Our tenth special feature is an evocative essay called “Languaging Trails of Sound and Light.” Through storytelling and creative language, John Robert Cornell guides us on a journey of inquiry about language and its relationship with intuition and meaning. After discussing some unique cases revealing insights into the nature of language, he discusses how Indigenous languages rooted in embodied experiences of the land, rather than relying on mental abstractions, can teach us about the dynamic flow of reality.   Read more …

Our ninth special feature, “A Planetary Initiation” by Sean Kelly, begins with the premise that our universe is a finely tuned manifestation of consciousness, and that matter, life, and mind are evolving toward the cosmos awakening to itself. However, we are now entering a new era where we are facing environmental and climatic challenges that threaten our existence and potential evolution toward higher truth, beauty, and goodness. This is forcing us to undergo a change of consciousness that brings us out of our narrow sense of identity to a wider sense of participation with the earth community. He ends with a sense of guarded optimism by affirming our capacity to participate consciously in the next phase of human evolution.   Read more …

Our eighth special feature is “The Transitional Being and Mother’s Yoga of Matter” by Lynda Lester. Nature is now working out the transition from mental to supramental consciousness in humanity. But Sri Aurobindo and the Mother realized that entering directly into the supermind would produce such an abrupt change that the human body could not support it. Hence they saw the necessity of a transitional being between humanity and the coming supramental species.  The Mother, using her own body as a test bed by which earthly substance could be transmuted, took on the task of bringing supramental consciousness into matter. She embodied the transitional being and gradually evolved an archetypal body made out of supramentalized matter. Read more …

Our seventh special feature is Michael Miovic’s “Spiritual Tips for Living in the United States,” in which he offers humor-spiced prescriptions for spiritual survival in this country and turns to the American land itself. “The land of the United States,” he writes, “is very special because she is conscious.” This piece is a delight to read, and gradually we realize that behind the jokes and the Americanisms, there is “substance” and insight into something both unexpected and almost obvious. Michael is a clinical psychiatrist and long-time student of the Integral Yoga with a special interest in geospiritual studies based upon the seven jewel centers (chakras) of the Earth Mother. Read more …

Our sixth special feature is “The Role of the Avatar” by Martha Orton, who writes that the central role played by the avatar is to establish a physical, concrete link between heaven and earth, the Divine and its creation. The purpose of human life is to evolve in consciousness and to engage in a transformative process that ultimately brings humanity into union with the Divine in a wonderful Oneness. This process is aided by divine beings in human form who are spoken of avatars. Read more …

A discussion of this article with Martha Orton, Jonathan Kay, and Marco Masi is available on the Sri Aurobindo Association YouTube channel, Collaboration Podcast, Episode 4. 

For the fifth installment of this series (Collaboration Vol. 47, No. 1) we feature “The Time Has Come,” an essay by professor and sculptor Patrick M. Beldio. The title implies a question—the time for what?—and an answer: It is time for the promised leap beyond the dual reality of our times: dissolution and progress, annihilation and new creation. The recipe is before us now, Patrick argues, if we understand Mother’s acknowledgment of the value of hostile forces and employ her flower-based method of evoking the life-changing power of aspiration. Read more …

A discussion of this article with Patrick Beldio, Jonathan Kay, and Marco Masi is available on the Sri Aurobindo Association YouTube channel, Collaboration Podcast, Episode 3. 

For the fourth installment of this series (Collaboration Vol. 46, No. 3) we feature a chapter from Sri Aurobindo’s book, The Future Poetry. Poetry is a language of the soul that has long evoked human imagination and emotions and conveyed meaningful intuitive experiences in ways that ordinary language often fails to accomplish. If poetry and consciousness are intimately connected, can poetry be an instrument for enrichment and evolution of consciousness? This chapter delineates Sri Aurobindo’s theory of poetry. We are grateful to Marie-Claire Barsotti, whose beautiful paintings illustrate this special feature. Read more …

For the third installment of this series (Collaboration Vol. 46, No. 2) we feature “Decade of Illuminations,” an interview with Wayne Bloomquist. Travel back to the 1970s with this “A Barfight for the Earth” protagonist (see p. 30 in the journal) and longtime practitioner of Integral Yoga as he shares his memories of Haridas Chaudhuri and Nolini Kanta Gupta, spiritual experiences in Auroville and Pondicherry, and even the founding of Auromere, with Collaboration editor Bahman Shirazi.
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For the second installment of this series (Collaboration Vol. 46, No. 1), we feature Gloria Sayavedra’s “Art in Diversity.” It was only a few months ago, in what now seems like a different age, that we witnessed one of the largest mass protests in the history of this country. The Los Angeles area was no exception. Millions saw their streets flooded with crowds, marching to the chant of “Black Lives Matter.” These men and women left behind their marks as fleeting art forms on the once inert wood panels erected to protect windows from the crowds. Those voices—voices of color—broke their silence. They did so in the name of pain and the uncountable accumulated losses in their history, a history of powerlessness. Read more …