Savitri Era Learning Forum

April 09, 2009

The emotions are, in fact, in charge of the temple of morality

Op-Ed Columnist The End of Philosophy By DAVID BROOKS
NYT: April 6, 2009 A version of this article appeared in print on April 7, 2009, on page A29 of the New York edition.

Socrates talked. The assumption behind his approach to philosophy, and the approaches of millions of people since, is that moral thinking is mostly a matter of reason and deliberation: Think through moral problems. Find a just principle. Apply it.
One problem with this kind of approach to morality, as Michael Gazzaniga writes in his 2008 book, “Human,” is that “it has been hard to find any correlation between moral reasoning and proactive moral behavior, such as helping other people. In fact, in most studies, none has been found.”
Today, many psychologists, cognitive scientists and even philosophers embrace a different view of morality. In this view, moral thinking is more like aesthetics. As we look around the world, we are constantly evaluating what we see. Seeing and evaluating are not two separate processes. They are linked and basically simultaneous.
As Steven Quartz of the California Institute of Technology said during a recent discussion of ethics sponsored by the John Templeton Foundation,

“Our brain is computing value at every fraction of a second. Everything that we look at, we form an implicit preference. Some of those make it into our awareness; some of them remain at the level of our unconscious, but ... what our brain is for, what our brain has evolved for, is to find what is of value in our environment.”

Think of what happens when you put a new food into your mouth. You don’t have to decide if it’s disgusting. You just know. You don’t have to decide if a landscape is beautiful. You just know.
Moral judgments are like that. They are rapid intuitive decisions and involve the emotion-processing parts of the brain. Most of us make snap moral judgments about what feels fair or not, or what feels good or not. We start doing this when we are babies, before we have language. And even as adults, we often can’t explain to ourselves why something feels wrong.
In other words, reasoning comes later and is often guided by the emotions that preceded it. Or as Jonathan Haidt of the University of Virginia memorably wrote,

“The emotions are, in fact, in charge of the temple of morality, and ... moral reasoning is really just a servant masquerading as a high priest.”

The question then becomes: What shapes moral emotions in the first place? The answer has long been evolution, but in recent years there’s an increasing appreciation that evolution isn’t just about competition. It’s also about cooperation within groups. Like bees, humans have long lived or died based on their ability to divide labor, help each other and stand together in the face of common threats. Many of our moral emotions and intuitions reflect that history. We don’t just care about our individual rights, or even the rights of other individuals. We also care about loyalty, respect, traditions, religions. We are all the descendents of successful cooperators.

The first nice thing about this evolutionary approach to morality is that it emphasizes the social nature of moral intuition. People are not discrete units coolly formulating moral arguments. They link themselves together into communities and networks of mutual influence.
The second nice thing is that it entails a warmer view of human nature. Evolution is always about competition, but for humans, as Darwin speculated, competition among groups has turned us into pretty cooperative, empathetic and altruistic creatures — at least within our families, groups and sometimes nations.
The third nice thing is that it explains the haphazard way most of us lead our lives without destroying dignity and choice. Moral intuitions have primacy, Haidt argues, but they are not dictators. There are times, often the most important moments in our lives, when in fact we do use reason to override moral intuitions, and often those reasons — along with new intuitions — come from our friends.

The rise and now dominance of this emotional approach to morality is an epochal change. It challenges all sorts of traditions. It challenges the bookish way philosophy is conceived by most people. It challenges the Talmudic tradition, with its hyper-rational scrutiny of texts. It challenges the new atheists, who see themselves involved in a war of reason against faith and who have an unwarranted faith in the power of pure reason and in the purity of their own reasoning.
Finally, it should also challenge the very scientists who study morality. They’re good at explaining how people make judgments about harm and fairness, but they still struggle to explain the feelings of awe, transcendence, patriotism, joy and self-sacrifice, which are not ancillary to most people’s moral experiences, but central. The evolutionary approach also leads many scientists to neglect the concept of individual responsibility and makes it hard for them to appreciate that most people struggle toward goodness, not as a means, but as an end in itself. More Articles in Opinion » A version of this article appeared in print on April 7, 2009, on page A29 of the New York edition. [The End of Philosophy? from Larval Subjects by larvalsubjects at 7:32 PM] [It does seems to me that one must judge things on an individual basis and be ever so cautious in adopting any systematic strategy of evaluation especially with regard to culture. Re: 100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution: The Illusion of Human Progress and the Ideal of Human Unity (part 5 of 6) Tony Clifton Science, Culture and Integral Yoga]

Celebration of 150 years from Edmund Husserl’s birth (April 8th 1859)

from Studia Phaenomenologica bounce@studia-phaenomenologica.com to tusarnmohapatra@gmail.com date 9 Apr 2009 00:31 subject
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Studia Phaenomenologica VIII (2008): Phenomenology and literature
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Studia Phaenomenologica IV 3-4 (2004): The Ocean of Forgetting. Alexandru Dragomir – A Romanian Phenomenologist
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Studia Phaenomenolologica II 3-4/2002: In memoriam Hans-Georg Gadamer
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April 08, 2009

Daring once again to think our present or what is vital and living in that present

The End of Philosophy?
from Larval Subjects by larvalsubjects
This morning I had a rather disturbing thought from the standpoint of my professional identity and what I love: What if philosophy was completed 2100 years ago? That is, what if, 2100 years ago, or if you prefer, 2500 years ago, we produced the “true” philosophy and philosophical methodology? In dating the completion of philosophy at 2100 - 2500 years ago, I am, of course, referring to the materialist hypotheses of Lucretius and Democritus...

Oh I’m sure, as I had this dark, nightmarish thought, philosophy will continue to exist. Philosophy is not an experimental discipline, but rather is a synthesis of its time. This is, of course, Badiou’s thesis. Philosophy takes what is new and vital in its time– such as Plato with geometry or Spinoza with the new physics –and asks how it transforms our understanding of the nature of being, what new politics it births, what new humans it renders possible and available, what new art and ethics it generates.

Philosophy, as it were, thinks the Zeitgeist. In doing so it helps to give meaning to what first appears disparate, it helps to intensify trajectories of research by rendering them more clear, it assists, like a circuit, in the cross-fertilization between different forms of practice and inquiry (like Hobbes or Spinoza examining society in terms of the new physics or the new mathematics), it critiques and shows materialism its own blind spots.

Philosophy is a form of social and intellectual self-reflexivity. And in our own time we begin to see philosophy rising again, shifting away from the endless analysis of mistaken hypotheses littering the battleground of the history of philosophy, and daring once again to think our present or what is vital and living in that present.

Then there is Russian Cosmism; and you have people like Barbara Marx Hubbard

The Integral Paradigm from Integral Transformation by m alan kazlev
Just cross-posting this on Gaia com (formerly Zaadz) as well. My book, previously called Integral Metaphysics and Transformation, will now be called The Integral Paradigm (with apologies to Thomas Kuhn!). I feel that Paradigm is a broader and hence more useful term than metaphysics, even if it is a bit New Agey...

My current position is that the classic New Age movement is just as much, or as little, Integral as the Wilber-inspired movement that currently bears the name. Which isn't in any way to denegrate the latter. Or the former.I emphasise Classic New Age, what Hanegraaff (New Age Religion and Western Culture) calls the New Age sensu stricta. By this is meant people like David Spangler, Jose Arguelles, etc, not dumbed down stuff like The Secret (my original comment on this here, while Stuart Davis provides a more detailed critique). David Spangler rightly attacks such "New Age glamour"; is it any wonder he has decided to distance himself from the whole movement!

Then there is Russian Cosmism; and you have people like Barbara Marx Hubbard; in fact it soon becomes apparent that the Integral Paradigm is much vaster than what is currently referred to as the "Integral Movement".

I've several times even considered scrapping the term "integral" altogether. This is so I don't have to be limited to the Wilber-inspired movement (which is but one contemporary stream of the Integral paradigm, albeit an important one). Unfortunately, there are no good alternatives. "The Cosmic Paradigm" sounds pretentious and silly. So it looks like Integral it is!

Certain misunderstandings can arise when one employs evolution as a principle to justify the graduated ranking of human beings

Re: 100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution: The Illusion of Human Progress and the Ideal of Human Unity (part 5 of 6) Tony Clifton Tue 07 Apr 2009 08:13 AM PDT

The point the article attempts to make is that evolution as an ideology became a justification for racism in England (and Europe) particularly through the writings of Herbert Spencer. And this belief applied not only to her Asian colonies but especially to Ireland where editorial cartoons of the late 19th century often depicted the Irish as simian creatures who had not yet fully evolved to the level cultured Englishman

Biology is often employed as ideology and Europeans have been the worst offenders here. One of latest version of it is of the selfish gene that couched the socio-political agendas of Thatcher and Reagan leading them to dismiss society as irrelevant because everything can be traced back to individual responsibility and the individual can be traced back to his/her genes. One of the consequences of such thinking was the massive deregulatation of markets that was premised on the assumption that unconstrained self-interest was most natural system to advance the world''s economy. Unfortunately the assumption that these self-interest would be enlightened enough to contain within them their own balancing mechanisms resulted in the current world financial crisis. The final sections explores this relationship of biology to culture with Sri Aurobindo's view of science and culture

This is one reason this series of articles were attempted, as an attempt to clarify certain misunderstandings that can arise when one employs evolution as a principle to justify the graduated ranking of human beings, be it by social levels or levels of consciousness. (While I find the complexity of Sri Aurobindo's writing handles the matter well, I have not found the same intellectual sophistication necessarily extends to some of his followers)

The Yogi-Poet is travelling simultaneously through different zones of time

Satyavan has to Die
by RY Deshpande on Wed 08 Apr 2009 03:15 AM IST Permanent Link Cosmos

But, actually, the Yogi-Poet is travelling simultaneously through different zones of time and, with swift and wide luminous ease, is covering the domains of different worlds—transcendental-universal-individual all the three in one quickness of movement. While the story belongs to the terrestrial mode there are also present in it, and at every stage of its development, other dimensions too.

It is sometimes said that Savitri begins with a flashback. The central event of the story, of the death of Satyavan, has been brought right at the beginning of the narrative. It could possibly so. The Passion of Christ is a movie which has used this technique. And there are many instances too. In the literary art, ancient as well as modern, many a great examples is present. Horace himself in his Ars Poetica speaks of in media res, into the middle of things. The issue, the event, and the characters are introduced by plunging into middle of the story. Homer’s Iliad and Virgil’s Aeneid are such classical epics. Horace also speaks of the story beginning at the beginning, ab initio or ab ovo, from the egg. He says The Trojan War does not begin from the double egg, but hurries to the action into the middle of things.

April 07, 2009

Seven chakras of classical yoga & the seven jewel centers in the Earth Mother

The Seven Jewel Centers of the Earth Mother: An Aurobindonian Vision of the Earth Consciousness
Category: Seminar
Date & Time: Friday , 04/03/2009from 12:00 PM to 01:00 PM
Location: Library Browsing Area [map it]*
Admission: Free!
Sponsored by: Center for Indic Studies
Contact: Professor Jerry Solfvinjsolfvin@umassd.edu 508-910-6630

Description:
Speaker: Michael Miovic, M.D. Chief of Adult Psychosocial Oncology program, Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Boston

ABSTRACT: Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950), a widely known spiritual teacher and a leading exponent of modern Indian philosophy, made seminal contributions to yoga philosophy and spiritual psychology which underpin the current wave of interest in Indian spirituality and consciousness studies. Dr. Miovic will examine Sri Aurobindo's model of consciousness as a basis for a geospiritual understanding of planet Earth which links the seven chakras of classical yoga to the seven jewel centers in the Earth Mother. The challenge of global warming may demand an inspiring, spiritual vision of the Earth, and the evolution of human consciousness, precisely what Sri Aurobindo envisioned for a brighter future.

BIO: Michael Miovic, M.D., is Chief of the Adult Psychosocial Oncology program at the Dana Farber Cancer Institute (DFCI), Boston. He received his M.D. from the UC San Diego, trained in psychiatry at Harvard Longwood Program, and did a fellowship in Psycho-oncology at the DFCI. Dr. Miovic has a special interest in spiritual issues in mental health and has published case studies, articles, and chapters on that topic. He collaborated with colleagues in the U.S. and in the Sri Aurobindo Ashram, India, to help develop the field of integral psychology. Refreshments at 11:45AM

One might please oneself with theories and concepts, but that would avail hardly anything

Towards the Intermediate Race—the Early Writings of Sri Aurobindo [1]
by RY Deshpande
Mirror of Tomorrow on Tue 07 Apr 2009 04:13 AM IST Permanent Link Cosmos

The theme of evolution was central to Sri Aurobindo’s thought almost throughout his life. We have a set of essays written by him in 1909 which first came out in the weekly review the Karmayogin edited by him when he was in Calcutta; this was after his acquittal in the Alipore Bomb Case filed against the revolutionaries, including himself, in 1908. It is quite appropriate that we should read these over again to celebrate the centenary year of their appearance. Along with these three selected pieces, from Harmony of Virtue, must also go the absolutely last set of articles Sri Aurobindo dictated in 1950; this was at the request of the Mother who wished him to contribute to the newly started periodical, the Bulletin of Physical Education. These last writings were later published, in January 1952, in the book entitled The Supramental Manifestation upon Earth.

The most important thing we become aware of in these revelations is the arrival of what Sri Aurobindo called the Mind of Light, the mind of the physical receiving the Supramental. It is this Mind of Light which governs the race of beings who provide a link between the Mental and the Gnostic beings,—the Intermediate Race. If we do see a change in the writings of these two periods, separated by forty years, then it is not a change or shift of any kind in his central concepts related to the principles and methods of evolution, evolution which is more a collective change of consciousness, a change pertaining to spiritual evolution than to the evolution of form. The difference is due to the great yogic work that had gone towards the realization of the life divine upon earth, the difficult and untiring yoga-tapasya of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

To view it in any other manner, other than an occult-yogic work, howsoever appealing it might be to the rational mind, is to miss the entire purport of the evolutionary objective itself. One might please oneself with theories and concepts, but that would avail hardly anything if the day’s job is to make the evolutionary possibility a realised certainty. Precisely in it lies the convincing uniqueness of Sri Aurobindo’s vision and work, and it is that we must celebrate during the centenary year, celebrate the first appearance of the theme in 1909. ~ RYD

April 05, 2009

How important it is to study Sri Aurobindo historically

Re: 100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution: The Illusion of Human Progress and the Ideal of Human Unity (part 5 of 6)by Debashish on Fri 03 Apr 2009 12:19 PM PDT Profile Permanent Link

Terrific article! Among other things, it brings out powerfully how important it is to study Sri Aurobindo historically and to pay heed to the complexties of his thought. Apart from the obvious reasons, in his case, one fiinds an interesting operation of his relationship as a yogi with time (kala, one of the Four Aids, and trikaladrishti, the Triple Time Vision, as per the Synthesis of Yoga). In this respect, his "predictive" pronouncements should best be read as performatve acts of will, sraddha, based on his state of consciousness and knowledge.

But at the same tiime, each of these acts are heuristics, "what-if" scanarios, with alternative possibilities to which he improvised alternate trajectories as needed. This interplay between trikaladrishti and prakamya is pervasive throughout the Record of Yoga and his later writings are a more formal manifestation of this method. Predicition, optimism/faith as a heuristic, unsparing realism, scientific (re)assessment and revised approaches are the norm in the Record and one, would infer from it, throughout his life.

Perhaps among the most glaring examples of this was his "death," which, at least according to the mythology internalized by the disciples from his own heurstic statements was never supposed to happen. What should have been clear as the unmistakeable lesson from all this is that his method was what he was inviting his students and disciples to follow, rather than to create mythologies of his predictions. The tension between Hegel and Nietzsche, or that between historicism and individual will is a constant and living dialog in Sri Aurobindo and it is this dialog which he is directing us towards. Unfortunately, humankind finds it more convenient to rest in belief systems which they can adulate and have no need to emulate. DB

Update: From Mirror of Tomorrow (Archives) - May 30, 2012

Re: Sri Aurobindo’s Marriage—a discussion by Raman Reddy pertaining to a few aspects in context of the latest biography published by the Columbia University Press by Kepler on Thu 11 Mar 2010 02:08 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

I see auroman has been doing his homework. He is perhaps becoming an example of a disciple of Sri Aurobindo awakening his intellect to take on the challenge of engaging contemporary intellectual culture. It may be a task largely irrelevant to anyone’s inner sadhana, but still somewhat relevant to expression and life in the world. Sri Aurobindo was supremely erudite and obviously bothered in his writings to engage the thought currents of the time – a time now almost 100 years ago. So thought currents have changed and it shouldn't hurt to have a few more followers of Sri Aurobindo able to credibly "dialog" with contemporary mental life and culture.

by Kepler on Thu 11 Mar 2010 08:57 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

“Frankly, all this "engaging the world in discourse" is needless exertion... Mental frameworks can only be shattered by proof of Divinity rather than lectures and books. One who has Adhikara will succeed irrespective of his or her mode of expression...”

Defining “succeed” as inner spiritual realization, that's no doubt true. Defining it as transformation of nature and life on earth, then other things can also assume a place. E.g. Sri Aurobindo spent quite a bit of time expressing himself in published writings.

Re postmodernism, I agree it can, given a certain approach to it, convey a type of benefit. It points to inherent limitations of the mind and of mental reasoning – possibly invoking a kind of negative samata toward all thinking - as you suggest.

by Kepler on Thu 11 Mar 2010 10:02 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link "following Kepler’s line of argument"

I fear you have not followed it. Sri Aurobindo in certain places in his writings references the state of rational knowledge and thought at that time. Since then there have been further developments, e.g. postmodernism in the humanities, the micro and neural biological revolutions in the sciences, the European Union in politics. Presumably if Sri Aurobindo were writing today he might have some comment on those developments. Likewise readers today who are versed in those developments might react differently to certain references in Sri Aurobindo's writings than a reader would have 100 years ago. Someone intellectually capable might be able to address such developments from an Aurobindonian perspective - and there might be some value in that.

Would you counter that there have been no new developments in human thought or knowledge in the past 100 years, or that it’s not possible to relate Sri Aurobindo’s thought to any such developments, or that there can be no possible value in doing so? I admit one could reasonably debate the “possible value” point – I was really just agreeing with Raman Reddy re “disciples of Sri Aurobindo should awaken their intellects”, although I didn’t see why it should be only “Indian disciples”, and further qualified that “a few more” such disciples “shouldn’t hurt”. I fail to see where re-writing the Life Divine comes in.

by Kepler on Sun 14 Mar 2010 11:42 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

RYD: “Would rational knowledge and its development in the course of time affect the spiritual verities and their statements?"

The key distinction is “their statements”. Spiritual truths are eternal – i.e they exist outside of time. Their statements however occur in time and human thought and language. The quote from Sri Aurobindo you give is on a slightly different subject: science and spiritual metaphysics having incommensurable, although not unrelated, domains of inquiry.

RYD: “The Gita was given five thousand years ago but its fundamental formulations have not altered”

Yes, the Gita is a perfect example. Its expressions of deep spiritual truths still resonate deeply thousands of years later – one measure of its greatness. However it does not expound on the truth of the progressive manifestation of spirit and consciousness through time in progressively more complex physical forms on earth – the concept of spiritual evolution so central for Sri Aurobindo and Mother. Could it be that the expression of the idea of evolution by Darwin, that had such a global impact on human thought in the latter half of the 19th century, has absolutely nothing to do with why it is central to Sri Aurobindo's Life Divine but is not in the Gita? It has always been a spiritual truth, but its expression in human thought and language has a certain contingency on the state of development of that thought and language.

RYD: “If this is denied, then the natural conclusion would be, The Life Divine would get dated the moment the Large Hadron Collider starts spewing out its data. In other words, Sri Aurobindo had just wasted all his time”

That's quite a leap. If some illustrative reference here and there in the LD became dated, it need hardly invalidate all of its central themes or render them a waste of time. In just the past decade much new research has been going on in neuroscience on the subject of consciousness – from the perspective of physical science. The results of course do not invalidate the spiritual view of consciousness, but do provide some interesting new data. If Sri Aurobindo were still writing today, I cannot imagine him completely ignoring those developments; however 100 years ago how would he have been able to discuss them?

by Kepler on Fri 12 Mar 2010 01:37 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link Vikas,

Please see my reply to RYD above where I tried to elaborate a bit on what I meant by changing thought currents, etc.

You're of course right that intellectual discourse tends to appeal to the mind instead of illumining the soul, and is famous for its endless debates without issue. Still the mind does have its role to play in expressing the soul in thought, life and action.

Sri Aurobindo did not confine his writings to Upanishadic-style verse, but wrote at enormous length in the style of rational elaboration and articulation (I'm not saying his expressions were a result of ordinary ratiocination - but the expressed writing is certainly in a supremely rational style). So while steering clear of “Gobi deserts” of the intellect, one wouldn’t want to excessively devalue rational thought and expression either.

by Kepler on Mon 15 Mar 2010 10:55 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

RYD: “Regarding the latest human knowledge in various branches of human pursuit and its possible relationship with the spiritual discoveries and formulations of a universal kind”

That was indeed the topic of discussion, but it seems you tend to interpret “its possible relationship” only as the issue of whether scientific knowledge can invalidate expressions of spiritual knowledge – or generally whether intellectual pursuits can somehow replace spiritual seeking. Of course the answer is no. Hence my example of the development of the theory of evolution which not only did not invalidate past spiritual knowledge (e.g. the Gita), but was thoroughly synthesized by Sri Aurobindo into his comprehensive expression of a progressive spiritual evolution manifesting on earth. Did the LD invalidate the Gita, or did it just expand established expressions of spiritual truth onto new horizons? And did not the theory of evolution provide some of the conceptual and linguistic material used by Sri Aurobindo to express his expanded spiritual vision? It’s only natural that the human instruments of thought and speech condition somewhat the Spirit’s expression through them; as the instrumental capacities develop and are refined, previously unheard melodies might be played by the Spirit.

by Kepler on Tue 16 Mar 2010 06:12 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link Akash: “Too many things are mixed up here“

I can't help but notice that you make this comment and then proceed to throw numerous new and unrelated things into the mix. The subject was the relationship of developments in human thought and knowledge to the expression of spiritual truths. Perhaps it was grand cosmic coincidence that the first clear articulation of progressive spiritual evolution as the key to the meaning and purpose of human life on earth was given by Sri Aurobindo 50 years after Darwin, and not previously throughout the long and profound traditions of spiritual knowledge and expression in India or elsewhere. To me it simply shows how progress in the instrumental stuff of human mental knowledge can help facilitate new expressions of spiritual knowledge. Mental progress is itself an element of the spiritual evolution of consciousness, so this doesn't seem so surprising. How this point might relate to farming, brahmacharya, or updating Sri Aurobindo's works and still passing them off as his own, is however a mystery to me.

by Kepler on Tue 16 Mar 2010 08:48 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link Akash: "you will excuse me for trying to sort out if you are implying cause or correlation or curiosity"

I'm more than happy to excuse you, but I've repeatedly referred to the role of advances in human thought as an "instrument" of spiritual expression. One is not normally confused as to the causal status of an instrument - i.e. one doesn't congratulate the flute instead of the musician after a performance. Yet the characteristics and capacities of the flute are obviously a factor affecting the music that can be expressed through it. If one designs a new flute and can thereby produce notes previously not possible, there is no requirement to re-write all previous compositions - they remain as beautiful ever.

by Kepler on Tue 16 Mar 2010 08:33 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link auroman: "More, Kepler?"

I can't quite tell if your post is partly (or entirely) sarcasm, but who knows what Sri Aurobindo would write differently today - although some things would surely be somewhat different. Most obviously, works like the Human Cycle, Ideal of Human Unity, Future Poetry, etc., would likely reference developments that have occurred in the ensuing years. Can this really be a controversial statement? How could Sri Aurobindo have evaluated the way in which the Soviet Union ended, many decades before it ended?

His occasional references to then-current scientific theory or data would likely also be more current. RYD provided some quotes showing Sri Aurobindo seemed to feel, even in the 1930's, that the materialistic world-view associated with science was significantly waning - as things turned out it has continued to be rather strong (at least in the west). It would be fascinating to know his current view on such things.

This subject is, by the way, distinct from the more general topic of the relationship of progress in human knowledge to the expression of spiritual truths. I used the example of evolution to show that a major expansion in human conception can play a role in facilitating a new expression of spiritual truth. I'm certainly not suggesting that Sri Aurobindo would likely today produce some completely different spiritual expression (i.e. “re-write the Life Divine”) due to ensuing advances in neuroscience, critical theory, or information technology. But he might well have something interesting to say on those subjects.

by Kepler on Tue 16 Mar 2010 10:39 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

RYD: “Darwinian findings referred to here are not presented to get support for his ‘hypothesis’ of the evolutionary manifestation”

Of course not. Sri Aurobindo is dramatically expanding the notion of evolution into many dimensions inconceivable to Darwin. Note however that he does refer to “that status of evolution which the Darwinian theory first made plain to human knowledge”. Certain vague concepts of evolution existed before Darwin – his singular contribution was proposing a plausible mechanism of nature that could have led species to gradually evolve all their characteristics over long periods of time – including humans. This created a huge, unprecedented wave of thinking on the subject of humans as the direct product of some evolutionary process.

RYD: “In fact, a question which might be asked is: Did Sri Aurobindo really bring anything new which is not there in the ancient lore?”

I must say I’m surprised you would suggest that. Sri Aurobindo did point out certain references to the Supermind in the Veda and Upanishads, and his Yoga obviously builds on past traditions and realizations. But would you really suggest that his expression of a processes of spiritual involution and evolution, progressively manifesting Satchitananda through increasingly evolved forms in the physical world, leading to a supramental transformation of earthly Nature and a Divine life on earth – brings nothing new that was not already expressed in the ancient lore? If so, I fear we won’t be able to see eye-to-eye on this topic or on many others.

RYD: “the Knowledge of the Spirit is ageless, eternal, sanātan, that which is incontingent.”

Here again, if you don’t distinguish between the non-contingent Knowledge of the Spirit, and the contingent expression of that Knowledge in human thought and language at some particular point in time, then we probably can’t really discuss this topic.

by Kepler on Thu 18 Mar 2010 12:59 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

So then do you hold, as I phrased it above, that it was grand cosmic coincidence that the first clear articulation of progressive spiritual evolution as the key to the meaning and purpose of life on earth was given by Sri Aurobindo 50 years after Darwin, and not previously throughout the long and profound traditions of spiritual knowledge and expression in India or elsewhere? That could of course be true, it just seems implausible to me.

It’s not like Sri Aurobindo was reading Darwin’s Origin, getting ideas and thereafter thinking up his own version of evolution. It’s rather that the firm establishment on the mental plane of the formed idea that humans are a product of evolution, provided some of the mental stuff used by Sri Aurobindo’s in the thought-expression of his spiritual vision and experience. This is hardly to say, “Darwin caused the LD”, except in the most childish interpretation of what it means for spiritual knowledge to make use of mental thought-stuff as an instrument of its expression.

Maybe I’m wrong – but we had been talking about how developments in human mental knowledge might aid in the expression of spiritual truths, and this just seemed like a blindingly obvious example to me.

by Kepler on Thu 18 Mar 2010 07:38 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

Establishment of a formed idea on the mental plane does not mean it is not debated and disputed. Everything on the mental plane is debated and disputed. But it means it exists and is available for articulation in thought and speech.

Re the grand cosmic coincidence, I'll try again to re-state it. In the 50 years after Darwin, the concept of evolution applied to humans on earth became well formed, widely known, developed, and discussed by well developed minds. I'm not aware of any previous time in history when that was the case – you can enlighten me if I'm wrong.

About 50 years after Darwin's work (which initiated this wide-spread general conceptualizing of evolution), Sri Aurobindo articulated his vision of a spiritual evolution occurring on earth; evolution became a key element of his comprehensive theory of the meaning and purpose of life, the human soul, and every other profound question concerning the universe we find ourselves in. I'm not aware of any previous time in history when this was so done – you can enlighten me if I'm wrong.

So to me the connection is clear (“blindingly obvious”): the formed idea of evolution provided useful material for Sri Aurobindo's expression of the Vision and Knowledge he received via his yoga. Hence it's an example of an advance in mental knowledge aiding in the expression of spiritual knowledge.

Another view might be that there is absolutely no connection of any kind between the general articulation of the idea of evolution in the later 19 century, and Sri Aurobindo's articulation of his philosophy of spiritual evolution in the early 20th. It just so happened (the “grand cosmic coincidence”) that this articulation occurred at that time and never before in the long, long history of spiritual philosophy and expression. It was an utterly random confluence of events.

I hope that's more clear now. I realize there may be reluctance toward this idea if you think it would somehow lessen Sri Aurobindo's achievement if there was an instrumental dependency of any kind. I don't see it that way – anymore than his achievement was lessened by his reliance on a language developed by Anglo-Saxon peoples of the British Isles (as opposed perhaps to having invented his own entirely new language to write in). But I won't press the point any farther – anyone who might see value in it has now had ample chance to consider it.

by Kepler on Sat 20 Mar 2010 11:41 PM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

Lamarck of course published some ideas several decades before Darwin concerning species evolving more complex characteristics via adaptation. You can substitute Lamarck-Darwin, or 19th century thinkers, for Darwin if you like. Muhammad al-Nakhshabi seems to be known for a brief suggestive sentence in a book from the 10th century, and as for Aristotle's theory of evolution that has lasted for two millenniums, please provide some references.

You make the point that statements about singular-seeming events in history cannot be reliable since we only have limited historical knowledge and can't know with certainty that, for example, evolution was not clearly articulated, and widely held and discussed by people in some unknown culture at some unknown time. True enough – we can only make historical comments based on what we know, not what we don't know. Similarly we can't know for sure there weren't 13 “lost” Upanishads that completely contradict Vedanta; we have to base our thinking on what we do know about the past.

If you start defining a “theory of evolution”, to include most any conception of creation, nature, or consciousness that involves some sort of process that develops over time – then of course all manner of things could be so counted – including the traditional creation myths of most ancient cultures.

It's interesting that you cannot accept that the 19th century articulation of natural evolution was an “advance in mental knowledge”. You criticize it for its materialistic and non-spiritual orientation – that's of course true but applies equally to almost all of science. So is almost none of modern science an advance in mental knowledge, not even in knowledge of the physical world and its external processes? Were ancient theories concerning the physical world and its external processes more advanced? Philosophical implications drawn by many in the wake of the evolution concept (e.g. “proof” that naturalistic materialism can explain everything), were and are of course wrong-headed and even harmful. Sri Aurobindo's articulation of spiritual evolution corrects this and places the truth inherent in the idea of evolution in its proper role and perspective. It may be best not to conflate “advances in mental knowledge” of the physical world that science provides, with the larger philosophical framework of materialism in which science usually operates. That's a different subject.

My point rests on the relationship between what was new in the 19th century articulation of natural evolution, and what was new in Sri Aurobindo's articulation of spiritual evolution. If you hold one or both of those were actually nothing new anyway, then that's fine, although I would disagree. In your previous comment you agreed that developments in human mental knowledge might aid in the expression of spiritual truths (Vikas: “No doubt and only too obvious”). Since you think evolution is a bad example, what example would you suggest to illustrate this?

On the point of whether there is anything new brought by Sri Aurobindo that was not already there in the ancient lore of India (as RYD speculated), and more specifically whether his articulation of spiritual evolution was nothing new, the letters from Sri Aurobindo I posted give, I think, his own clear opinion on that question. In any event, I appreciate your thoughtful and articulate comments and enjoyed reading them.

Re: Sri Aurobindo’s Marriage by Kepler on Tue 23 Mar 2010 08:59 AM IST | Profile | Permanent Link

Now it seems plausible to me that when he uses the word “evolution” in the second quote (his acceptance of its philosophical truth), it refers to the same thing as in his use of the word “evolution” in the first quote (the key-note of the thought the nineteenth century). Hence he incorporates the “truth” of the concept of evolution (as articulated in the 19th century), into his own spiritual philosophy – with sweeping, dramatic changes in its content and scope - but still there seems to be a relationship. […]

When he says “we can no longer suppose”, and “It has become evident” that an “an energy of creation has effected the transition”, these seem again references to the theory of evolution as articulated in the 19th century. […]

When he says “Once the evolutionary hypothesis is put forward and the facts supporting it are marshalled, this aspect of the terrestrial existence becomes so striking as to appear indisputable.”, the “hypothesis” and “facts” again appear to be referring to the theory of evolution as articulated in the 19th century.

Now there's no question that Sri Aurobindo rejected entirely the materialistic interpretation of evolution, and that his vision of spiritual evolution corrects, improves, and massively surpasses the scientific theory on all sides. But I don't see why one couldn't suggest he made use of this advance in human mental knowledge to provide some of the instrumental material in his own expression of spiritual Knowledge and Truth.
So if you still see no merit in this example, I'll gladly drop the point. Although I'd remain interested to know your replacement example of an advance in mental knowledge aiding in the expression of spiritual knowledge.

March 26, 2009

Soliciting groups for 7 day camps to be held in village Kechla

AuroMira Service Society
March 26, 2009
Kechla The Land School People contact Kechla Trip Information
E Mail :nirankar.agarwal@gmail.com Phones : 6568 4154, 93100 76614, 2656 7863 E Mail :pranjaljauhar@gmail.com Fax : 011-26857449 Auro-Mira Service Society Sri Aurobindo Ashram - Delhi Branch, Sri Aurobindo Marg, New Delhi – 110016

Tribal Areal Rural Living Experience with Health / Adventure Activities
We are soliciting groups for 7 day camps to be held in village Kechla (district Koraput, Orissa). Koraput is situated on the national highway between Visakhapatnam & Raipur. It is connected by direct trains to Howrah, Bhubaneswar, Rayagada (Orissa), Jagdalpur (Orissa) and Visakhapatnam.

Kechla, a conglomeration of several hamlets of purely tribal populace numbering some 1,400 souls in quite a wide region, is located on the shore of the Upper Kolab reservoir. The rugged terrain and clean air of Kechla with not even electricity to pollute the surroundings strikes the town dwellers as a special boon and is bound to be an unusually exhilarating experience. The campsite now boasts of solar pump & windmill to draw water, solar lights, and solar heating for water.

Campsite: In July 2004, Auro-Mira Service Society (AMSS) started a project in this backward area of Orissa at Kechla. Initially twenty-two acres of land alongside a peninsula of the Kolab River Reservoir surrounded by rolling hills is the project site. This part of Orissa is quite underdeveloped. AMSS envisages to accomplish the following objectives in this developmental project:

Tree plantation on the project site as well as on the denuded hilly terrain in the vicinity
Educational facilities for the tribal village
Cashew nut processing unit for the tribal village
Improved infrastructure. Better roads, boats.
Mainstreaming of the tribal populace
Keywords describing this camp : Environment; Health; Adventure; Rural living experience

THE activities of the camp will include Environment – Tree planting; Impeding soil erosion; Health – General health awareness. Talks and workshops on Healthy nutrition. Techniques for long-term care of heart & the circulatory system; lungs & the respiratory system; eyes & vision; ears & hearing; vertebral column & joints; teeth & gums; skin & hair, etc. A good grounding in teaching of appropriate asanas, pranayama, and routines to accomplish these objectives will depend on the duration of the camp. Keep-fit exercises

Adventure: Rappelling, and river-crossing. Swimming. Treks.

Fun: Learn folk-dances from Europe and the Middle EastIntegration: Interaction with tribal people, rugged rural living

OTHER ACTIVITIES may include Yoga/Keep Fit, Local Sight Seeing, Games, Meditation, Talks and Discussions, Cultural Presentations by participants, etc.

DISCIPLINE: A strict discipline is maintained throughout and all participants are required to follow the rules and regulations of the Institution and to uphold the sanctity of the place. Smoking is strictly prohibited on the Campus and drinking and use of drugs are forbidden during the entire period of the camp.

LODGING: Dormitory style, separate for males and females, with coir or foam matting. Participants will need to bring 2 sheets, pillow, and a blanket or sleeping bag.

FOOD: Nutritious & entirely vegetarian. We seek cooperation in matters of food. Since people participate from many states & family backgrounds, it is not possible for us to satisfy everybody's taste.

MEDICAL: Organisers will not be responsible for any accidents or illness. All medical expenses will have to be borne by the participants themselves.

Schools and college students can perhaps avail of educational tour discount. Telescopic tickets to Koraput should be economical by sleeper class even from distant places. Few Pictures from Camps held at Kechla (Please send us your email identity so that you can be invited to view more pictures in a picasa album)
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March 22, 2009

Sri Aurobindo's teleology does not square with the Abrahamic tradition

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"Science, Culture and Integral Yoga" - 1 new article
100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution: Why Sri Aurobindo would not believe in Intilligent Design (part 1 or 6)

While the purpose Sri Aurobindo gives to evolution lends it directionality and transcendence. The fact that he presents a teleology as central to his views does not necessarily mean that his perspective squares with the contemporary theory known as Intelligent Design. Sri Aurobindo's teleology does not square with the fundamentalist view of the religions in the Abrahamic tradition, all of whom have found a common cause in the ideology of intelligent design, and who dismiss evolutionary biology because they find it threatening to their faith....

So called scientific theories of intelligent design often simply present a facade for creationist teaching. Although some Christian organizations have called on scientist not affiliated with their religious faith to discount evolutionary biology these scientist certainly represent a minority view in the scientific community at large. For instance, the faith based Discovery Institute, who is on the forefront of arguing that creationism be taught in American public school, has chosen to employ several scientist, some of whom claim to be atheist, to argue in support of their position...

While Sri Aurobindo does not buy into its materialist reduction of life, and openly voices his objection to the chauvinism of science, he does keep open the possibility that certain Darwinian mechanisms such as natural selection are at work in evolution, even if they can not by themselves fully account for it. While acknowledging the limitations of science he certainly does not seem to find its theories that diverge from his own threatening rather, he contextualizes them in accordance with his own integral comprehension of the world. In the following passage in his essay on Materialism (1915) he defers to science by referencing a religious text:.....

“we have not to hide our face from it any more than could Arjuna from the terrible figure of the Divine on the battlefield of Kurukshetra, or attempt to escape and evade it as Shiva, when there rose around him the many stupendous forms of the original Energy, fled from the vision of it to this and that quarter, forgetful of his own godhead. We must look existence in the face in whatever aspect it confronts us and be strong to find within as well as behind it the Divine.

Materialistic science had the courage to look at this universal truth with level eyes, to accept it calmly as a starting point and to inquire whether it was not after all the whole formula of universal being. Physical science must necessarily to its own first view be materialistic, because so long as it deals with the physical, it has for its own truth's sake to be physical both in its standpoint and method” 100 Years of Sri Aurobindo on Evolution: Why Sri Aurobindo would not believe in Intilligent Design (part 1 or 6)

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March 18, 2009

Sri Aurobindo's formulation of the evolution of consciousness itself builds on Darwin

Re: The Core Problem Tony Clifton Tue 17 Mar 2009 08:55 AM PDT Science, Culture and Integral Yoga

well, I am not sure, because IY is so complex a phenomena I'd hate to define it absolutely one way or the other however, in the former instance regards academic scholarship although it would certainly not comprise the entire practice it could be part of ones jnana yoga.

And although it would have to be qualified in the latter instance yes, I do think that some developments of scholarly view can be identical to what Sri Aurobindo calls the evolution of consciousness. In much the same way that he envisions the evolution of poetry as representative of the evolution of consciousness

Moreover, in Aurobindian terms -people who don't practice yoga at all - even scientist also experience the descent of higher, illumined, intuitive mind or whatever name one chooses to give it, the discovery of the structure of the benzene molecule is one such instance by Kekulé. IMO the importance of such intuition is implicit in Einsteins statement imagination is more important than knowledge.

Finally, yogic theories can borrow from scientist. And anytime one speaks of the evolution of consciousness in yogic terms one is doing just that as Sri Aurobindo's formulation of the evolution of consciousness itself builds on Darwin.

It seems in very concrete ways that, while on the one hand there are differences that must be appreciated that at the end of day, everything is hopelessly interconnected,

Re: The Core Problem Debashish Mon 16 Mar 2009 09:26 PM PDT

Relative valuation in works is inevitable unless one has attained a consciousness high and integral enough. A shoemaker cannot be expected to understand the true value of a painter and vice versa. That said, perhaps both of us are aiming at some eventual sense of the true place of these things in building the future.

In the meantime, let it suffice in the minimum allowance of some usefulness of the scholarly work, whether it looms larger for one or not. And let it also be allowed that this can be a legitimate part of yoga sadhana in the Integral Yoga. That and no more (but also no less) is necessary for integrality of effort.

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