New Spirits – Reading Deleuze in India
Consciousness exists only in connection with other consciousness
I did not bring much with me to India, a backpackful, mostly clothes, books, technology. But I packed a good pair of headphones and have now bought an external hi-fi sound card for my phone’s USB-C output from Tempotec. It was not exactly cheap, but it is excellent. I was delighted when it arrived today, and of course I tried it out immediately. What a divided experience. The music immediately evoked memories; I reveled in it. I thought of Husserl,…
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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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In the Kena Upanischade it is described how the Self as such does not exist. Who sees in seeing, who hears in hearing? This cannot be answered. In the Christian tradition, a Self was constructed for this. I see, I hear, cogito ergo sum, imago ergo sum… What is that supposed to be, this cogito (I think), this imago (I imagine)? That I which establishes identity, bears responsibility, acts and interacts. It seems clear that thinking, when it is conscious…
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When the internet became accessible to the public, that is, in the mid-1990s, there was the phenomenon of people putting their deepest secrets on the internet. Anonymity, simplicity and speed were seductive. The confession quickly made, anonymity largely preserved, and perhaps there was even this little thrill that someone one knows might read the secrets without knowing who was behind them. These tele-confessions were cathartic. Today this has reversed: Everyone should see what one does without finding out what one…
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Today I dreamed that I was drawing a boundary. I changed something in my life because I could no longer go along with it. My dream gave me an image for this that I could easily understand. Dreams have always occupied me. I dream a lot, colorfully, whole stories; I work through situations, dream of things I would like to do but that are impossible in so-called reality. A few years ago I was at a conference. There was a…
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Today I heard a quotation from Sri Aurobindo. He said, in essence, that each of us has several I’s. That was clear to me. For decades, my experience has been that the different aspects of a personality are many, and that the idea of a subjective identity is a construction. I always regarded the principles of construction as ideological, serving the logic of passports, individual responsibility, and the administration of justice, but also of guilt and atonement, the idea of…
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Some time ago, I spoke with a friend about taking leave of many ideas. I told her that—quite unscientifically—I visit my memories and think about why I no longer find certain ideas interesting, that these are often ideas I engaged with during my studies. Great ideas! From Kant and Hegel, etc. She was quite taken with my account and asked whether I was writing it down. I said: why? I am taking leave, after all. She was disappointed. Did she…
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When I was a teenager, I had lost my heart to someone who lived in Rome. I traveled to the eternal city, without money, without a plan; it was meant to be a surprise. That went somewhat wrong. We ate a pizza together; otherwise I had a lot of time to myself. On one of the hills, I spent many hours looking into the sky. I thought about Einstein. What else. Everything else seemed too banal. There, for the first…
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