Saturday, April 05, 2008

The Life Divine is the repository of all attitudinal re-engineering that we need to internalize

[But both the Lurianic tradition of Kabbalah, and Integral Yoga, teach that humanity is able to participate in the transformation of the world. In Kabbalah this is only described in metaphoric and religious language, and there is also no concept of the divinisation of the body. In Sri Aurobindo's teachings it is described in a clear and practical way. This involves not just conventional Enlightenment, also spiritual stages of the evolution of consciousness beyond even enlightenment... by M. Alan Tagged with: Integral, metaphysics 6:07 PM]

[In my view, an 'Integral' perspective, if it is to really live up to the essence of that word, must encompass the Earth's actual patterns of growth, geography, cycles of time, historical movements, mythologies and such.
In The Human Cycle, Sri Aurobindo (1872-1950) - a forefather of all things INTEGRAL - writes about the typical mental use of words as a spinning of fiction, as opposed to the words used by Vedic Seers some 5,000 years ago…
In reading the Rig Veda and Sri Aurobindo’s The Secret of the Veda, it is revealed that understanding the cycle of the Earth's year in twelve months and 365 days (360 degrees) plays a huge part in developing a truly vast consciousness and perspective of how all things move and breath. Yet so many people in the Integral World seem to have no understanding of Time or the living/divine significance of the year and other cycles in time. -- Lori Tompkins
8:01 PM]

[Sri Aurobindo however, is not referencing technology or electronic bodies built by human design but rather the continuation of a biological mode of existence which is privileged by virtue of its very naturalness, or rather by a certain conception of what natural is. What he seems to be doing here is to extrapolate a perspective of nature formulated early in the 20th century to its perfected culmination in a future body. But in the 21st century, after the advent of information and biological technologies, can we still rely on conceptions of nature from a century ago to govern our vision of a future body?
Ironically, if the Canadian philosopher Marshall McLuhan is correct, the passage of time and the advent of certain technologies may actual result in the atrophy of the body rather than its progress. One of McLuhan's well known aphorisms puts the issue as follows: “Every technological extension is a -biologcal- self-amputation”(1964 p45) When we develop machines to perform work for us those parts of our anatomy which were once involved in those physical task become inactive and begin to atrophy.
Goodbye To All That: nature and the future body in Sri Aurobindo by Rich on Fri 04 Apr 2008 02:08 PM PDT Permanent Link Goodbye To All That (Nature and the Future Body in Sri Aurobindo) Richard Carlson] 7:30 AM 7:45 PM

[Sapta Chatusthaya, or Yoganga as it is called, could be briefly presented in its revised order as follows... Sri Aurobindo has incorporated many of these features in The Synthesis of Yoga dealing with the Yoga of Self-Perfection. Let us, however, take just one entry from his Record by way of an illustration, showing how meticulously and scientifically Sri Aurobindo was carrying out his yoga-tapasya, about which we have otherwise the least idea. Even with our best minds and our best faculties, we will simply stand aghast at the kind of things that are involved in this remarkable Yoga of his. The Mother’s Agenda is the only other thing that can stand together in this wonderment. What, then, about our little talk regarding the human potential and the technology promoting spiritual prospects! It looks such a small curious thing in comparison, perhaps no more than queer inquisitiveness! ... by RY Deshpande on Sat 02 Jun 2007 07:16 AM PDT Profile Permanent Link 8:53 AM] 3:30 PM 7:34 AM 1:20 PM 9:05 PM

Note on the Text of The Synthesis of Yoga links it to Sapta Chatusthaya. We seem to be perpetually in search of a process, a method, a system of practice. Therefore, Record of Yoga or Mother’s Agenda assumes disproportionate importance for some people. It is an attitude that finds ready reception in the people of Western origin. But The Mother and Sri Aurobindo always insisted on steering clear of such grooves for "mind determines body." The Life Divine is the repository of all attitudinal re-engineering that we need to internalize. [TNM] 7:40 AM

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