I am in a sesshin, a 2.5-day short form of intensive Zen meditation. Thoughts and images about the artificial general intelligence (AGI) that we are currently creating keep coming to me. More and more people from the fields of humanities, psychology, or team organization are showing themselves to be impressed, surprised, or anxious regarding AGI's capabilities. It seems the Turing test was passed some time ago, and we are now watching an intelligence develop that seems superior to us. This intelligence...
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...
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…
I woke up from a nightmare at 4 AM. I was talking to Will in Apt about a strange irritation in my perception of time. I described how time was fragmenting and some parts were simply missing. It was seconds or minutes, and as I tried to dive into the time to describe it better, it went black. I screamed for help, I was blind, and I woke up. It was one of those dreams where I seemed to die. Immediately...
For several weeks, I've been living with a neurotic dog. She used to bark a lot as long as she perceived me as a stranger. She kept her distance, she was scared. After a few weeks, she accepted me, she approaches and wants to be petted. Now she lies in front of my door and keeps watch; she protects me. What happened? I haven't changed my attitude towards her. I have little connection to dogs and don't pay much attention to her. I'm relatively indifferent. With her...
(this is an old text of mine, found in the archives. It is strange to read it again, as it shows to me how desperately I tried to get out of the trap of representation and the urge to embrace a philosophy of immanence. I went through so many ideas, looked at so many artists – I never did anything with the text, as my self-critical voice didn’t consider it to be any good. I have to say I like...
Recently, I stumbled upon David Hume again. I remember how intense studying his writings was in Heidelberg. We really delved deep into the text there, very meticulously and systematically. It was the opposite of those Anglo-American intellectual history lectures. So, I came across Hume's concept of taste as the core of his ‚aesthetic’ theory. I thought of Rasa and began a conversation with the AI. Larger contexts became clear to me, lines I had never seen before. However, I was a bit...
The series of conversations with the AI is unedited; it is the machine (ChatGPT4.0) that is speaking... Translation from DeepL Prompt: Please write a conversation between David Hume, Immanuel Kant, Abhinavagupta, Bharata Muni, Zeami Motokiyo, Gilles Deleuze and a Brahmin priest. Start with the question: What is taste? ChatGPT Scene: A serene garden with a round table in the center. The philosophers and the Brahmin priest are seated there, each representing a different epoch and culture, yet the timeless question of...
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