New Spirits - Reading Deleuze in India
Consciousness only exists in connection with other consciousness
For many years now, my mind has been filled with emptiness most of the time. My memory isn't good either, and I often repeat words or sentences in my mind without knowing why. Often, it's simply experiences in a word in an endless loop, so to speak, like a mantra. This worried me for a long time. I tried to find excuses and justifications for it. For example, that I've done a lot of mental work and my mind is simply exhausted, down to...
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I'm still at a loss for words. The past few days have been marked by thoughts of the Vedic scriptures. A companion from another life took me to Nishtha Muller, an Aurovilian who has dedicated his life to the Vedic scriptures. For almost 2 hours, in his very humble dwelling in the forest, which he planted himself, he told us about Sanskrit, its roots, grammar, pronunciation, the deep spiritual power of mantras, cultural history, and historical dimensions. His explanations are what most profoundly affected me...
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I didn't take much with me to India, just a backpack full, mostly clothes, books, and electronics. However, I did pack good headphones and recently bought an external Hi-Fi sound card from Tempotec for my USB-C port. It wasn't cheap, but it's excellent. I was really happy when it arrived today, and of course, I tried it out immediately. What a mixed experience. The music immediately brought back memories; I remembered listening to it in...
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Yesterday, I saw two millipedes mating. It was pretty much the most fascinating thing I've seen in a very long time. The creatures intertwined, rubbed, and courted each other. There was rhythm, devotion, entanglement. The two met by chance and after a few minutes, went their separate ways. An encounter. They were two life forms that united to create more life. A life. Today, I then read Deleuze's last...
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Recently, I listened to a podcast about dreams and was once again very surprised. The head of the sleep lab in Mannheim says that anyone can train themselves to remember dreams. I can do that, so that's true. But what really surprises me is the reduction of dreams to the subconscious. Dreams, he says, merely use stronger images to alert us to something we are neglecting in our waking consciousness. A shame and sad, and at the same time telling, how pathetic this...
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Curry! Every morning there are wonderfully mild Indian dishes. They are light and complex, with what seems like a thousand and one spices. Lunch is Solarkitchen, the community canteen, simple, good vegetarian food. The principle is healthy food for everyone, affordable for all. In the evening, those wonderful dishes again. What's not available: alcohol, meat, or fish, sugar. Eggs are a luxury. I used to eat a lot of chocolate in Germany, but now it's far too sweet for me. I treat myself to a complex vitamin...
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For three weeks now, I've been reading in India: Deleuze, the Upanishads, Sri Aurobindo. In between, I meditate sometimes. The rest is still a remnant of everyday life from the New World. Reading news, consuming entertainment media, organizing things that don't actually matter here but require continuity so they don't break apart in the Old World, and the New World. So, reading... It seems to me that I've been preparing myself for decades to read here. My thinking oscillates between Deleuze and the Upanishads. This wisdom in...
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Today I was in a choir lesson. What happened there was a very intense shared experience. I'll try to describe it as objectively as possible. We (about 60 participants) started with breathing exercises, ‚warmed up‘ our vocal cords, sang four-part chords, and scaled the pitch. The choirmaster pointed out that we weren't here by chance. He said we were in Auroville because something had drawn us here. I think most people in the room understood what he meant, for others perhaps...
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