New Spirits - Reading Deleuze in India
Consciousness only exists in connection with other consciousness
I think about Deleuze, the movement of becoming. To extinguish 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 take part in the silence and the chirping, the rustling of the leaves. I become one with nature. [...]
A koan, then. I'd heard of them before, those mysterious Zen riddles that are 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 nor to ask others about them. I wanted to get one from a Zen master. While Doksan asked me a […]
Traditional Indian music, the raga, is melodic with respect to a fundamental tone. Western music is harmonic, meaning simultaneous and complex. In the West, a lot is thought in terms of structures; for a while, there was a lot of talk about structuralist and post-structuralist thought. Complex systems are found everywhere: in philosophy, in canonical texts and visual systems, in technology [...]
My morning meditation is becoming a bit of a routine, although one can hardly say that after a handful of times. It's more of a stretch, a path, or an exploration. Like hiking in the mountains: with the summit in view, it's hiking through the paths, along the ridges, through the valleys and rivers, past the rock faces, [...]
Yesterday I had a long conversation about the origin of thought. Which comes first, the words or the thoughts. There are of course very different forms of thinking. Visual, musical, analytical, synthetic, performative thinking, etc... There is thinking on the level of intuition, there is thinking in memory, there is vision [...]
Many of my friends have a strong will; they are creative, they design, they make, they act, they do… They confront the world with their own will and add to it or refuse to accept it as it is. That generates creativity, change. It is the power of Shakti, the creative energy of the universe. I am different; I observe, […]
Curry! Every morning there are mildly spiced, wonderful Indian dishes. They are light and complex, there seem to be 1001 spices in them. At lunchtime, Solarkitchen, the community canteen, is simple, vegetarian and good. The principle is healthy food for everyone, everyone can afford it. In the evening, these wonderful dishes again. What they don't serve: Alcohol, meat or fish, [...]
What should I take with me to India? I want to live a different life, in a different society, with different ideas and goals. It's warm there, life will be simple. Apart from the basics like a few items of clothing, I'll need my technical devices such as my laptop, cell phone and camera. And what else? A good flashlight, because the field paths there [...]
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