I come by way of the roads of Western thought. Since Roman times they have been well paved; they connect centers of power and have established a logic of knowledge exchange all their own. They connect points. Their nodes are central, while the path itself is bothersome, laborious. On these roads, a culture of monuments developed; they led to accumulations of knowledge and power. Division of labor led to specialization and progress. A society emerges in which the individual is…
Sometimes I react strangely. Someone does something unexpected, and an insecurity in me is awakened. How do I classify it, and how do I react to it — and what does reacting mean here? It is therefore about expectation, about a being in the world that anticipates. The future is considered predictable, and is also seen as such. If I do this or that, then someone will perhaps react in this way or another. But sometimes it happens that the…
Ramana, one of India’s great enlightened ones, lived in Tiruvannamalai. At the center of his teaching stands the concept of the Self: its emptiness and, at the same time, its immeasurable vastness. His teaching is simple; he does not follow a long tradition of interpretation. He was a simple man who meditated on the mountain and held satsangs. He was a contemporary of Aurobindo; people listened to both of them and compared their radically different approaches. I am in Tiruvannamalai…
Contemporary art is obsessed with the “next step”: the avant-garde, the unprecedented, the new and unique. But in the hunt for the new, we lose sight of something essential: artistic practice itself. Artistic practice is not only about crossing boundaries. It belongs to those who use art for self-exploration, spiritual practice, healing, therapy, or craft. Yet in today’s culture, especially in the West, we act as though progress were the only thing that counts. At its core, however, art is…
This is Tantra. This is divine. The decisive question is whether such a sacred encounter is possible only in romantic love, as tradition and Romanticism suggest — or whether it can arise when we open our being completely, beyond intellect and reason, beyond ego, desire, or obligation. I believe it can. But it has nothing to do with climax as a goal. It is about intimacy. It can be as simple as a touch, a smile, a heartbeat — sparks…
It is so beautiful and also so sad to live in a world that sees the West as foreign. I take this perspective more and more and don’t understand much anymore. The obsession with career, comfort, security, prosperity, accuracy, correctness, know-it-all attitude and arrogance, ignorance and intolerance. All this becomes clearer, it becomes almost evident. I was sick for a few days, and as many people do, I watched movies, nothing inspiring. Series garbage. I haven’t done that for a…
Here in Auroville, the people in charge of Bharat Nivas recently removed a play from the program. The reason given was that some in the community had taken offense at it, even before it was performed. This raises questions. What may art do, when is a ban justified? Bound up with this, of course, is the question: what is the task of art, what should art do? The question invites reflection on the role of art in general, here in…
