Rod Hemsell Archives - Auro e-Books

Human Consciousness and Truth: Heidegger and Sri Aurobindo

Human Consciousness and Truth

Heidegger and Sri Aurobindo

Human Consciousness and Truth is a book of contemplations, reflections and meditations on some of the works of Martin Heidegger and Sri Aurobindo. Its author writes from many decades of dedicated study, and his aim is to create an awareness of the depths and heights of knowledge that these two thinkers explored and recorded in their writings — regions that, as he says, are reached only by the most persistent and devoted students of such authors and seers.

The book follows the movement of Heidegger’s later thought — from the end of Western metaphysics to technology, poetry and time — and reads it alongside Sri Aurobindo’s own metaphysics of consciousness. Three supplements open the subject further, and the last chapter is an introduction to yoga philosophy.

Poetizing Spirit by Rod Hemsell

Poetizing Spirit

In poetry of the highest inspiration we may hear resonances of ideas that inspire in us the memory and vision of truths innate to our souls and minds, that make us think and see, beyond the normal range of intellectual knowledge. Both Sri Aurobindo, known as the great synthesizer of “eastern” and “western” thought, and Martin Heidegger, one of the most influential “postmodern” thinkers, heard those streams that flow from the great rivers of ancient myth, philosophy, mysticism and poetry. And both foresaw the advent of a new consciousness and a new type of human being. Written during the first COVID year, this booklet of reflections on some of their most inspired thoughts may open the reader to that subtle realm of intuitive vision where the spirit of poetry echoes in the riverbed of Time.

Book Details

Author: Rod Hemsell
Print Length: 88
Publisher: Auro e-Books
Contributor: Edith Stadig
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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Lotus Mountain by Rod Hemsell

Lotus Mountain

While assembling this “next” collection of poems, written during the past ten years, it was gratifying to realize that there has been a development in both the forms and the meanings that are expressed in these poems. Some of the heights that were aspired to or glimpsed in the earlier poems and under other circumstances, have actually been grasped, experienced, perhaps even adequately transmitted through these later efforts. Of course it is still “me” and my experience, my language, my energies; and everything I experience is conditioned by my particular range of exposures, my limitations, my aspirations, my receptivity or lack, and so on. But, as I have said before, these poems are the product of an effort to allow nature and consciousness to come into resonance and to express the product of their interaction through an inspired flow of words, as far as it is possible. As we have been taught by the Master, the less we impose our personal mental predispositions on the process the better the product will be. This is a method that I have practiced for 50 years, and at least I can say that I have kept the faith, and this modest product is the outcome. It is also the product of the natural environments in which I have found myself and which have often inspired me; the qualities of nature seem to sometimes reveal themselves to me in ways that stimulate a flow of words that captures and embodies her beauty and power, her wickedness and weakness, her infinity of creativity and meaning that I find irresistible. For that I am deeply grateful, and I consider it a blessing of the Mother of all forms and meanings who has enriched my life from time to time with a particle of her Infinite Grace.

Rod Hemsell
February, 2020

Book Details

Author: Rod Hemsell
Print Length: 104
Publisher: Auro e-Books
Contributor: Edith Stadig, Krishna
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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Poems of Devotion and Stillness by Rod Hemsell

Poems of Devotion and Stillness

In reviving these earlier poems and images of mine, composed between the age of 25 and 65, I recognize an implicit belief in the ability of poetic speech and consciousness to convey in a vivid way our inner connection with “nature” – in and around us – and to express the ‘reality’ of both nature and our experience. At best it may also express other realities that transcend both nature and experience, such as the idea that stones have eyes and ears, and our lives are influenced by celestial beings. This belief in poetry implies as well that language and consciousness are more than mere ‘representations’ of reality: they are faculties that resonate with nature and experience in a way that reveals a deeper symbolic identity or close kinship between the two poles of reality. This may be a naive belief, no doubt, but it also has its roots in the much earlier Vedic notions about language and truth. Being inspired by Sri Aurobindo and the Mother, my hope is that something of the truth of those notions will be seen, heard, and felt by the reader. It is this same consciousness applied to contemporary environmental issues that has also informed the fantasy-essay on climate change, Cloning the Earth, written ten years ago but more relevant than ever and likely to be better understood, today.

And yet, while these may be universal truths of ‘poetry’ and ‘consciousness’, or at least reasonable theories, I also realize that these poems are the record of unique moments of my life and my experience. As such, they are a very personal effort to express what I have seen, felt, and understood to be their true nature and quality (swabhava). It may be said that the unstated theme is the unification of self and nature through symbolic speech. The drive to write in this way has made both self and nature more real.

Rod Hemsell
February, 2020

Book Details

Author: Rod Hemsell
Print Length: 109
Publisher: Auro e-Books
Contributor: Edith Stadig, Krishna
Book format: Pdf
Language: English
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Wings of the Sea

Wings of the Sea

MISCELLANEOUS WRITINGS AND ILLUSTRATIONS
FROM YEAR 72-73 (2016-2017) OF A LIFE
(INCLUDING 14 SHORT ESSAYS ON ‘SAVITRI’ PUBLISHED IN THE CRESTONE EAGLE)

AUTHOR’S NOTE: In 1968 the Mother gave me a hard-bound ream of hand-made paper, bound in the Ashram Press, where I was working. I was too naive at the time to fully appreciate the gesture. But I have continued to write. A first collection of poems, written from 1968 to 1977, many of which she read, was published in 1998 and dedicated to Matrimandir. One of those poems was produced as a play in Auroville, in the early years, to which she actually sent a busload of ashramites.

I have lived in Auroville for half of the past 50 years, and written hundreds of pages of philosophy. But I have also traveled to many other wonderful places, both physically and spiritually. And it is in that simple moment of clarity when poems are written that such experiences can sometimes be captured and, hopefully, conveyed to anyone who can listen and see. This small collection, mostly written in the 50th year,is dedicated to Auroville, which continues to inspire.

Book Details

Author: Rod Hemsell
Print Length: 50
Publisher: Auro e-Books
Contributor: Krishna
Book format: Pdf, ePub, mobi (Kindle)
Language: English
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La Filosofia della Coscienza: Hegel e Sri Aurobindo (Italian)

La Filosofia della Coscienza

Una ricerca nella natura ed evoluzione della coscienza attraverso le lenti di vari filosofi, culminante con la filosofia sperimentale di Sri Aurobindo.

The Philosophy of Consciousness: Hegel and Sri Aurobindo

The Philosophy of Consciousness:
Hegel and Sri Aurobindo

An investigation into the nature and evolution of consciousness through the lens of various philosophers, culminating with the experiential philosophy of Sri Aurobindo.

Filosofia della Religione (Italian)

Filosofia della Religione

Il materiale presentato in questo libro è il risultato della trascrizione di una serie di dodici letture date da Rod Hemsell al Savitri Bhavan in Auroville, India. Con dettagli interessanti e intricati Rod dipinge con ampie pennellate un intenso ritratto storico dell’evoluzione del pensiero filosofico e del suo impatto sulla dottrina religiosa che si estende oltre duemila e quattrocento anni di storia. Il tema sottostante, naturalmente, è la lenta e costante evoluzione della coscienza umana che scorre in molti diversi rivoli di pensiero, sbocciando dalla fontana dell’esperienza umana mentre cresce nella conoscenza. La profondità di tale discorso non è per nulla opprimente, tuttavia, qui non stiamo più guadando in una piscina per bambini… In queste letture, Rod ha introdotto un numero di personaggi ed idee familiari, e ne ha introdotte molte altre che potrebbero non essere così ben conosciute; il tutto invita il lettore ad approfondire proseguendo nella sua personale ricerca. Vengono esplorati antichi sentieri per scoprire le grandi similarità soggiacenti alle maggiori religioni di oggi che potrebbero altrimenti rimanere non notate, e Rod ci convince che ciò era inevitabile fin dall’inizio, da quando abbiamo avuto a che fare con le verità universali.

La Filosofia dell’Evoluzione (Italian)

La Filosofia dell’Evoluzione

Come presentata qui, La Filosofia dell’Evoluzione è un compendio di lezioni presentate da Rod Hemsell presso l’Università dell’Unità Umana ad Auroville nel 2008, 2009, 2012 e 2013. La spinta principale nello yoga di Sri Aurobindo è sempre stata verso una partecipazione attiva all’evoluzione umana e questo è il concetto che ha fissato e definito fin dall’inizio la differenza dello yoga di Sri Aurobindo e della Madre da tutti gli altri. Con la sua vasta conoscenza della filosofia e del pensiero di numerosi filosofi, e la sua familiarità con la scienza attuale, Rod è in grado di guidare il lettore attraverso lo sviluppo del pensiero in queste discipline e ci mostra il luogo che Sri Aurobindo, precursore illuminato, ci ha indicato come prossimo obiettivo. Queste lezioni non sono una salita difficile o noiosa verso altezze rarefatte, piuttosto, sono esplorazioni istruttive dei campi base più ampi che circondano il monte; è lasciato a Sri Aurobindo ed alla Madre la guida alla nostra ascesa. Tuttavia, con questa esplorazione della terra ferma, diventiamo sempre più sicuri che le nostre Guide verso le cime innevate in realtà sanno di che cosa parlano. Questa versione in lingua italiana riprende, su indicazione dell’autore, i capitoli più indicativi della versione originale inglese, che permettano comunque al lettore di seguire un filo conduttore lineare e chiaro del percorso di pensiero seguito da Rod Hemsell nelle sue letture.

Sri Aurobindo and the Logic of the Infinite

About this book, the author, Rod Hemsell says, “Most of these essays were collected in 2003, a few recent ones have been added to this edition in the sections on philosophy and mantra, but obviously the earliest already contain the same basic insights that underlie the more systematic studies that I have done since 2008, after reading Sri Aurobindo for forty years.”

On the cover of the first edition, Georges Van Vrekhem wrote, “Not only are there in the essays which constitute this volume the philosophical landscapes the author has been and continues exploring, there is also the testimony of his practical commitment to the realization of a better world. As Sri Aurobindo wrote, the whirlpool of the present globalisation may well be the disorienting transition to the unity of humanity, necessary for the realization of the next step in evolution. After all, if evolution is a fact, why would it stop at the human species? It is in this perspective that Auroville, the City of Dawn, the most daring utopia of them all, has to be seen, and it is to the working out of this ideal that Rod Hemsell is contributing with his life. This is a thinker who dares to walk on the roads of infinity and find on them his fulfilment.”