The Life Divine (Volumes 1 & 2) - Sri Aurobindo

The Life Divine (Volumes 1 & 2) - Sri Aurobindo

The Life Divine is Sri Aurobindo's major philosophical opus. It combines a synthesis of western thought and eastern spirituality with Sri Aurobindo's own original insights, covering topics such as the nature of the Divine (the Absolute, Brahman), how the creation came about, the evolution of consciousness and the cosmos, the spiritual path, and human evolutionary-spiritual destiny.

The book explores for the modern mind the great streams of Indian metaphysical thought, reconciling the truths behind each and from this synthesis extends in terms of consciousness the concept of evolution. The unfolding of Earth's and man's spiritual destiny is illuminated pointing the way to a Divine life on Earth.

About the Author
Educated from the childhood in England Ari Aurobindo was fluent in several languages and avoided appearing for his Indian Civil Service Test and joined the mainstream Independence Movement. In the year 1910 he decided to retire from active politics and withdrew to Pondichery for exclusive concentration his spiritual practice.

In 1914, after four years of intense Yoga he launched a monthly philosophic review, Arya, in which most of his major works were serialized. These works embodied much of the inner knowledge that had come to him in his practice of Yoga. Having gathered all the essential truths of past spiritual experiences, he worked for a more complete method of Yoga that would transform human nature and divinize life. To this purpose he devoted the rest of his life.

Sri Aurobindo left his body on 5 December 1950.

Rapidshare

The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness - Jeff Warren

The Head Trip: Adventures on the Wheel of Consciousness - Jeff Warren

Warren, a Canadian science journalist, combines the rigorous self-experimentation of Steven Johnson's Mind Wide Open with the wacky self-experimentation of A.J. Jacobs's The Know-It-All in this entertaining field guide to the varying levels of mental awareness. Beginning with the mild hallucinogenic state that comes just before true sleep, he tries to hone his skills at lucid dreaming, subjects himself to hypnosis and joins a Buddhist meditation retreat, among other
adventures. Along the way, he begins to realize that dreaming and waking are equivalent states, and that we can learn how to induce the subtle gradations of consciousness within ourselves. This could come off as New Age psychobabble, but Warren is well versed in the scientific literature, and he provides detailed accounts of his own research. (During one three-week period, for example, he goes to bed at sundown to recreate a period of wakefulness before returning to sleep that used to be common before electric light reconfigured our sleep schedules.) His self-mocking attitude toward his inability to achieve instant nirvana, along with a steady stream of cartoon illustrations, ensures that his ideas remain accessible. More important than the theories, though, may be the basic tools—and the visionary spirit—that Warren hands off to those interested in hacking their own minds.

From the full-immersion virtual realities of lucid dreaming to the esoteric disciplines of Eastern meditative practices that have reached outposts of consciousness far beyond the grasp of Western science, from techniques of hypnosis and neurofeedback to such exotic states of awareness as the Watch and the Pure Conscious Event, Warren takes us on an incredible journey through our own heads–a journey conducted with the adventurous spirit and intellectual curiosity of a
Darwin coupled with the sensibility of a stand-up comedian.

About the Author
Jeff Warren is a freelance producer for CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) Radio.

Rapidshare: 1 2 3 4 5

Not exactly on the topic of Buddhism per se but it is about one person's journey to learn about consciousness.

Can Humanity Change? - Jiddu Krishnamurti

Can Humanity Change? - Jiddu Krishnamurti

Many have considered Buddhism to be the religion closest in spirit to J. Krishnamurti's spiritual teaching—even though the great teacher was famous for urging students to seek truth outside organized religion. This record of a historic encounter between Krishnamurti and a group of Buddhist scholars provides a unique opportunity to see what the great teacher had to say himself about Buddhist teachings. The conversations, which took place in London in the late 1970s, focused on human consciousness and its potential for transformation. Participants include Walpola Rahula, the renowned Sri Lankan Buddhist monk and scholar, author of the classic introductory text What the Buddha Taught.

Here is the complete 6 video set of conversations between Krishnamurti and Buddhist scholars. Compressed in ACE format but can be uncompressed with WinRAR. MP4 Video format. You can use VLC (freeware) to view videos. Thanks to my friend Alexander for passing along the links to share. MU links only.

We Are All Caught in the Idea of Progress
1st Conversation with Buddhist Scholars, Brockwood Park, 22nd June, 1978. Duration 99 min. B & W.

Knowledge means accumulation of information experience, various facts, theories and principles the past and the present. All that bundle we call knowledge. Can a mind that is burdened with knowledge see truth? Will we get more knowledge by reading this or that what the Buddha said, what Christ said? We are full of this accumulative instinct that we think will help us to jump into heaven. Can I look at the fact without the word with all its intimations, all its content, its tradition? Can I look at something without the word, without the association of words without past remembrances? Then only I see the fact.

Megaupload: 1 2

Can We Live Without Identifying?
2nd Conversation with Buddhist Scholars, Brockwood Park, England, 23rd June, 1978. Duration 94 min. B & W.

What is death? Is there life after death, is there a continuity? If not, what is the point of living at all? Why is there the whole process of identification my possessions, what I will be, success, power, prestige? The identification process is the essence of the self. Is it possible to live in daily life without this identification process which brings about the structure and the nature of the self which is the result of thought? Is it possible to be free of the "me" which produces all this chaos, this constant effort? Can thought end? Is it possible to live a daily life with death which is the ending of the self?

Megaupload: 1 2

Does Free Will Exist?
3rd Conversation with Buddhist Scholars, Brockwood Park, England, 23rd June, 1978. Duration 115 min. B & W.

We say free will exists because we can choose between this and that. Apart from material things, why is there choice? Is there an action in which there is no effort of will at all and therefore no choice? Why does thought identify with sensations? is there duality in identification? How did thought begin in me? Was it handed down by my parents by education, by environment, by the past? Does the word create the thought or thought creates words? Why does thought enter into action? Is there an action which is complete, total, whole, not partial? Can you see someone as a whole being? Then there is love.

Megaupload: 1 2

Can Truth Be Perceived Through Time?
1st Conversation with Buddhist Scholars, Brockwood Park, England, 28th June, 1979. Duration 93 min. B & W.

All the things that thought has put together literature, poetry, painting, illusions, gods, symbols, all that is reality for us. But nature is not created by thought. Can the mind, the network of all the senses apprehend, see, observe truth? Psychological time is the invention of thought which we use as a means of achieving enlightenment. Is such time an illusion? Is truth measurable by words? Truth is timeless, thought is of time, the two cannot run together. Without love, without compassion truth cannot be. I cannot go to truth, I cannot see truth. Truth can only exist, only be when the self is not.

Megaupload: 1 2

What Is It That Dies?
2nd Conversation with Buddhist Scholars, Brockwood Park, 28th June 1979. Duration: 104 min. B & W.

Is there life after death? The consciousness of human beings, the loneliness, despair, sorrow, fear, is its contents. Each person goes through the same tragedies, misfortunes - humanity is one. Then what is death, what is it that dies? To find out what death is I have to be with death, to end beliefs, attachment, everything I have collected.

Megaupload: 1 2

What is Meditation?
Conversation with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, San Diego, California, 15th Feb. 1972. Duration 40 min. Color.

Krishnamurti in conversation with Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche, a Tibetan Buddhist meditation master and founder of the Naropa Institute in Colorado. Krishnamurti opens up the question of meditation, contrasting the system of practice with living observation. A vital meditation is seen to be essential for the orderly quietness of the mind, which is then dynamic in action.

Megaupload: 1 2