New Spirits – Reading Deleuze in India
Consciousness exists only in connection with other consciousness
Ever since I first heard of shadow work decades ago, I have wondered what exactly it is. I always thought of deep abysses in the soul, traumas, taboos, secrets one had shared with no one because it was too shameful to speak about them. I thought shadows were what we hide from ourselves and from others. And there is probably something to that idea. But now I have noticed that the shadows first appear elsewhere. They are, in fact, more…
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The spider brings forth its own web. This image from the Upanishad invites deep meditation on how nature brings out a thread that it forms into a complex symmetry. Looking at the spider, the thread, and the web—its function and the source of the complex pattern—we have an image that invites deep speculation about mantra, tantra, and yantra, about art and knowledge, about creation and information. The 5th lecture explores art and scientific visualizations of sacred symmetry in a field…
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Play — Misstep In the West, I used to think that play had to do with games, and that games had to do with rules. To play a game means to enter a space restricted by rules, and within those parameters the player can develop strategies in order to act according to the rules, with the aim of winning. There is the larger field of game theory, which has been applied to sociology and other disciplines; there are computer simulations…
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I ended my nighttime meditation a little early to move into writing meditation. Suddenly a few things seemed clear to me. The need to align one’s own body in meditation, to find the right position, which for me means following the movements, the tensions and relaxations of the muscles, the skeleton, the spine. Then to observe the breath, breathing in and out, the turning point of the breath, the pause in which to observe oneself, how thoughts begin to loosen,…
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My morning meditation is becoming something of a routine, though after a handful of sessions one can probably hardly say that yet. It is more a stretch of road, a path, or an exploration. Like hiking in the mountains: with the summit in view, hiking along paths, on ridges, through valleys and rivers, past rock faces, through scree and stone, meadows and forests, and beyond the vegetation line onto glaciers in the snow, the mountains become a metaphor for the…
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Many people have the idea that we live in a world made of matter, following the laws of physics and various theories, such as the theory of evolution. This is strange, for matter as such does not really exist; E=mc² stands for this. I do not really understand this formula, but it stands symbolically for everything ultimately being energy, possibly even simply vibration, as string theory claims. Then there is the physics of the macrocosm and the microcosm. They contradict…
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When I read a book, watch a film, immerse myself in a painting, or take part in a performance, what exactly is happening? It is, after all, the case that I experience something; images, feelings, and experiences are awakened within me. Imagine a film, a book, a play, or a painting about human relationships, action, history, or fairy tales. So you are sitting somewhere and looking at something that tells a kind of story. Now, what is the difference between…
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Outside my door there is soft red sandy ground. It is swept several times a week with a bundle of palm leaves and looks beautiful. I am still thinking about the same temple in Irumbai. Its history is becoming more and more complex, and so I am now immersing myself in Tantra philosophy. A few months ago I attended a workshop on it. We learned a small meditation exercise that I tried again today: Choose two objects and look at…
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