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Consciousness in Evolution
Di Anton Grosz
Azioni libro
Inizia a leggereLunghezza: 303 pagine3 ore
- Editore:
- Anton Grosz
- Pubblicato:
- Feb 28, 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781310555084
- Formato:
- Libro
Descrizione
Integral reality involves an experiential awareness that invests normal human consciousness with as great an evolutionary enhancement as occurred by the addition of self-awareness and cognition to pre-human consciousness. It is an evolutionary step to a level which has thus far manifested in only a relatively few individuals, Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri being one. Though Dr. Chaudhuri's application of the integral view in daily life displayed the perfect balancing of inner knowledge and outer work in a total experience of being in the world, the basic practice is simple, non-dogmatic, and accessible to all through its three philosophical principles; unity in diversity, evolutionary perspective, and existential depth.
In acknowledging and honoring Dr. Chaudhuri's experience, this dissertation provides the ground for his teachings in terms of ideological antecedents, core principles, and methodology, knowing that the practice produces in each individual the very evolutionary breakthrough in consciousness it is presaging for humanity; a world of perpetual peace and universal understanding.
Informazioni sul libro
Consciousness in Evolution
Di Anton Grosz
Lunghezza: 303 pagine3 ore
Descrizione
Integral reality involves an experiential awareness that invests normal human consciousness with as great an evolutionary enhancement as occurred by the addition of self-awareness and cognition to pre-human consciousness. It is an evolutionary step to a level which has thus far manifested in only a relatively few individuals, Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri being one. Though Dr. Chaudhuri's application of the integral view in daily life displayed the perfect balancing of inner knowledge and outer work in a total experience of being in the world, the basic practice is simple, non-dogmatic, and accessible to all through its three philosophical principles; unity in diversity, evolutionary perspective, and existential depth.
In acknowledging and honoring Dr. Chaudhuri's experience, this dissertation provides the ground for his teachings in terms of ideological antecedents, core principles, and methodology, knowing that the practice produces in each individual the very evolutionary breakthrough in consciousness it is presaging for humanity; a world of perpetual peace and universal understanding.
- Editore:
- Anton Grosz
- Pubblicato:
- Feb 28, 2016
- ISBN:
- 9781310555084
- Formato:
- Libro
Informazioni sull'autore
Consciousness Matters, Writer, Husband, Father, Hospice Counselor, Baba...
Correlati a Consciousness in Evolution
Anteprima del libro
Consciousness in Evolution - Anton Grosz
* * *
Consciousness in Evolution
By Anton Grosz Ph.D.
California Institute of Integral Studies
Philosophy and Religion
April 1995
Copyright © 1995 by Anton Grosz Ph.D.
* * *
* * *
CONSCIOUSNESS IN EVOLUTION:
LIVING THE INTEGRAL REALITY OF DR. HARIDAS CHAUDHURI
* * *
Anton Grosz PhD
114 Frederick #19
San Francisco, CA 94117
(415) 431-7741
CERTIFICATE OF APPROVAL
I certify that I have read Consciousness in Evolution: Living the Integral Reality of Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri, by Anton Grosz, and that in my opinion this work meets the criteria for approving a dissertation submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Doctor of Philosophy degree at the California Institute of Integral Studies.
_____________________
James Ryan, Ph.D.
Program Director
Philosophy and Religion
CIIS
_____________________
Paul Herman, Ph.D.
Retired Program Director
Integral Counseling Psychology
CIIS
_____________________
David Ulansey, Ph.D.
Professor
Philosophy and Religion
CIIS
_____________________
Willis Harman, Ph.D.
President, Institute of
Noetic Sciences
* * *
* * *
CONSCIOUSNESS IN EVOLUTION:
LIVING THE INTEGRAL REALITY OF DR. HARIDAS CHAUDHURI
* * *
Anton Grosz Ph.D.
* * *
Abstract
Integral reality involves an experiential awareness that invests normal human consciousness with as great an evolutionary enhancement as occurred by the addition of self-awareness and cognition to pre-human consciousness. It is an evolutionary step to a level which has thus far manifested in only a relatively few individuals, Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri being one. Though Dr. Chaudhuri's application of the integral view in daily life displayed the perfect balancing of inner knowledge and outer work in a total experience of being in the world, the basic practice is simple, non-dogmatic, and accessible to all through its three philosophical principles; unity in diversity, evolutionary perspective, and existential depth.
In acknowledging and honoring Dr. Chaudhuri's experience, this dissertation provides the ground for his teachings in terms of ideological antecedents, core principles, and methodology, knowing that the practice produces in each individual the very evolutionary breakthrough in consciousness it is presaging for humanity; a world of perpetual peace and universal understanding.
* * *
* * *
To Bina and Phyllis...
With respect and gratitude and undying love...
...to you whom... the evolution of consciousness
without would have
required a
different
path
...from Both of Us
* * *
* * *
[Experiential Material Reality... upon completing Pragmatic Integralism: The Ground
, I subjected the manuscript to an automatic computer spell check. The first word it stopped on was 'Chaudhuri'. The word it suggested was 'co-author'.]
* * *
* * *
I personally believe in optimism... by looking forward to the future with hope and with self-confidence, we generate positive forces.
Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri
Evolution of Integral Consciousness
* * *
Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri... was not only a scholar and academic of the finest sort, but also possessed many of the qualities that humanity at large has traditionally admired as indicative of a self-realized person.
John White
from Foreword to The Evolution of Integral Consciousness
* * *
...it is most gratifying to see in Haridas Chaudhuri a thinker at work who is truly both a devoted follower of a great master and an independent thinker of the widest possible scope of erudition.
Frederic Spiegelberg
from Foreword to Being, Evolution & Immortality
* * *
Table of Contents
1. CONTEXT AND SCOPE
1.1. The Nature of the Problem
1.2. Integral Consciousness as Solution
2. BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND
2.1. The Outer Facts
2.2. The Inner Experience
2.3. Experiencing the Experiencer
3. PRAGMATIC INTEGRALISM: IDEOLOGICAL ANTECEDENTS
3.1. The Universal Outlook of Sri Ramakrishna
3.2. Historical Development
3.3. Devotion to Mother Kālī
3.4. The Many Faces of Mother
3.5. Sri Ramakrishna's Sādhanā
3.6. The Value of Realization
3.7. In Summary
4. THE KASHMIR SHAIVA MAP OF EVOLVING CONSCIOUSNESS
4.1. Introduction
4.2. Roots of Kashmir Shaivism
4.3. Terminology
4.4. Vedic Sources
4.5. Non-Vedic Sources
4.6. Literature of Kashmir Shaivism
4.7. Classic Texts
4.8. Modern Texts
4.9. Nature of Kashmir Shaivism
4.10. Overview
4.11. Pratyabhijñā
4.12. Spanda
4.13. The Evolutionary Process
4.14. Principles
4.15. Listing of Tattvas
4.16. Unfolding of the Tattvas
4.17. Conclusions
4.18. The Existential Example of Sri Aurobindo
4.19. Context
4.20. Introduction to Aurobindo
4.21. Introduction to Integral Philosophy
4.22. Yoga and Transcendence
4.23. Integral Yoga and Transformation
4.24. Experiencing Normal Mind
4.25. Experiencing Integral Mind
5. COMMENTARY ON INTEGRAL METHODOLOGY
5.1. Experiential Integralism
6. THE EXISTENTIAL EXPERIENCE OF SRI AUROBINDO
6.1. Introduction
6.2. The Process
6.3. The Experience
7. PRAGMATIC INTEGRALISM: THE GROUND
7.1. Abreviations Used in Referencing Quotes
7.2. Introduction
7.3. Overview
8. THE NEED FOR RELIGION TO DEVELOP A UNIVERSAL OUTLOOK
8.1. Roots of Religion
8.2. Nature of Meditation
8.3. Future Religion
8.4. Nature of Being
9. THE EVOLUTIONARY PERSPECTIVE OF REALITY
9.1. Nature of Evolution
9.2. Teleology
9.3. On Being Human
9.4. Personal Commitment
10. THE NECESSITY OF EXISTENTIAL DEPTH
10.1. Merging Experience and Intellect
10.2. Surrendering the Ego
10.3. Conclusion
11. PRAGMATIC INTEGRALISM: THE UNFOLDING
11.1. Self-Experiential Reality: January 13-17, 1995
12. APPENDIX: Who Am I This Time: Vita/Resume: Energy Made Matter
13. BIBLIOGRAPHY
14. ENDNOTES
* * *
CONTEXT AND SCOPE
The Nature of the Problem
Throughout the evolution of Earth, species have emerged and thrived only to die out later on when they could no longer survive in an environment turned hostile. Humankind is not immune to such a fate. The uniqueness of humanity's situation, however, is that we are not only the potential victims but the direct cause of the ever increasing hostile environment that threatens our existence, as chronicled by observers such as Morris Berman...
For more than 99 percent of human history, the world was enchanted and man saw himself as an integral part of it. The complete reversal of this perception in a mere four hundred years or so has destroyed the continuity of the human experience and the integrity of the human psyche. It has very nearly wrecked the planet as well.[1]
...and William Irwin Thompson...
If a person is developed merely in an intellectual ratiocinative way, then he will be a contradictory mix of cleverness and savagery. Such a man is dangerous to himself and his culture.[2]
...and the means to its solution, as noted by Owen Barfield.
And if the appearances are, as I have sought to establish correlative to human consciousness and if human consciousness does not remain unchanged but evolves, then the future of the appearances, that is, of nature herself, must indeed depend on the direction which that evolution takes.[3]
The above authors, along with numerous others have recognized humankind's short sightedness in leading ourselves, lemming-like, towards our own destruction. J. Krishnamurti and David Bohm have even suggested that humanity took a 'wrong turn' in our distant past.
Krishnamurti: How shall we start? I would like to ask if humanity has taken a wrong turn...
David Bohm: I think it was a mistake made a long time ago, or, as you call it, a wrong turn, that having introduced separation between various things outwardly, we kept on doing it not out of ill will but simply through not knowing better.[4]
Interestingly, such a turn could only be 'wrong' if we were aware we were making it and consciously chose to do so. Otherwise whatever directions humanity unconsciously chose to follow must be considered non-judgmentally as evolutionary progressions leading us to our current level of conscious awareness. However, once having made that disclaimer, we can no longer claim ignorance as an excuse.
Nor can we concern ourselves with attempting to stave off extinction with stop-gap measures, there being enough 'activists' already pursuing those paths from within their well-meaning but narrowly particularized perspectives. It is perfectly clear from their well-meant efforts that in the sphere of social sciences just as in the physical sciences, every action produces an equal and opposite reaction and doomsday constantly approaches, though from apparantly new and hitherto unnoticed directions.
What is needed to avoid extinction is a complete re-evaluation of our understanding of 'being'. In the words of Thomas Berry...
...the present situation is so extreme that we need to get beyond our existing cultural formation, back to the primary tendencies of our nature itself, as expressed in the spontaneities of our being.[5]
...a theme echoed by the French phenomenologist Pierre Thévenaz.
...the day will come when, while really thinking Being, revealed at last in its (hitherto hidden) meaning of dwelling, we will understand in truth what to dwell
means. It is as if the relationship of the symbol to what is symbolized were reversed.[6]
Meanwhile, anthropologist Gregory Bateson has noted, our current perspective misses the point and requires an understanding of reality which includes...
...a sacred unity of the biosphere that will contain fewer epistomological errors than the versions of that sacred unity which the various religions of history have offered... [for] logic is precisely unable to deal with recursive circuits without generating paradox and... quantities are precisely not the stuff of complex communicating systems.[7]
Such sweeping change is required because the problem of survival cannot be solved from within the very mindset that caused it in the first place. We may not know who first discovered water
, says an old Sufi saying, but it certainly wasn't a fish
. Accordingly, the solution must come from outside of the prevailing paradigm if it is to recognize the nature of that paradigm and separate from it. At the same time, the solution must recognize both the driving characteristics and self-perpetuating tendencies of the prevailing paradigm if it is to deal with it and progress beyond the purely theoretical to the point of effectuating practical application and transformation.
* * *
Integral Consciousness as Solution
A solution to humankind's greatest challenge exists in the work of Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri, (1913-1975), founder of the Cultural Integration Fellowship and the California Institute of Integral Studies. Dr. Chaudhuri's philosophy of being, directly stemming from the life work example of Sri Aurobindo, is rooted both in ancient wisdom and individual immanent experience, thereby bridging the gap between theory and practice and making possible the actual integral manifestation.
His method is all-inclusive and non-dogmatic, choosing to synthesize polar complementary views into a unified whole rather than creating further division between seemingly opposing ideologies. Moreover, rather than limiting the future direction of human growth and potential, it enhances both individual and species development by reformulating the human contextual role within a wider evolutionary framework.
According to integral philosophy, reality consists of a singular all-pervading consciousness constantly evolving into diverse aspects of itself, thereby producing the familiar changing manifest world of differentiated form and individual conscious experience. In the words of Dr. Chaudhuri...
Unity in diversity, diversity in unity,- that is indeed the standing miracle of existence. Endless variations mark the ceaseless flow of creation, but underlying them all there is one cosmic principle of creative unity.[8]
While neither pole of the continuum is more nor less real than the other, the two polarities bear strikingly different aspects. One singular, unmanifest, unchanging, saccidānanda (existence-consciousness-bliss); the other innumerable, manifest, changing, nāmarūpa (names and forms). One is form without consciousness, one consciousness without form. Both extremes, along with all the combinations in between, make up the totality of reality within the integral view.
Within the history of Western thought, by contrast, there exists an ongoing either/or dialogue between the adherents of these two polar complementaries, marking ever shifting boundaries between what could be termed the scientific and religious world views. Such ideological confrontations between spiritual and material reality seem to flow between teacher and student, ranging from Aristotle's naturalistic and empiricist counter to Plato's divine universal ideals, as noted by philosopher historian Rick Tarnas...
For Plato, the particular was less real, a derivative of the universal; for Aristotle, the universal was less real, a derivative of the particular.[9]
...to Heidegger's conceptual Dasein...
Man alone of all existing things... experiences the wonder of all wonders: that there is being;
... as reaction to Husserl's transcendental idealism.
The wonder of all wonders is the pure ego and pure consciousness.[10]
Inevitably, since the realm of each of the two polarities falls outside the conceivable set of possibilities encompassed by the other, a synthesized dialectic is not possible within this Western framework without the addition of some additional input amenable to and inclusive of both positions. Integral philosophy provides this perspective and indeed, forms a framework for resolution of this age-old Western intellectual confrontation.
However, it is not the nature of the integral view merely to focus on an arms-length conjoining of externalities by the application of its principles of unified reality. Rather, the goal is the actual subjective inner/outer experience of that unified reality in all its diversity, including those polar complementaries which appear antithetical to non-integral world views.
The unanswered question regarding the integral view's potential for extending humanity's future is its efficacy. Can it be implemented? Ultimately, within the Integral perspective, each individual must manifest her/his own shift of consciousness, the collective shift being a composite of the sum of the parts. Evolutionary development also requires that at some point ideals must be made manifest, that new platforms of awareness be reached. Yet to date we continue to speak at arms-length about shifts in consciousness from within the old consciousness. Action is required. Theory must become practice. This dissertation is intended to span that gap and manifest the ideal rather than merely writing about it.
In the integral context, as shall be clearly demonstrated in the body of this dissertation, theory and action are unified in a single activity of being. This work, however, because of its placement in the continuum of conscious evolution, is limited to presenting only the philosophical ground and underlying principles of the integral world view as a methodology applicable to other phenomenological realities. The experiential component, originally intended as part of this dissertation, and an absolutely critical component of integral consciousness, is being published separately. It is hoped that self-reproducable phenomenological verities will soon be accepted as valid scholarship within accredited academia in general and California Institute of Integral Studies in particular.
* * *
BIOGRAPHICAL BACKGROUND[11]
The Outer Facts
Haridas Chaudhuri, [the name Hari-das meaning servant of God], was born in East Bengal, India in May 1913 and destined to be self- sufficient. His mother died when he was only three months old, his father a scant seven years later. His formative years were lived in boarding schools and with a maternal uncle who, in turn, died just as Chaudhuri finished high school.
Chaudhuri had his first existential experience of higher consciousness at age fourteen. It was transformative and was to serve as the basis of both his inner life quest and outer academic career. He was an excellent and dedicated student who won awards and honors at both the high school and university levels, obtaining in the process the academic scholarships necessary to pay for his education. Against the wishes of his family, who wanted him to opt for a lucrative and secure career in government civil service, he chose a course in philosophy, receiving his BA and MA with honors from the University of Calcutta in 1936 and a PhD from Calcutta in 1948. His dissertation, which was to indicate the future direction of his thinking and his life, was Integral Idealism
.[12] He joined the educational service of West Bengal and was later named chairman of the Department of Philosophy at Krishnagar College where he taught, among other things, comparative religion and philosophy.
Meanwhile in 1949, Dr. Frederic Spiegelberg, who was himself teaching courses in comparative religion at Stanford University, went to India on a fellowship where he met with and studied the work of a number of spiritual masters, including Sri Aurobindo. Impressed with Sri Aurobindo's philosophy, Dr. Spiegelberg returned to the United States determined to start an educational institution where Aurobindo's Integralism would be taught. As the result of a request by Dr. Spiegelberg, Dr. Chaudhuri was chosen with Sri Aurobindo's personal approval to bring the message of Integralism to the West. Accordingly, he came to the United States in 1951 and began to teach at the newly created American Academy of Asian Studies.
The Academy lost vitality, and Dr. Chaudhuri founded and served as president of the California Institute of Asian Studies, now the California Institute of Integral Studies. He also founded the Cultural Integration Fellowship, dedicated to East-West inter-cultural education and the concept of universal religion.
Dr. Chaudhuri was a prolific writer, producing over a dozen books and numerous articles on a variety of topics, and was a widely recognized teacher and lecturer whose recorded talks have provided material for many of his posthumous publications. He died suddenly in June 1975, while working at his desk at the Institute he had founded and struggled so hard to maintain.
* *
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