facets of human civilisation and culture. Blanket condemnation of Colonialism or Christianity shouldn't blind us to these areas of excellence. Admiring and acquiring the best should be the norm.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1139085676169744384?s=19
People in general take great satisfaction in not availing the services of an architect while constructing a house or renovating it. As a result, our country is suffering from a huge design-deficit. Sadly Bollywood sets or Web portals, on the contrary, demonstrate design overload.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1139088576988114944?s=19
Modern schooling practice of confining students in classrooms deprives them of the joy of labour or creative physical endeavour. Subjects we teach at school have become outdated in the Internet age. Abolishing the prevailing syllabus and evaluation system is the only sane option.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1138696899643371520?s=19
History and Mythology lessons should be abandoned so that the new generation is not mentally burdened. Those peddling unsubstantiated formulations must desist from charlatanism. Citing old texts is no assurance against trickery. Preventing frauds is an important responsibility.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1138124277822001152?s=19
Each and every major narrative needs some measure of corrective. Western scholars have failed to accommodate or appreciate the Indian scenario and Indian public intellectuals are averse to an Integral view of things. So no need to be overwhelmed by the dominant political paradigm
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1138466581271515137?s=19
Aesthetics like nutrition must strive for the right-mix and avoid intoxication by a few dominant components. Not being natural or duly imparted by education, this aspect of personal development is a difficult proposition for many. Further, Media offerings often warp the scenario.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1139115294792642560?s=19
Politics as well as philanthropy run on principles of Business Management. There's no reason why they should be different. Personal development, however, is an altogether separate arena. Professional expertise shouldn't delude one to be too adept at facing life's twists and turns.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1139227897019817984?s=19
Each religion is a bundle of superstition and people have no option than to carry forward that burden. They are fighting with each other without having any hand in creation of the religions. The Mother & Sri Aurobindo have clearly said about the end of the reign of all religions.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1139253914111361024?s=19
There can be various opinions about the past which keeps on changing but the truth is that contact with European education and culture gave the Bengalis the first mover's advantage. Their position is secure in history; no one can dispute with that or remove them from the pedestal
I have not read him but many perceptive persons are recommending the books by Nigurananda (Professor Sachidananda Sarkar). You may check. There would be many others like him.
https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1139376396042588171?s=19

The "dramatist" school of social philosophy (Kenneth Burke, Hugh Dalziel Duncan) has some very interesting insights.
Also, Rolf Jensen's *Dream Society* (ugly and exploitative as it is, and more like Huxley's dystopia) also points to the transformation of *reality* into psychodrama, as does the emergence of "marketing 3.0" or ("holistic" or "spiritual" branding, so-called).
Jensen's *Dream Society* is quite evidently the meaning, too, of Kurt Andersen's *Fantasyland*, and buttresses Gabler's (and Postman's) earlier writings on how "entertainment has conquered reality" -- ie, loss of discernment between the "in here" and the "out there".
But this is also consistent with Aurobindo's "Age of Subjectivism" (in *The Human Cycle*). There is, in those terms, an implicit logic and pattern within the apparent chaos of the affects.
https://twitter.com/fourfoldvision/status/1139157709318696960?s=19

A must read if you want to have insights into ancient Bharata, especially Tamil Nadu,social values & finess , role of the devadasi, their personality, &their downfall. The more u read, the more u would realise that it was a progressive society which regressive cultures invaded. https://t.co/e1NWrIdatN
https://twitter.com/krithikasivasw/status/1139234432156487680?s=19

“All my books address this issues of dislocation, migration, movement.” - @GhoshAmitav #Live from the #Delhi launch of #GunIsland
https://twitter.com/PenguinIndia/status/1139174299527311361?s=19
“Often when you write a novel, you realise that certain characters truly assert themselves. They become larger and larger than life” - @GhoshAmitav
#Live from the #Delhi launch of #GunIsland

Two hours a week spent outdoors in nature linked with better health https://t.co/fYgEQrTVBk https://t.co/0D6p3uw4dT
https://twitter.com/newscientist/status/1139246471147073545?s=19

Plasim Radar

Mechanical Mind - The useless mechanical mind is very active, while the useful recording mind has fallen silent; it can’t do any thinking or even note down the experienc...

Prabhat Patnaik puerile Theory of Money - Why does paper money have value? The answer is because it is legal tender. You discharge your contractual obligations and pay your taxes by using it. Your ...

Catherine Prueitt hired by the University of British Columbia - Continuing the good news about Canada: Catherine Prueitt has accepted a position in at The University of British Columbia. Congratulations to her and to UBC!

- On the claim of science. For Heidegger, “each supposition is always already grounded in a certain kind of *acceptio*. Only when the presence of something 

Isha Upanishad: the Methods of Realisation, Part 4, the Human Standpoint and the Link to the Divine Standpoint - The description of seven ‘worlds’ or states of consciousness, in the Vedic terminology includes 3 in a higher hemisphere, and 3 in a lower hemisphere, and ...

Deepening the “zero-sum binary” - Via Islamic finance, “rites” have increased their power over “rights” in Malaysia.

The Anthropocene as Psychodrama - Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow, Creeps in this petty pace from day to day To the last syllable of recorded time, And all our yesterdays have lighted ...

The right-wing reaction is part of the legacy of the fall of the Soviet Union - In Neoliberalism’s Demons, available wherever fine books are sold, I argue that the right-wing reaction is not a necessary outcome of neoliberalism — in pa...

Antithesis of Yoga - Antithesis of Yoga is a non-fiction novel about Auroville’s first 25 years. Jocelyn one of the early settlers in Auroville since 1969, chronicles the sto...

A Sellarsian solution for the self? - The conflict between Buddhism and qualitative individualism is a major difficulty for my own philosophy. In addressing that conflict, there … Continue read...

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Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201014, India

June 08, 2019

Fiction says nothing concrete; it does not deliver clear judgements

Irrationality is very much part of the uniqueness of our inner cosmos, as is our rationality. Instead of playing one against the other our irrationality can be managed and rituals play an important role in it.  https://t.co/wT939wJUao via @swarajyamag
https://twitter.com/arvindneela/status/1136506585491001344?s=19

Fiction says nothing concrete about improving relationships, establishing financial security, or controlling the breath for greater calm and energy. It seems ambiguous: it does not even deliver clear judgements on the characters it has itself presented... https://t.co/708EEPOmJx
https://twitter.com/Hashestweets/status/1136147270418739201?s=19

Marketime: Electoral victory is not ideological victory https://t.co/pinJ2hQQ4y
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1137215555256037376?s=19

Exclusive Concentration like Extended Release or Paramarasa limiting itself like in Alethea is another way of looking at Democracy vis-a-vis Conscious Evolution. Dwapara or Tretaya being in certain ratio of Satya or Vaikhari and Madhyama as some proportion of Pashyanti analogical
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1137007318388752384?s=19

By emphasising more on the spirituality aspect Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Puducherry has neglected the political dimension of Sri Aurobindo's vision. Savitri Era Party has been inspiring and influencing people for taking part in this important venture from 2007 https://t.co/mxqwPMre10
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1128096043231354880?s=19

I used to be perplexed how such a large number of intelligent South Indian brahmins are confident of the future of Hindutva when the North Indian version represented by RSS is so intellectually impoverished. But their common resistance to Sri Aurobindo explains it to some extent.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1127469051037474816?s=19

Since someone says that he sees my tweets,
I'm beholden but don't take them too seriously.
Twitter is a toy for literate old persons,
Who tend to litter to vent a hundred deprivations.
#MayDay is for remembering the human condition,
And being aware of their impregnable conundrum.
https://twitter.com/SavitriEraParty/status/1123435901693067264?s=19

Beautiful Bhakra https://t.co/hrO82nkc1g

[PDF] IN SEARCH OF THE HIDDEN GOD IN BHAGAVAD-GĪTĀ AND DEUTERO-ISAIAH: COMPARATIVE THEOLOGY AND COGNITIVE METAPHOR THEORY
P VAN HECKE - 2019
… (eds), The Oxford Handbook of Religion, Conflict, and Peacebuilding. New York: Oxford University Press, 2015. Aurobindo, Sri. Sri Aurobindo Birth Centenary Library. Vol. 2. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Trust, 1972 …

[PDF] Futuristic Amalgamation of the Past and Present in Literature-Draupadi as Historian: A Paradigm Shift
LK Suresh - International Journal, 2019
… It is not a story about a particular set of events but a story of civilization and the human condition itself. It documents the human predicament which is beyond time. Aurobindo says, “…Mahabharata is the creation and expression of a collective national mind …

[PDF] Beauty in Identity: Dual Definition of Identity of Padmini in Hayavadana and Jasmine in Jasmine
R REESHMA, KAA KUMAR
… In Aurobindo's words: “The search for beauty is only in its beginning a satisfaction in the beauty of form, the beauty which appeals to the physical senses and vital impressions, impulsions, desires … The Human Cycle. Pondicherry: Sri Aurobindo Ashram Press, 1997 …

[PDF] Rana PB Singh1
S Vivekananda
… His teachings and life philosophy have influenced several notable personalities in India and other parts of the world, like Subhas Chandra Bose, Aurobindo Ghose, Mahatma Gandhi, Rabindranath Tagore …

[HTML] Seeking'lines of flight'in Bangladesh theatre
SJ AHMED
… Because the ideology of Shwadeshi Movement 'was derived from Hindu religious scriptures, like the ”Bhagabata Gita” and their message were conveyed through Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyaya's “Anandamath” and …

Plasim Radar

A Series Inspired by India’s Rebirth – 3 - Author: Beloo Mehra (2019). Published under the title ‘When Young India Awakes’ in Sri Aurobindo’s Action, Vol. 50 (2 & 3), pp. 16-19. Continued from Part ...

Analysis of Isha Upanishad, Knowledge and Ignorance, Part 2 - In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo analyzes the issues raised here in the Isha Upanishad in his discussion of “the materialist denial” and “the refusal of t...

Universal Love - Some say that X had universal love which he used to share with others. X is a man full of impulses of love and kindness which are spoilt by his excessi...

Alan Gibbard & why 'intuitions', 'judgments', and 'coherence' are all worthless - There is a view, popularized by Parfit, that an ethical 'reason' is a non-naturalistic 'fact' known to us by intuition. If this is so, then it would seem t...

Liberal rights and religious rites - While *Constituting Religion *provides a detailed case study of Malaysia, the argument Moustafa develops has important implications for much of the Musli...

How can we get rid of or overcome certain practices, beliefs etc? - ​ *How can we get rid of or overcome certain practices, beliefs etc?* *And is getting rid of them necessary? * *If the answer yes, then how can we do it ?...

Kusum-ben Nagda: In Memoriam by Anurag Banerjee - Dear Friends, On Sunday, 12 May 2019, one of the senior-most inmates of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram community as well as one of its most loved members breathe...

The Nature of Matter in Indian Thought – M S Srinivasan - In our earlier discussions on the nature of matter, we have studied in some details. The discoveries of New Physics in the series of articles, The Nature ...

Reading Sanskrit texts “unaided” - A student has asked me this question, which I thought might be interesting to open up to a broader audience: After how long and how much study does a new s...

Gods of Our Lesser Natures - In the culture of the 21st century, brands and brand names have become the major and minor deities of our secular pantheon, and the totem gods and meanings...

Burning Man and the Seeds of a New Story - Mission at Tenth special supplement Vol. 7, 274-279 (2018) “Carnival of Consciousness: Practice as Research in Black Rock City” A Submission by Matthew T. ...

Ten years of Love of All Wisdom - I opened Love of All Wisdom to the public, with three first posts, on 1 June 2009. That was ten … Continue reading →

- In the National Post, categorizing the retrograde in the world, in a review of Denys Arcand's *The Fall of the American Empire*. If only Arcand could get ...

Konttho (Bengali Film) review - If you have had a smoker in your family you will appreciate this film more than those who don’t know what it is to see someone destroy himself with cigaret...

母親的話（第二輯） - 母親的話（第二輯） 《母親的話》記錄了室利阿羅頻多修道院院母，人稱“母親（The Mother）”的著述及與弟子們之間的對話，內容涉及日常生活和瑜伽修行的諸多方面。 版本詳情 作者: 法國院母 密那氏著述；徐梵澄譯 頁數: 405頁 出版發行: 室利阿羅頻多修道院印刷所華文部出版 出版日期: 1958年7...


You’re On God’s Time Now - The following is the text of a presentation I gave last summer in Berlin. While some of the ideas and problematics articulated here are ones I wouldn’t fra...

Unearthing the Path: A Photo-Essay - In my ongoing ‘decluttering’ journey, I have decided to clean my blog as well. I have started a process of sorting through old blogs and will be keeping on...

Accepting weaknesses helps to cultivate compassion and humility - Who Put the Super in Superhero? Transformation and Heroism as a ... https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6343428/ by SL ROSS - ‎2018 - The mere tho...

24th April Special - Newness of the New World - by Aryadeep - Today, 99 years ago, the Mother returned to Pondicherry for good. As I have often done in the past, I present here certain interesting things to mark the ...

24.4.1920: Mother’s Return to Pondichéry - This Darshan Day marks Mother’s return from Japan after WWI, to stay for good in then French ‘Pondichéry’ and start her real collaboration with Sri Aurobin...

Believe in the Vedic Evolutionary ontology of Sri Aurobindo - Tweets in original by @SavitriEraParty and @NathTusar While it's understandable that electoral politics and its compulsions will dominate the national sce...

Monthly updates and newsletter articles - From Jan 2019 we will not be updating this blog. Please refer to our website at https://sriaurobindosociety.org.sg/ For newsletters and articles, please r...


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Location: Shipra Riviera, Indirapuram, Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh 201014, India

April 30, 2019

Accepting weaknesses helps to cultivate compassion and humility



by SL ROSS - ‎2018 - The mere thought of one's hero lifts the spirit, enlivens the heart, illumines the mind, and rouses the body to move courageously into previously unknown territories. Heroes inspire ordinary people through the trials of transformation because they demonstrate it is possible to emerge as triumphant; to inhabit valuable capacities while still being mortal.

Scholars and untrained people alike have gained considerable understanding about the making of heroes (van Gennep, 1909/1960; Eliade, 1958/2005; Campbell, 1968; Turner, 1969; Franco and Zimbardo,2006; Allison et al., 2017; Ross, 2017), and yet our collective knowledge of “how heroes are created…remains a critical area of future research” (Jayawickreme and di Stefano, 2012, p. 174). Because transformation is the means through which heroes are made, a more thorough understanding of the forces affecting transformation, may advance collective understanding of the demands upon the individual. Specifically, it is not known if the process of transforming from ordinary person to hero follows the laws of nature that govern human development, causing heroic aspirations to be within everyone's grasp. Or, if heroism is a progression beyond nature (supernatural), a transcendental process that only the fortunate can apprehend. Or, a combination of the two possibilities. Furthermore, the progression to become a hero constitutes human advancement and as such, it is plausible that the hero will, one day, endeavor once again to transcend all that she knows. If she does, will she remain a hero in the eyes of those who love her or advance and become a superhero and if so, how will we distinguish her? One postulation suggests that super heroism is not simply a fantasy but a certainty; that the average person is “a transitional being….not final….the step from man to superman is the next approaching achievement in the earth's evolution” (Sri Aurobindo, 1972, p. 7).
This article contributes to the literature gap on how heroes are created by exploring the following proposition: heroism and human transformation require evolutionary processes that are both natural (limited to the laws of nature) and supernatural (above nature, pertaining to the Divine). Together, these produce a hero: a human who is literally part natural and part supernatural. This analysis draws upon discourse in depth psychology (Jung, 1988), anthropology (Turner, 1969), mythology (Campbell, 1968), Hindu spirituality (Sri Aurobindo, 1972), physics (Prigogine, 1997), and the Hermetic Sciences (Eberly, 2004). This inquest contains three main sections: (1) a discussion of select concepts and terms pertaining to the qualities and movement of evolution, natural, and supernatural phenomena as related to transformation; (2) an explanation of the timing, in terms of when transformation processes are governed by nature, when the hero must grow beyond nature and act with super-natural capacities, and when Divine forces intervene; and finally, (3) a conceptualization of evolution from novice, to hero, to superman or superwoman, as achieved through three substantial transformations of biopsychosocial maturation and spiritual realization.

Evolution as it pertains to transformation

Because initiates become heroes through transformation, and transformation results in a refined, more evolved creature, it is useful to review some fundamental concepts related to the purpose and movements of evolution. Each point will be elaborated in a later discussion. First, what is the initiate evolving from and toward? Philosopher and teacher G. I. Gurdjieff explains, “In order to know one cosmos [reality], it is necessary to know the two adjoin cosmoses” (Ouspensky, 1949/2001, p. 206). Ancient and modern cosmologies and depth psychology uphold an ontology that humans have access to and can even exist (albeit for most, unconsciously) within three worlds: the world of matter within which we live; a lower or inner world that can be qualified as the shadow, underworld, darkness, or subconscious; and an upper, celestial, heavenly world of a higher or increased consciousness (Ouspensky, 1949/2001; Sri Aurobindo, 1972; Jung, 1988).
Second, what aspect of the initiate is evolving or transforming? Seminal authors across diverse disciplines agree that the transforming feature is primarily the initiate's consciousness (Ouspensky, 1949/2001; Newman,1978; Jung, 1988; Wilber, 1996; Prigogine, 1997), which is defined here as a force or power comprised of two binary capacities or compositions: discrimination and unity (Sri Aurobindo, 1972). These two capacities cause a dynamic tension—an individual possessing consciousness will have capacities to discriminate between that which is self and that which is not self. Prior to consciousness, the entity projects self onto objects, and there is no distinction between self and object. The projection, due to a lack of consciousness, is the seed of all opposites, including the notion of good and evil. Despite these abilities of division, a person with consciousness will also be able to sense through division and experience the unity inherent in all, and will be able to unify perceptions and self (Sri Aurobindo, 1972; Jung, 1988).
Third, what is the context within which the initiate is developing? East Indian spiritual teacher and author Sri Aurobindo offers an understanding of the evolution of the universe that also describes the evolution of individual consciousness as an inevitable and natural process. According to Aurobindo, all of existence is an eternal and infinite “Unmanifested Supreme” (Sri Aurobindo, 1972, p. 24), the Divine or God identified by many religious and secular names across time. In this Unmanifested state, the original Divine (a substance-force) initiated evolution that began with involution: a descent of itself as consciousness into matter (Ouspensky, 1949/2001, p. 134). When consciousness emerged out of unconscious matter for the first time, the world split into an endless assortment of pairs of opposites. Once consciousness arrived into the lowest point, into all of the darkest, most unconscious, inert, and motionless of substances on earth, it began a great, slow ascent outward and upward, liberating the “latent indwelling spirit” existing within matter (Sri Aurobindo, 1972, p. 19). Because consciousness is moved by its impulse to emerge (Wautischer, 2008, p. 476) from that within which it dwells, everything in existence will eventually blossom because the Divine “aspires to become its real self by transcending its apparent self” (Sri Aurobindo, 1972, p. 53). From these perspectives, the impulse to transcend, go beyond the known self, is impelled by an evolutionary compulsion.
This explanation of evolution supports Jung's proposition that “All initiations we know by history or by experience are the external manifestation of a natural inner process which is always happening” (italics added; Jung, 1988, p. 236). Like nature, Jung explains, a person's unconscious mental faculties are in “a process of continuous transformation” (p. 236) of which nothing is realized because the unconscious material is not made conscious:
No crops are brought home by nature; only the consciousness of man knows about crops. He gathers the apples under the trees for they simply disintegrate if left to themselves. And that is true of our unconscious mental process: it revolves within itself. It builds up and it pulls down; it integrates and disintegrates—and then integrates again. (p. 236)
Here Jung describes rhythms of nature and uses the word integration to describe an organic process where life coagulates to produce fruit—different from integration as a psychospiritual process of incorporating experience and energy into the psyche and body. Jung (1988) identifies the continuous ebb and flow of creation as unconscious, “a building up and pulling down, integration and disintegration without end” (p. 236); the birth-death-rebirth succession that “needs our conscious interference to bring it to a goal….Otherwise, it is like the eternal change of the seasons in nature…from which nothing comes unless a human consciousness interferes and realizes the result” (p. 237); by the harvesting of crops. Jung's analogy demonstrates how the initiate can actively engage in her own evolution by paying attention to her inner world and by contemplating and incorporating insights—as they arise and emerge from the unconscious—into her ontology, her experience of what is real or true.
In a context of growth, as caused by a descent of consciousness into matter and an emergence of consciousness out of matter, the hero-initiate is innately compelled to become conscious, to allow consciousness to emerge from within. Evolution causes the initiate to grow, learn, and encounter life-changing experiences—albeit unconsciously at first—and to eventually become a master herself, a hero. The drive to learn and grow, to become a healthier, happier, more triumphant self is, according to these perspectives, the impulse that drives and enables the initiate to be grounded in and limited to the middle or natural world, able to sink inward to the lower world or shadow, and also to rise beyond (or above) the self into the upper world or Divine. In order to set the four “super-natural” abilities necessary for this process of hero-transformation, I first describe four rules of nature that support and delimit the initiate.

Rules of Nature Affecting Hero-Transformation

Humans view activity as supernatural (above nature) when the action does not comply with the “laws of nature,” but those laws are part of a particular perspective. From the outlook of the lower world, our own (middle) world is above or beyond what is natural, and from the viewpoint of the world above human life—the supernatural realm—ours appears lower or unconscious. With this distinction in mind, this section reviews four “rules” of nature (as viewed from the realm of matter) that influence and constrain the hero. These “rules” in particular serve as the source of the hero's earth-bound humanness. The hero is restricted in that, in the end, the hero remains human and yet the task is to apprehend the undifferentiated Divine; meaning humans are “rendered frustrate by the very organs through which the apprehension must be accomplished (Campbell, 1968, p. 258).
The first relevant “rule” of nature, as shown by the Nobel Prize winning theory of Dissipative Structures, states that chaos is critical to the transformation of a system—that “dynamical instability provides only those conditions necessary to generate evolutionary patterns of nature” (Prigogine, 1997, p. 128). Just as elements of the universe transform through chaos, so too must the initiate enter “dynamical instability” or personal challenges in order to transform. Interestingly, this theory shows how matter that is close to equilibrium (a period of peaceful balance) is “‘blind,ș but far from equilibrium…[in the midst of chaos or liminal state] it begins to ‘see”ș (p. 67). This knowledge translates into social science (Prigogine, 1997), and in a heroism context, indicates that the hero-transformation process must include instability and disequilibrium.
The second “rule” of nature relevant to transformation is that the initiate is continuously affected by unforeseen circumstances arising from the unconscious self, best described by Gurdjieff as “the law of accident” (Ouspensky, 1949/2001, p. 199). In this esoteric teaching, humans who are unconscious (i.e., not awakened in consciousness) are subject to moment-by-moment encounters with incidents and activities that arise organically, due to pure chance. For example, an individual might have a plan to go to the grocery store, but later visit a relative when unforeseen circumstances arise—her car needed more gasoline, the store was out of the item she needed, and it began to rain heavily—all of which caused a delay in her plans. Gurdjieff states that an unconscious individual maintains an illusion of having the ability set a goal and achieve tasks and aspirations, when in actuality, she is at the mercy of myriads of circumstances, none of which is within her control. This ontology is similar to what Jung referred to as the “building up and pulling down” (1988, p. 236) referred to earlier, meaning the unconscious ebb and flow of creation. Inclusive of the “law of accident” are the two phases of nature, variously described as “ascending and descending….contraction and expansion” (Burckhardt, 1997, p. 44), integration and disintegration” (Jung, 1988, p. 1402), and “dissolution and coagulation” (Burckhardt, 1997, p. 123). As a part of nature, humans participate in these continuous movements of the “undulating sea of the unconscious” (Burckhardt, 1997, p. 153). The potential is for the hero-initiate to transform to the degree that she supersedes the law of accident, which allows her to live deliberatively, co-creating her moment-to-moment living.
A third “rule” pervades all levels of existence and is integral to the heroic journey: the primordial cycle of life, death, and rebirth. The anthropologist Eliade (1958/2005) explains that the desire to transform is “far more than the obscure desire of every human soul to renew itself periodically” rather, the desire to transform is embedded in universal passages of life-death-rebirth, just “as the cosmos is renewed” (p. 135). This cycle is exhibited in the “two phases of nature,” which are “dissolution and coagulation,” where new life dissolves until it's death and coagulates to reform new life. This universal cycle sustains the movement of physical and psychological realms that encumber shifting from darkness into light and back again into darkness.
The ubiquitous Daoist symbol Yin Yang depicts this natural rhythm using symbols of the Chinese classic Book of Changes, known as the I-Ching. As Jung explains, in this philosophy,
Yang eats the Yin, and from the Yang, Yin is reborn; it bursts forth again, and then Yin envelops the Yang, and so on. That is the course of nature. ….spirit eats the flesh and then the flesh eats the spirit. (emphasis added; Jung, 1988, p. 67)
The alchemical symbol of the snake eating its tail, ourobóros, reflects the cyclical nature of the endless drawing together of creation into a substance and then dissolving back unto itself (van der Sluijs and Peratt,2009). Sometimes depicted as a circle or an infinity shape, it is also a symbol of individuation and exemplifies wholeness as exhibited in the Model of a Complete Transformation (Ross, 2017).
The fourth and most concrete “rule” is that the hero has physical (mental and emotional) limitations and as such, she depends upon the earth and others, to survive. Humans have naturally occurring personal weaknesses, which they may or may not overcome. It has been suggested that that the body, mind, and psyche must be made ready for transformation—that a person cannot withstand transformation unless she advances her holistic health through disciplined action (Ouspensky, 1949/2001; Sri Aurobindo,1972; Jung, 1988). In the end, our frailties—the aspects of self of which we are less capable—define our humanness. Although “nature seeks and demands a gradual attainment of perfection, and a gradual approximation to the highest standard of purity and excellence” (Henry,1893/2012, p. 16), the imperfection existing in the realm of matter—and in us all as human beings—remains critically grounding. Our limitations can indeed be our commonality, what connects us one to another as humans. Accepting weaknesses helps the hero-initiate not only to cultivate compassion and humility, but also to develop supernatural capacities that transform limitations into strengths. By knowing and accepting her humanness, the initiate is poised to develop skills to go above or beyond nature, into the super-natural...

Philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche named his teacher Superman, a being who Jung states is, in hermetic terms, “a new unit called the rotundum, the roundness, or the round complete thing” (Jung, 1988, p. 1401) that is “the being that can be created by man's making a heroic endeavor to create something beyond himself” (Jung, 1988, p. 49). Hermetic science refers to the one who is self-realized as a master, magisteria (Leicester and Klickstein, 1952, p. 22), or philosopher's stone (Nietzsche, 1961). Although the stone is one entity, it is “called Rebis (two-thing), being composed of…a body and spirit by which the body is dissolved into a spirit” (emphasis added; Henry, 1893/2012, p. 12). Regardless of the name assigned to the new version of human—the transhuman, redeemer, saint, god-man, arhat, rotundum, magisteria, philosopher's stone, Rebis, King or Queen, or superhero—it is certain that she is an entirely new human. The transformed individual is one but consists of two: human and superhuman. Said in a different way,

Everything existing phenomenally or, as we shall say, symbolically, two parts, the thing in itself and the symbol, Self and nature, res (thing that is) and factum (thing that is made), immutable being and mutable becoming, that which is supernatural in it and that which is natural. (Sri Aurobindo,1972, p. 52)
As exhibited in this paper, the two-thing—the human-superhuman—lives in three worlds, the lower, middle, and upper. When an initiate realizes a complete transformation, an entire Figure-8 for the first time, the process places them in relationship with three realms of the lower, middle earthly, and upper.


... which have been explored by Jung (1988), Turner (1969), Eliade (1958/2005), Ouspensky (1949/2001) and Sri Aurobindo (1963/1990), among others. We must also examine thoroughly the contextual elements, what is natural and above nature, that affect the process. Just as an oceanographer must know meteorology and astronomy to better know the ocean, I uphold that to study heroism means we also scrutinize the forces that act upon the initiate during transformation. Following this line of thought, this paper has been so devised.
Founded on the scholarship of seminal authors of depth psychology (Jung,1988), Hindu spirituality (Sri Aurobindo, 1972), anthropology (Turner,1969), physics (Prigogine, 1997), Hermetic science (Eberly, 2004), mythology (Campbell, 1968), and other disciplines, this paper demystifies how an ordinary person becomes a hero by deconstructing the characteristics of transformation as a key function of human psychospiritual evolution. 


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April 29, 2019

Buddha introduced the superstition of Karma



Biologists like James Shapiro and Lynn Margulis for example bring a further dimension to light, namely, that biological processes inside the cell are far more complex than can be explained in terms of simple chemical or biochemical reactions. They find whole macro-molecular systems operating in very directed, non random, and goal oriented ways to accomplish the functioning and maintenance of the cell. Shapiro calls it natural genetic engineering (NGE) specifically to bring attention to the non-random, skillful nature of such engineering feats.

Whether these processes can be called evolutionary is open to question when we consider the deeper implications involved in such sentient cells. Shapiro has very nicely explained this in his own words, [...] I consider these statements to be thoroughly honest assessments of the current situation in our scientific knowledge of organic life. What we know from empirical observation is limited to what we can actually measure and see with our instruments, but there is a background life to all of that which such knowledge has not yet grasped. We may claim that life is simply the play of those processes, but the causes and purpose driven goals exhibited thereby are not explained by that simply identification. And most importantly, without understanding that background life or living milieu, we cannot simply say that life is capable of 'evolving'  or if there are other principles that are involved in making it whatever it is. It is at this point that the belief of the scientist or simple faith of the religious person comes in, as soon as one takes a stand without any further knowledge of that unknown domain.



From that perspective the creationist has as much right to claim scientific evidence as supporting her position as any evolutionist. In that case,  the only honest objective stance should be one in which both should be considered as equally inconclusive and open to further investigation and study as reason and evidence may lead us.

Your serious and respectful participation in this group is greatly appreciated.
Humble and sincere regards,
B Madhava Puri


Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/Online_Sadhu_Sanga.
To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/Online_Sadhu_Sanga/CAEKJmQ1cCbeJQ_DSeh80pvLndJ3RtuZF7mhs%2BT48amuTa__1zw%40mail.gmail.com



On Sun, Apr 28, 2019 at 9:53 AM 'Ram Lakhan Pandey Vimal' via Scientific Basis of Consciousness wrote:
Hi Alfredo, Chris, and all,

It seems that, in the past, all religious leaders faced the same problem related to God in reducing suffering as we are facing in our discussion. People go to religious places (temples, churches, etc) to pray by assuming God will take care of their problems. They might have confronted the difficulty as we are encountering in our discussion.

If we delete God (as science suggests) then who will take care of problems? If we consider God in us, then people will be confused because of 8 billion Gods. If we consider one single God, then also many problems arise because of science.

It seems true that if we assume God, and pray then we feel peace and our mindBrain system generate enough energy to take care of problems; there is help available from other people if we pray together because a feeling of friendship and cooperativity arise. This happens in a better way if we are superstitious or blind believers or somehow give logic to convince people-at-large that God really exists, who loves us and help us. This is how superstitions were created by leaders to organize and help society.

Evolution does not care what is correct or incorrect; it only needs if the hypothesis fits well (fittest survive). Religions fit best so it is not selected out; it is not only surviving, but it is also thriving, even if there is no God.

What should we do? Should we continue 'as it is' or try to find the solution of suffering to avoid superstitions?

Buddha tried his best to reducing superstition and suffering to some extent by proposing an atheist framework without soul, but he has to introduce another superstition of principle of Karmas across births, so he used rebirth theory even if it is incorrect; this reduces our mundane suffering to some extent thru his 8 Noble paths, but has superstition of rebirth. Mundane suffering is still present ‘as it is’.

The scientific fact seems that the principle of Karma is true for this life as there is no life-after-death. We need to discuss rigorously on how to reduce suffering in our mundane lives without any superstition that God, soul, and/or rebirths exist. This is a scientific challenge for all of us. So far, we agreed (at least three of us) that Monism is better than Dualism; for monism, consciousness was in potential form in the beginning; manifestation occurred later (presumably billions of years after Big Bang) in us in the monistic framework.
Cheers!

Kind regards,
Rām
Rām Lakhan Pāndey Vimal, Ph.D.
Amarāvati-Hīrāmaṇi Professor (Research)



There is only name and form
by Amod Lele


One can turn around the first sentence here: Buddhaghosa describes the elements not only by characteristic and manifestation, but also by function. (The term for function is rasa; Heim, in her excellent first book on Buddhaghosa, points out that Pali commentary uses this term in a sense very different from the more familiar Sanskrit aesthetic one, with Buddhaghosa defining it in terms of duty or function, kicca, or attainment, sampatti.) And when Buddhaghosa specifies the element's function, he specifies it in terms of what the element does in physical space – spreading, acting as a foundation – with no reference made to subjective feel. Unless we are seeking to superimpose our own purely phenomenological view onto the texts, I do not see any reason to view this function or attainment as something merely phenomenological – a way the element appears to function – and exclude ontology, the way the element actually does function. To do so seems to do exactly what Heim and Ram-Prasad have warned us against, and treat Buddhaghosa's descriptions as one side of a subjective-objective divide – in this case the subjective.

When Buddhaghosa illustrates the key term rūpa, he does so with an analogy that goes beyond subjective feel and even manifestation. He quotes a passage from the Majjhima Nikāya which says (in the Ñāṇamoli translation): “Just as when a space is enclosed with timber and creepers and grass and clay, there comes to be the term ‘house,’ so too, when a space is enclosed with bones and sinews and flesh and skin, there comes to be the term rūpa.” (Vism XVIII.26) Here he is saying that rupa includes those inner elements that we would not normally perceive or feel subjectively, the things that are typically invisible to us: the bones in the body, the timbers of a house.

This point brings us to nāmarūpa, that compound at the heart of their article's concernes. I agree with what I took to be their most basic point about nāmarūpa. That is: Nāmarūpa is most commonly translated, somewhat opaquely, as "name and form". Some translators have tried to render it in a more English idiom as "mind and matter" or "mentality and materiality". I think Heim and Ram-Prasad are quite right to resist that latter interpretation, pointing out that rūpa includes mental elements of subjective feel. I am in agreement with the "more careful scholars" they name, like Steven Collins and Sue Hamilton, who keep the "name and form" translation within "a metaphysical account of the human being where the disaggregative project of analyses for dismantling selfhood produces an account of smaller constituent parts, which are then affirmed as reals."

https://wp.me/pxfBj-1a5

What are the implications of it? Does this mean that Leftism is dead? No, I don't think so. Leftism, as a concept, precedes Marxism by several centuries. But it is a good thing if the Marxism is finished because this Abrahamic concept had obtained a hold on the minds of Hindus.
https://twitter.com/maidros78/status/1122700256473280512?s=19
But Leftism - as a concept - is not going to die because it is a reflection of several issues. What we need is a Dharmic Left - a Left that is rooted in Dharmic ethos, so that, if tomorrow BJP is voted out [no party can rule forever], the opposition will also be a Dharmic party.
No, it won't happen. The `elite Left' is already migrating to the BJP from the Congress [CPI and especially CPM were never the bastions of the elite Left, which didn't have the resources to indulge their expensive and degenerate tastes]. The elite Left which parasitically destroyed the Congress from within is going to start moving the BJP to its tastes. This is why you have so many `activists' moving to the BJP.

Savitri Era: Savitri Era Religion respects all faiths and traditions https://t.co/ryhTUCP26E @NathTusar #SriAurobindo
Nothing at present indicates that Savitri Era Party can be a success (it's already twelve years), but having seen some dramatic changes happening quite unexpectedly, I'm hopeful that such a change can come. Instead of a miracle, it should be perceived as logical outcome of events

A relevant thread to what we have been stressing on but without being soft on the other side of the political spectrum. Each ideology has contributed and served the Evolutionary purpose even like the evil in a story but the future belongs to Sri Aurobindo. https://t.co/QXVSWtHzYV
https://twitter.com/NathTusar/status/1122872517922709504?s=19

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