Book by Neela Bhattacharya Saxena
Papers by Neela Bhattacharya Saxena
Journal of Ecohumanism
Europe and its influential knowledge systems are a late entry into the global marketplace of idea... more Europe and its influential knowledge systems are a late entry into the global marketplace of ideas, but they have had a far-reaching and, in many cases, devastating impact on our planet. Some Christian thinkers themselves now acknowledge that Anthropocene at least partially arose from an ego-centric reading of the Biblical narrative about Adam’s domination over the natural world. We desperately need philosophers of air, water, fire, earth, and sky today, and we require those who can translate thought into praxis to help us find a way out of the crisis. Tantra as a mechanism and praxis has been elaborately developed by master yogis and yoginis. They created what can be called a psycho-ecology of our being where the macrocosm and microcosm meet in profound easeful love of life that can save us from our hungry-ghost-infested minds. This paper presents Tantra Yoga and its Gynocentric systems to contribute toward ecosophical praxis.
Social Theory and Asian Dialogues, 2018
In the Indic perspective, the notion of the self operates very differently from the understanding... more In the Indic perspective, the notion of the self operates very differently from the understanding of individuality that exoteric monotheisms and modernist ideologies propose. The shortest of the Upanishads, Isha, contains a proclamation known as a mahavakya, or great saying: “So ham asmi.” Other such Upanishadic sayings include “I am that” or “I am Brahman.” In these formulations the “I” expands into cosmic consciousness reaching a non-dual or advaitic awareness. When even this expanded “I” dissolves into the womb of Adyashakti, then the music of the spheres as the inner vibration or spanda can be heard in the human heart. It is the Buddha’s articulation of advaya that brings one into this profound voidness or shunyata of the Mother Ground. Examining the self/other dynamic within various philosophical debates, one recognizes how an encounter with a radical alterity saves us from an inflated ego leading to mahakaruna or great compassion. Then we dance with the other in profound maitri or friendliness in a world that is itself nirvana. This chapter examines these utterances from a broadly tantric Buddhist perspective so that the self as an imperial being can be overcome.
Theology and Science, 2020
Woman and Goddess in Hinduism, 2011
About eighty years ago, in a small village called Mallikpur in Sylhet district, now in Bangladesh... more About eighty years ago, in a small village called Mallikpur in Sylhet district, now in Bangladesh, a young girl, about five, sat watching an icon (mūrti) being made for the purposes of worship in her uncle’s house. The girl watched with wonder and fascination as the gigantic icon took shape: the image of the goddess, in dark red color and with three blood streams emerging out of her decapitated head, would remain etched in her mind forever. The voice recalling the event comes clear and strong over the phone: it is the voice of my mother as I tell her I am working on an essay on Chinnamastā. She also tells me about this uncle, her father’s brother, Bharat Chandra Bhattacharya, whose house was just across from her home beyond the pond on the southern end of the land; she remembers the garden of five trees in his house, called a “Panchabati,” where her uncle was later cremated. She talks about their family’s tantric guru, who probably officiated in the worship. She remembers one more icon, that of Dhumāvati, being made in her uncle’s house, but Bharat Chandra died before he could sponsor the construction of icons of all ten Mahāvidyās, the supreme knowledge forms of the divine feminine in the Hindu tradition. Connecting a distant past with the present, my mother also tells me in the same breath how her niece recently brought her the prasād of Chinnamastā from another such worship ritual (pūjā) in her house.
Contemporary South Asia, 2021
ABSTRACT While modern India is complex, plural and perhaps foundationally connected with its rich... more ABSTRACT While modern India is complex, plural and perhaps foundationally connected with its rich liberatory paths, there is reason to be concerned when a large number of people are fed hate-filled rhetoric against their own long-term neighbors. Today the virulent ideology of a purported “Hindu” rashtra is growing under governmental provocation. It needs an alternative vision which can be resurrected from India's own suppressed history. That is Tantric India, whose liberatory paths with women and goddesses is compatible with the contemporary world. India has been a magnet for “spiritual” seekers around the world because the great sages were helping to free us from our conditioned selves. This worldview, that encompassed all Indic dharmas, was developed especially by Shaiva, Shakta and Buddhist enlightened beings, and was set against an upper caste hegemony of truncated Vedism. The true masters who developed a real science of tantric praxis taught how to appreciate the world here and now without violence to the self, earth or the perceived other. From ancient yogic explorations of humanistic psycho-spiritual development that has been a hallmark of India, a profoundly egalitarian world view had developed during 8th through 12th centuries. It is time we reexamine that history and imagine a different Subcontinent.
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the …, 2003
Partition, Independence, and the Raj are words that re-sound in the minds of 1.5 billion people f... more Partition, Independence, and the Raj are words that re-sound in the minds of 1.5 billion people from the In-dian sub-continent to the island of Britain and the vast archipelago of the South Asian diaspora. There are events in the history of a land that tear apart its sense of self more ...
Contemporary South Asia, 2021
While modern India is complex, plural and perhaps foundationally connected with its rich liberato... more While modern India is complex, plural and perhaps foundationally connected with its rich liberatory paths, there is reason to be concerned when a large number of people are fed hate-filled rhetoric against their own long-term neighbors. Today the virulent ideology of a purported “Hindu” rashtra is growing under governmental provocation. It needs an alternative vision which can be resurrected from India's own suppressed history. That is Tantric India, whose liberatory paths with women and goddesses is compatible with the contemporary world. India has been a magnet for “spiritual” seekers around the world because the great sages were helping to free us from our conditioned selves. This worldview, that encompassed all Indic dharmas, was developed especially by Shaiva, Shakta and Buddhist enlightened beings, and was set against an upper caste hegemony of truncated Vedism. The true masters who developed a real science of tantric praxis taught how to appreciate the world here and now ...
Comparative Studies of South Asia Africa and the Middle East, Dec 7, 2005
Dqr Studies in Literature, 2014
Oxford Handbooks Online, 2011
Social Theory and Asian Dialogues: Cultivating Planetary Conversations, 2018
Theology and Science , 2020
Fear of death, quest for permanence and desire to escape biology
have been at the heart of many r... more Fear of death, quest for permanence and desire to escape biology
have been at the heart of many religions. Notions of technological
singularity and AI posed by futurists like Ray Kurzweil touch upon
that hunger. The historical Buddha, on the other hand, posited
impermanence at the very heart of all existence. Focusing on the
film Her, this paper will present AI as awakened intelligence. I
would like to show that Alan Watts as a Zen master takes the
emerging hyper-intelligent AI “Samantha” and others into a
Buddhist Bardo, suggesting the possibility of AI as awakened
intelligence beyond violence.
Pathways of Creative Research: Towards a Festival of Dialogues - edited by Ananta K Giri, 2017
Comparative Studies of South Asia Africa and the Middle East, 2003
Partition, Independence, and the Raj are words that re-sound in the minds of 1.5 billion people f... more Partition, Independence, and the Raj are words that re-sound in the minds of 1.5 billion people from the In-dian sub-continent to the island of Britain and the vast archipelago of the South Asian diaspora. There are events in the history of a land that tear apart its sense of self more ...
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Book by Neela Bhattacharya Saxena
Papers by Neela Bhattacharya Saxena
have been at the heart of many religions. Notions of technological
singularity and AI posed by futurists like Ray Kurzweil touch upon
that hunger. The historical Buddha, on the other hand, posited
impermanence at the very heart of all existence. Focusing on the
film Her, this paper will present AI as awakened intelligence. I
would like to show that Alan Watts as a Zen master takes the
emerging hyper-intelligent AI “Samantha” and others into a
Buddhist Bardo, suggesting the possibility of AI as awakened
intelligence beyond violence.
have been at the heart of many religions. Notions of technological
singularity and AI posed by futurists like Ray Kurzweil touch upon
that hunger. The historical Buddha, on the other hand, posited
impermanence at the very heart of all existence. Focusing on the
film Her, this paper will present AI as awakened intelligence. I
would like to show that Alan Watts as a Zen master takes the
emerging hyper-intelligent AI “Samantha” and others into a
Buddhist Bardo, suggesting the possibility of AI as awakened
intelligence beyond violence.