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UHU 1-Year Anniversary Reflections and Open Discussion 25/11/07

Open Discussion and Sharing of Aspirations and Inspirations on the occasion of UHU's One-Year Anniversary

Excerpts from the discussion:

"I would like to invite Vladimir to take up this part of the discussion, and coordinate it a bit…he is the third member of the “original” group. Then the larger nuclear group has come about as a result of our meetings leading up to the seminars in Sept, who are the members of the already established learning institutions in Auroville, and individuals who are already engaged in developing learning experiences. All those of who have been presenting during this Fall period of seminars constitute our current core group. This is not an official structure. We decided in the beginning that structure would not be our aim. But “discovery” of substantial learning approaches would be our aim. So far we haven’t congealed a structure. So far we are still engaged in the discovery of learning, discovery of a field of integral learning, which Auroville is and which can be accessed meaningfully by those who want to learn and discover. So, lest we get bogged down in a discussion of structure at this point, I think it would be nice to entertain these values, the values that an institution of higher learning in Auroville should have. What is it that this entity really wants to be? I am referring to Vladimir because he has put a lot of thought into this aspect of the identity of the University of HU." - Rod Hemsell

"Yes, when we were thinking what this day could be for us, this first anniversary, I thought it would be appropriate to see what we have done already, and where we are moving… what kind of structure is already emerging, in a very wide sense – not in a concrete sense of what everybody has to do. And I saw already that we are kind of ready to build up all fields of research. We have not yet touched the higher studies of consciousness, the psychic qualities of the Mother, and studies of consciousness as presented by SA and other great thinkers. It will come, we will come to that I guess.

We have already dealt with the middle part, with our faculties of consciousness and how they could make our studies more subjective, involved rather than only objectively oriented, studies not of information only but also for engagement of our consciousness and finding ways to exercise our consciousness in different domains, in different fields of knowledge. And so a new paradigm emerges slowly. And we have discussed how we could put it on the website, so it would be easy to navigate for any newcomer to find a meaningful way through for his own self-study. The very concept from the beginning was self-development and self study, for those who are ready already to move in that direction. Not for everybody in the wider sense, that people may come and learn something by listening and then write down and repeat the words, but for those who want to discover themselves and are looking for new ways of doing it.

And also as Rudy was saying, showing the whole Auroville as the prototype of this university, with its infrastructure already prepared for people who are looking for a new approach to life, and for activities, not in terms of supporting their livelihood, but in terms of developing themselves and their consciousness. If we could see Auroville as an infrastructure which supports this higher learning in all fields of activity, we could have an amazing project which is centered in such a way that it has feedback towards the higher consciousness in the center, and has again response back to the field of application, so there would always be communication on the periphery and back to the center. We need that feedback, because without it there is no proof of growing and real knowledge coming down into matter. So, this beautiful symbol of Auroville represents exactly what we thought about as the structure of the university.

I thought that this afternoon we would do two things. One would be to explore again with Rakhal what everyone could envision, and explore together and see where we could move, or to revue what we already have done and see new fields of research which are emerging and to see if some would like to join them and develop the whole field…" -Vladimir

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