I am back in Europe for a short time and I see a busyness, an energy of constant doing. Working, discussing, cleaning up, running errands, attending to obligations, organizing, optimizing, presenting, questioning, exchanging. Something is constantly being done. Having something to do seems important, doing nothing seems unproductive and requires justification. However, not being productive has many important qualities, so inaction is sometimes a form of resistance, or quiet contemplation can be understood as inner work, a work,...
I'm thinking about Deleuze, the movement of becoming. To erase the sound of the stream, I must become the sound; to enter the stream, I become part of it. When I linger in the forest, I participate in the silence and the chirping, the rustling of leaves. I become one with nature. That notion from Romanticism – oneness with nature, with a loved one, with the cosmos, with God – generates bliss, ecstasy, bliss, ananda.
So, a koan. I'd heard of them before, those mysterious Zen riddles meant to lead the mind out of the purely rational and open up new forms of insight. I decided not to read much about them or ask others about them. I wanted to get one from a Zen master. While Doksan was asking me a few things about myself. We closed our eyes, he smiled, and told me to imagine a forest with a small stream flowing through it. When...
Bodhi Zendo I had ordered a book to take with me to Bodhi Zendo: „Zen in the Art of Ink Painting“ by Katharina Shepherd-Kobel. It's a beautiful book, it speaks to me and nurtures my desire to learn ink painting and deepen my meditation. When I started Zen meditation 3.5 years ago, the urge to go to Auroville awoke. The meditation in Bremen was strict, we followed the rules, eyes half-open focused on a point, recited sutras, had walking meditations, tea ceremonies...
This is Tantra. This is divine. The crucial question is whether such a sacred encounter is only possible in romantic love, as tradition and romance suggest – or if it can arise when we fully open our being, beyond mind and reason, beyond ego, desire, or obligation. I believe it can. But it has nothing to do with climax as the goal. It's about intimacy. It can be as simple as a...
The spider brings forth its own web. This image from the Upanishads invites deep meditation on how nature brings forth a thread that it weaves into a complex symmetry. Looking at the spider, the thread, and the web—its function and the source of the complex pattern—we have an image that invites deep speculation about mantra, tantra, and yantra, about art and knowledge, about creation and information. The 5th lecture explores art and scientific visualizations of sacred symmetry in a field…
Auro Art World organized a series of 6 lectures at the Centre d’Art multimedia room in Auroville. These lectures, conducted by Dr. Christoph Kluetsch, explore connections between art, philosophy, and spirituality, bridging Eastern and Western traditions to illuminate the enduring questions of existence, consciousness, and creativity. The series is offered on the first Tuesday of every month. Fourth lecture – Tuesday, January 7, 2025, at 5 PM. Who in our consciousness experiences sensations? How are sensations synthesized? How do matter, vibration, consciousness, and self connect? And how can we share sensations…
The snake in paradise seduced Eve into eating a fruit from the forbidden Tree of Knowledge, which distinguishes between good and evil. Why was the Tree of Knowledge forbidden? Why did the snake seduce Eve? What did the fruit taste like? When I asked myself why I wanted to talk about this, I felt like Eve standing before the tree, talking to a snake who was trying to seduce me into eating the fruit. Do...
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