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Showing posts from July, 2024

People, Language and Thought - Perspectives from Feldenkrais

 Fragrances often have tones. These are differentiated on the basis of how long they persist after the fragrance has been used.  People's personalities are like fragrances. We wear these different masks which are archetypes of behaviours. Like onions with infinite layers. Depending on the social group or the situation we are immersed in, our personality changes. Yet there is still a semblance of going towards the core.  As we become more sensitive to this process, we can see that at our core we are like children, bundles of joy. This plethora of masks is nothing but a collection of defense mechanisms to life's circumstances.  In essence, it is possible to game the system once one realises this; there are certain masks that society loves. I have been reading Feldenkrais recently, and in his language it is possible to put in the reps mechanically to develop a certain mask but those mechanical and fearful reps do not arise from a place of sensitivity and love.  Language is a modal

Take me home (truth)

We humans love to suffer. From the day we're born, or rather from the day we pick up some linguistic fragments and start violently attaching meaning to this mess of qualia we call the world. Suffering is like a whirlpool in the realm of consciousness, constricting its free flow. We love our suffering, that is how we create novelty and complexity.  Actually. There's no me here. There is an I. All writing is written so that it may be read, and passed on to someone. It's a selfish endeavour, and has always been. We create the constrictions in this flow and then we create a whole drama around it. We love the sense of tragedy, of wonder, of playing around and frolicking observing and touching different parts of that drama. That is the only way we can have the spark in our eyes that little kids have, the sense of wonder only an innocent mind possesses. To get lost in maya, samsara, illusion. The christians romanticize it best perhaps, to have a love so great for the world, a whir

Advaita and Hegel (linguistic implication)

In sanskrit grammar there are three types of implication ajahati Lakhsan (implication by exclusion)- original meaning of the world is totally substituted Jahati Lakshana (implication by non-exclusion)- original meaning of the world is not substituted, but a new connotation is attached to the  The third approach is called bhaga tyaga lakshana (literally 'abandoning parts') and it corresponds nicely to hegelian sublation.  There is a truth in the bare linguistic expression of the sentence, but it is unrefined. It is in the process of thinking through and interpreting it that the truth is refined and 'lifted' aufhebung to a higher unity. This is how the mahavakyas are to be interpreted in the upanishads.  Everything that is written, is written in the hope that someone else may read it, but writing words down necessary kills some part of the truth you know. 

death sentence (stream of consciousness)

 your life is a death sentence.  these beautiful buildings, with their clean marble floors. the board rooms, the suits, the team building meetings. It makes me puke, the putrid smell of inauthenticity.  Bitterness. As you go home, to your perfect bourgeosie lifestyle, a temple of plastic. Aesthetic tupperware as you cook the cuisine of some culture that got appropriated. As you taste the pasta to make sure it is 'al dente' and you pass a snide remark about your friends and gossip about the newest developments to your clique.  The beautiful kitchen counters, as everyone tries to keep up, the furniture you appreciate, the skincare routine that has been 'working wonders'. your skin looks so good lady! that doesn't change the fact that it will decay and go to death. Freckled, wrinkled, disgusting with warts and protrusions or perhaps just old and in a flash if you're lucky.  Into the ground, burnt to ashes, eaten by vultures depending on your culture.  Where are the

Channeling the Artist

 The eccentric artist is one of the most beautiful archetypes I have had the pleasure of observing in our collective psyche. He is a philanderer, making love to life so deeply, exploring each nuance of a crevice that is his art to the deepest depth possible yet having no commitments. If one must go deep or high, they cannot travel with a lot of weight.  He is a nomad, where each village he encounters is a temporary bastion. A place to sell his wares from the adventure he has been on. His travels are sacrifice in the purest biblical sense. he travels not only to sate his own curiosity. No. There is a deeper purpose, a dharma to his journey.  Each step of his life, each movement of his feet, each stoke of his brush, each key he presses on his keyboard. Each movement of little perfection is also a movement of truth, of sacredness. It is not mere curiosity that drives him, but the very flow of existence.  No less can he be forced to pursue excellence in his art than a wave be stopped by th