Presenter

John Robert Cornell

John Robert Cornell is a writer living in the foothills of Northern California with his wife Karen. He holds a bachelor's degree in philosophy and graduate degrees in religion and anthropology. He did field work on a dialect (O'ob No'ok) of the Pima language in Mexico in the 1970s. He holds a community college teaching credential, has taught at the secondary and college levels, and been a licensed therapist.

John Robert edited and published the small nature-and-spirit bulletin Sunseeds for ten years, and was a writer/editor for many years in the software industry. He is an experienced workshop leader and conducts consciousness-focused nature walks for the American River Conservancy.

He has been a student and devotee of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother for three decades and has a long-time interest in the American yoga. A regular participant and contributor to monthly retreats at Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham in Lodi, California, he lived in Auroville from 2006–2008. He is also secretary of the Sri Aurobindo Association. John Robert is in love with the American earth, Integral Yoga, and Sri Aurobindo’s poetry.

Sonnets and Sadhana

Sri Aurobindo, poet and visionary, wrote that “a greater era of man’s living seems to be in promise … But first there must intervene a poetry which will lead him to it …" Sri Aurobindo’s own sonnets are music-fired meteors missioned to us from that future. This interactive workshop will consider and practice several ways of using these jewels of transmission in daily life.