Summary of Discussion at UHU 1-Year Anniversary Session 26_11_07
Author: Rod Hemsell; Vladimir
"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
Listen to the full audio discussion
at:
http://www.universityofhumanunity.org/uhu_1_year_anniversary_reflections_and_open_discussion_25_11_07