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 them alternately, thinking the name of the object. Then look at the objects alternately and think the name of the other object each time. And then look between the objects. I varied this a little; rules are not really my strong point.
So I walked back and forth outside my door between my motorcycle and a bush. There are 35 steps between them, and when I walked toward the motorcycle, I thought “bush,” and when I turned around and walked toward the bush, I thought “motorcycle.” What happens? At first it seemed silly. Okay. Then I noticed that I cannot think this way. Also okay. Then I noticed that I cannot see analytically this way. It was slowly getting interesting. Walking toward the motorcycle and thinking “bush,” I could not analyze what the motorcycle was like, for example, that it had two wheels or was blue. When I did that, I had to let go of the bush. So back to thinking-bush and seeing-motorcycle. The motorcycle was clearly visible, but only as an object, just as it presented itself to me.
Naturally, I now wonder to what extent language determines thinking and perceiving. If the concept does not match the perception, we cannot think any further. When I look at the space between them, there is no limit to my imagination. I can think about where I have ridden around and which bushes I have seen, or about something completely different that my mind happens to find exciting.
But when I walk toward the motorcycle again and think “motorcycle,” I can give my analytical gaze free rein. At breakneck speed I can identify, classify and compare wheels, frame, color, steering wheel, etc. What does all this tell me? First of all, I learn something about language, thinking, perception and how they are intertwined. Then I learn something about movement in space, walking, embodiment; I feel my feet and count the steps. I notice that I am thirsty, I hear the birds… and then I realize that the world is probably a little more complex than my little brain imagines it to be.
I become more aware (5 tattvas): my consciousness, my I, my capacity for thought, my nature, my sensory thinking, and then the outer (5) and inner (5) senses, my doing (5), the elements (5)… All this is systematized in the 25 tattvas. If I now add the 11 Tantra tattvas (5 Shiva, 5 Shakti, and the world of illusion (1)) to the 25 basic tattvas, making 36 tattvas, then nature, Shiva, time and space, etc. are added. So I am going a little deeper into Tantra. I will probably keep walking up and down outside my door and leave my neighbors shaking their heads.
OM
Here is the link to the Tantra tattvas
Here to the basic tattvas
