Dr. Lingis was
interviewed by Edyta Niemyjska on November 23rd, 2012 © Alphonso Lingis and Figure Ground
Communication.
Alphonso
Lingis is
an American philosopher, writer and translator,
currently Professor Emeritus of Philosophy at Pennsylvania State
University
I
wrote something about the temples of Khajuraho in India that I had visited. After
that, I decided I needed to write about the things that moved me most deeply…
The concept of imperative in that book came from Merleau-Ponty and from
Levinas.
Practicing
Yoga without a Guru by Sandeep
Sometimes,
people who are raised in an atheistic environment in the West mistakenly
declaim obeisances before the Samadhi and relics as signs of a recessive
“religion” rather than progressive “spirituality”. Obviously, the word
“religion” connotes different things to different people. In the West,
“religion” implies obesiance to an ethical, anthropomorphic, extra-cosmic God
while “spirituality” implies finding the spiritual light within. As a
result, bowing to any external entity automatically summons subconscious
anxieties of “Yoga turning into a religion”. In India , where the sharp cleavage
between “religion” and “spirituality” never existed, spiritual seekers have
long recognized the potency of vibrations emitted by the Samadhi and
the relics of a departed sage… It is crucial to develop some contact with Sri
Aurobindo and the Mother, who continue to exist behind the veil, because it can
provide you with a measure of protection from the kinds
of yogic illness seen earlier.
Tweets
1h Sangeeta Goswami @SangeetaRG In #SriAurobindosYoga,
fulfillment of d consciousness, the urge for perfection is not confined to few
individuals but extend to the masses.
What were the major strands in his writing? Just to
enumerate a few, he corrected the widespread but erroneous idea that there is a
dichotomy between worldly life and spiritual life. Worldly life can, and
should, be lived with a spiritual attitude. Hence, Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual
philosophy, which rejects no part of the being, finds application in education,
healthcare, management, and just about any worthwhile human activity. Secondly,
man is a transitional being. If the evolution so far is any indication, future
evolution will take consciousness to a level beyond that of mental
consciousness, which has reached its peak in human beings.
Evolution beyond the mental level can be accelerated
by more and more of us engaging consciously in raising our consciousness. This
gives a collective element to spiritual quest. Sri Aurobindo’s spiritual
philosophy was given a practical shape in his Ashram by the Mother, who was
born in France but after coming
here in 1920 did not leave Pondicherry
for even a single day till she left her body in 1973. Although Sri Aurobindo
and the Mother did not leave Pondicherry
physically once they were there, their influence has spread throughout the
world, and is growing with time. (24 November is celebrated as Sri
Aurobindo’s Siddhi Day)
I must say that I was disappointed with the
scholarship in this part-serious, part-frivolous effort by Heehs… In his book,
Peter Heehs made ample efforts to focus on the trivial: in four places, he
refers to supposed pockmarks on Sri Aurobindo’s face. In five places, he
describes Aurobindo as short – around five feet, four inches – and in a way
that is disparaging… Heehs descends to mischievousness when he tries to portray
a romantic relationship between Sri Aurobindo and his spiritual collaborator,
the Mother.
Rhetorical Swiss-Knives : Part 2 from Centre Right India by Siddhartha Chatterjee - Conspiracy
Theory
When Web 2.0 took off, internet was suddenly filled
with numerous blogs, forums etc. Gone were the days of BBS, yahoo groups or
google groups. For a brief period, some of us hoped that internet will make
information sharing easy and it will open newer frontier in terms of discussion
and engagement. We forgot that internet users are parts of the society, when
they come to the keyboard they come with all the baggage society managed to
fill them with already. Therefore, you can have m number of sites explaining
the scientific cause of eclipse, but then you will have n number of sites
explaining how it is all a
conspiracy to keep public from knowing “real truth” whatever that may
be…
In our childhood, grandmotherly figures used to tell
us about the fantasy stories where charming handsome princes used to kill
demons to rescue princesses or their own parents. That tradition may have been
lost in the age of small families, video games and cable tv. That is not the
point however. As we grew up, we tried to match those simple stories against
the real world. Part of the reasons growing up is a painful process because
those simple narratives do not live up to the complexities of the world.
Figuratively speaking, those charming prince look-alike seem to have a deal
with the devil, beautiful princess look-alike appear to be more interested to
hook up with dangerous bad boys than being rescued from them and those who look
like heroes from one angle looks like villains from another.
This is the twilight zone modern civilization often
lands us into. In left’s world-view that so strongly relies on black-or-white
mode of thinking, there is no answer for this twilight zone. The simpler
narrative that relies on stereotype straw-figures like CIA/corporate/fascist
etc is alluring to the teenagers and students because they just began to deal
with the real world. Eventually, most of them grow out of it. That is why the
famous saying about being a communist at 20 and leaving communism at 40 is so
popular… Left’s toxic conspiracy theories take shape and mutate in this fertile
ground of imagination and shape a very twisted and distorted world view that
many of my co-citizens share.
The Chaitanyamayi Trust and the Sri Aurobindo Society
are organising an exhibition of rare photographs of Sri Aurobindo and
the Mother from November 25 to...
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