We do, after all, live only in the moment. Often this sounds like an accusation. You should not live only in the moment; think of the future, be conscious of your responsibility. In many modern societies, living in the moment is considered a kind of dreaminess: unproductive and escapist. For those who have time — beyond mere survival in a capitalist, socialist, or otherwise organized economy — to set aside some time for themselves, the great driving force seems to…
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…
Movement Instead of Rootedness Recently I asked myself whether I really want to be grounded at all. Am I a tree that drives its roots into the earth and does not move, but grows in the surroundings where the seed once sprouted? Or do I perhaps want to be a rock in the surf, washed over by water, yielding a little over millennia and losing itself in the sand?My image of human existence is actually a different one: rather that…
An apple, a strawberry, a melon or a passion fruit, a banana or plum, a tomato or cucumber, a bean or a grain, a coconut and a pomegranate. Fruits want to be consumed; they want to give pleasure, to nourish, and at times also to intoxicate. They shimmer and ferment, decay and give off scents; they catch the eye, bewitch the senses, generate pleasure and enjoyment. They are not quite like this by chance. Fruits mirror a desire in those…
I am thinking about Deleuze, about the movement of becoming. In order to extinguish the sound of the stream, I must become the sound; in order to enter the stream, I become part of it. When I dwell in the forest, I participate in the stillness and the chirping, the rustling of the leaves. I become one with nature. That Romantic idea — becoming one with nature, with a beloved person, with the cosmos, with God — produces blessedness, rapture,…
A koan, then. I had often heard of them, those mysterious riddles of Zen that are meant to lead the mind out of the purely rational and open new forms of insight. I decided not to read much about them, nor to ask others about them. I wanted to receive one from a Zen master. During Doksan he asked me a few things about myself. We closed our eyes, he smiled, and said I should imagine a forest with a…
Form is empty. It has a shape, but no substance; it is neither matter nor energy. Form is consciousness — to see something as something brings form forth. Yet form is also functional: substance, matter, and energy interact according to laws. As part of consciousness, they interact in form. Form is emptiness. Form is consciousness. Consciousness interacts with consciousness. From form arises matter — not the other way around. Matter does not bring form forth. The flow of energy and…
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…
