5 - Spiritually Prefigurative Politics in Practice: An Embodied Account of an Auroville Community Decision-Making Process

Summary

Introduction

One feels at times, that a decision could be reached more effectively by simply … quieting oneself, and in the most profound sense of the word, merge in Silence.

Roy, 2014

It is a Thursday evening and a group of Aurovilians are gathered in the Awareness Through the Body Hall for our weekly sensory awareness session. For the first time, our facilitator has chosen to work with the 12 qualities identified by The Mother as essential to embody for an individual and collective spiritual evolution. She begins by reading out the names of each of the qualities and the description The Mother has given about them from a set of cards. As she does so, I find that one of them particularly resonates with me: Generosity. She then places each of the cards, face down on the floor and asks us to pick one: “If one card calls you, then pick that one, and if none of them calls you, then just pick at random”, she says. We each pick the card, look at the quality and then place it back. Mine is Generosity.

We then proceed to individually explore embodying each of these qualities through various spontaneous physical forms, our facilitator verbally prompting and guiding us to express outwardly, with our bodies, the quality as we are experiencing it within us (see Figure 5.1). Once we have explored all 12, she guides us to create a collective shape, each embodying the quality they had originally picked. One by one, we add our bodies and our qualities to complement the growing form. I was very touched watching each person move and place themselves consciously, with depth of presence, care and sincerity, their faces soft and receptive. I still remember the first one of my peers: her intentional and deliberate walk to the centre of the room, where she placed herself in a kneeling position, arms extended, embodying Sincerity. Once we had each joined the form, our facilitator guided us to feel the collective shape, and each of the qualities that we were embodying within it, repeating each of their names.

Like in so many Awareness Through the Body sessions, I was struck by the depth of interpersonal connection and collective presence that we were able to embody and cultivate with one another in this consciously facilitated space.