001 db. Announcement of Post AUM 2005 discussion list

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 19:31:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Debashish Banerji
Subject: The Post AUM 05 discussion list
To: scienceandspirit@sriaurobindocenter-la.com

Preceeding the AUM, a mailing list had been set up to allow speakers and panelists to share views prior to the event and get to know each others' standpoints. Now, following the AUM, we have expanded the list and changed its name to reflect the oreintation for the future. It is now called postaum2005 and you can post to it by sending mail to
postaum2005@sriaurobindocenter-la.com or by clicking the reply button for any mail sent to you from this list. This is an unmoderated list and any email sent on it goes out immediately to all others in the egroup, so please use this list responsibly to further the engagement with ideas opened up at the AUM and others related to its theme.

We hope to set up a community portal for this group soon, where this mailing list will be integrated along with a themed forum, text and file archiving, links, claendar, etc. But until that happens, messages sent on this list will be archived in a mailbox which all can access by going to a website. This website is http://mail.sriaurobindocenter-la.com.
Once you enter the website, you will find a radiant image of the Mother, under which you will need to enter a username and a password. The username is scienceandspirit@sriaurobindocenter-la.com and the password is postaum2005.

We hope that the topic for the AUM, which was Science and Spirituality or more generally, Science, Technology, Consciousness and the Intergal Yoga or even more generally, Intergal Yoga and Modern Society or in its most general, Intergal Yoga, the World and the Future, will find a more settled engagement through this forum and we will all be more enriched and help to effect a wider opening to the scope of the yoga in today's world thereby. By the speedy efforts of Dave Hutchinson, a CD containing audio files of the AUM talks and panels will hopefully reach all participants soon. This forum can be a way to extend the discussions around these talks and panels. It will be our effort to post transcribed versions of the talks on this list to facilitate this process. (If anyone on the list would like to volunteer transcription services, please raise an ehand). Moreover, we encourage the posting of links to appropriate readings which we can collectively address and also to post (at present in the body of email, later by uploading text files to the community portal) articles related to the topic which any of us may have written.

A vision statement for this forum has been written up, mostly by Rich Carlson, with minor interventions from Rod Hemsell and myself. This now follows.

[In the next comment to this topic. -Admin]

Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 19:31:42 -0700 (PDT)
From: Debashish Banerji
Subject: The Post AUM 05 discussion list
To: scienceandspirit@sriaurobindocenter-la.com

A vision statement for this forum has been written up, mostly by Rich Carlson, with minor interventions from Rod Hemsell and myself. This now follows.

AUM Shanti,
Debashish Banerji
——————————————————————————-
I. Vision

In our world of ignorance, omniscience is stepped down from its spiritual poise to be expressed as a quest for knowledge which is embodied by science and omnipotence is stepped down from its original source to be articulated in technology as a will to power. The intent of the post-AUM list is to explore the exponential evolution of the species as it is driven by both efficient and deficient forms of knowledge as well as efficient and deficient forms of power. The meaning assigned to the term efficient refers to those forces which facilitate the spiritual evolution of consciousness as envisioned by Sri Aurobindo. The term deficient refers to those forces driving culture and science which appear to impede the progression of the spiritualization of consciousness.

Some questions which might be asked at the outset to address the reasons for engaging in a conversation on this theme are as follows: Can a community which considers itself on the vanguard of the evolution of consciousness simply withdraw from an ever increasingly integrative world body into itself and claim to be a yoga of the world? Would the world community in its current process of exponential evolution benefit from the insights of a small community founded on the vision of the future evolution of mankind? If the globalization of culture is driven by a will to economic power, technological determinism and a scientific enterprise intent on discovering that occult knowledge which leads to the manufacture of novel life forms - and is in fact already tottering on the precipice of creating its own new humanoid species while outstripping the ability of the rational ethical mind to keep pace with its new creations - is it not critical for the emerging planetary culture to also become aware of an alternative future? By an alternate future we mean the promise of the future given to us by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother which is a radically different vision than one in which a new race is fashioned according to atheistic values and the materialist alchemy of modern science driven by a will to profit.

In exploring the emerging planetary culture and the latest innovations in science and technology special consideration will be given to those novel discoveries and innovations which may impact the course of the future evolution of species. Another fundamental question implicit in these explorations will be: do the new innovations in science and technology help at least - if only on the material level - to facilitate a spiritual track in the evolution of consciousness or are they helping to lead humanity in quite a different direction? A further question that may be implied is whether or to what extent the spiritual and material tracks of evolution are separable?

A sample of agendas which will be explored will depend on what we all find of interest. However, the following concerns, challenges, and considerations would certainly fit within the scope of our exploration: the psychic being in the evolution of consciousness, the supramental manifestation, the emerging planetary culture, bio-technology, communication technology, computer technology, biotics (e.g. the interface of human and machine), indigenous and green technologies, the emergence of the virtual class, the globalization of the economy, the militarization of the new world order, emerging forms of planetary artistic expression, the need to create integral communities of the future, the role of Auroville in the global village, and of course the importance of integral education in fashioning our collective future.

II. Challenges

During the AUM panel discussion on science and spirituality there was unanimous agreement among all who spoke that given the magnification of power with which science and technology endow humanity, the integral yoga could do well to offer a guiding light to these endeavors. A caveat was voiced from some that if such a dialog with science and culture were to occur, there was a risk that the message of Sri Aurobindo could become diluted. Another caution was put forward that because words have power we must be very careful in substituting words taken from the vocabulary of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother in their descriptions of reality when engaging with the secular discourse associated with global culture and science. Finally, there was voiced a concern that such discussions, if they should take place, should do so within the family, e.g. our community.

While recognizing the fact that Sri Aurobindos message has been diluted by academics and others who quote him to affirm their own explanatory systems or social constructions, we believe that we can avoid such dilution by approaching the theme in the proper spirit of reverence for their texts, in which final authority is always deferred to Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. In so doing we should perhaps remain tentative in our conclusions which we extrapolate from their writing and when confusion arises remain open for the light of their inspiration. With these concerns in mind we also believe that Mother herself has in some instances suggested appropriate language which can be used in discourse when one comes into contact with more secular parts of the culture. Moreover, if the Sri Aurobindo community itself does not engage in finding appropriate language for discourse with the wider world, a danger arises that the integral yoga will be defined in the world by those commentators who have less concern with finding proper language or with the authenticity of the message of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother.

In these conversations however, we must also agree to own up to our opinions on matters of culture and society which have transpired since 1973. This simply means that we should not use the forum as a pretext to further socio-political or economic agendas we personally hold nor to gain authority for our own opinions, thoughts or ideas, by attempting to disguise them as direct teachings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother. While the conclusions we reach regarding the emerging global village may indeed have
socio-political and economic overtones, the main impetus for the conversation is to remain open to the free flowing spirit of truth. This is to say that although we all inevitably bring our own historical and cultural interpretations to the table, we should be prepared to suspend our opinions and attempt to synthesize perspectives with others, and in the spirit of integrality embrace difference in the unity of the truth consciousness.

As such, part of the conversation will be an attempt to uncover appropriate language when we are at loss for the proper means of expression given to us in light of the yoga. Finally, we agree that this discussion should be kept within the family until such time as we find consensus among us that the meaning which emerges from our conversation would be of positive use to the broader culture in which we ourselves are situated.

Another challenge of exploring the emerging planetary culture and its instrumentation of science and technology in the light of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother is that this is fairly unexplored territory. Although they do provide guidance to us in their teachings and we can in many instances draw conclusions simply based on their teachings themselves, in some instance we may also have to rely on extrapolating theses teachings to apply to the novel contexts which have only become apparent in the year 2005.

To extrapolate the meaning of their teaching to apply to current events is certainly no easy task. To do this requires openness, aspiration, sincerity, and a profound understanding of our limitations as readers and aspirants. Moreover, it also requires that we expect no definite conclusions or certainty in the answers or points of view which may arise. The very fact that Sri Aurobindos yoga bids us to eschew simple moralizing, or rationalizing neat conclusions but rather calls on us to take a supra-moral, or supra-rational position indeed adds another layer of complexity to the endeavor with which most other groups or organizations who explore similar themes do not have to contend.

Therefore, in the conversation which emerges we need to be aware of these most important caveats, e.g. that we are not seeking to reach any firm or fixed conclusions or attempting to supply one dimensional or dogmatic answers to the problems which confront us in the world today, but rather we are seeking to explore these issues as fellow aspirants of integral yoga in order to identify and determine if there are certain trends at work in the world which either appear to be at odds with or appear to enhance the forming of integral communities and furthering the lines of a spiritual evolution of the species.

When confronting the Integral Yoga as a yoga of the world and asking how indeed it acts in the world the following questions arise:

1) Is it enough to preside over the vanishing or our own individual
egos?

2) Is some form of occult transfer of knowledge from our community to
the global culture sufficient to make the necessary changes?

3) Is more activism required, for example, to advocate for change on a social or political level?

4) Can we offer to the wider world a greater gift, for example in the form of an authentic integral education?

We start with the premise that we haven't really got a clue as to the exact answer to these questions but defer to the action which Sri Aurobindo and Mother took at another crisis period of history which may serve as an example. When confronted by the horrors of the Third Reich marching like a juggernaught over Europe, they at once took action on an occult plane, using their spiritual force to confound the Asura - which was driving the Nazis - while at the same time acting on the surface social and political level by raising funds to support and sustain the armies of the allies who were physically confronting the threat.

Of course their actions were directed against a different threat in the 1940s than are present in the world today. The current risks to the world are much less obvious, but although they are more subtle, they are perhaps just as formidable, in that their outcome could also pose a threat to the continued evolution of consciousness. Let us again read the statement of Sri Aurobindo which was supplied by Matthijs:

In modern times, as physical Science enlarged its discoveries and released the secret material forces of Nature into an action governed by human knowledge for human use, occultism receded and was finally set aside on the ground that the physical alone is real and Mind and Life are only departmental activities of Matter. On this basis, believing material Energy to be the key of all things, Science has attempted to move towards a control of mind and life processes by a knowledge of the material instrumentation and process of our normal and abnormal mind and life functioning and activities; the spiritual is ignored as only one form of mentality. It may be observed in passing that if this endeavor succeeded, it might not be without danger for the existence of the human race, even as now are certain other scientific discoveries misused or clumsily used by a humanity mentally and morally unready for the handling of powers so great and perilous; for it would be an artificial control applied without any knowledge of the secret forces which underlie and sustain our existence.

The following paragraph lists a few of the dangers which confront us by virtue of the magnification of power given to humanity by science and technology:

The dangers which confront us by new innovations in science and technology which magnify the power of humanity in novel ways are many and include: pathogens released by self-replication of nano-technology which could reduce the biosphere to a gray goo in days; biological organisms created in laboratories which could mutate into forms of super germs which could outstrip the ability of anti-bodies to contain them; the cloning of human beings or the mixing of genes across species to create a new class of human organism; the destruction wrought by nuclear weapons which could effectively end life as we know it; the annihilation of indigenous species of plants and agriculture in favor of huge sterilized mono-cultures which reduce the ability of millions of small farmers to survive; the growing imbalance of the haves and the have-nots in the world; the disappearance of childhood or human communication into electronic environments which can lead to alienation and new forms of psycho-pathologies.

The above list of dangers is not meant to be exhaustive nor to be taken as any indication that we should fear science and technology. We could have easily provided a list with the great benefits of science and technology, such as longer life spans, ease of travel, comfort and efficiency, rather than the danger list which demonstrates that along with the advances of material civilization and the facilitation of the well-being of the world population which science and technology make possible, there is in accordance with the laws of the material world a karmic dimension that does not allow us to dig for the gold without risking the collapse of the mine shaft.

III. Tentative Methodologies

Participation in the dialog will be through conversation facilitated by the medium of email. At the outset we must all remember the famed expression by communications theorist Marshall McLuhan that the medium is the message. What this means is that the manner in which information comes to us impacts our appreciation of the information.

The medium structures our comprehension of the message. So in email conversations we have to remember that subtle connotations of messages often do not come through, and that the course of email exchanges proceeds in linear fashion in which the
multi-dimensionality of the communication is often not expressed. There is also a tendency when email posts are being viewed not only between those having the conversation but by third parties viewing the exchange, for one to become defensive when disagreements arise. As such it must be remembered that the context of this list is to provide a sanctuary for all of us fellow aspirants to safely express ourselves with the tacit understanding that we are doing so within a wider family. A family not determined by birth but by spiritual inclination.

Another problem implicit in email conversations is that endemic to all small talk or short commentary, which is that they leave the larger body of assumptions in a person's context of understanding unspoken. In net dialog too this is often the cause for communication lapses and the waste of multiple iterations and arguments to bridge them. The solution here would point in the direction of larger bodies of text which can be circulated and archived and reviewed/engaged with selectively. Audio versions of talks and panel discussions will soon be available to AUM participants. Moreover, our wish is to transcribe these talks and panel discussions and post/archive them on the list, so that these can form topics for further engagement. In the process, apart from questioning and commenting on these texts, participants are encouraged to post texts of their own or readings they feel pertinent.

It also is our view that we should all take whatever opportunities that arise to meet with one another to embody the meanings we seek to presence in our electronic forum within the aesthetics of real physical spaces. This is to say we wish to avoid having our discourse just vanish into the cyber-ether of virtual space, and so whenever the occasion arises be it at AUMs or elsewhere perhaps clusters of us can manage to coalesce and continue the conversation in real time. Moreover, if there are certain themes that become foregrounded in the process or if certain individuals or groups feel the need to explore certain themes more intensively, smaller seminars or conferences may be organized around these.

IV. Goals

The goals are simple, namely to see if we all can begin to parse the myriad of possible futures emerging with the planetary culture to ascertain which of those possibilities appear to facilitate the evolution of consciousness envisioned by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, and which of those possibilities appear contrary to their vision of the spiritual evolution of consciousness . In short we are making an attempt to enlighten ourselves to the promise and perils of the future both as they affect us as individuals and as a community.

V. Organizational Structure

Except for the person who performs a technical function in managing the list the organizational structure here is one of distributive intelligence in which every individual periphery is also central to the action of the community as a whole.

- Richard Carlson
- Debashish Banerji
- Rod Hemsell

The founders and co-Admin for SCIY are Ron Anastasia, Debashish Banerji and Richard Carlson.