“the eye thinks even more than it listens” (Deleuze) I now recall that, before I started reading Deleuse, I had been wrestling with a process aesthetics. I had cobbled together a 100-page manuscript, with notes, quotes, structural sketches. I wanted to move away from the idea that art consists of objects perceived in a particular form, because this leads to two essential threads of consideration: 1.) What constitutes an object we designate as art, and 2.) why is the perception...
I'm slowly approaching Sanskrit. On Thursdays, Nishtha holds a seminar on the Rigveda. The joint recitation in Sanskrit, the detailed analysis of the translation, Nishtha's philological considerations, and the explanations of the psychology of the gods open up access to these ‚sacred‘ texts. I remember my Latin studies, the Indo-European roots, the sounds that echo in the Ragas, phonetics as an expression of existence, language as sound and vibration, communication as rhythm. The breath of life, yoga, vitality, thinking in...
The last time I seriously wondered what I should do was during college. I studied philosophy, and I was often asked what I wanted to do with it. What a stupid question, I always thought. It's an inner drive, almost a compulsion, that you can't resist. Any such attempt must fail, there's only thinking ahead. So it wasn't really a question of what I should do, or what was to be done,...
Yesterday I fell asleep with the expectation of waking up early to meditate. I set my alarm for 6 AM. In the evening, a French yoga instructor and mountain guide told me that the early morning hours in India are the best for meditation – I already knew they were good for *ryas*. She also spoke of the morning chants in the cities; I remembered the mantra chants in the temples. I woke up at 5:30 AM. Temple chants were...
I remember I've always stared into the fireplace since I was a child. Many people do that, I think. Fire is fascinating. In the Vedas, Agni is the god of fire, one of the 5 elements alongside water, air, earth, and ether. The Greeks also have these elements. I didn't understand this for a very long time and found it ‚unscientific‘. I thought of elements in terms of physics and chemistry, and there it only makes limited sense. Mythology Within the...
For many years I've known I wanted to practice ‚yoga‘ but never got around to it. Similar to meditation, I didn't feel ready for it, or I was put off by Western esoteric forms that ultimately view both meditation and yoga as self-optimization. Meditation and yoga are philosophical, spiritual, and ultimately transcendent practices; overcoming one's self, opening oneself to a greater consciousness. All of this seems so clear now. My ‚study‘ of Indian philosophy is slowly taking shape...
They were four magical days. The Auroville Film Institute organized a residency with Ustad Bahauddin Dagar from November 7th to 10th, 2022. It took place in the Bhumika Hall, Bharat Nivas Auroville. Dhrupad – The Film (1983). Ustad Bahauddin Dagar is a Rudraveena player. His family has been playing the instrument for 20 generations! His father and uncle (Zia Mohiyuddin Dagar and Fariduddin Dagar) were true masters. There is also the wonderful film Dhrupad by the Indian director Mani Kaul. Mani Kaul…
The Solitude Farm in Auroville is a ‚food forest.‘ This is one of the few English terms that is difficult to express with a compound word in German (Esswald?). We don't have anything like it, and it's difficult for us to think about it. An orchard that we would let become overgrown with other edible annual and shorter-lived plants until we have a dense jungle of edible plants... I'm looking for a word for this. It's the opposite of a ‚food desert,‘ for which we also have...
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