I have known for many years that I would like to practise yoga, but have never done so. Similar to meditation, I didn't feel ready for it, or was put off by Western esoteric forms that ultimately see both meditation and yoga as self-optimization. Meditation and yoga are philosophical, spiritual and ultimately transcending practices, [...]
It was a magical four days. The Auroville Film Institute organized a residency with Ustad Bahauddin Dagar from 7 to 10 November 2022. It took place at Bhumika Hall, Bharat Niva's Auroville. Dhrupad - the movie (1983) Ustad Bahauddin Dagar is a Rudraveena player. His family has been playing the instrument for 20 generations! His father and [...]
Solitude Farm in Auroville is a 'food forest'. This is one of the few English terms that is difficult to express in German with a compound noun (Esswald?). We don't have anything like that, and it's hard to think about. An orchard that we would let run wild with other edible annuals and short-lived plants until [...]
For many years now, my mind has been filled with emptiness most of the time. My memory is not good either and I often repeat words or phrases in my mind without knowing why. Often it is simply experience in a word in an endless loop, like a mantra so to speak. This worried me a lot for a long time. [...]
I recently met a young Indian here. He comes from Delhi and for him, South India is also a foreign world, although not as foreign as it is for me. He doesn't speak Tamil and his spirituality is also a bit more serene or enlightened, as you might say. I met him again on the street [...]
Schopenhauer, who was a great admirer of the Upanishads, wrote a small book „Ueber die vierfache Wurzel des Satzes vom zureichenden Grunde“ (1847). He identifies 4 forms of causality, e.g. small cause - large effect, or large cause - small effect etc... I was fascinated by this because it offers a broader understanding than the purely [...]
In 2017 we were in Varanasi. Varanasi is the spiritual center of Hinduism. Those who are burnt here in the fires that Shiva lit 2500 years ago and which have been burning ever since are freed from the cycle of suffering.
In vielen Filmen kommen gute Hotels vor, die zentral gelegen sind und wo die politische, intellektuelle und wirtschaftliche Elite sich trifft. Ich habe das immer als etwas sehr Elitäres, Koloniales und Machthungriges wahrgenommen. Was mir in den Filmen entgangen ist, und wahrscheinlich auch selten dort Thema war, ist die Vernetzung, die an solchen Orten stattfindet. […]