Samsara

From the Tibetan Book of Living and Dying

Sometimes I think that the greatest achievement of modern culture is its brilliant selling of samsara and its barren distractions. Modern society seems to me a celebration of all the things that lead away from the truth, make truth hard to live for, and discourage people from even believing that it exists. And to think that all this springs from a civilization that claims to adore life, but actually starves it of any real meaning; that endlessly speaks of making people "happy", but in fact blocks their way to the source of real joy. 

This modern samsara feeds of an anxiety and depression that it fosters and trains us all in, and carefully nurtures with a consumer machine that needs to keep us greedy to keep going samsara is highly organised, versatile, and sophisticate; it assaults us from every angle with its propaganda, and creates an almost impregnable environment of addiction around us. The more we try to escape, the more we seem to fall into the traps it is so ingenious at setting for us. As the eighteenth century Tibetan master Jikme Lingpa said: Mesmerized by the sheer variety of perceptions, beings wander endlessly astray in samsara's vicious cycle. 

Obsessed, then, with false hopes, dreams and ambitions, which promise happiness but lead only to misery, we are like people crawling through an endless desert, dying of thirst. And all that this samsara holds out to us to drink is a cup of salt water, designed to make us even thirstier.

Caravan

Caravan by Seri Cig on Mixcloud

Poem of the Atoms

O day, arise!

The atoms are dancing,
overcome with ecstasy.

I'll whisper in your ear where their dance is leading them.

All the atoms in the air and in the desert know well,
 they seem insane.

Every single atom, happy...or miserable,
becomes enamoured of the sun, 

of which nothing can be said. 

Jalal ad-Din Rumi

The Superman vs. Weltschmerz

Nietzsche vs. Schopenhauer

Schopenhauer's concept of cosmic pain (Weltschmerz) and his philosophy of compassion (Mitleid), explore the human experience of empathy, and thus to our interconnectedness as human beings. 

Despite of Nietzsche's admiration for Schopenhauer, Nietzsche was strictly against his philosophy of pity. Even though it is known that Nietzsche aimed at transvaluing all values, one still wonders how one could possibly resent such a beautiful idea. 

Nietzsche however, believed that feelings of compassion only weakened the possibility to become a Superman (Übermensch). For him, the Superman is not someone with super-magical powers, but one who has transcendent the ego completely. In order to reach this state of mind, the individual has to surpass three stages. First, there is "the camel" with it's burden on it's back. Carrying the weight of the world, he eventually reaches the stage of the lion in which no more suffering exists, but total control, will power and strength. The final stage however, has surpassed all these conscious and ego ridden stages and results in the blissful state of "the child". This stage can be compared to the Golden Age, in which we see the wonders of the world with the innocence of childlike eyes.

As Nietzsche believed to carry the pain of the world on his shoulders, he chose to live in solitude in the Swiss Alps for several years. Here, according to his three stages, he found himself to be in the stage of the camel, indulging on his calamity. When he eventually believed to have surpassed this stage, he was ready to become the lion, and thus to re-socialise in order to teach his philosophy, just as the prophets had done before him after their enlightenment in solitude. In the form of Zarathustra, he finally walks down from his ivory tower in the mountains, but only to find that the first villagers he speaks to have no ears to listen! Nietzsche never reached the last stage on the way to transcend and become the Superman. Instead, he escaped from the conscious state of mind that he intended to surpass with his forthcoming insanity. 

Erich Fromm

Interviewed by Mike Wallace in 1958

Pardonner

Et conserver mon humanité,

 du caprice et de la volonté, 

qui sont aussi amers parfois,

 mais ne m'oublient pas jamais encore;

 Dans moments de souffrance,

 des privations aussi,

 ou des fils d'hommes qui m'ont utilisé,

 qui vivent hautain mais sans dignité, 

je voudrais pardonner pourtant à la fin.

***

And preserve my humanity
from whim, will and mercy,
 which may be bitter at times
but still never forgets me;
In times of despair, of deprivation too,
from children of man who exploit to make do,
who are living with pride but without amend,
 I still want to forgive after all in the end.

Tricksters and Fools

Tricksters and fools have always been very intriguing characters in mythology, folklore and literature.  Their tendency to deconstruct the moral values and conventions of the status quo shatters even the most secure constructs, beliefs, or people. Unlike their contemporaries, the masters of deception float between two worlds; the conscious and the subconscious. This ability develops a highly ambiguous personality, which the trickster may use to motivate others for revolutionary change. Their anomaly evades them from any laws of logic or punishment, why they literally "enjoy the privilege of fools". An all time favourite trickster is Mephisto in Goethe's Faust: 

"Part of the Power which would the evil ever do, and ever does the Good."

Frankenstein

in one sentence:

I ought to be thy Adam; but I am rather the fallen angel, whom though drivest from joy for no misdeed.

"Beauty is Truth, and Truth is Beauty"

On John Keats

With Keats being one of the first lyricists to introduce the idea of art as independent from any elitist expectations, he establishes it as a substitute for religion, eventually sowing the seed for a l'art pour l'art notion liberated of any defining metric.

The fact that he was suffering from tuberculosis (he died before his 27th birthday), has probably lead to an extreme and existential approach to life in general and thus to literature in particular. In his eyes the writer, equipped with the gift of "negative capability", does not only adapt to his outer circumstances whatever they be, but unlike the scientist, he is also able to endure any given contradictions with patience. He is stepping back from his own ego for the sake of divine art. As we can see in "On first Looking into Chapman's Homer", or "Ode an a Grecian Urn", the ultimate function of art is the timelessness and beauty emanating from it, which in his eyes equals truth and vice versa. 

Chimera

Chimera by Seri Cig on Mixcloud

Classical Paintings Brought to Life

Black Sea Files

by Ursula Biemann

Prairies

Moving on to unkonwn prairies

without nostalgia

to unwritten stories.

Inquisitive striving
with eager adjustment.
Prosperous progress
to abandon the custom.

Ready to scout

and eager to spot

 yet pristine paths

in fairness throughout.

Leaving the past behind

gently and light
with crystal clear thoughts in mind
evolving in time.

With attention to details
and lucid awareness
reframing the presence
for a future of blessings.

Moving on to unkonwn prairies

without nostalgia

to unwritten stories.

Almost A Star

How lucky you are

that you're almost a star!

Everyone knows you,

you've made it so far!

You don't even have to
mention your name.

These are the peaks of
unlimited fame.

Immortal forever,

everyone will remember

what you have accomplished 

after frantic endeavour.

Such great contributions -

to mankind, and more:

trendsetting flair and fashion galore!

Just how you express
that you're able to read

the signs of your subculture
is so unique.

It's deserving respect

that you truly are,

so lucky to be

almost a star!

Natural Responses

Our eyes are sparkling not of love 

but the excitement of

the natural responses that our bodies send

we do understand 

that every now and than you've got to let it go

sometimes you've got to 

take hold of the moment that

presents itself in gifts unwrapped

Ethereal Jaunts

Everything around us is looking like it's real

no meta-level here, let's forget the theory

everything we care about is only what we feel

the mind is on holiday when our bodies meet

we're travelling

to places so far

ethereal jaunts

to the moon and the stars

Paintings

Human, All Too Human

Human, all too human,
in our concious debris
Human, all too human,
won't allow us to see.

By the grade that we embrace
the fraud fabrications deceptive disgrace we
dignify our genuine state,
denial of desire in the face of fate.

In infinite loops
of progress and retreat
we're wasting ourselves
just too scared to be free.
Tepid contentment
full of compromises,
passionless routine
though we could make advances.

Meaningless objects to fill empty spaces
within ourselves but it never suffices.

By the grade that we embrace
the fraud fabrications deceptive disgrace we
dignify our genuine state,
denial of desire in the face of fate.

Human, all too human,
in our conscious debris.
Human, all too human,
won't allow us to see.

From 'Žižek!'

Think about the strangeness of today's situation. Thirty, forty years ago, we were still debating about what the future will be: communist, fascist, capitalist, whatever. Today, nobody even debates these issues. We all silently accept global capitalism is here to stay. On the other hand, we are obsessed with cosmic catastrophes: the whole life on earth disintegrating, because of some virus, because of an asteroid hitting the earth, and so on. So the paradox is, that it's much easier to imagine the end of all life on earth than a much more modest radical change in capitalism.

Slavoj Žižek in Žižek! (2005)