The Mother and Merleau-Ponty

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Yes, there are significant conceptual parallels that suggest the Mother's concept of the "mind of the cells" can be seen as compatible with, and a potential radical extension of, Merleau-Ponty's ideas on perception and the "lived body" or "flesh". 

Both ideas fundamentally reject Cartesian dualism (mind and body as separate substances) and propose that a form of inherent consciousness or intentionality is present at a basic, pre-reflective, material level of existence. 

Key Areas of Compatibility

• Rejection of Dualism: Both philosophies move beyond the traditional separation of mind and body. Merleau-Ponty argues for "embodied subjectivity," where the body is not merely a physical object but a constitutive element of experience and perception. The Mother's work in the "yoga of the cells" goes further by positing a specific "mind of the cells" as a tangible, subtle consciousness within matter itself, which can be directly accessed and transformed, thus operating entirely outside a dualistic framework.
• Primacy of the Body/Perception: Merleau-Ponty's core thesis is the "primacy of perception" and being "geared into" the world through our physical existence. This echoes the Mother's focus on the material, cellular level as the crucial ground for a fundamental transformation of consciousness, moving beyond abstract spiritualism to an "Earth-of-Truth" that is embodied.
• A "Mind in Matter": Merleau-Ponty's later concept of the "flesh of the world" refers to a "primordial and mysterious tissue" that underlies and gives rise to both the perceiver and the perceived. This resonates strongly with the Mother's description of a consciousness inherent in atoms and elementary particles ("mind of matter") and the "mind of the cells," which she sees as a type of memory that can be reprogrammed for an evolutionary shift beyond illness and death.
• Pre-reflective and Non-cognitive Consciousness: Merleau-Ponty's "body schema" allows humans to move knowledgably in the world without reflective awareness, suggesting a non-conscious or pre-conscious form of intelligence in the body. The Mother's "mind of the cells" is precisely this kind of fundamental, age-old, and largely unconscious (to the everyday mind) awareness that needs to be brought to light and transformed through yoga. 

Potential Difference in Scope

While compatible, the two concepts exist within different overall frameworks:

• Merleau-Ponty offers a philosophical and phenomenological account of human perception and existence as we currently understand it, providing a robust critique of objectivism and dualism.
• The Mother's concept is part of a radical spiritual/yogic framework (Integral Yoga), aiming at an evolutionary transformation of the physical body itself into a new, supramental species. Her work explores practical methods for achieving this cellular transformation, which goes beyond the descriptive analysis of human experience found in Merleau-Ponty's Phenomenology of Perception. 

In summary, the Mother's concept can be seen as an attempt to explore the "mind of the cells" from a first-person, experimental perspective, which aligns well with the non-dualistic, embodied foundations laid out in Merleau-Ponty's work.

- GoogleAI 

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Maurice Merleau-Ponty [1907-1961], the French phenomenologist, is known for formulating a fresh notion of perception anchored on our embodied existence. In a clear departure from Brentano, Husserl and Heidegger, Merleau-Ponty brings in the idea of gestalt and dares to interrogate the lived-body. Far from offering a conclusive philosophy, his explorations into the seamless mind-body whole remains a testimony to limits of intellectual autonomy, even as his books remain incomplete. The question of man, the world and the Being engages him to the point of despair. In the manner of a physical scientist, he searches for the ultimate building-block and calls our constitutional element, the flesh. The earth, as a similar abstraction, is for him a holistic endeavour for harmonious living, the function of philosophy being tilted in favour of feeling and practice.

It has been aptly commented that the questions emanating from this deep analysis have spiritual overtones. It can, therefore, be safely asserted that Merleau-Ponty takes the tradition of western philosophy to its limits beyond which it is the realm of intuition and mysticism. It is interesting to recall that Heidegger, too, arrives in analogous environs, albeit through a separate route. At this point, it is important to bear in mind that it is not proper to club Merleau-Ponty along with the dominant tradition of biology, vitalism, feeling, will-to-live, Eros or libido. His scrutiny of the body-mind-continuum, in contrast, is an honest endeavour to undo the damages wrought by earlier one-sided over-emphasis.

It would be too far-fetched to find links in the work of this fellow French contemporary with the elaborate investigations on the body that The Mother was busy with. Nevertheless, there are commonalities of much significance and interesting possibilities.

Posted by Tusar Nath Mohapatra at October 14, 2005

https://selforum.blogspot.com/2005/10/merleau-ponty-and-mother.html 

Posted by Tusar N Mohapatra at 10:52 PM, Friday, October 14, 2005 Tusar Nath Mohapatra at 9:25 PM

https://savitriera.blogspot.com/2007/02/merleau-ponty-takes-tradition-of.html

A subjective, lived experience of the body

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

Martin Buber and Emmanuel Levinas share common ground as prominent 20th-century Jewish thinkers who emphasized the importance of the intersubjective encounter over purely cognitive relations. However, they do not fully "gel" due to significant philosophical differences, primarily concerning the nature of that encounter. 

Key Points of Convergence

• Focus on the "Other": Both thinkers place the encounter with the other person at the center of their philosophy, moving away from the Western philosophical tradition's emphasis on the isolated self.
• Ethical Motivation: Both were deeply concerned with the possibility of violence and the objectification of human beings, writing in the backdrop of Nazi violence against Jews. They sought to establish an ethical framework that prevents the reduction of the other to a mere object.
• Transcendence: Both believed that a genuine relationship with another person involves an encounter with something transcendent or divine, which cannot be fully grasped or instrumentalized. 

Key Points of Divergence

Feature	Martin Buber	Emmanuel Levinas
Structure of the Relation	Symmetrical and reciprocal: The I-Thou relationship is a mutual, shared experience where both parties meet as authentic beings.	Asymmetrical and unilateral: The ethical relation is a vertical demand placed upon the self by the "face" of the other, who is in a position of vulnerability. The self is infinitely responsible for the other, without expectation of reciprocity.
Ethical Imperative	Arises from the direct, full-being encounter (I-Thou) in everyday life, focusing on the shared "between".	Stems from the "face" of the other, which commands "You shall not kill me" and establishes an infinite moral obligation prior to any reciprocal relationship.
Conception of Alterity	Allows for a dynamic between "distance and closeness," where the other is encountered in their uniqueness but can still be known in a non-objectifying way.	Emphasizes the radical uniqueness and absolute difference (alterity) of the other, who remains ultimately unknowable and transcends one's own totalizing frameworks.
View of God	God is encountered in and through the world and the I-Thou relationships within it, rather than a transcendent, separate entity.	God is a "trace" found in the ethical encounter with the face of the other, a concept of the divine that is not a traditional theological lawgiver.

In essence, while Levinas held Buber's work in high esteem and was influenced by it, he developed his philosophy as a critique of Buber's concept of reciprocity, arguing it lacked sufficient ethical depth and risked assimilating the other into the self's own experience. They are closely related, but their fundamental disagreement on the nature of the ethical relationship means they offer distinct, rather than identical, perspectives. 

- GoogleAI 

https://www.google.com/search?q=How+far+Buber+and+Levinas+gel

Yes, philosophers Gabriel Marcel and Maurice Merleau-Ponty had significant common ground, particularly in their shared phenomenological and existential approaches to the nature of human existence and the body. Merleau-Ponty was also a friend and former student of Marcel. 

Key Common Themes

• The Body-Subject: Both thinkers reject the traditional mind-body dualism prevalent in Western philosophy. They argue that the human being is a unified "body-subject," an incarnated existence, rather than a consciousness separate from a physical object. For both, "to exist is to be one's body".
• Rejection of Objectification: Both Marcel and Merleau-Ponty start from the concern of distinguishing a person's relationship to their body from that of a consciousness confronting an external, inanimate object or thing. They emphasize a subjective, lived experience of the body.
• Influence and Association: Merleau-Ponty was influenced by the existential threads in Marcel's thought. Both were associated with the broader existentialist and phenomenological movements in France, which included figures like Jean-Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir. 

Key Differences

Despite these similarities, their philosophies diverge in important ways:

• History and Social Dynamics: While Marcel's concept of "mystery" allows for deep interpersonal connections, it limits his analysis of complex, collective social dynamics and history. Merleau-Ponty, on the other hand, more fully integrates the individual's relation to others and to history as essential dimensions of existence with their own specific logic.
• Objectivity: Merleau-Ponty emphasizes a dialectical interrelation between existence and objectivity, whereas Marcel makes a starker division, which affects their respective philosophies on perception.
• Philosophy of the Body: Marcel views the body as participating in being, while Merleau-Ponty sees it as an "expressive being" that interpenetrates subjectivity and materiality, which underscores their different views on perception.
• Religious and Political Views: Merleau-Ponty was a friend of the Christian existentialist Marcel, but Merleau-Ponty eventually left the Catholic Church as he felt his socialist politics were incompatible with Catholic social doctrine. 

- GoogleAI

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Philosophy can involve direct experience

 Collated by Tusar Nath Mohapatra

The solution to address the perceived "lopsidedness" of Western philosophy due to a lack of inputs from Sri Aurobindo lies in actively promoting and integrating his "integral philosophy" and methodology of "integral yoga" into the Western academic and intellectual discourse. 

Sri Aurobindo's Key Contributions

Sri Aurobindo's work offers a unique synthesis that directly addresses some dichotomies prevalent in Western thought: 

• Integration of Spirituality and Materialism: He rejected the idea that the world is an illusion (Maya) and proposed the possibility of a divine life on earth, harmonizing the material world with the spiritual reality. This counters the purely physicalist or dualist philosophies common in the West.
• Consciousness as the Core Reality: His evolutionary philosophy centers on the evolution of consciousness, from the material mind to a higher "Supermind," offering a robust framework for consciousness studies that goes beyond Western psychology and neuroscience.
• Integral Epistemology: He argued that knowledge can be gained through multiple valid ways of knowing, including sensory observation, rational analysis, and spiritual realization, suggesting that Western philosophy's emphasis solely on sense and reason provides only partial data.
• Holistic Human and Social Development: He proposed an integral education for the all-round development of an individual's physical, vital, mental, and spiritual being, which in turn leads to social and human unity. 

Proposed Solutions

Integrating these ideas would involve several steps:

1. Academic Crossover: Encouraging scholars in Western universities (especially in philosophy, psychology, and education departments) to study, research, and teach Sri Aurobindo's works, such as The Life Divine and Savitri.
2. Interdisciplinary Dialogue: Fostering dialogues between Western philosophical traditions (like rationalism, idealism, pragmatism) and Sri Aurobindo's integral approach to highlight potential complementarities and new perspectives.
3. Emphasis on Experiential Knowledge: Recognizing that beyond intellectual analysis, philosophy can involve direct experience and the extension of consciousness. This calls for incorporating practices like Integral Yoga as a means of exploring the "instruments of knowledge" beyond the intellect.
4. Challenging Dichotomies: Using his framework to move beyond traditional Western dichotomies (mind/matter, individual/society, science/spirituality) and foster a more holistic, non-dualistic understanding of reality.
5. Translation and Dissemination: Ensuring wider availability of high-quality translations and accessible interpretations of his complex works for a Western audience. 

By embracing Sri Aurobindo's comprehensive and integrative vision, Western philosophy can broaden its scope and engage with a wider, more complete understanding of human potential and the nature of reality. 

- GoogleAI 

https://www.google.com/search?q=Lack+of+inputs+from+Sri+Aurobindo+makes+Western+philosophy+lopsided.+what%27s+the+solution

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