Philosophy Rant- Ideology, Bataille and Prana.

in several deep metaphysical philosophies, there is an acceptance that all human energy at its core is erotic.The word erotic is used not in a narrow and perverted sense in the form it exists currently; an unholy marriage of excess production, rampant advertisment and consumerism, and just bastardized in every way conceivable. There is however a dimension to it that escapes even all this desecration so to speak. 

I was reading Georges Bataille recently and his idea of the accursed share seemed very interesting to me. Especially as someone who engages in creative activity semi-regularly. Again, I enter into philosophizing and intellectualizing when I start writing about these topics, which are ultimately useless to 'The Truth" I must remind myself and also the reader, but here I do so in a controlled environment letting my thought take over to see what beautiful creation can arise out of it. 

Aside here on viewing thought as an instrument. I have come to learn that even spirituality as a pursuit is really useless in finding the truth or rather as it is currently practiced. There is a general realization of the fall of organized religion as a rational method to provide people a sense of meaning in life (I mean, Nietzsche realised it 150 years ago, high time we realise it), however there is a more subtle sense in which we let these things creep back up upon us. Our notions of spirituality and self-development are almost fanatical for those who follow and if you start questioning those you will be ridiculed today. an incomprehensibly large majority of others are so tired of life already that they would rather just give in to hedonistic numbing or overwork.

Our language which is isomorphic to our thought in some respects (sapir whorf) has been hijacked by a prescriptivity; a longing for being saved; a quick fix, a shortcut, a desperation. The sense of providence talked about in marcus aurelius that for many came through religion is almost dead. Only when we give up the want to be saved can we realise that we were here already. The interesting question (one of them atleast) raised by nietzsche is posed in the ashes of the death of god; namely "Who are we to become, to be worthy of this deed". Juxtaposing this with the postmodern spirit, the sense of the failed project of modernity that ascribed too much confidence in its moral systems and ideologies, we see that this question is not to be answered in these simple ways which our thought seeks to answer them. It is rather supposed to open up a dimension of enquiry and energy that was previously impossible. 

If I see the utter insanity of commiting to any ideology, the attraction of my thought to do it nevertheless to reap the benefits of belonging to a group and the whole process of societal conditioning pushing me into one pigeonhole or the other. If I feel the desperation of my thought, the loneliness that naturally comes when I do not give in to any easy answers. If I see the whole process but do not give in, only then can the energy start coming into being. 

Anyway, with the concept of the accursed share and prana, I was writing about this recently in my newsletter. The perspective was colouring my imagination even though I didn't explicityly mention it. In all discussions related to prana, there is a concept of prana and tapa and such esoteric dimensions being used to 'burn' the karma that we possess. Sanchit Karma is what is defined in the metaphysical concept of karma that to be that part of our memories, experiences, inclinations that we are going to be processing in this lifetime.Linking this to bataille's concept of the accursed share, which through general economy turns all scarcity based economics on its head. The base then is poorly managed abundance of resources and energy (intaken from the sun in his work) and not an inherent scarcity of resources. 

In hindu metaphysics, once one burns through the Karma of this reincarnation (which is a concept I cannot yet believe in, so I will state what I know here as is) they can move onto other stores of Karma. Gifts in a yogic sense are supposed to be transfers of Karma i.e. in accepting a gift we take another's karma. This is why there is a concept of non-stealing and non-gifting in Yogic morality. There is a beautiful metaphor of a teacher eating into a disciple's Karma as he brings him fruit. The teacher is firmly immersed in the truth, and he flies so close that all the Karma is burnt immediately when he consumes it. So he keeps eating the gift of the disciple with a smile on his face. It is in this sense that teachers who may inspire others out of their ignorance are something we should be truly grateful for. They are eating into the Karma of the world itself. 

The revolutionary quality that I find in many left-leaning writers I come across is rather compelling and inspiring. It is intense and dynamic and razor sharp as a movement of thought cutting through delusion and ignorance. That may also be characterized as some luminous fire in the darkness. This is what the brain is capable of producing when there is a solid ground for it to take refuge in. However, the solid ground is impermanent and empty always, be it formed of ideology, morality, pleasure or anything. This gives another meaning to the Nietzschean thought in the beginning, in terms of something krishnamurti said; Realising that the brain seeks to be absolutely comfortable or soothed, and that all the grounds for these thoughts are temporary, how do we reconcile this? Again this not a question to be answered dialectically, but rather, creatively, affirmatively and postiively. 

I was discussing with my friend about how technology slowly frees up more and more of our energy. We would think that humans would get better as people as time goes on in the presence of more energy to do what we want; we can spend more time with our families, more time for actual leisure (not hedonistic numbing that substitutes for it in the contemporary landscape), more time for contemplative and deep thought. But this is not the case. As time goes on, we become even more superficial. Our lifestyle inflates and consumerism and comparison with our neighbours fuels the overwork that wastes our whole lives.

Here, there is another interesting turn in bataille. He talks about consumption being driven by production instead of vice versa. Again, this reminds me of some really esoteric bits of knowledge that I ended up coming across at one point in time (Take of it what you will, I just document it here because I ended up making the connection while thinking right now). In some Hindu occultism, there is a talk about there being a delicate balance between the activity of the digestive system and the respiratory system. The respiratory system 'burns' what the digestive system ingests in the presence of prana to produce the vital energy that fuels our existence. It is said that in Kali Yuga (which the present is supposed to be) there is a disruption of this balance which causes us to consume much more to produce the same amount of energy. It seems implausible that the constituting biological structure of these systems would change much, however in some senses I see the point as the air around us gets progressively poisoned, things such as mouth breathing or shallow breathing become rampant due to various reasons, and consumption of food becomes higher than ever because of consumerism, advertisment and plain addiction to things like sugar etc. 

So yes, because of improving technology, more and more of our energy is freed up. If we remain addicted to our thought, it makes it worse as an instrument. Less sharp, more drowsy. What we are scared of is letting go of thought, of realising that we don't need to be thinking all the time. Krishnamurti also in his time had seen the beginning of a revolution that today has become AI (or perhaps the edge of this technology and the methods we don't understand fully yet are what we call AI by us as some people say). He envisioned that humans would either entertain themselves or spend their energy in deep inquiry into the fundamental aspects of existence. 

The deeper we go, the more beautiful our art becomes, the more sweet our breath becomes, the more sharp our brain becomes and we may start envisioning and building futures that were not even in the space of imagination. Or, we may let the energy turn on itself and be discarded, after rotting and turning repressed, hurt or otherwise ugly. The idea is to burn as much of this energy as possible, as brilliantly as possible. That is your life. Of course, this is totally useless as an idea and can't do anything for you. Everything is really possible, the question is how much courage you have. For the more we burn , the closer we get to the truth and the truth is frightening. Even the courage one has is already there with them, what you need is permission to use it. You will not find that permission in socialization or conversations with others who are pretending to be into things they don't like for some semblance of respectability and will continue to do so their whole life. The path this philosophy envisions is a rather lonely one, but one has to ask, is the loneliness a construct itself, of the laziness, your desire to be with others, to be recognized and complimented, the stagnation of a group, a slave morality in a Nietzschean sense?

That is all I wish to write here, thanks for reading, if you got through this unpacking of my thoughts.