Yo Mind, Body, Spirit...Yeah Baby!
The most important thing this program taught me was awareness. I gained an awareness of myself, my body, my mind and some more options for the different spiritual paths that could save my soul. I've found some peace of mind. I've found some more of my authentic self. I've found out and saw and experienced for myself how wide the world really is and how much is actually going on. I've also realized that what Mother Teresa said was very right - "There are no great things, only small things with great love. Happy are those." Whatever you do that is right for you than you will feel it with your being and there can be no way to take on the entire world only the world you create and live in can you have the greatest impact. Unless you're so awesome you are Mother Teresa or Martin Luther King or Gandhi for Christ's sake.
Have Fun and Peace Out!
Designing the Future through Devotion
When I choose to work at Upasana Design Studio I was thinking in terms of the future. But the most important thing I learned at the studio, and on this program, in general is to think in terms of the present.
Upasana means "devotion." To design devotion is a task we partake in whether we realize it or not. We all choose to be devoted to something whether it be the Divine, money, freedom, academics, our family, friends, work, peanut butter and jelly. We choose to use more time/thoughts/actions on these things than on others and the way in which we utilize our being in this way is how we design our devotion to it. I am in the process of designing my devotion. I am actually in a fight with my devotion at the moment because I cannot decide which direction to go with it.
For my service learning project I decided to give some of my devotional time to Upasana. This design studio creates clothing and socially conscious projects. There are two big projects going on at Upasana right now – Tsunamika and Small Steps. Tsunamika is a tsunami rehabilitation project that provides income and self-fulfillment for some of the village women in the surrounding area. Tsunamika is a doll made of scrap material by these women and given out to people as a symbol of hope, peace, and love. This little doll has touched people all over the world and has generated enough donations to pay the women a decent income. Small Steps is a project dedicated to the elimination of plastic bag usage in India, and then hopefully the world. It is a compactable shopping bag that is stylish and can be carried anywhere and given out to those who would like them.
Both of these projects run on the principle of the gift economy, which tries to eliminate the calculating factor that money adds to the exchange of goods and services and instead focuses on the person to person interaction and the emotions involved in giving. The motivation for all our interactions comes under the category of giver, receiver, or trader. We are either giving something without the expectation of receiving or we are receiving something without the pressure of reciprocation or, most often, we are trading which means we are either giving with the explicit motivation of reciprocation or we are receiving with the known obligation of payment. Our world economy functions in a system based on trading and that system is not limited to money or good and services. It permeates into our psyche and affects the way we approach our interactions with everything. Most of the time we are functioning as traders, even when we smile at someone walking past we are usually not smiling just to be smiling at them but we expect them to smile back at us. If you start to analyze all your actions in these terms I'm sure you will find yourself functioning in this mode of exchange more than you think you are. It takes conscious awareness of ourselves in order to find out how we truly act and think and what our true motivations and intentions are. From looking at the way Tsunamika has progressed to spreading the message of hope and peace through over a million dolls without selling a single one, but relying on the giving nature of some for donations to keep the project going. Their intention were pure from the get go, which was to spread the message that even in the crisis of a tsunami there is still hope and there is still life to be lived. The village women who made these dolls gave them to the world even though most would have thought they had nothing to give and that is why the world gave back to them.
Giving is not something to just be done on birthdays and Christmas, but something to be practiced everyday with a conscious awareness of your intentions.
Ecological Design
For the Sustainability in Practice Paper I wrote about ecological design and my thesis was: One of the most environementally sustainable methods is the ecological aproach to the design of our infrastructure in which design attempts to integrate into the natural environment's processes.
Here are some sources for that: Rocky Mountain Institute http://www.rmi.org/
Ecological Design Institute http://www.ecodesign.org/
Ecotecture http://www.ecotecture.com/
Thesis: Water Scarcity
Most people turn on the tap, the shower, the washing machine or the hose with a steady stream of fresh, readily available water. Some never think twice about where the water comes from, or how lucky they are to have this wonderful amenity. Many do not understand how much water gets over-used. Globally, humans have used far too much water without thinking, and our most vital resource is quickly depleting. Due to inadequate water distribution to countries in need, poor policies and water subsidies, and little to no incentive to conserve water, the world is facing a serious predicament. This paper will illustrate the global water scarcity problem as it relates to over consumption and climate change, as well as the water problem in Tamil Nadu, India, and more specifically in Auroville, which also lies in Tamil Nadu. After touching on these places and the water problem in general, this paper will describe an effective way of sustainable gardening through xeriscaping, which is landscaping with little to no impact on the land, as well as describing some plants that can be used in a xeriscape such as Plumeria and Hibiscus.
The UN recommends that the average person needs only 50 litres of water a day for drinking, cooking and washing. However, many people throughout the world, such as in India and Africa, receive little to no water. Rapid population growth, overuse and increasing consumption of water per capita is, “projected to increase by at least 50% by 2025 compared to 1995” (http://web.ebscohost.com.silk.library.umass.edu:2048/ehost/...). (See chart 1 and 2). Aside from over consumption as an increasing problem, climate change is also a main player in the scarcity of water. Certain studies conducted by several scientists using climate-hydrology models have shown a great amount of decreasing streamflow due to climate change.
Even in developing countries, higher living standards and population growth have increased the amount of water usage. Reasearchers have discovered a six fold increase in water usage with only a two fold increase in population growth in the United States. Consumption of water will rise even higher as people around the world acquire more western diets. The greatest amount of available water is in Latin America and North America. Africa, Asia and Europe have far less. Whether the water problem is due to physical or social means, it is here and will not dissipate. Tom Demassa who writes for earthtrends, reports that, specifically,
"In the Middle East and North Africa, small amounts of annual rainfall create a physical water scarcity. As a result, the region is largely dependent upon unsustainable groundwater abstractions. In the United States, the destruction of wetlands and continued strains on rivers caused by pollution and excessive use (for example, The Colorado River) limit the ability of these ecosystems to provide other important goods and services. In sub-Saharan Africa, a high degree of precipitation variability coupled with a severe lack of necessary infrastructure have led to extreme water scarcity in many places” ( http://earthtrends.wri.org/updates/node/73)
Dwindling water supplies will ultimatly lower agriculture production, cause more water related health problems, and damage the environment.
www.auroville.org/environment/harvest/harvest.htm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/3747724.stm
http://www.indiaresource.org/issues/water/2003/waterfacts.html
Conventional vs. Organic Farming ... My Study on Local and Global Sustainability
My Local and Global Sustainability paper is on the issue of hunger and food security. It's a debate between the conventional farming that the Green Revolution kick started and Organic or Sustainable Farming methods that are now being put into practice since the 1990's.
My thesis:
Hunger has been a world issue since the beginning of mankind, but now as a more advanced populous we have greater control over the issue. The Green Revolution was supposed to be the “panacea” for this manifesting conundrum; coincidentally it only worsened the matter socially, economically, and environmentally. Through the newfound emergence of organic (some say sustainable) agriculture, we can safely say that we’re stepping in the right direction towards curing world hunger by engaging in appropriate food security and distribution amongst the international masses.
Now, here are some links to websites of Global North, Global South, and Auroville which you can reference.
http://www.ota.com/index.html
As the website says: Organic Trade Association (OTA) is a membership-based business association that focuses on the organic business community in North America. OTA's mission is to promote and protect the growth of organic trade to benefit the environment, farmers, the public and the economy.
http://organicsouthafrica.co.za/
From the "About Us" section on the website: Organics South Africa is a non-profit organization formed in 1994 by concerned individuals wishing to ensure that organic agriculture finds its rightful place in South African farming and food processing. Known as OSA, it interfaces with farmers, retailers and Government to further the aims and objectives of the organic movement to the benefit of producers, processors, consumers and our environment. It provides a network for all organically minded people to interact and co-operate for the sustainable protection of our natural resources, especially our agricultural soils.
http://myspace.com/solitudefarm
This is Solitude Farm's myspace page. I worked on Solitude for three weeks during my stay in Auroville and loved every minute of it. Solitude is what comes to mind when people think of organic farming in Auroville. They are a self sustained community led by the founder, Krishna, whom has been seriously farming since the mid 90's. Solitude distributes some of their crops to Auroville's The Solar Kitchen and FoodLinks. This web page gives a glimpse into Solitude Farm with some video footage, a few words, and some pictures of the farm. Enjoy!
Ayurvedic Medicine and Yoga
When people from the west hear the term “Ayurvedic medicine” they either have no idea what it means, they associate it with a place like India, or they think of a resort/massage center. The main principle of western medicine is focused on treating symptoms as opposed to finding the underlying cause. Treating symptoms can work, but usually it is temporary. An aspirin for a headache might not be as sufficient as a glass of water. Ayurvedic medicine is making its way into the west but only the medicinal and yogic aspects. However these practices are much more than physical postures and herbal remedies. Ayurvedic medicine is one of the oldest most anciently practiced forms of healing throughout India, Nepal, and China etc. The term Ayurvedic means “the science (or knowledge) of life.” Yoga is already common all over the west but like Ayurveda not all aspects are focused on (in the west). In this paper I will illustrate how fully practicing Ayurvedic medicine and yoga translates to living a more sustainable lifestyle than western medicine. I will give a history of yoga and Ayurveda, and I will explain the overlapping and complementary principles of each. Then I will explain and compare them to practicing western medicine to prove them to be a more sustainable lifestyle.
Solitude for Service Learning
For the three weeks of the service learning project I chose to spend my time at Solitude Farm. The site functioned as a restaurant, working community, and living commmunity for me, for I worked, slept and ate my meals there. For several people from a local Tamil village it served as a working community only. And, for the "guest" who came for lunch, Solitude served as a restaraunt.
In my experiences there I was fortunate to meet a wide range of people of many different walks of life. Through language barriers I made relationships with people from all around the world; volunteers and workers came from such places as India, Japan, England, and Germany.
standing at the gates
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New Friends and Great Food
For the past three weeks I have been working at Naturellement, a small food production company that always smells like freshly baked cookies and is run entirely by women.
Naturellement was started in 1991 by a Swedish Aurovillian woman named Martina. The company makes jams, marmalades, syrups, baked goods, and several other products for distribution throughout Auroville. Martina employs 19 women from local villages around Auroville, giving them self-empowering work and training including weekly English classes. They have regular celebrations and dances, and they even go on a trip to the mountains once a year. The company also supports organic farming and tries to buy locally grown organic raw materials whenever possible.
During my three weeks there, I took on the following tasks: fill out a fair trade application for the company, help them create a new brochure, and help them start a website. I also developed the following personal goals: learn about Tamil culture from the village women that work at Naturellement, improve my Tamil language skills, learn how to cook a traditional Tamil meal, and develop meaningful and lasting relationships with the women that work there and with the company itself.
The first task I took on was the fair trade application. The application for fair trade certification through the IFAT was 16 pages long and asked for several attachments including financial records, price lists, references and a published mission statement. It began as a very daunting task, but after I got organized, filling out the application was surprisingly easy and pleasant.
Of all my goals for my service learning project, I would definitely say the most difficult for me was trying to develop meaningful relationships with the women that work at Naturellement. The first day or two were not too bad because we just had surface conversations about our families, school, etc. Then, they invited me to eat lunch with them, and I was so ecstatic. Let me just take this opportunity to say that while I did not necessarily learn how to cook Indian food, I most definitely had plenty of practice eating it. Everyday at 12:30 I would go sit on the floor with the Tamil women and they would pile food onto my plate. It took a few days before they stopped insisting on giving me a stool and a spoon and a special cup for tea, but eventually, I felt like one of them.
Now, although the three weeks of service learning are over, I find that my relationship with Naturellement is no where near an end. I still have so much more work to do, but I do not look as it as a chore. On the contrary, I find myself excitedly penciling in “Naturellement Days” on the calendar on days that Living Routes does not have activities planned for us.
MatrimanDEAR to My Heart: Making Gold DISCoveries
This Is John Huston's Blog
My first day was full of butterflies and cold feet. I really had no idea of the work I would be doing or the people I would be working with. As they dissipated on the bike ride into the workers gate I was accepted into the community of the Matrimandir. Strict rules are engaged upon those who are newcomers or visitors of Auroville especially around the Matrimandir and the use of it as a tool for meditation, but those restrictions are lifted when you pass through the workers gate. It is both literally and metaphorically a different side to the once known serious, no talking, respected Matrimandir that I was shown a few weeks previously in a visitor's tour. Here you could yell and scream if it was necessary; and it was. On this side of the globe was a group of three shabby looking buildings that I saw in the tour we took and first perceived them as a small dilapidated village. The three building were the workshops all working on different projects harmoniously. One workshop was the stone cutters, specifically used on the petals and the walkways around the Matrimandir. Another shop was the metal shop, and it was designed to create the skeleton of the discs which would be saturated with gold and glass. I worked in the farthest workshop down which was specializing in the gold making process and the final presentation of the discs that would be placed upon the walls of the globe.
One day I even got to go to the top, which is not something just anyone can do. I was led up one of the meditation petals to a set of scaffolding. The rickety scaffolding was about 75 feet up and I almost fell off; that would have been a lawsuit, just kidding. Then there was a tunnel that led into the exo-skeleton of the globe. As I walked through the secret passage and up a spial staircase, you emerge from the top like a baby into the world for the first time. It was awesome. I saw the crane which is placed on top for maintaining the Matrimandir in the future.
But the main reason I chose this site for my service learning was because I had one goal that I needed to accomplish;that goal wasto vacuum the matrimandir. Yes, I know, you may say to yourself, "Thats impossible!" or "no way can any ordinary kid have such an honor." It took two weeks of working in the workshop until i gained enough respect from everyone to go inside. There inside, I worked polishing the floors and wiping the walls clean of any dust brought in by meditators. You finally realize how important those socks are once your on your hands and knees scrubbing the marble. After two days of floor cleaning, I got promoted. I got to vacuum the Matrimandir.
What I learned throughout the experience is the idea of "Sadhana". A word that is closely related to niche. It describes a job that might be mundane or minute, but still has great importance because somebody has to do it. Some Tamil workers have been there 15 years just polishing gold discs, not even questioning, but being devoted, and that is the most important.
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reflex on Sadhana
Sadhana forest was an experience that was less about the actual work but more about the people. But that’s just me. Each member from a different place in the world, but all could all communicate in the language that is becoming the lost language of Babel. English. Traveling here and there only stopping off to rest and experience a different way of life. Each thinking it would be that of just forestation and living a simpler less consumptive way of life, but no. We all experienced tenfold that, in others cultures and ways of life. Israeli, Brit, Norwegian, Swiss, French, Belgian, Korean, Portuguese and American each day we woke, worked, ate, worked, rested, read, napped, ate and slept at the same time.
I personally was able to learn most, as usual, by my conversations and interactions with travelers, about myself, from one and about that one and perceptions in different realms of our big small world. I even met a man I had encountered the last time I went abroad. I was on a class in Costa Rica studying sustainability. Oh how the world is so cyclical.
During my stay I was also able to discover the extent to which I can live sustainably. Of course I can’t live in a keat hut in Vermont and, pump my water straight from the ground all year but many little things. Especially my diet. I won’t become a vegan or maybe even a vegetarian. But the varieties of food and way in which I cook them has definitely will change.
Sadhana is a beautiful place that truly embodies the ideals of Auroville.
Human Unity
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