Please join us July 1st -July 5th for online seminars and meetings to celebrate our international community and support the Relief Efforts of the Sri Aurobindo Ashram and Auroville.
Globally the US, Europe and India are hopefully emerging from the pandemic while at the same time facing variants and large unprotected populations and realizing that no one is safe until we’re all safe.
As we try to emerge from this time of introspection and reflection, what have we learned and what lies ahead for us as individuals and institutions? This year’s virtual All USA Meeting invites a diverse group of integral yoga scholars and workers to share their insights.
REGISTER BY WRITING TO MATAGIRICENTER@GMAIL.COM
Schedule
Thursday July 1st
9 pm NY (6:30 am Fri the 2nd in AV)
Auroville Update with Renu and Chali
Has Auroville weathered the storm? What did the stresses of covid reveal?
Both Renu and Chali have long and deep involvement with Auroville and have both had a perch in the USA to look back from here. This will be an informal conversation to share some insights on the past year and to look ahead.
Friday July 2nd
10 am NY (7:30 pm AV)
Swadharma is a flagship course of Auroville Campus Initiative (ACI) running since 2016 re-imagining Auroville as a new type of international university. Manoj and Divyanshi will be presenting Swadharma and the work of ACI and how they are adapting to the Covid challenge and emerging new possibilities.
11 am NY (8:30 pm AV)
Martha Orton
Remembering and Offering
The brief phrase given to us by the Mother, advising us to “Remember and offer,” can be regarded as central to the practice of the integral yoga. This presentation will explore various aspects of offering and its significance.
Noon NY (9:30 pm AV)
International Hangout
Anyone can drop in to chat and catch up
Saturday July 3rd
9 to 9:30 am NY (6:30-7pm AV)
Yoga Stretch and Relaxation
with Wendy Lines
10 am NY (7:30pm in AV)
Robert McDermott and Debashish Banerji
Robert and Debashish have taught courses at the California Institute of Integral Studies of Integral Studies such as: Sri Aurobindo and Modern Thought, Wisdom Texts East and West, Krishna, Buddha, Christ, and Sophia and presentations such as the Spiritual Mission of the California Institute of Integral Studies and Sri Aurobindo’s Legacy.
Their collaborative writing has included Veda and Logos: Rudolf Steiner and Sri Aurobindo, Gandhi and Sri Aurobindo.
Noon NY (9:30 pm AV)
Santosh Krinsky
Santosh Krinsky has been studying Sri Aurobindo’s writings since 1971 and has a daily blog at http://sriaurobindostudies.wordpress.com since 2009. He does a daily podcast at http://anchor.fm/santosh-krinsky He is author of 16 books of “Readings” in Sri Aurobindo’s writings and is editor-in-chief at Lotus Press, the publisher of the USA editions of the major writings of Sri Aurobindo. His presentation will focus on the methodology and benefit of studying Sri Aurobindo’s writings on a systematic day-to-day basis through the blogging process.”
7 pm NY (4:30 am 4th July AV)
Lara Davis: Can Buildings Improve Local Ecologies?
Summary: This presentation looks at Auroville’s relevance to the world with respect to the use of earth as a building material. How can we go beyond mitigating the environmental impact of buildings, to focus on holistic co-design of the built environment and local ecologies?
MIT Graduate Lara Davis spent 8 years at Auroville’s Earth Institute and has worked on projects around India and internationally.
9 pm (6:30 am 4th July AV)
IY Roundtable
A drop-in discussion open to anyone about the basics of their path, their own Notes Along the Way…
Sunday July 4th
8:30 am NY (6 pm IST)
Pranayama with JV
Yoga session consisting of Yogic stretches, Pranayama (Yogic breathing) and Deep Relaxation
10 am NY (7:30 pm IST)
Devdip Ganguli and Richard Hartz on China
Richard Hartz joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram Archives in 1980 after studying philosophy and Indian languages at Yale and the University of Washington. Several years ago while writing his book, The Clasp of Civilizations: Globalization and Religion in a Multicultural World, he became interested in the cultural and spiritual links between India and China and began learning Chinese. While visiting China in 2019, he gave lectures on Sri Aurobindo and the New Confucian philosopher Mou Zongsang. More recently he wrote an article about Sri Aurobindo and the Neo-Confucian master Wang Yangming for the Beijing International Review of Education. His compilation of writings of Sri Aurobindo and the Mother translated into Chinese by Hu Hsu (Xu Fancheng) is being prepared for publication in China.
Devdip Ganguli grew up at the Sri Aurobindo International Centre of Education at Pondicherry (India), also known as the ‘Ashram School’. After completing his studies in 2004, he joined the Sri Aurobindo Ashram. He has been teaching courses on Indian culture and on the social and political thought of Sri Aurobindo to undergraduate students for the last 17 years. He also assists the trustees of Sri Aurobindo Ashram in their administrative responsibilities.
2 pm NY (11:30 pm IST)
Collective Reading: The Mother, the Story of Her Life by Georges Van Vrekhem
This group has been meeting every Sunday. We each read a page or so with occasional comments and discussion.
Don Salmon
Sunday 5 pm (2:30 am July 5th in AV)
Don will be inviting people to look within and “see” if they can “feel” the collective shift that is getting stronger and stronger by the day – to “see” the apparent disorder and chaos in the world simply as the dust rising into the air as the Mother sweeps away the debris of the former age to allow the new Light to shine. He’ll talk about how he sees his work, not so much to present Sri Aurobindo directly but rather, to present that much of the Integral Yoga as possible to those who are on the “cusp” of awakening – the many millions of people in the world who are being touched by the new Consciousness but are not yet ready in their surface minds to open to it fully.
Monday July 5th
8 am (5:30 pm IST)
Awareness Through the Body Session with Amir
Spend some time observing, scanning and going within.
9:30 am NY (7 pm IST)
Ameeta Mehra
ASPIRATION TOWARDS THE NEW CREATION
The Gnostic Centre’s work
11 am NY (8:30 pm IST)
Gopika: Antaryami – The Inner Witness
An Expressive Arts Session
In this global pandemic, the world arrives at a pause and we have become witness to our selves, perhaps closer than before. What is it that you are noticing? Antaryami ‘The Inner Witness’ is an experiment and an exploration in response to this question. It begins with mantra sounds from India to follow an intermodal journey into harnessing your own inner voice as a witness and a creative player.
Krishna and Julie’s Musical Collaboration (pre-recorded) TBA
REGISTER BY WRITING TO MATAGIRICENTER@GMAIL.COM