Writing “India”: With compass and Thich Nhat Hanh
“There is a possibility in reading and writing, which knows words as in the world as much the same way that men are …” (Robert Creeley*)
How will the word “India”, how will the word “compass” perform in this blog on Art, Sex and Mathematics?
A blog which sets words like “India” and “compass” into a field of force generated by others words like “art”, “sex” and “mathematics.” The word “compass” gets another dimensions when reading Thich Nhat Hanh. The instrument becomes something that connects a mathematical and a emotional approach to the world. A world which philosophers like Kant and Descartes regard as an object, as something which is objecting the inner self, which is a barrier to the self, a barrier which the self hardly overcomes, but tries to overcome.
The compass is an instrument which indicates a way of dealing with this specific western problem. The word “India” invites to understand oneself as a needle. A needle which is displaying the tensional field of sensual experiences. The needle follows the movements of the field created by colors, vehicles and gentle speaking women, who prepare with dignity the soil for growing seeds.
The needle is not nothing. The needle needs to be set up carefully. It requires attention in order to perceive the connections of the needle with the field of experiences the word “India” and the many worlds it contains.
Written at Sanskriti Kendra in October 2008 by Nils Röller
* Robert Creeley: “A Note” on Louis Zukofsky. In: Louis Zukofsky: A 1-12. New York: Doubleday (Paris Review Editions), 1967
On Thich Nhat Hanh in the Web
Nils Röller on Kant and the compass
The Journal of Art, Sex and Mathematics on Thitch Nhat Hanh:
– Compass – ion – Thich Nhat Hanh
– Zeroness