What does it mean to understand another person? It is easy to understand someone facing us when we are of the same opinion, because then we are simply agreeing with ourselves. We may even enjoy seeing our own thinking mirrored in the other, enriched by a slightly different perspective, more colorful, more alive, more energetic, because both are pleased to have found someone on the same wavelength. This mirroring, the mirror neurons, gives us a feeling of appreciation, of being…
The traditional music of India, the raga, is melodic in relation to a fundamental tone. Western music is harmonic, that is, simultaneous and complex. In the West, much thinking takes place in terms of structures; for a time, there was much talk of structuralist and poststructuralist thought. Complex systems are found everywhere: in philosophy, in canonical texts and systems of images, in technology and models that explain the world. One essential underlying idea is atomistic thinking. The idea is that…
The Enlightenment — Spiritual Enlightenment: the Paradox of Enlightenment Enlightenment is a tricky thing. Recently someone asked me whether I was seeking enlightenment. I faltered a little. But because I valued this person especially highly, I tried to be honest — yes, no, um, I don’t quite know, really I am, if I am completely honest … Why this hedging? Why not simply say directly: yes, I am, as she did when she replied that she thought most people were…
I ended my nighttime meditation a little early to move into writing meditation. Suddenly a few things seemed clear to me. The need to align one’s own body in meditation, to find the right position, which for me means following the movements, the tensions and relaxations of the muscles, the skeleton, the spine. Then to observe the breath, breathing in and out, the turning point of the breath, the pause in which to observe oneself, how thoughts begin to loosen,…
Fate, karma, causality, laws of nature, determinism—all these are different expressions of a conception that the universe follows a predictable logic. They imply that what happened arose consistently from what preceded it, and that the now is likewise determined by what came before. We consider this logic reasonable and rational, logically correct. Yet if we assume that the future is likewise determined by the now and the past, we dismiss this as superstition, irrationality, a lack of scientific rigor. We…
When the rational mind roams through the worlds of knowledge, rummages through the library or searches for the causal laws of the universe, this is meticulous work building systems of knowledge. At first these systems have little in common with the world of experience, let alone the inner world. Only through contemplation does the mind pause and behold the systematized, abstract representation as an image of the world, as a worldview. It is intuition that anchors this image in a…
For several weeks now, I have been living with a neurotic dog. She barked a lot, as long as she still perceived me as a stranger. She kept her distance, was frightened. After a few weeks, she accepted me, approaches and wants to be petted. Now she lies in front of my door and keeps watch; she protects me. What happened? I did not change my attitude towards her. I have little connection to dogs and pay her little attention.…
I am slowly penetrating a little deeper into superficiality. Concepts I have taken in from various systems of knowledge, such as the Vedas, Agamas, Shastras, are slowly connecting. I see rough root systems. For example, how the 5 elements (water, fire, earth, ether and air), as a starting point in the teachings of the Vedas, develop further in Vastu or Ayurveda, that is, into space and the body. I see how various systems of knowledge intertwine in the temple and…
