The Connoisseur

II'm back in Europe for a short time, and I see a hustle and bustle, an energy of constant doing. Working, discussing, tidying, running errands, attending to commitments, organizing, optimizing, presenting, questioning, exchanging. Something is always being done. Having something to do seems important, while having nothing to do seems unproductive and requires justification. However, not being productive has many important qualities; thus, inaction can sometimes be a form of resistance, or quiet contemplation can be understood as inner work—work that doesn't show up in the gross domestic product but is by no means less powerful and moving for it.

And then there is the connoisseur, as described in the Upanishads. Two birds on a tree: one eats the fruit, the other watches and enjoys. Certainly, the fruit-eater also enjoys the fruit, but perhaps more as a sensual pleasure, a satisfaction of desire, than out of necessity. The connoisseur, who watches, on the other hand, does nothing; he sits and watches, and yet this sight, that enjoyment, is a deep, sublime one—a disinterested pleasure, as Kant says. It is an art, without being "art for art's sake." The enjoyment of observation, of contemplation, of reflection and deep thought, the lack of ego and the absence of desire, presence in the now and stillness in immobility—in short: meditation—is that part of our existence that is fundamental to our being in the world. It has nothing to do with the function we occupy, our performance, and our productivity.

Meditation, however, is viewed negatively in many so-called modern, meaning performance-oriented, societies: laziness, refusal to work or consume, esotericism, meaning inability to connect with dominant discourses, or creepiness, meaning alien and distant from home, are common reactions to that state of meditation and contemplation which expands beyond the moment of sitting. In India, people who embark on this path are called yogis. It is by no means necessary for yogis to withdraw from the world. They perceive the world as a form of reality in which we move. This reality has demands for survival, for a practice of living, and for responsibility towards oneself and others. However, material reality is embedded in a further reality of our being: our consciousness, our self, a connection with a deeper, spiritual reality. We have the spark of life within us; it is connected to and identical with the divine principle. We wander in the worlds of waking, dream, sleep, and knowing.

„Two birds, deeply connected, companions, sit on the same tree.
One eats the sweet fruit; the other watches without eating.“
The 3.1.1 verse of the Mundaka Upanishad states: "Om, all this is indeed Brahman. This luminous, immortal essence is all around us, within us, and without us."