Date: 07/24/2022
New Consciousness…knowing that the ‘I am’ we each feel inside is actually “I AM”… the Singular Universal Consciousness. Not just knowing it and believing it, but feeling it and living it. If humanity wishes to survive, we must learn to see each other ‘I’ to ‘I’.
For believers, atheists, and everyone in between. This session will include group meditation. No prior study or practice is necessary.
Anton Grosz has been a practitioner and teacher of Integral Yoga and New Consciousness for over 40 years. His focus is the experiential mode of this evolutionary way of being and the importance of its real time application for individuals, humanity, and the very future of our planet. He can be reached at www.rovingI.net.
Date: 07/31/2022
This presentation will discuss the nature and development of the intuitive mind in Sri Aurobindo’s philosophy and yoga. The intuitive mind is a part of the mind situated between the intellect and the supramental consciousness, and its development is a necessary precursor to the development of the supramental consciousness and is more within the scope of human endeavor and achievement. Sri Aurobindo describes four powers of the intuitive mind: “an intuition that suggests its idea, an intuition that discriminates, an inspiration that brings in its word and something of its greater substance, and a revelation that shapes to the sight its very face and body of reality”. True intuitions have their origins in the supramental consciousness and carry something of its infallible truth, though in limited glimpses, but in the early stages of its development this truth tends to get mixed and distorted by the lower operations of the mind, vital and physical consciousness. As the power of the intuitive discrimination develops, these mixtures and distortions can be gradually removed. Basic principles and practices for developing the intuition will be discussed.
Larry Seidlitz, PhD is a devotee and scholar of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga and Philosophy, residing near and informally associated with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. Formally a research psychologist in the USA, he has worked with the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research (SACAR) since 2004. He has written three books on Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga and Philosophy and articles for various journals, edits books for other Sri Aurobindo scholars, and was editor of the journal Collaboration from 2004 to 2019. He has facilitated many online courses on Sri Aurobindo’s teachings for SACAR and occasionally gives oral presentations online and at various venues.
Date: 08/07/2022
The crisis humanity faces as we create uncontrolled climate change, pollute the planet, deplete the resources, and allocate them inefficiently is one that is causing the 6th planetary die off (the last one killed off all the dinosaurs and was caused by an asteroid strike) that is eliminating species at an unparalleled rate, destroying the integrity of the food chain and harming the life-sustaining natural cycles and systems of the planet. At the same time, we see the advent of a new consciousness that seeks to achieve new, global insights and find new ways to interact, both between people and their environment, and interpersonally as well. We will explore the evolution of consciousness, Sri Aurobindo’s vision of the next stage of evolution and how it is impacting the present and the future of humanity and the survival of our life on the planet. This new consciousness is leading to breakthroughs in many fields of endeavor. It has also led to the development of a dynamic intentional community in south India called Auroville, where people from over 70 nations have come together to try to build a community, and create a laboratory for experimentation in new ways of seeing and dealing with the world and its resources from a balanced perspective.
Auroville has over 55 projects that span the range from re-envisioning food and food production, water management, architecture, reforestation, sustainable building materials, as well as setting up a resource sharing system among the residents. The projects are focused on providing solutions accessible to the “developing” world as the high-tech, high-cost, high-maintenance approach of the “developed” world does not solve the issues for most of the people of the world. The projects are being started and tested locally, and those that succeed are being reproduced and scaled to provide a model for development globally.
At the same time, the challenges of bringing together people from numerous diverse cultural backgrounds, educational backgrounds, languages and religious training is an experiment in human unity that also takes up the almost impossible struggles we face in the world today to achieve peace and cooperation, and works through the inevitable difficulties that arise to eventually find a way to achieve understanding and cooperation, even after going through the normal human reactions of anger, opposition and attempts to impose one’s own viewpoints. In this way we see the struggle between the old consciousness embodied in all of humanity and the new consciousness that is slowly making itself felt and guiding people toward solutions.
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo’s writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 16 books and is editor in chief at Lotus Press. He is president of the Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life. He has spent more than 48 years building and developing infrastructure for publishing, distributing and educating about the spiritual path of Sri Aurobindo, as well as developing and guiding companies at the forefront of publishing books and distributing books and products to support the natural market as well as the metaphysical market in North America.
Informational Links related to the Talk: For more information about the Auroville projects and overview of the comprehensive nature of these projects as experiments in developing a sustainable future, you can visit the website at https://aviusa.org/flourish/ and for more general information about Auroville, visit www.aviusa.org/auroville
For more information about the writings of Sri Aurobindo which underlie the approaches taken as humanity searches for a way to survive and thrive in the future, you can visit www.lotuspress.com as well as visit the daily blog postings at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and the web page www.aurobindo.net
Date: 08/14/2022
Date: 08/21/2022
Continuing with our celebration of the one-hundred-and-fiftieth birth anniversary of Sri Aurobindo, we will show a documentary on Sri Aurobindo’s “life” curated by Lopa Mukherjee which will be followed by a brief discussion on Sri Aurobindo’s five dreams.
Date: 09/11/2022
In this lecture, the topic of how negative but undeniable blissful states are achieved through use of substances and ritualistic behaviors. Concepts of “Omnipotent Control”, “Euphoria”, “Euphoric Recall”, “Drive for Power” will be explained as useful constructs both for the clinician and layperson in addressing an addict who is suffering with managing compulsive impulses. Citing examples from clinical practice with those affected by process addiction and chemical dependency, speaker will focus on patterns of addicts attracted to bliss and how best to cope with channeling these desires to prosocial avenues such as relationship building and spiritual practice.
Dan Field is a licensed clinician in private practice (BBS #24114) who works primarily with gambling addiction. His training includes over five year’s work in residential substance abuse programs at the Greater Los Angeles Veterans Administration and community-based outpatient treatment for addicted individuals near downtown Los Angeles. In addition to his clinical work, Dan serves as adjunct professor at the USC School of Social Work. He also provides clinical supervision for gambling addiction counselors through the UCLA Gambling Studies Program.
Date: 09/25/2022
For spiritual seekers, one of our main aspirations is to see ourselves and others through the eyes of the divine. Yet limiting beliefs and fears can keep people stuck in negative thought patterns, blocking loving, inspirational and creative thoughts, feelings, and actions. The Emotional Freedom Techniques (EFT), also known as Tapping, uses the fingertips to tap on acupuncture points while emotionally tuning in to negative attitudes and past experiences, allowing people to transform their thoughts and feelings, which influence their actions. Dr. Tanya Chase teaches people how to harness the power of Tapping to identify and clear limiting beliefs and blocks to health, happiness, and the divine/creative energy flow.
Dr. Tanya Chase is a psychologist and spiritual seeker who specializes in addiction and codependency treatment, and she has spent more than 25 years working in the field of behavioral health. Using an interdisciplinary model, she synthesizes the energy centers of the Chakras, EFT Tapping, behavioral health training, and the Law of Attraction to teach people how to unlock the power of the Chakras, overcome obstacles, and create a fulfilling life of meaning and impact.
Date: 10/02/2022
This talk will explore Sri Aurobindo’s geo-spiritual understanding of the Earth’s consciousness, which suggests that the seven major continents are the chakras of planet Earth. Examples from various cultures will be used to demonstrate how these jewel centers deeply affect human psychology and cultural diversity. The importance of human unity and a peaceful cross-cultural exchange of geo-spiritual energies will be highlighted.
Dr. Miovic is a consultation-liaison psychiatrist with over 25 years of clinical experience. He trained at the Harvard Longwood Program and is now Medical Director of Primary Care Behavioral Health in VA Boston. He has written extensively on Sri Aurobindo’s consciousness-based approach to psychology and has a special interest in geo-spiritual studies.
Date: 10/16/2022
This presentation will explore the lives, poetry and divine worship of two women saints of India and the Middle East, Mirabai and Rabia of Basra. At first glance they are utterly different: one was a Princess, who married into the Royal House of Mewar in India, and then gave up everything for love of Krishna as her Lord Giridhara. The other came from a desperately poor family and, when her parents passed away for lack of medications, Rabia was sold into slavery. And even when freed and with several marriage offers, she chose to live in the desert a life of poverty, dedicated to Allah. And yet their worship, poetry and the devotional tone of their songs echo each other’s in a radical freedom of spirit that breaks all boundaries.
Date: 10/30/2022
Acharya Shunya is a truth-teller who facilitates authenticity, self-remembrance, and divine feminine pathways to awakening. The first female head of her spiritual lineage that traces its roots to 2,000 years in India, the imparter of goddess archetype theory as a pathway to soul-ascension, Shunya reinterprets and re-contextualizes ancient Vedic wisdom and dharma teachings of Advaita Vedanta (nondual teachings), Ayurveda’s lifestyle wisdom and Yoga philosophy, to create a learning and awakening path for contemporary seekers, empowering people everywhere to lead spiritually fearless, fulfilled and enlightened lives. Her teachings acts like a bridge between ancient wisdom and issues faced by modern humans, today.Acharya Shunya is the author of three bestselling books: Ayurveda lifestyle Wisdom (2017), Sovereign Self (2020), and her newest book Roar Like a Goddess: Every Woman’s Guide to Becoming Unapologetically Powerful, Prosperous, and Peaceful. In this book, Acharya Shunya honors her progressive Vedic roots while breaking the shackles of tradition to bring modern-day women, an inclusive, feminist spirituality.Acharya Shunya is the founder of The Awakened Self Foundation, a learning, empowering and awakening platform and Vedika Global, a 501c3 religious not-for-profit, both headquartered in Northern California. She is a highly rated motivational speaker, podcast host, workshop facilitator, and retreat leader with 20+ years of experience as a spiritual, wellness, relationship and women’s empowerment coach and group facilitator supporting individuals, groups, and organizations in amplifying their authenticity and empower them to become a better version of themselves, utilizing goddess archetypes from her culture as tools for unapologetic living. Shunya lectures on Hindu/Vedic spirituality, psychology, and wellness modalities (Ayurveda and Yoga) and has presented at various conferences and at universities such as UCLA, UCSF, and Stanford.
Date: 11/06/2022
Saint Francis of Assisi is one of the most venerated figures in Christianity. He is especially known for his kindness to animals and for his care for the natural world. In his early years he enjoyed his life as a son of a well-to-do prosperous family. He later dedicated himself to solitude and the will of God. His message of universal brotherhood, peace, and harmony remains relevant today. Our city of San Francisco is named in his honor.
Rita Pease is the eldest daughter of Haridas and Bina Chaudhuri who founded the Cultural Integration Fellowship (CIF) to promote the interchange of ideas and ideals between East and West. Seeking a dynamic synthesis of the cultural and spiritual values of all people, CIF celebrates our unity in diversity.
Date: 11/13/2022
New Consciousness…knowing that the ‘I am’ we each feel inside is actually “I AM”… the Singular Universal Consciousness. Not just knowing it and believing it, but feeling it and living it. If humanity wishes to survive, we must learn to see each other ‘I’ to ‘I’.
For believers, atheists, and everyone in between. This session will include group meditation. No prior study or practice is necessary.
Anton Grosz, PhD has been a practitioner and teacher of Integral Yoga and New Consciousness for over 40 years. His focus is the experiential mode of this evolutionary way of being and the importance of its real time application for individuals, humanity, and the very future of our planet. He can be reached at www.rovingI.net.
Date: 12/04/2022
Ted Nordquist, PhD worked with Dr. Haridas Chaudhuri from 1971-1973 at the California Institute of Integral Studies (CIIS), then the California Institute of Asian Studies (CIAS). Ted’s parents, Gladys, and Leo Nordquist were members of the Cultural Integration Fellowship since the mid-1960s and Leo Nordquist was Chairman of the Board of CIAS until his death in 1976. In addition to Asian Studies, Dr. Chaudhuri was Ted’s spiritual guide beginning in 1969. Other influences in Ted’s life were Mahatma Gandhi, Ramana Maharshi, Sri Aurobindo and the Mother of Sri Aurobindo Ashram. Ted taught at the University of Uppsala, Institute of Religious History, from 1976 to 1985. He founded Sweden’s first tofu manufacturing plant in 1980 and Northern Europe’s first non-dairy soy-based frozen dessert in 1988. Ted moved his Swedish family, his wife Anne-Marie and their three children, to Sonoma, CA in 1994. He continues working as a consultant in the organic plant-based food industry. He is VP and Chairman of the Board for Homeless Action Sonoma, Inc., building a transitional shelter for the homeless in Sonoma, Ca.
Date: 01/22/2023
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Mark Gonnerman was educated at the St. Olaf Paracollege (BA); Christ’s College, Cambridge; Harvard Divinity School (MDiv); and Stanford University (MA, PhD in Religious Studies). His publications include A Sense of the Whole: Reading Gary Snyder’s Mountains and Rivers Without End (2015), a book about poetry, pedagogy and community from his yearlong Mountains & Rivers Workshop at the Stanford Humanities Center. Visit futureprimitives.info.
Date: 01/29/2023
Date: 02/05/2023
Santosh has been studying Sri Aurobindo’s writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com and podcast at https://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky Santosh resided at Sri Aurobindo Ashram from spring 1973 through winter 1974. He is author of 17 books and is editor in chief at Lotus Press. He is president of Institute for Wholistic Education, a non-profit focused on integrating spirituality into daily life. He has spent more than 48 years building and developing infrastructure for publishing, distributing and educating about the spiritual path of Sri Aurobindo, as well as developing and guiding companies at the forefront of publishing books and distributing books and products to support the natural market as well as the metaphysical market in North America.
Date: 02/12/2023
Dr. Pravir Malik has been developing a unified theory and mathematics of organization over the last three decades. He has written 21 books related to this to emphasize a whole systems approach integrating individual, organizational, economic, social, environmental, and evolutionary dimensions. In recent years he has been intimately involved with computer modeling of complex organizational, economic, and world systems to help different stakeholders practically navigate and understand possible futures.
Margaret Astrid Phanes composes illuminating graphics as visual meditations. Ms. Phanes taught digital media at the University of Hawaii Maui College and the University of California, Santa Cruz. Her Light-Force visual meditations have been published in The Dawn of Flame-Beings, Musings on Light, and Collaboration: A Journal of Integral Yoga. Presentations include AUM conferences, CIF Zooms, and Sri Aurobindo Sadhana Peetham retreats. www.margaretphanes.com
Date: 02/19/2023
Reason and senses are not the only ways of acquiring knowledge. There is a world that is hidden from us which becomes revealed when we transcend our senses and reason. This is the world of the mystics and the yogis. The Mother of Sri Aurobindo ashram was one such mystic, and in her enunciations, She has revealed to us the universe that She experienced and “saw.” It is important to know about this world because it affects us psycho-spiritually. This talk, dedicated to her birth anniversary, will focus on her visions and experiences.
Kundan Singh, PhD is the President of the Cultural Integration Fellowship. Author of the Evolution of Integral Yoga: Sri Aurobindo, Sri Ramakrishna, and Swami Vivekananda, he has lectured extensively in San Francisco Bay Area and has many academic presentations at international and national conferences to his name. Some of his chapters in edited books are as follows: “Beyond Mind: The Future of Psychology as Science,” “Beyond Postmodernism: Towards a Future Psychology,” “Relativism, Self-Referentiality, and Beyond Mind,” “Relativism and its Relevance for Psychology,” “Sri Aurobindo’s Invalidation of the Aryan Invasion Theory and the Contemporary Western Archeological Evidence,” and “There isn’t Only Cultural Blindness in Psychology; Psychology is Culture Blind.” Some of his talks delivered for CIF can be accessed at https://www.mixcloud.com/sriarvinda/
Date: 03/05/2023
This presentation is based on the book Mastering the Problems of Living, written by Haridas Chaudhuri. Aparna will explore the problem of existence, the problem of suffering, wisdom in human relations, the problem of identity and offer a positive approach to creating a more satisfying life.
Aparna Bell is a native of San Francisco, and a granddaughter of Haridas and Bina Chaudhuri. She serves as Vice President of the Cultural Integration Fellowship. Aparna has worked in the field of mental health for over ten years and is a Licensed Professional Clinical Counselor in California. She is currently building her private practice, providing counseling support to individuals. She is passionate about helping others and connecting with people in a meaningful way. Her other interests include traveling, learning about different cultures, photography, music, and movies. Aparna holds a B.A. in Psychology and an M.S. in Rehabilitation Counseling from San Francisco State University.
Date: 03/12/2023
New Consciousness…knowing that the ‘I am’ we each feel inside is actually “I AM”… the Singular Universal Consciousness. Not just knowing it and believing it, but feeling it and living it. If humanity wishes to survive, we must learn to see each other ‘I’ to ‘I’.
For believers, atheists, and everyone in between. This session will include group meditation. No prior study or practice is necessary.
Anton Grosz, PhD has been a practitioner and teacher of Integral Yoga and New Consciousness for over 40 years. His focus is the experiential mode of this evolutionary way of being and the importance of its real time application for individuals, humanity, and the very future of our planet. He can be reached at www.rovingI.net.
Date: 03/19/2023
Date: 04/02/2023
Gotama Buddha’s words of compassion and wisdom 2600 years ago stirred the hearts of the people. His message of relief and release was adopted with creative devotion wherever it went, and we find ourselves in the present moment the beneficiaries of a myriad of inspirational and efficacious healing expressions. Whatever our situation, whatever our challenges and difficulties, let us take some time to explore the legacies of The Great Physician in order to find the best treatment and see it through.
Anne Teich is an alumna of California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco. She was inspired to study eastern philosophy after meeting Haridas Chaudhuri and attending his classes at CIF and The California Institute of Asian Studies in 1973. Beginning in 1975, she became a student of Dhammaratana Rina Sircar and received her PhD in philosophy and religion in 1990. Anne, now living in Central New York, continues to study and practice Buddhayana in the spirit of a life-long learner.
Date: 04/09/2023
Date: 04/16/2023
Ana Perez-Chisti will offer an introduction to her Book, Sweet Reign-Fourth Wave Feminine Principles. The book reveals the lives of eight Holy Women who were dedicated to selfless service. Their spiritual state of being was able to read their purpose from within instead of being forced to function from the external and opposite pressures that went contrary to their deep intuitive wisdom. Their actions help us awaken to unforeseen connections within our own hearts as it did for the author who is the ninth women in the text. Our mutual sensing and embodied nature has much to offer us as we begin applying Fourth Wave Feminine Principles to our path.
Ana Perez-Chisti, Ph.D. is a senior Sufi teacher (Murshida Aadya) for the Sufi Movement International and President of the Sufi Universal Fraternal Institute. (https://sufiuniversalfraternalinstitute.live) (sufimovementusa@gmail.com). She conducts classes in Sufi Esoteric Studies, Comparative World Religion, Ethics, Fourth Wave Feminine Principles and East-West Philosophy and Psychology.
Date: 04/23/2023
Mirra Alfassa, who would become known as the Mother, first met Sri Aurobindo on 29 March 1914, and immediately recognized him as the being who had been coming in her dreams and whom she had called Krishna. She knew her life’s work would be together with him. By August 1914 they had started the Arya, the monthly philosophical journal in which Sri Aurobindo’s major works would first appear serially, and a group that would serve as a collective in alignment with their spiritual ideals. But then World War I broke out and Mirra and her husband Paul Richard had to leave India. They went first to France, and later to Japan. It wasn’t until the war ended that the Mother could return to India and reunite with Sri Aurobindo on 24 April 1920. This presentation will examine the inner and outer circumstances surrounding this reunification and its significance for the development of their work for humanity.
Larry Seidlitz, PhD is a devotee and scholar of Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga and Philosophy, residing near and informally associated with the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville. Formally a research psychologist in the USA, he has worked with the Sri Aurobindo Centre for Advanced Research (SACAR) since 2004. He has written three books on Sri Aurobindo’s Yoga and Philosophy and articles for various journals, edits books for other Sri Aurobindo scholars, and was editor of the journal Collaboration from 2004 to 2019. He has facilitated many online courses on Sri Aurobindo’s teachings for SACAR and occasionally gives oral presentations online and at various venues.
