Thursday 19 November 2009

Thought For The Day!

Twentieth century French phenomenologist Edmund Husserl famously said that "consciousness is always consciousness of". But with careful practice can consciousness not become totally focused on nothing but the body in which it is anchored, with which it co-exists: in other words, itself?
Although the body would still be its 'object', it would only be so in the same way that two mirrors facing one another are each others object.
And the sudden moments of clarity we experience occasionally, at strange or dull moments in the day, remind us of the possibility of this other manner of being . Distant as it may be.
Philosophers (as opposed to, say, monks) have too much to say about the mind, too much to say about the inadequacies of language! How many have taken the time to actually sit there, with their eyes closed, and simply observe what is there?
The trick, it seems, is to constantly keep everything new. Like when in a foreign country and your senses are keener and you see the world as though for the first time because it is strange. The act of speech rather than its content becomes apparent. The ordinary becomes interesting, even sublime. We must try to incorporate this way of looking at things, this way of being, into our daily lives.
After all, who needs art galleries, concert halls and weighty tomes when the world is full of landscapes of cloud, elegant women, birdsongs. If we learn to see whatever is already before our eyes (and likewise a part of them) we will learn to appreciate the world anew.
To write (like) this, I must be failing...