Abstract: In this essay I relate aspects of cognitive development to spiritual practices such as yoga and highlight the role of active orientation. I describe some personal experiences stemming from certain developments bridging cognition and yoga, whilst also relating these to societal biases that fail to address the potential for developments of this form.
Ian J. Grand
Abstract: In the Integral philosophy of Sri Aurobindo and Haridas Chaudhuri, consciousness and knowing do not suffice. What is crucial is actual participation in the making of the world. Beyond transcendence, there is a creative emergence in historical time of new possibilities of being and becoming. When we meditate, or act in the world, or engage in other kinds of spiritual practices, we directly, concretely, change the ground of our being. We are changed in our bodies and we are changed in our interactions in the world. There is a creative spiral: changes in breath, changes in activity, become changes in consciousness. How we interact, do work, have feeling, changes us, as does our reflection upon them. The conditions, practices and tools of the historical era in which we live shape us as we shape them. What becomes important in practice is to learn tools and perspectives that expand our ability to participate in the making of the world.
Tags: emergence, spiritual practice, somatic psychology, world becoming., integral, ontology, Ian J. Grand, Creative
