Turn your weakness into a strength.
I used to tell my students that whatever made their work imperfect had to be turned around to become part of their message, i.e., video was only the poor parent of film until… its raw quality could be perceived as the 60’s rallying slogans, ¡Si se puede!/Yes we can! – Do it your way!
This is not unrelated to Grotowski’s Towards a Poor Theater or the techniques used by Third World Cinema as they thumb(ed) their nose to Hollywood’s status quo.
Here though the principle is applied in a completely private way, and is imperceptible.
Everything depends on you.
I have mentioned this earlier, but without realizing this “within your bones,” there is no way to proceed. We may or many not be surrounded by loving individuals but anything that counts, anything that will ever take place and make a huge difference comes from you.
It should not be tainted by sadness or joy but should be seen as a fact.
Life is much simpler once we deal with facts, not that complexity ever leaves us.
A corollary:
Everything that counts has to be discovered alone.
The more alone and the more shapeless and unfiltered the experience,
the more unable to catalog it…
the more it will have a chance to remain anchored inside you.
On mesure la richesse de l’homme à ce dont ‘il peut se passer. Proverbe Zen cité par Michel Vaujour
One measures the richness of a human being through what he/she can live without. Zen proverb mentioned by Michel Vaujour
Everything is always about everything… And in the deepest sense, everything is a reflection of nothing.
If this fact emerges as a reality, these words which seem to belong to the realm of thinking probably engage resistance, and thus defeat my purpose.
What I say here is unrelated to mysticism, philosophy, and nihilism.
The world of ideas is not my domain; these are not elements to be discussed or argued with.
Actual silence or your own death could help me, but you would misunderstand these suggestions.
Words seem only one way to reconcile what I know.
How can you lose something which you don’t have. U.G. Krishnamurti
Ne parle que des choses heureuses. Pour ce qui est de la peine, pas la peine d’en parler.
Don’t speak of unhappy things. As far as pain is concerned, not worth the pain to speak of that.
Prévert
Post-Mortem
I used to said that the avant-garde was death…
Whenever I approach THE topic – the only one, besides health and survival, with any gravitas – eyes glaze over, urgently begging me to get back to more mundane topics.
No one is interested in going to the edge, where I was and where I still reside, if such estrangement can be considered a residence.
What I may say may, yes, challenge everything that is considered part of life.
(to be continued in small segments – to be ultimately edited)
My response to someone asking me whether I was healed.
Ma réponse à quelqu’un qui me demandait si j’étais guéri.
(use Google Translate for a quick translation)
On n’oublie rien de rien
On n’oublie rien du tout
On n’oublie rien de rien
On s’habitue, c’est tout
Ni ces départs, ni ces navires
Ni ces voyages qui nous chavirent
De paysages en paysages
Et de visages en visages
Ni tous ces ports, ni tous ces bars
Ni tous ces attrape-cafards
Où l’on attend le matin gris
Au cinéma de son whisky
Ni tout cela, ni rien au monde
Ne sait pas nous faire oublier
Ne peut pas nous faire oublier
Qu’aussi vrai que la terre est ronde.
On n’oublie rien de rien
On n’oublie rien du tout
On n’oublie rien de rien
On s’habitue, c’est tout
Ni ces jamais ni ces toujours
Ni ces je t’aime ni ces amours
Que l’on poursuit à travers coeurs
De gris en gris de pleurs en pleurs
Ni ces bras blancs d’une seule nuit
Collier de femme pour notre ennui
Que l’on dénoue au petit jour
Par des promesses de retour
Ni tout cela ni rien au monde
Ne sait pas nous faire oublier
Ne peut pas nous faire oublier
Qu’aussi vrai que la terre est ronde
On n’oublie rien de rien
On n’oublie rien du tout
On n’oublie rien de rien
On s’habitue, c’est tout
Ni même ce temps où j’aurais fait
Mille chansons de mes regrets
Ni même ce temps où mes souvenirs
Prendront mes rides pour un sourire
Ni ce grand lit où mes remords
Ont rendez-vous avec la mort
Ni ce grand lit que je souhaite
A certains jours comme une fête
Ni tout cela ni rien au monde
Ne sait pas nous faire oublier
Ne peut pas nous faire oublier
Qu’aussi vrai que la terre est ronde
On n’oublie rien de rien
On n’oublie rien du tout
On n’oublie rien de rien
On s’habitue, c’est tout
Words, images and sounds are ridiculously inadequate for conveying certain experiences.
So far, I have managed to write down only one such “hell” but the link between ICU and delirium is unfortunately much too common.
This recent article in the NYTimes describes how unhealthy it is to go “there” – and how preventable it could be. Do read the many comments following the article.
Even if some of us are lucky enough to be able to speak and be understood, silence looms over all of us.
In that sense the words of Fernand Deligny, the French writer/educator who specialized in autistic children and was read attentively by Deleuze, have a particular resonance:
Le language nest pas innocent. Le moindre mot a une densité idéologique dont on ne se rends même pas compte quand on l’emploie.
Il nous enferme dans une convention dont l’histoire-même nous échappe et qui nous semble toute naturelle.
Le language tends a prendre sans cesse le pouvoir absolu.
L’humain est ce qui échappe au language.
Language is not innocent. The smallest word has an ideological density that hides itself as it is used.
It traps us into a convention whose history escapes us and appears completely natural.
Language has a relentless tendency to seek absolute power.
The human is what escapes language.
(my translation)
Most people, when things are not perfect, would love for a change to take place. Unfortunately for many of us, the changes are minimal to the point of appearing non-existent. In French we use the expression”faire du surplace” – moving without creating any change.
It is in that spirit – and that of the film L’Amour à Mort (Love Unto Death) by Resnais – that I hope to write a short text to be called On n’en revient pas (a French expression meaning both “from there one does not come back,” and “hard to believe”).
Here the falling will always be gentle… Water is that ancient friend that reminds us of our original body, all the way to before our birth.
And now… elegance, grace, and efficiency can be combined!
What U.G. Krishnamurti (not the famous one) said over and over in his books already made a lot of sense before my surgery.
Now, would anyone be able to hear what he said, it would save a lot of my efforts in explaining the particular distance I started describing in my earlier posts (Brecht, Herzog…).
If you are willing to enter his realm – not a matter of arguing with him – there are many texts/sites that could challenge your self.
The two main sites:
U.G.Krishnamurti.org
&
U.G.Krishnamurti.Net
And books (composed primarily of interviews):
- The Mystique of Enlightenment
- Courage to Stand Alone
- Mind is a myth
- No Way Out
- Thought is Your Enemy
- The Sage and the Housewife
- Stopped in Our Tracks: Stories of U.G. in India
- The Natural State
- Science and U.G.
My teaching, if that is the word you want to use, has no copyright. You are free to reproduce, distribute, interpret, misinterpret, distort, garble, do what you like, even claim authorship, without my consent or the permission of anybody.
–U.G.