New Spirits – Reading Deleuze in India
Consciousness exists only in connection with other consciousness
The last time I seriously asked myself what I should do was during my studies. I studied philosophy and was often asked what I wanted to do with it. What a stupid question, I always thought. It is an inner urge, almost a compulsion, that you cannot oppose. Every such attempt must fail; there is only a thinking forward. So it was not really the question of what I should do, or what was to be done, or how the…
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For many years now, my mind has been filled with emptiness most of the time. My memory is not good either, and I often repeat words or sentences in my mind without knowing why. Often they are simply experiences in a word on an endless loop, in a sense like a mantra. For a long time this worried me a great deal. I tried to find excuses and justifications for it. For example, that I had done a great deal…
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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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Today I was in the Matrimandir for the first time. Six years ago I took a guided tour; that is a prerequisite for going there alone later. It also makes sense to have a rough orientation as to what kind of place it is, how to behave there, what would disturb others. During my Monday meditations in the Zen circle in Bremen, I was often carried here. It was a place of peace and strength. Sometimes it seemed as though…
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My perception changes when I arrive in India. The smell, the sounds, the slowness, the intuition, the acceptance, hope are wonderful things I see. Others may see stench, noise, inefficiency, irrationality and resignation to fate, despair. I think it is this other gaze that allows me to feel at ease in India. So I have had quite wonderful experiences. I have learned that different people have different views of the same things. I learned by going from A to B…
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On a boulevard in Paris, a café and bad music, sun and many people. So many people want to be seen. They present themselves as busy, sexy, cool, knowing, adventurous, athletic, educated, cultivated, or indifferent. Many want the others to take notice. They see this as what they want to be. Perhaps they live their lives in a particular way, happy and content, or controlled by others and bored, cast out or privileged. That is the beautiful thing about Paris…
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Autobahns have always been special places for me. Most of the time, I was not under time pressure; rarely did I have to get from A to B within a certain time. Rather, autobahns are travel routes. There, I find myself in in-between states, a kind of no-man’s-land with infinitely many possibilities. This opens up spaces for thought. Often they are simply empty. The brain is occupied with moving safely through traffic. It is a pleasant kind of occupation; consciousness…
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Life is so complex, and there are so many different ways of living. There is no right or wrong life. Life is a gift. But what do you say about the negative energies, destruction and aggression, greed and resentment? All of that belongs to it. There is only acceptance. But acceptance does not mean approving of everything, nor tolerating everything. If a community decides to establish rules and sanction violations of these rules, that too is a form of acceptance.…
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