New Spirits – Reading Deleuze in India
Consciousness exists only in connection with other consciousness
There is a strange place within me, there where the word Self tries to point something out. That place of stillness and calm where I am with myself and look out for the Self. A place deep in the heart, free of ties to the outside world, a place where being alone feels right. No expectations are active there; other people are certainly present in memory or in thought, but they have no influence. That place where the word Self…
Weiterlesen
First Encounters with Ragas As a teenager, I listened to ragas for hours. I knew nothing about them. I looked up a little: microtonality, meditation, sequence of tones. I understood no more than that. But they were the deepest musical experiences — a meditation to music. To this day, ragas lead me inward or into deep states of insight that are not rational. Rather, they are a way of being in the world. Music as Shared Space and Pure Energy…
Weiterlesen
Sometimes meditation is quite simple and natural. I sit down, enter my body, become aware of my sensory apparatus and of how my consciousness and intellect engage with it, bring everything to rest, and higher consciousness shows itself, another kind of knowledge, space and time, another world of experience … Sometimes, though, it is difficult, and then I learn how meditation really works. I sit down; a chaos of thoughts and feelings spreads out. It takes a long time before…
Weiterlesen
I am fascinated by the synchronicities here in Auroville. The spaces of thought, mind, spirit, body and emotion that intertwine here often do so over several days, seemingly effortlessly, intuitively, lightly. I was exhausted. A friend had left his body, as people say here. The community had provided support for over a month; many had grown closer. The death ceremony Karumadhi was held in a small circle, a particular kind of Puja on the 16th day, when the soul leaves…
Weiterlesen
Yesterday I fell asleep expecting to get up early and meditate. I set the alarm for 6 o’clock. In the evening, a French yoga teacher and mountain guide tells me about the early morning hours in India, that they are the best for meditation—I already knew that they were good for Ryas. She also spoke about the morning chants in the towns; I remembered the mantra chants in the temples. I woke at 5:30; temple chants could be heard in…
Weiterlesen
Recently I listened to a podcast about dreams and was once again very surprised. The director of the sleep laboratory in Mannheim says that anyone can train themselves to remember dreams. I, at any rate, can do that, so that is true. What still surprises me greatly, however, is the reduction of dreams to the subconscious. Dreams supposedly only make use of stronger images to draw our attention to working on something we neglect in waking consciousness. A pity and…
Weiterlesen
Auroville was founded in 1968 by Mirra Alfasse. The architect Roger Anger developed its city plan. It is modeled on a cosmic spiral nebula. The land made available to Auroville was a dry plateau. A forest has been planted since the early years. There is a beautiful, slow documentary about it (Ever Slow Green (2020) – S.O.S. from Auroville (now), 2021.) Now I have spent my first night sleeping in this forest. The Auroville Center Guest House is a magical…
Weiterlesen
The forest is a wonderful habitat. Recently I heard a little story about a man who whistled a melody whenever he entered the forest. After a while, the animals recognized him by it and accepted his presence. They no longer ran away, sometimes even greeted him. Most of the time we do not see the forest as it is at all, because we often disturb it. Today I was in the forest. Instead of going for a walk as usual,…
Weiterlesen