Gurukula Network VISION OF ANANDA MARGA GURUKULA The Sanskrit word "Gurukula" (pronounced gurukul) has Newsletter and Journal of the following etymology: Gu: darkness; ru: dispeller; kula: Neohumanist Schools and Institutes an institution. Gurukula is an institution which helps students dispel the darkness of the mind and leads to total Gurukula Network is published by the emancipation of the individual and society at large. Ananda Marga Gurukula Ananda Marga Gurukula is engaged in creating an international Global Liaison Office network of Neohumanist Schools and Institutes to hasten the advent of a society in which there is love, peace, understanding, Two yearly issues, published November and inspiration, justice and health for all beings. May, serve as a means of communication for Neohumanist projects around the world. OBJECTIVES OF ANANDA MARGA GURUKULA It is the spirit of Gurukula Network to To serve humanity with neohumanist spirit and to acquire encourage a free sharing of ideas and to knowledge for that purpose. stimulate discussion on educational and global To establish a strong base in Anandanagar and around the issues facing our world. All articles express the world in order to carry on the legacy of its founder for the views of the author, and not necessarily those benefit of future generations. of AMGK. To provide a sound and conducive environment for students for their physical, social, intellectual, creative and spiritual Gurukula Network is open to any and all NHE well-being. related projects and faculties of AMGK. To promote ethical values in individuals and implement these Please send submissions to: values in the management of projects, schools and institutions. Gurukula Network To establish and maintain schools and special academic institutions around the world as well as a cyber-university. AM Gurukula Global Liaison Office To initiate teacher education programs to improve and <[email protected]> upgrade the quality of education on all academic levels. Editor To promote Tantra, Neohumanism and PROUT (Progressive Utilization Theory) as the foundation for building a universal Arete Brim society. Cover Design To initiate intellectual dialogues and research for all-round renaissance of society. Avtk Ananda Advaeta Ac To facilitate the placement of volunteers across cultures to help Electronic Version build meaningful relationships and to support community and social change projects. Michele Montenegro To support the building of a global eco-village network (Master http://gurukul.edu/newsletter/issue35 Units) To encourage the development of micro-enterprises for Printing and Mailing sustainability of social service projects. Ko Yun Chin I-hua Chiu Chancellor of Ananda Marga Gurukula Lin.li-ping Ac. Shambhushivananda Avt., Kulapati <[email protected]> Websites Shrii Prabhat Rainjan Sarkar inspired the establishment of Ananda Marga Gurukula Ananda Marga Schools in 1963 out of which grew an <www.gurukul.edu> international network of schools and the Neohumanist Education system. In 1990 he founded the Ananda Marga Gurukula Neohumanist Education University. Ananda Marga Gurukula also serves as the Board of <www.nhe.gurukul.edu> Education for Neohumanist Schools and Institutes around the world. These Neohumanist Schools and projects, some of which Headquarters of Ananda Marga Gurukula are featured in Gurukula Network, are managed by the Ananda Nagar Education Relief and Welfare Section and Women's Welfare Dist Purulia, West Bengal, India Department of Ananda Marga. Donations are welcome for AMGK NEOHUMANIST EDUCATION Endowment Fund and Gurukula Network as Universal Love and Values well as schools and projects. Holistic Development Astaunga Yoga Please make checks payable to Ecological and Social Consciousness Ananda Marga Gurukula Academic, Practical and Personal Skills and send to AMGK Liaison Office Knowledge of Self and World Applied for Universal Welfare c/o Brim, 146 Honness Lane, Ithaca, NY 14850 USA Joyful Learning through the Arts or by PayPal to: <[email protected]> Culturally Sensitive Approach Integrated Curriculum Exemplary Role of the Educators Issue 35 Gurukula Network Nov 2012 Letter to the Editor Educational Futures 5 – The Neohumanist Challenge to Educational Futures: Educating for Sadviprahood – Dr. Marcus Bussey CNS and Conference News 9 – Prama Institute News, Asheville, USA 10 – CNS Sweden: 2012 Management Training for Humanitarian Workers 11 – CNS Sweden: Global Yoga Educators Conference 12 – First National Conference of Yoga, Mina Clavero, Argentina 13 - Presenting Prout at the Economic Democracy Conference NHE Studies 14 – Gems of Neohumanism – Eric Jacobsen 15 – Connecting to Our Divine Nature - Niiti Gannon 16 – Play: The Child’s Own Learning Strategy – Didi Ananda Devapriya NHE Schools in Focus 18 – The Ecology of Joy: Teacher Training at the Sunshine School, Vientiane, Laos 20 – Education in the Making in Egypt 22 – Lotus Children’s Centre: A Symbol of Hope - Soko, Ghana 24 – Transforming the Culture of a High School the Neohumanist Way: Introducing NHE Curriculum at the Gurukula Vidya’piitha, Hazipur, India Global News 26 – Delhi Sector - India 28 – Berlin Sector - Finland 29 – Manila Sector – Vietnam 30 – Hong Kong Sector – Mongolia and Taiwan 30 – Nairobi Sector - Kenya Announcements 31 - NEW AMGK Website ! 31 – NHE / Gurukula Summit 2013 31 – New Book After Capitalism: Economic Democracy in Action All molecules, atoms, electrons, protons, positrons and neutrons are the veritable expressions of the same Supreme Consciousness. Those who remember this reality, who keep this realization ever alive in their hearts, are said to have attained perfection in life. They are the real devotees, the real bhaktas. When this devotional practice does not remain confined to a mere practice, but instead is elevated to a devotional sentiment, a devotional mission, to the realm of devotional ideation – when the underlying spirit of humanism is extended to everything, animate and inanimate, in this universe – I have designated this as “Neohumanism”. This Neohumanism will elevate humanism to universalism, the practice of love for all created beings of this universe. Shrii P. R. Sarkar 3 Letter to the Editor unconscious awareness, with consciousness itself? Are cells, simple animals, plants and trees aware; do they Some reflections on Dhanjoo Ghista’s and have a mind? 5 Certainly they are aware, but whether Michael Towsey’s “Consciousness, Cosmology they possess a feeling of identity and self-conscious and Evolution” (published in Gk Network Issue 34) awareness, remains an open question. Did their mind, if by Henk de Weijer they have one, evolve6 gradually or in quanta, in jumps? Does evolution have a final cause, as Darwin understood In order to explain a specific view on a subject it is for twenty years, 7 or not? important to define it and establish its relation with already existing views. In the above-mentioned article of The restrictions of conventional science limit the Ac. Dhanjoo Ghista and Michael Towsey such essential freedom to search in all thinkable directions. But other definitions and explanations are lacking. One example is ontologies, with new horizons, exist. According to Shri the word ‘consciousness’. I have to admit though, that Adi Shankara, (788-820) clay is metamorphosed into a Sigmund Freud would not agree with me. He was pot when it is supervised and molded by a potter. satisfied with little: “What is meant by consciousness we Unconscious prakrti cannot produce the world with a 1 need not discuss - it is beyond all doubt.” particular arrangement, order and harmony, without being supervised by an intelligent principle.8 Shri P.R. However, contemporary science does take a great Sarkar (1921-1990) explains that Purusa interest in consciousness. It accepts its existence but, as a (Consciousness) is the material and the first efficient consequence of its paradigm that everything can and cause, while Prakrti (Energy) is the linking force needs to be explained in terms of energy, it is only between the material and the first efficient cause.9 willing to see consciousness as an emergent property of activities in the neural network of the brain. Thus, Both these two philosophies allow for a completely different definitions of consciousness are restricted to the state of approach regarding the position of consciousness, energy, awareness of itself, of the self in a human body and of mass and matter10 in biological life. Biological life rests on external objects. the laws of physics, but is always searching for possibilities to go beyond them and utilize its observational, intelligent and A fundamental question within this paradigm is: ‘How creative skill. In other words, the mass of matter mechanically does consciousness arise in human and other living acts in accordance with the four laws of physics, while beings?’ Roger Penrose and Stuart Hameroff propose biological structures act organically, as autonomous, that consciousness is produced in microtubules.2 intelligent and cognitive systems. Microtubules are components of the cytoskeleton – How can the authors try to explain the enigma of evolution 11 scaffolding - of cells, including neurons. Tubulins are the 12 without including the nature of nature, the bipolarity of proteins that compose the microtubules; they are energy and consciousness?13 Whether energy and cylindrical polymers, about 25 micrometers long. consciousness are subordinate or coordinate makes an Through quantum tunneling and quantum state essential