Sartre, Sri Aurobindo, Donne, Tagore, Milan Kundera, and Kamal Kumar Majumdar

December 5 is Sri Aurobindo’s Mahasamadhi  Day.  On this occasion a group meditation will  be held from 10.30 am to 11.00 am at Sri Aurobindo Bhavan, Sector 62, Noida. 

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Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra :

Literature and Common Life

N Mukherji - Reflections on Human Inquiry, 2017

... One could think of some of the novels and plays of Sartre, poetry of Sri Aurobindo, 'metaphysical' poetry of Donne, some later poetry of Tagore, some of the fiction by Milan Kundera, Kamal Kumar Majumdar, and the like. (B) ...

[PDF] The “The Life Divine''as it Begins: An essential understanding of the first chapter of Life Divine–“The Human Aspiration”

DA Banerjee

… It is a very famous quotation on Usha, the Dawn. Perhaps, through the quotation and symbol of Dawn, Shri Aurobindo wants us to get a subtle but a profound glimpse of the Dawn – The incoming of the Transcendental Light of the New Age …

[PDF] Physical Education by Sri Aurobindo

SK Mishra - EDU WORLD

ABSTRACT On the subject of physical education, it must be mentioned that the physical is our base, and even the highest spiritual values are to be expressed through the life that is embodied here. Sariram adyam khalu dharmasadhanam, says the old Sanskrit adage, the 

[HTML] Bhagini Nivedita

S Nivedita

… Sri Aurobindo was one of her friends as well. [24]. Cultivation of Indian culture … Nivedita provided guarded support to Annie Besant, and was very close to Aurobindo Ghosh (later Sri Aurobindo), one of the major contributors towards early nationalist movement …

[PDF] IN his Farewell Address to the students of the Bengal National College on 23 August 1907, Sri Aurobindo says: If you will study, study for her [the Mother's–India's] …

ACPC RAY–V

As one revisits the life of Acharya Prafulla Chandra Ray, one is reminded of the above message of Sri Aurobindo. An intense love for the country and her people was the fountain spring from which flowed the various streams of the Acharya's activity. Indeed, patriotism 

Construction of Plural Selves in India

P Sengupta - Language as Identity in Colonial India, 2018

… Leaders such as Tilak, Aurobindo and Gandhi used religion as a tool for political unity among Hindus … Aurobindo Ghose, describing the Swaraj faction as practicing “democratic nationalism,” refuted the existence of two factions within INC, declaring that …

RAIS RESEARCH

N Kaushal, S Mishra - STUDIES, 2017

… management. Leaders such that, Mahatma Gandhi, Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose, Bal Gangadhar Tilak, Sir Aurobindo are prominent personalities of India who lived their life according to lessons of Gita. They always Page 7. 43 …

[PDF] Ambedkar memorial lecture 2015-16 on Dr. Ambedkar's vision and mission

CS Reddy - 2017

… Ramanujacharya. In the fourth phase, particularly in the 19th century period, we are immensely indebted to Raja Ram Mohan Roy, Dayanand Saraswati, Swami Vivekananda, Aurobindo and so on for their philosophy and thought …

A Psychoanalyst Views the Self Across Civilizations

A Roland - On Human Nature, 2017

… When I was in Bangalore in 1980, I was invited to attend a meeting with Dr. Murthy who was visiting, a former Chair of the Psychology Department at the National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences (NIMHANS), currently living in the Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry …

Building Identity: Information, Intellect and Inspiration

P Sengupta - Language as Identity in Colonial India, 2018

… Nehru, Mooknayak (1920) by BR Ambedkar, Al-Hilal (1912) by Abdul Kalam Azad, The Indian Sociologist (1905) by Shyamji Krishna Verma, Navjiwan (1929) Harijan (1933) and Young India (1919) by Gandhi, Vande Mataram (1905) by Bipin Chandra Pal and Aurobindo Ghose …

[PDF] Orientalism: A Perspective

C Gupta

… In the third part of this paper, I discuss Peter Heehs, six different styles of Orientalist discourse about India, along with Sri Aurobindo national Orientalist in order to show that Indocentrism culture and Eurocentrism culture both needs one another …

My Journey from an Asian British to British Asian

S Bhattacharjee - 2017

… estates. He had a high degree of respect for the basic administrative quality of the British. He was also an admirer of various Indian freedom fighters, including Mahatma Gandhi, Sri Aurobindo and Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose. So …

[PDF] Types of knowledge and what they allow us to see

M Cornelissen

… We'll now see what the Indian tradition can tell us in this area. PART II: THE FOUR KNOWLEDGE REALMS THAT ARE NEEDED FOR A COMPREHENSIVE UNDERSTANDING OF HUMAN NATURE Sri Aurobindo's four types of knowledge and how they can be perfected …

[PDF] Archetype and Eternal Object

G Maxwell

… of the archetypes, which he describes as having “autonomy,” “intentionality,” and “a personal nature from the very beginning.”30 However, it seems likely that archetypes can be conceived fruitfully as both persons and impersonal forces, what Sri Aurobindo calls “Personalities …

[PDF] Panch Siddhanta (Five Principles) of Indian Ethos and Indian Management: Towards Vedanta-In-Practice

S Sharma

… determine our attitude towards work, society and fellow human beings. For achieving the holistic vision of development we need to have such an attitude of oneness and 'social concerns'. Sri Aurobindo's phrase, 'Practical Spirituality' could be viewed in a similar vein. Further it …

[DOC] INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS THEORY

J Bandyopadhyaya, A Mukherjee

… peace and security. Another profound work on world government, albeit with metaphysical overtones, was produced in India by Sri Aurobindo, entitled The Ideal of Human Unity (Sri Aurobindo Ashram, Pondicherry, 1950). By this …

Participation and the Mystery

JN Ferrer - Tikkun, 2017

… Despite his downplaying the spiritual import of sexuality and the vital world, the Indian mystic Sri Aurobindo was correct when he wrote that the liberation of consciousness cannot be equated to an integral transformation entailing the spiritual alignment of all human dimensions …

[PDF] THE EXPANSION OF INDIA: A PERSPECTIVE OF SRI AUROBINDO

A SINGH

ABSTRACT Sri Aurobindo was the first Indian leader to advocate publically India's complete independence “Purna Swaraj”. As a national prophet he has explored the nature of freedom very intensely and fervently. He has explained it as 'the longing to be free is lodged in such a 

Interpreting Modernity and the Cultural Possibility of Social Transformation

U Bhattacharyya - Society and Culture in South Asia, 2017

Abstract Modernity is associated with the celebration of rationality and the intervention of science, which manifested itself in the historical development of i...

New Horizons of Human Development: Art, Spirituality and Social Transformations

AK Giri - The Aesthetics of Development, 2017

... They also bring us in many different related ways to seekers and practitioners such as Tagore, Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo. ... But Sri Aurobindo here also challenges limited understanding of aesthetics when it is bound to senses only. ...

Development Poetics: A tiNai Aesthetic View

N Selvamony - The Aesthetics of Development, 2017

... Is it true that mantiram is an appropriate genre to convey the truth apprehended by seers? Aurobindo conveys this idea when he says that mantra is always ... We may compare Aurobindo's idea of mantram, derived from Vedic learning, with the one found in tolkaappiyam. ...

From Gandhi to Modi: Institutions and Technologies of Speech and Symbolism in India

W Gould - Speech and Society in Turbulent Times, 2017

... but lesser-known in general terms. However, it also involves more famous Hindu revivalists and Congress radicals, such as Sri Aurobindo, Swami Vivekananda, and Syama Prasad Mookerjee. This symbolic strategy has, in ...

[HTML] Employment with Frank Lloyd Wright

A Raymond, A Reimann

... [2]. Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Golconde dormitory of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry (1935). ... [4]. In 1935, Raymond's office had accepted a commission to design a dormitory for the Sri Aurobindo Ashram in Pondicherry, part of French India in southeast India. ...

[PDF] The Giant Dance of Shiva

S Bidwaikar

... the armoured Night.1 hese lines from Sri Aurobindo's epic poem Savitri at once bring forth the vi- sion of Nataraja, the cosmic dance of Lord Shiva as depicted in the bronze statues in South India. These statues present themselves ...

[PDF] EXPLORING PHILOSOPHY OF ART IN INDIAN APPROACH

PK Rejimon

... 4. Sri Aurobindo's - Evolutionary Theory of Art Sri Aurobindo's aesthetics is integral to his philosophy of life and consciousness. ... The aesthetic evolution of humanity Aurobindo refers to necessary prerequisite to the ultimate spiritual ascent. ...

OSA NY/NJ 2017 Journal

S Das

... Amritapuri was a nice place indeed. Pondicherry: Our next trip was to Pondicherry, to visit the Ashram of Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) and The Mother (1878-1971), who is also known as Shree Maa in Odiya language. Shree Maa was the spiritual companion of Sri Aurobindo. ...

Religion among People: Essays on Religions and Politics
KW Bolle - 2017
Page 1. RELIGION AMONG PEOPLE Essays on Religions and Politics Kees W. Bolle Page 2. “Sharp and never satisfied with the obvious, Kees Bolle handles key subjects like secularization, fundamentalism, and the religious structure of modern man. ...

The Place of Humanities in Our Universities

M Miri - 2017

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Hi Vinod/Ram:

Matter, mind, and consciousness are one wholesome continuum without any discreteness or fragmentations or dualities or multiplicities of particle/wave, mass/energy, physical/astral/divine etc. The universal relativistic model represents total reality as a continuum at all sizes and masses from zero to infinity. Any given entity can be described in terms of infinite number of relativistic mass/energy/space/time states with size/mass ranging from zero to infinity and space/time dilating (V=C, V never exceeds C)  as per relativity. The apparent discreteness or duaity or multiplicity is purely a mind-construct or measurement-construct because of the limitations of mind’s thoughts and measurement process itself leading to the fragmentations in terms of particles of various sizes/scales and material/physical/astral/primordial domains.

The original spiritual masters of various religions have unequivocally stated the fundamental non-duaity of the ultimate reality without any discreteness or fragmentations. Both the universal relativity science and genuine spirituality completely agree in this non-duality of existence without any partition between the physical and divine. Any duality between them is caused by the limitations of the mind’s schizophrania, hence the spiritual practice recomments the complete dissolution of the mind in Samadhi (Zero Point relativistic state) to realize the Oneness or non-duaity of existence.  However, some later yogis or siddhas claimed their individual experiences and subjective varying inerpretations fragmenting and compartmentalizing the ONE realty into various sizes and domains.

In light of the above, the ongong and non-converging debate reagrding the multiplicities of Planckian, sub-Planckian domains, QM domain, astral space, particles, consciousness, mind etc are not only irrelevant but counter to the ONE wholesome non-dual scientific (relativistic) and spiritual fundamental reality. People could argue on these subjective mental-construct domains forever without reaching any concensus because of its departure from the fundamental ONE universal reality.

Best Regards

Avtar Singh, Sc.D.

Alumni, MIT

Author of "The Hidden Factor - An Approach for Resolving Paradoxes of Science, Cosmology, and Universal Reality"

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On Thursday 23 November 2017, Robert Boyer wrote:

1.       Re: ‘initial manifestation.’  In 2010 I published “Think Outside the Bang,” which has more detail on progress from ‘reductive’ big bang to ‘holistic’ Vedic cosmology. In a holistic view, nature manifests ‘top-down,’ from the ‘perfectly orderly’ unified field of all the laws of nature (super-symmetric, balanced Samhita of three gunas) to subtle and gross relative: highest order/interdependent to lowest order/independent phenomenal levels.

This might better be characterized as a ‘big condensation’ from the infinite eternal totality, rather than a ‘big bang’ from nothing. In this view, it would seem that ‘big bang’ models would relate to bangs and crunches in gross physical spacetime (the explicate order, the mahabhutas (the minor pralaya in Vedic literature?). The big bang model of 13.8 billion years since ‘initial manifestation’ would be in this context, compared to eternal cycles in Vedic literature. (This doesn’t address your points of an ‘initial cycle,’ or ‘a set of liberated souls = God.’; or miracles of ‘Sai Baba of Shirdi’—though important to consider in another context/time.)

2.       Yes

3.       Generally, yes.

4.       The ‘precise mechanisms’ are not described using current modern scientific terminology, but are in Veda. The term I’ve suggested of ‘phenomenal emergence’ is not based on idealism, but rather relates to the phenomenal, sequential manifestation of levels of nature from the subtlest to the grossest, in Veda—that is, the sequence of expressions of the laws of nature.

5.       Modern scientists are trying to describe the precise mechanics, and Vedic scientists are also—and these two approaches are starting to link up. But there is a long way to go, both to describe them in mathematical and other language symbols, as well as, in more definitive validation, to experience the mechanics directly in higher states of consciousness--as Vedic sounds/forms. Sankhya helps get the ontology more precise, and Yoga helps the epistemology for direct empirical experience—while also improving reasoning and sensory experience (the two means to gain knowledge in modern science) at each stage of higher progress. Are we getting a little closer? I don’t mean to be vague here; I’m trying to summarize the overall, global view. If you can give an example of a description of ‘precise mechanisms’ that would be more satisfying, I may be able to be more specific.

Best wishes,

Bob

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To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/Online_Sadhu_Sanga/4D164091-9A71-4C2C-A708-46D19997658A%40gmail.com

Bionoetics

In less than 4 years, fom has published 150 papers from over 100

different authors. Our latest conference is as ever described by

Cynthia Larson;

https://cynthiasuelarson.wordpress.com/2017/11/10/foundations-of-mind-v-conference-the-new-ai-scare/

Cynthia leaves one paper out; the one in which I introduced the

conference.  It outlined the metaphysical background to what we do, and is featured below. Yet fom is after even bigger game and we will take a moment to look at it. An advisory; I am well aware of issues like those surrounding propositional attitudes, substance dualism, quantum ontologies, non-coding dna, decoherence in biological systems, the importance of timing in neural firing, moral and epistemological relativism,  and indeed state and civil society and so on. To explain how the Bionoetics framework encompasses these and myriad other issues has been one of the tasks of our publication series, and I’m not going to attempt to recapitulate it here.

There are several ways into the Bionoetics framework, considered as the study of knowing encompassing enough to cater for knowledge that is not simply cognitive. One might ask that if everything is relative to consciousness, in that it is apprehended consciously, surely we should simply study consciousness? More prosaically put, and more in keeping with conventional academic discourse, surely psychology can inform us about the entities that mind deals with (that would be the world) as a natural consequence of explaining mind?

Alternatively, we might decide that, since math can afford the most elliptical and veridical description of Reality/the world, surely we should defer to the descriptions in math physics?  On the other extreme, we might argue that the spectacularly ordered cosmos (and particularly the biosphere as Gaia) revealed over the past half-century might usher in another God, fully as transcendent, immanent, exigent  and awesome as that “Revealed” to Abraham, Moses and Mohammed?

What may work best, however, is to consider how transcendence, ontology, metabolism, and will/attention can be merged into a scientific worldview. We wish to be able to countenance not just the science of the early third millennium, but any discoveries that will emerge from this spectacularly successful investigation of Nature. We wish to cater in our society for those who are open-minded theists and atheists alike, and to do so in a way that is more useful than mere verbal multiculturalism.

The breakthrough made here is to dispense altogether with the theist/atheist distinction in favour of a distinction between acts of mind that are “relative” to consciousness – that is, they can occur slowly enough for consciousness with its approx 0.1 second granularity to broadcast through the CNS – and those that re “transcendent” to consciousness. It is a fact that many “believers” are quite simply amateur canon lawyers with no experience of the transcendent. To them, God is another  artifact of instrumental consciousness, while to many “atheists” there is a clear domain of the transcendent. A further wrinkle, the “relativistic” is included in my paper below.

Secondly, the ignoring of ontology by modern science has led researchers to use techniques on generics that are too primitive even for chaotic physical systems. Moreover, the treatment of the brain as precisely that – a chaotic physical system – affords a perspective that not alone explains the timing of neural firing, gives flesh to the abstract notion of “intentionality”, but also could well clean up the quagmire that has loosed $6 billion on brain imaging in 25 years without a single therapy emerging. In short, we predict that the approach we use with syntax explicit in genomics, metabolism featured (again explicitly) in accounts of gene-expression, and dynamical systems used in neuroscience will help cure diseases, particularly currently intractable ones like Alzheimer’s

Moreover, while the jury will remain out – if clearly  not cloistered – on which interpretation of quantum mechanics (QM) will prevail, two facts will remain salient. One is that QM observation involves a free choice, thus opening the door to free will, and dualism. Secondly, both the Bohmian and Von Neumann/Stapp interpretation of QM involves a choice that is informed by, and has consequences for, the wave function of the universe. On a less ethereal level, it has yet to be pointed out that, just as attention “collapses” the wave function in QM by dispensing with quantum entanglement, so it also decorrelates informational fluctuations at the classical neural firing level. Human choice seems intrinsically causal. Indeed, as my paper suggests, it can change states of affairs in the past; to use that paper’s vocabulary, the noumenal becomes truly numinous.

In fact, I wish to end with a truly audacious argument. It begins with the idea that god is indeed dead; better put, the notion that God can be part of instrumental consciousness is dead. What we have instead is the sacred; the sacralization of automatic processes like eating, social processes like those related to birth and death, and moments of true authentic self-transcendence. New religious movements should encompass these, as well as life processes in which the boundaries of subject and object, self and other, are being defined. A new religious leader will work with communities of practice who sense that there is something sacred in their work but have not had it attested. Examples are ethnic musicians, open-source software developers, ecowarriors.

We have a companion prize-winning free  online university (universityofireland.org).  It is only a slight exaggeration to state that university education is currently a project to dumb down gifted students, choose the most obsequious as free labour grad students, and encumber the rest with sufficient debt to make them anxious corporate drones. If the description of Bionoetics above interests you, and you would like to master the knowledge required to understand it in detail, we invite you to enroll.

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The Foundations of Mind V (FOM5) "The New AI Scare?” conference was hosted by the California Institute for Integral Studies (CIIS) by the CIIS Center for Consciousness Studies in San Francisco on Nov 3-4, 2017. It featured presentations by: Henry Stapp, Fred Alan Wolf, Seán Ó Nualláin, Cynthia Sue Larson, Stanley Klein, and Beverly Rubik. This fifth Foundations of Mind conference was scheduled to coincide with and celebrate the release of Henry Stapp’s new book, “Quantum Theory and Free Will.”

People registered through Foundations of Mind (FOM) participate in an ongoing series of conversational threads in areas related to consciousness, quantum interpretations, neuroscience, and higher education.