Essence of our striving and search for meaning

Thoughts on Posthumanism from Larval Subjects

As I understand it, a position is posthumanist when it no longer privileges human ways of encountering and evaluating the world, instead attempting to explore how other entities encounter the world.  Thus, the first point to note is that posthumanism is not the rejection or eradication of human perspectives on the world, but is a pluralization of perspectives.  While posthumanism does not get rid of the human as one way of encountering the world, it does, following a great deal of research in post-colonial theory, feminist thought, race theory, gender theory, disability studies, and embodied cognition theory, complicate our ability to speak univocally and universally about something called the human. 

It recognizes, in other words, that there are a variety of different phenomenologies of human experience, depending on the embodied experience of sexed beings, our disabilities, our cultural experiences, the technologies to which our bodies are coupled, class, etc.  This point is familiar from the humanist cultural and critical theory of the last few decades.  Posthumanism goes one step further in arguing that animals, microorganisms, institutions, corporations, rocks, stars, computer programs, cameras, etc., also have their phenomenologies or ways of apprehending the world…

We see this point in the case of civil rights struggles.  A big part of these struggles consisted in the recognition of the point of view of minorities and women.  In recognizing that these people also have perspectives, that they aren’t simply “objects” in the pejorative sense, we also recognize that they deserve to be treated with dignity.  The same is true with animals.  To recognize that animals have points of view, that they have perspectives, is to recognize that they deserve to be treated with dignity.  Our attitude towards them changes when we adopt their perspective.  Similarly in the case of the disabled and those suffering from mental illness.  When we adopt their perspective we’re less likely to treat them in brutal and horrific ways as is so often the case in many homes.

The Soul, Spiritual Evolution and the Meaning of Life from Sri Aurobindo Studies 

In a brief compass, Sri Aurobindo integrates the soul and the universe into a coherent and significant process of Reality: “What we are is a soul of the transcendent Spirit and Self unfolding itself in the cosmos in a constant evolutionary embodiment of which the physical side is only a pedestal of form corresponding in its evolution to the ascending degrees of the spirit, but the spiritual growth is the real sense and motive.”

The past represents the prior stages of this evolution of consciousness in form. The present represents a stage in that evolution which has not yet been completed. The future holds the next stages and opens up the evolutionary development to new and greater manifestations of consciousness.

Our purpose in existence then is to act as a nexus of this increasing development of the spiritual evolution: “Why we are here is to be this means of the spirit’s upward self-unfolding. What we have to do with ourselves and our significances is to grow and open them to greater significances of divine being, divine consciousness, divine power, divine delight and multiplied unity, and what we have to do with our environment is to use it consciously for increasing spiritual purposes and make it more and more a mould for the ideal unfolding of the perfect nature and self-conception of the Divine in the cosmos.”

Sri Aurobindo has encapsulated here the essence of our striving and search for meaning. This provides not only a sense of the Reality of the material universal manifestation, but also a real purpose and meaning to the struggles for growth and aspiration for consciousness that we see within ourselves, and provides a significance to the process of rebirth as an essential mechanism for the successive growth of the soul and its ability to more and more effectively manifest the consciousness of the Spirit in matter, life and mind. 

Modern woman is Public enemy

Ujjwala K: Indian Aesthetics in Sri Aurobindo's Criticism - Muse India

The origin of Indian culture and philosophy marks the beginning of literary criticism in India. Indian poetic theory bears evidence to the impact of rich, cultural, philosophical and religious heritage on Sanskrit literature. The theory of beauty is not only confined to literary forms of Poetry, Literature and Drama but is also applicable to other arts like music, dance, painting, and sculpture. The Hindus first developed the science of music from the beginning of Vedic Hymns. The Samaveda was especially meant for music. And the scale with seven notes and three octaves was known in India centuries before Greeks had it…

The new aesthetics that began with the impact of western thought culminates in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy of art. Sri Aurobindo bases his philosophy on ancient Indian thought and experience revivified, regenerated and reshaped in his own being. He is one of the most significant outstanding thinkers who helped in recovering the lost tradition in aesthetics. The western concept of Art’s for Art’s sake is true only up to a certain point in Indian aesthetics. Aesthesis is not merely confined to reception of poetry and art but it extends to everything in the world. In Sri Aurobindo’s aesthetics all the dualities of ugliness, pain and pleasure are within the sphere of aesthetics. It encompasses heaven as well as earth, evil as well as good, spirit as well as matter. There can be an aesthetic response in truth also – a joy in the beauty, a love created by its charm, a rapture in the finding an aesthetic joy in its expression.

Implications of the Tantric Viewpoint on Rebirth from Sri Aurobindo Studies

Tantra focuses on the energy of creation, the Divine Shakti, and its manifestation through the world of forms. Tantra provides a first basis for a serious potential significance to life and rebirth. Sri Aurobindo describes the tantric perspective: “The Tantric solution shows us a supreme superconscient Energy which casts itself out here into teeming worlds and multitudinous beings and in its order the soul rises from birth to birth and follows its million forms, till in a last human series it opens to the consciousness and powers of its own divinity and returns through them by a rapid illumination to the eternal superconscience.”

We can see here the essence of the idea of an evolution of forms, and a progressive embodiment of ever higher levels of consciousness in these successively developed forms. We see here a real potential value and meaning to the life and struggle we experience in the universe. The tantric proposition thus approaches a solution that can answer all the questions and concerns.

Where the tantric approach is still incomplete is that it still posits as the eventual goal the abandonment of life into a supreme superconscience, so that eventually the significance it attributes to life is ephemeral and temporary in nature. Sri Aurobindo points out that “We find at last the commencement of a satisfying synthesis, some justification of existence, a meaningful consequence in rebirth, a use and a sufficient though only temporary significance for the great motion of the cosmos.”

The difficulty remaining is essentially that there is obviously so much consciousness, energy, effort and organization involved in the manifestation of the universe that we still cannot find it sufficient as a rationale for all of this, that the goal remains one of “escape”. As Sri Aurobindo points out: “…the supreme Energy constructs too long and stupendous a preparation for so brief and so insufficient a flowering.”

Savitri faces the giant head of Life: A Talk by RY Deshpande at Savitri.in on 6 November 2012 from Savitri

Even as the hungry wolves and hounds in the dangerous vital world are attacking Savitri, she is alert enough to recall the savior Name. At once peace comes to her. A similar situation was encountered by Aswapathy when he entered into the depths of Night. He dared into Hell’s kingdom with a prayer upon his lips and the great Name. Savitri with that savior name immediately enters into nameless peace. However, there is yet a greater danger, of the terrible Life-Force in the depths of darkness. Here could exist Falsehood and Error leading to dangerous situations.

Early Women's Writings in Orissa, 1898-1950: A Lost Tradition - Sachidanandan Mohanty (Author) Publication Date: January 6, 2005 

Focusing on the early literary experiences of women in the east Indian state of Orissa, this volume offers valuable insights into the conditions for these women at a time when the region witnessed the advent of Brahmo Samaj, the campaign for widow remarriage, the legal movement for the abolition of untouchability, the rise of women's education and trade union movements, and the struggle for national independence.

Trapped in a sieve The verbal attacks on women by self-appointed guardians of Indian culture show it is open season on ‘modern’ women in a tradition-entranced society. Sagarika Ghose writes. HT November 08, 2012

A fashionable cultural conservatism dominates a land in the throes of the seismic shocks of liberalisation and westernisation. Elaborately dressed ladies lined up on karva chauth to view their husbands through sieves and fast for their eternal health… Tradition has returned with a bang and asking questions about patriarchal festivals or the glorification of wifehood is seen as anti-national, anti-tradition, in short a spoilsport in the return-to-roots party. No wonder increasingly the modern woman is Public Enemy No. 1 and assertive women in public are vilified as creatures who deserve a public stoning… Modern women or the idea of the modern woman who is different from the stereotypical bharatiya nari is on a collision course with an already patriarchal society like India in the throes of rediscovering its traditions. While a colourful fiesta of annual rituals are happy and positive features, yet when they go hand-in-hand with upholding backward values, they start to become deeply dangerous. Sagarika Ghose is deputy editor, CNN-IBN.

Rewrite the Purusa-sukta Sagarika Ghose: IE Apr 15, 2003

Dalit historian Kancha Ilaiah has a suggestion. Just as the Vatican meets periodically to modernise catholicism, he says, the shankaracharyas should meet in conclave to modernise Hinduism. They should not only re-write the Purusa-sukta, but they should also decree that everyone, every woman, every tribal, every dalit, has the right to be priest of God and God is not the exclusive preserve of the brahmin. The event will have tremendous symbolic value, provide a turbine charge to India’s quest for modernity and Bhim Rao will at last be vindicated. The event will have tremendous symbolic value, provide a turbine charge to India's quest for modernity and Bhim Rao will at last be vindicated…

Perhaps for the renewal of Indian society, to create a spiritual awakening and to revitalize our culture, indeed to become a social democracy even as we are a political democracy, we need, as a conscientious public, to re-write the purusa sukta. Imagine what a thrill such an exercise will send out through our land. Imagine the amazing symbolic power of such a revision. Imagine the massive cultural and social renaissance it will create if the shankaracharyas or the heads of mathas or the mahamandaleswars at Varanasi all decided that for the sake of a massive spiritual and democratic symbol, they will rewrite this ancient yet fundamentally unjust hymn. Imagine the power of change. Sagarika Ghose's Blog: Re-write the Purusa-Sukta 9 Feb 2006 – There is a wonderful work on the Indian caste system called Homo Hierarchicus by Louis Dumont.

Talking to God in the Mother Tongue Manushi Home About us Indic Studies

A festival of music and dance to celebrate the lives and poetic compositions of women bhaktas and sufis (6th to 18th Century AD) 6, 7, 8, 9 November 2012. Daily 6 p.m to 9 pm ICCR audotorium, Azad Bhavan IP Estate, Behind ITO, New Delhi. Program 9th Nov 2012:

13. M.S. Sheela (South Indian classical music)
14. Revathi Ramachandran (Bharatnatyam)
15. Saswati Sen. (Kathak)

16. Anjalee Kaul (Kashmir sufi music) 

Oversimplification and underdetermination

[A Soul Evolution Uses Rebirth As Its Mechanism of Fulfilment by sri aurobindo studies

Rebirth, if restricted to the physical mechanism, adds little meaning to our lives, as it becomes an endless repetition of births with no goal other than pure existence. This leaves the questions about the significance of life and the reason for existence unanswered. Once we couple this physical mechanism with the concept of a soul evolution, a continuously progressive development that utilizes rebirth as the means of achieving results that cannot be attained in any single birth, we have the key that fits virtually all the locks, and we open up a new understanding about why we are here, and what we have to do.]

[Re: reincarnation vs rebirth... 

In The Life Divine, Sri Aurobindo strives to achieve this internal consistency.  He takes each argument (for and against) to its logical end and aspires to justify it. Of course, the problem is that the system is under-determined because all the available phenomenal evidence is insufficient to prove the existence of anything occult or Divine. By Sandeep (?) 1:32 PM]

[Read the original works! By Sandeep

Finally, the purpose of the blog is to introduce you to the sublime wisdom present in the teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, which cannot be captured entirely by any secondary work, including this blog.  So read the original works whenever you can. It will take time to grok their teachings, but it is worth the effort.]

[By immersing oneself in the original works, one gets a sense of the depth, comprehensiveness and majesty of Sri Aurobindo’s being that no compilation or third-person essay can ever convey. – Matthijs Cornelissen SABDA Newsletter, May 2008]

[Sandeep November 3, 2012 at 6:35 pm

In 1897, American psychologist William James suggested the “transmission theory” of mind, in which the brain is merely a mediator in the action of a mother-sea of consciousness which lies above it. This is similar to the mechanism that has been described above and is opposed to the “production theory”, prevalent in current Western psychology and philosophy discourse, which suggests that the brain produces consciousness.]

[Adam Says: September 11th, 2007 at 3:31 pm

Funny thing about William James is that his fucking book comes before the big break produced by WWI — a consolidation of a certain trajectory that has since been decisively critiqued. Apparently people regard him as the end-all — I had no idea. Over 100 years, and absolutely nothing has happened in the field! I’m so embarrassed not to defer to him in all things!

Seriously, does it ever occur to anyone that maybe there’s a reason something like the William James comes out around that time? You don’t even need to know academic theology — haven’t you ever read the chapter debunking the late-Victorian concept of the sacred in fucking Homo Sacer? That’s common currency, even though I know Karl Barth isn’t. 9:44 AM]

[Anthony Paul Smith Says: September 21st, 2007 at 8:20 am 

Re: Lenin. I think it is a gross oversimplification that leads one to total falsification… For me, and this isn’t a majority view and you certainly are not going to change your mind because of me, all philosophical taxidermy is repugnant falsification of actual philosophical thought. I just don’t find them helpful and very, very unpersuasive. In the ecosystem of thought I’m a Gleasonian. Still, I know it is not a popular view, … 3:59 PM]

[I Agree: It’s Religious from Cafe Hayek by Don Boudreaux

Talk matters.  Words matter.  They matter greatly.  (See Deirdre McCloskey.)

And talk and words have a history that unavoidably imparts meaning to them. The meaning that strikes the ears or eyes and then enters the minds of listeners is determined not merely by what the speaker (or writer) wants to convey – not exclusively by what he or she imagines others will understand – but also by what his or her audience brings to the conversation.  Conversation is a two-way street, not a one-way dictation.

Importantly, in the case of scientific writing the meaning that fellow scientists generally ‘get’ from a sentence uttered by a colleague is often quite different from the meaning that non-specialists ‘get’ from the very same sentence. This fact is especially important in the social science and, I believe, especially especially important in economics.

Economics is about the real world – or at least non-economists who hear or read pronouncements from people called “economists” will assume that these economists are making statements about the real-world… So when economists speak to the general public, they are duty-bound to be cognizant of the public’s biases and to communicate in ways that do not reinforce those biases but, instead, have some prospect for correcting those biases.]

Quality of our current life would be better

Joy of being: The Integral Yoga The Hindu LIFE & STYLE » SOCIETY MADURAI, November 1, 2012 R. DINESH
What is the Integral Yoga? Before understanding this, we need to go back to the basic starting point. Unless one defines a goal there is no need to change ...

Therefore, Life is all about oneself and what one can control. In all my earlier articles the central point has been the cause is by oneself and not others. For want of something better to do, we blame others but the root cause is our action or reaction. The real cause is that a choice to truly pursue one’s goal single mindedly has not been made. The faculties are happy giving reasons as to why one has to be unhappy (!) rather than doing something to rectify the situation. Therefore this solution of depending on third party(s) is at best temporary and not a solution. Then what does one do?

This is the path of Integration or looking at the whole rather than the parts. The ‘Integral Yoga’ will then have to start with a clearly defined goal of Happiness which is longest lasting (at least more than 90% say) if not permanent. The next step is to align the goals of each of our faculties. What does this mean? A rational analysis of the capabilities of our Body, Prana or Mind and even the knowledge part of ourselves which can be called ‘Intuition’’ has to be attempted through observation (not mental analysis) and once the goal is clear, effort would be made to ensure the capabilities of the faculties are built up to ensure success. For those who believe in rebirth, this process may require a few births but still one is steadfast to one’s goal of Happiness. Even if there is no rebirth at least the quality of our current life would be better.

See how the above is an exact reflection of how we can and must live our practical life. If one is clear what one wants and aligns all one’s efforts to achieve that, there is the best chance of success. Also see what happens when one is not aligned with one’s near and dear ones – fights, disappointments, disagreements etc. How can one hope to align with another when our faculties are fighting amongst themselves to show their superiority rather than aim for a common and overarching goal. (This is the second article of a four-part series on ‘The Integral Yoga’.) Feedback and questions may be emailed to joyofbeingrd@gmail.com (The writer is the Joint Managing Director of TVS & Sons Ltd., and MD, TVS Logistics.)

Seeking the Meaning of Human Life from Sri Aurobindo Studies Nov 2, 2012

Philosophy, religion and science all seek, in their own ways, for the meaning and purpose of our life on earth. The questions “why”, “what” and “how” are the basis of this existential questioning of our existence. Where do we come from? Is there life before birth? Is there any existence after death, and if so, what is it?

Even if we try to avoid these questions and live a practical life of survival, or hedonistic enjoyment, they continue to impress themselves on thinking humanity. In mamy cases, those who have spent a lifetime denying this search for meaning, come in the end, on their death-beds, to the ultimate question with fear, trepidation, hope and prayer.

Sri Aurobindo provides an answer which addresses the various issues that arise: “In the idea of evolutionary rebirth, if we can once find it to be a truth and recognise its antecedents and consequences, we have a very sufficient clue for an answer to all these connected sides of the one perpetual question. A spiritual evolution of which our universe is the scene and earth its ground and stage, though its plan is still kept back above from our yet limited knowledge,–this way of seeing existence is a luminous key which we can fit into many doors of obscurity.”

Sri Aurobindo places weight on the spiritual significance rather than the mechanical process. “The failure to do that rightly will involve us in much philosophical finessing, drive on this side or the other to exaggerated negations and leave our statement of it, however perfect may be its logic, yet unsatisfying and unconvincing to the total intelligence and the complex soul of humanity.”

The Foundations of Psychological Theory in the Veda, Contd from Sri Aurobindo Society, Singapore - C. Krishnamurthy (chamathu2003@yahoo.co.uk)

Rig Vedic mystics realised that a human being performs an effective action only through the assistance he gets from the devas, where as his own contribution is nominal. In fact, even the greatest Vedic poets obtained inspiration from superior planes and their contribution was restricted only to transcribe the revealed verses. With this it is very clear that yajña is an activity recognising the collaboration between the deva and the human. The much later scripture ‘Bhagavad Gita’ specifically mentions the different yajnãs by name such as yajña of obtaining material objects, obtaining knowledge, involving self-study etc., 

The Varieties of Naturalistic Philosophy from Footnotes to Plato by Matthew David Segall

If a pushy philosopher were to back me into a corner and force me to choose one or the other, naturalism or supernaturalism, I would choose naturalism. But I’d find myself wanting to ask, as Socrates might, what is meant by “nature”? Physics becomes metaphysics as soon as the word–”nature”–is pronounced. The logos of language … Read More

A Response to an Anti-Naturalist from Larval Subjects

Over at An und Fur Sich, Adam Kotsko has written a response to my defense of naturalism and materialism (here and here), accusing me of everything from believing that science gives us unmediated access to reality, is capable of explaining everything, and seeks to reduce everything, to advocating totalitarianism.  Anyone familiar with what I argue in my ontology and epistemology will find this to be a peculiar set of charges, but so it goes… but I feel compelled to say something as I have difficulty recognizing myself in what is described in this post… In fact, the ontology and epistemology I propose, the opposite is entailed…  My central argument for the independence of objects– drawn from philosopher of science Roy Bhaskar –revolves around the experimental setting and how knowing requires us to carefully construct closed systems in which we perturb objects in a variety of ways to determine how they respond under these conditions.