New Spirits – Reading Deleuze in India
Consciousness exists only in connection with other consciousness
Learn more about the secret of kolams—a traditional art form in Tamil Nadu in which women draw complex patterns on the streets before sunrise. This practice combines dance, meditation, and contemplation and conveys symbolic messages across generations.
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In India, the books of the Vedas have been held in memory for 3000 years. The Rigveda (10,552 verses), Samaveda (1549 verses), Yajurveda (4001 verses) and Atharvaveda (5977 verses), as well as the Upanishads (about 1800 verses), are passed down from generation to generation. Sanskrit grammar has not changed substantially, and its pronunciation has been handed down with the greatest precision through exact phonetic description. So these texts sound the same today as they did 3000 years ago. They are…
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Yesterday I followed something in my mind that I find difficult to describe. In everyday language, I might say I followed my intuition. But it is a little more complex. I drove to Tiruvannamalai again. It was the last day of the Karthigai Deepam Brahmotsavam Festival. So on December 6, 2022, a fire was created on this mountain, as it has been for 2500 years. Of course there is a story from prehistoric times about this. Brahman, the universal Self,…
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As a teenager, still at school, I began meditating; I still vaguely remember my first meditations from that time. Strength and quiet, concentration—mostly at night. They were very special moments. I did not do it often. As a student I continued meditating very irregularly. I remember some of these meditations, mostly lasting 1–2 hours, as though they had just happened. I always lacked the words (when I forced myself to name it, I reluctantly said transcendental); I also had no…
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I recently met a young Indian man here. He comes from Delhi, and for him South India is also a foreign world, though not as foreign as it is for me. He does not speak Tamil and is also somewhat more composed, or enlightened, in his spirituality, as one might perhaps say. I met him again on the street, and we went to the afternoon school Thamarai on the edge of Auroville, which offers an afternoon program in a village…
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Today I was at a place for village children with special needs (Deepam). Someone from the guesthouse here had invited me to accompany her. It was a kind of ceremony as part of Navarathri in honor of the goddess Saraswathi—she stands for education, prosperity and success. In India today, the objects needed for work were cleaned and consecrated as a kind of thanks. Offerings were brought to them, and there was singing. At the therapy center, alongside figures, books and…
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In 2017 we were in Varanasi. Varanasi is the spiritual center of Hinduism. Whoever is cremated here in the fires that Shiva lit 2,500 years ago and that have been burning ever since is freed from the cycle of suffering.
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Last year I took part in a Zen meditation circle. Less because I understand myself as a Zen Buddhist than because I sought the quiet community in which to pursue my practice. During Dokusan, I allowed myself to actively trace my questions. I gave up much and left it behind. That was surprisingly easy. The ‘teacher’ drew my attention to the fact that the homelessness I am actively setting in motion in practical terms is also a spiritual state. That…
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