Creating a sense of place; a meaningful urban landscape has been one of the great challenges of the contemporary built world. Urban fabric once molded and sanctified by religion, myth, and subtle forces, is presently understood through formal and functional issues. This thesis contends that an important part of the experience of place is through understanding the landscape as a part of a greater narrative of spiritual or energetic significance. In a contemporary context, this can be engaged through the conception of the human body. The human body has held a special role with regards to the built world. We assess the world with the aid of our physical bodies and our relationship to space is shaped by the understanding of ourselves as psychological and spiritual creatures. Currently, North American culture is undergoing great change in the comprehension of the body. This includes a reality where the energetic or subtle body is recognized as a valid element of human existence and an inherent mind-body connection is being supported by advances in the world of science. There is also an increasing awareness that the divide between human beings and the natural environment is detrimental to both physical and mental health. The city of Toronto is in a period of redefinition and this new interest in the human condition can play a central role in the development of the city fabric. Its main civic avenue, University Avenue, becomes the site for an urban project guided by respect for the physical, energetic and cyclical nature of the human being. A network of public spaces is created that allows people to reconnect to the city as a part of a narrative of body, energy, and the cycles of the natural world.

Creating a sense of place; a meaningful urban landscape has been one of the great challenges of the contemporary built world. Urban fabric once molded and sanctified by religion, myth, and subtle forces, is presently understood through formal and functional issues. This thesis contends that an important part of the experience of place is through understanding the landscape as a part of a greater narrative of spiritual or energetic significance. In a contemporary context, this can be engaged through the conception of the human body. The human body has held a special role with regards to the built world. We assess the world with the aid of our physical bodies and our relationship to space is shaped by the understanding of ourselves as psychological and spiritual creatures. Currently, North American culture is undergoing great change in the comprehension of the body. This includes a reality where the energetic or subtle body is recognized as a valid element of human existence and an inherent mind-body connection is being supported by advances in the world of science. There is also an increasing awareness that the divide between human beings and the natural environment is detrimental to both physical and mental health. The city of Toronto is in a period of redefinition and this new interest in the human condition can play a central role in the development of the city fabric. Its main civic avenue, University Avenue, becomes the site for an urban project guided by respect for the physical, energetic and cyclical nature of the human being. A network of public spaces is created that allows people to reconnect to the city as a part of a narrative of body, energy, and the cycles of the natural world.

The chakra system consists of seven energetic vortexes ascending up the spine that connect to every aspect of human existence. These vortexes become blocked and unblocked through the course of a life, these openings and closings have physiological and mental repercussions. Knowledge of these physical and mental manifestations, indicate where the chakra practitioner is in need, the practitioner can then manipulate their mind and body to create a desired outcome. These manipulations are based upon physical exercises and associative meditations for the purpose of expanding the human experience. As a poem can be thought of as the articulation of the human experience, and the chakra system can be thought of as a means to understand and enhance that experience, it is interesting and worthwhile leap to explore the how the chakras can develop and refresh the way we read and write poetry. This critical preface closely reads seven poems, one through each chakra, finding what the chakras unveil. Here, each chakra is considered for its dynamic creative capabilities and for its beneficial potentiality in the reading and writing process, finding each chakra provides tools: idea generators with the potential to free the poet from usual patterns of creativity while broadening vision and expressivity. In this collection of poetry poems are experiences chopped into consumable units that show and tell the constant negotiation between what is actually happening and the stories we tell ourselves about what is happening.

The intention of this project is to make a case for the cakras by finding their place in contemporary discourse. The assumption that allows for this project is that the structure and context of the cakras as psycho-physical phenomenon are not sufficiently established in scholarship. The method employed is to illuminate the cakras, which are primarily addressed as historical/textual entities, as phenomenological and psychological entities. This will be done through the phenomenology of Maurice Merleau-Ponty and the additions to his depiction of the lived body as per YUASA Yasuo, who introduces the “unconscious quasi-body” (i.e., the subtle body) as a level of the body of which one may become aware. The cakras will also be presented as that which function similarly to psychological entities, introducing the depth psychology and commentary of C.G. Jung. By doing so, the human component of the cakras will be drawn out of historical/textual matters and into the lived experience of the human body where they may become the subject of phenomenological and psychological analysis. Through arguing for the addition of these standpoints, future dialog with other disciplines, especially contemporary cakra practitioners, may be facilitated. / Religion

The aim of this study is to investigate the resemblance between the developmental stages and developmental tasks of the seven chakras (Judith, 1996) and Erik Erikson’s developmental theory (Bee, 1996). The researcher aims to describe the similarities between the chakra system and developmental psychology. The discussion of literature was divided into two components. Firstly, Stages 1-8 of Erikson’s developmental theory were discussed. Secondly, the chakra system was discussed. The researcher discussed the following concepts to explain the term chakra system: the human and the body; chakra definitions and associations, chakra names, and the colours associated with the chakras. For the purposes of this study, the functions of the separate chakras and the development of the chakra system were focal points. The study was done at a private yoga organisation in Durbanville, Cape Town, where the participants of the study regularly took part in classes. These participants were chosen because of their reliability (adults and regular participation) and their receptivity for alternative healing. Their age and gender was also relevant to the study, because the researcher used non-probability sampling. The main prerequisites for individuals to participate in the study were regular attendance and the individuals’ status as adults. / Dissertation (MA(Couns Psych))--University of Pretoria, 2005. / Psychology / unrestricted

This dissertation explores the integration of Thai traditional music in Chakra, for wind band, by Narong Prangchareon. Nipat Kanchanahud explores how Narong, inspired by Eastern philosophy, integrates elements of Thai traditional music and the types, styles, scales, and dialects of Thai culture with the formal elements of Western music and the instrumentation of the Western wind band. Chakra uniquely spans Eastern and Western cultures, creating a new musical language for both worlds to appreciate and enjoy. Further, the composition richly demonstrates the viability of the wind band as an international medium. The orchestration of Chakra reveals Narong’s musical lineage from Edgard Varèse through Chen Yi. A conductor’s guide, included with this dissertation, is designed to aid and encourage performances of Chakra throughout the world.

La presente investigación tiene como objetivo identificar aquellos factores socioeconómicos y culturales, incluidos los aportes de la cooperación internacional, que influyen en el bienestar de las comunidades, para lo cual fue necesario indagar las percepciones que sobre el término “desarrollo” tiene un ser comunitario o (“achik runa”). En primer lugar, se expone la evolución de la construcción del Estado ecuatoriano hasta llegar a un Estado plurinacional e incluir el sumak kawsay/buen vivir en la Constitución como una manera de reivindicar los derechos de los pueblos indígenas. En el andamiaje teórico se pone en discusión las corrientes convencionales del desarrollo con otras alternativas posdesarrollistas como el propio desarrollo local y el sumak kawsay, como una forma de refutar la falsa universalidad del proceso de desarrollo. La metodología de la investigación se basa en un enfoque cuantitativo, cualitativo y comparativo que determina los factores que inciden en el desarrollo, se extrae las diferencias entre las variables y categorías que usa el estudio del desarrollo convencional y las dimensiones y variables construidas a partir de los principios del sumak kawsay. Para lo cual como un aporte al campo del estudio se propone la construcción de un “indicador sintético o compuesto” entendido desde la CEPAL como una representación simplificada que busca resumir un concepto multidimensional en función de una o más variables a fin de medir el desarrollo comunitario. El Índice del sumak kawsay construido con 4 dimensiones que son Comunidad, Familia, Chakra y Biodiversidad permite establecer que sus pobladores prefieren hablar de un sistema de vida armónico en equilibrio con la naturaleza y no de un modelo de desarrollo, la idea de desarrollo y subdesarrollo es inexistente en la cosmovisión indígena. Desde esta medición, los resultados arrojan que los factores determinantes del buen vivir por la dimensión comunidad son: el rol de la mujer, las vías de acceso a sus viviendas, la pertenencia a la agrupación social, el tipo de emprendimiento y el sentirse bien con respecto a su familia y su identidad cultural. Le sigue en importancia en la dimensión familia: los medios de transporte para llegar a su hogar, así como la provisión de servicios básicos y comunicacionales. En la tercera vinculada al medio ambiente y la biodiversidad valoran el lugar que viven, con el cuidado de la tierra, de los páramos de donde provienen las fuentes de agua. En la dimensión chakra los factores relevantes están relacionados con la siembra de sus cultivos, y el cuidado de sus animales los cuales utilizan para celebraciones, fiestas, ofrendas, donaciones y la producción agroecológica. A manera de conclusión se puede indicar que el sumak kawsay como alternativa frente al capitalismo enuncia la complementariedad y equilibrio que debe existir en la relación de hombres y mujeres con la biodiversidad, donde cada ser humano se debería sentir parte de la pachamama y verla como ser vital para su propia existencia. Finalmente, el estudio refleja que la contribución de la Cooperación Internacional es poco significativa en el territorio.

The artist discusses her Master of Fine Arts exhibition, Symbiosis, hosted by the Natural History Museum in Gray, Tennessee, from May 1st, through August 1st 2008. The exhibit includes works produced during the artist's three years of study at East Tennessee State University. The subject of the exhibition consists of drawings of the elephant's place in history through its relationship with humans. Topics explored include the elephant as victim, servant, god, prey, and ultimately as teacher. Discussion will also include artistic influences such as Sue Coe, Deborah Butterfield, Franz Marc, and Frank Noelker as well as theoretical influences by Carl G. Jung, James Hillman, and Jerome S. Bernstein.