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What appealed to you about studying
in Auroville and in India?
I was drawn to the idea of Auroville being
a space that offers a living experiment
for spirituality. And what really caught
my attention was that Auroville is a community
based on an open spirituality and not on
one religion.
I was also drawn to Jorge [Ferrer] and
Mariana [Caplan], the professors. I had
taken a class with Jorge and really liked
his style of teaching—how he brought
an embodied approach to his inquiry. He
asks the questions: What does your body
tell you? How conscious are you of your
everyday actions?
And I had attended conferences and lectures
by Mariana and liked the topics she addressed.
I thought the two of them teaching this
course would be a good combination, bringing
together not just your mind and academics,
but your body and your heart.
What were your first impressions
of Auroville?
At first it was difficult for me to see
“community” in the sense that
there are a lot of different neighborhoods
that make up Auroville and they’re
so intermeshed with the surrounding Indian
villages. So, initially it’s hard
to see where Auroville starts and ends and
where India starts and ends. I found myself
asking, “What are the boundaries?”
“How do these different communities
intertwine?”
What was unique about studying
in Auroville?
Auroville offers, more than anything, a
space for you to do intentional spiritual
living—conscious living. For our class,
it offered a sacred space to conduct our
intentional two-week educational experiment.
There’s a different energy and vibe
in Auroville because people live so consciously.
Even Aurovilians say that life there is
not easy. It’s quite difficult because
you’re constantly looking at your
shadow, your blindspots. As a class there,
we did the same thing.
Auroville is the only experiment of its
kind that I’m aware of, and it allows
you to be acutely aware of just how you
can bring conscious living to your day-to-day
life—and not separate them like we
do here at home.
What was special about the class
itself?
Because we did everything together—we
ate our meals together; meditated, studied,
traveled together; cried, laughed, and danced
together; and even got sick together—we
created this bond of taking care of each
other. We experimented with this bond, learning
how to be quiet within the group dynamic
and still feel that the group is holding
each person. In society we don’t often
have that comfort of being ourselves in
our modes of silence.
What impact did the class have
on you once you returned to the U.S.?
Since I’ve been back home, I’ve
carried the concept of “conscious
living” in my mind and have tried
to apply it to my life here. I’ve
learned to hold and value both verbal and
nonverbal forms of expression, and to value
both. I’ve also learned how, when
I’m more present and I name certain
emotions—anger, sadness, happiness—I’m
able to let them sit and I’m more
at peace with my mind.
Photo: Jime Salcedo-Malo
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Elizabeth
Husserl