Peter RuddFiled under: brave new world, departure lounge | Tags: A Little Fable, cat, Franz Kafka, mouse
Kafka was a no way out kinda guy.
“Alas,” said the mouse, “the world gets smaller every day. At first it was so wide that I ran along and was happy to see walls appearing to my right and left, but these high walls converged so quickly that I’m already in the last room, and there in the corner is the trap into which I must run.”
“But you’ve only got to run the other way,” said the cat, and ate it.
Kafka, A Little Fable
Filed under: the sweet life, unseen world | Tags: aldous huxley, contemplation, ego, Hinduism, psychology, symbols, The Dancing Shiva
Here is a wonderful description of the Hindu god Shiva – the great, dark, yogi, dancer, destroyer. In the clip, Aldous Huxley sees Shiva – within a ring of fire, hair flowing across the universe, in his dancing pose – as a comprehensive symbol of life that explains the cosmos / material world, gets human psychology right and recommends an essential spiritual existence.
Huxley’s underlying critique is that our own symbols – he invokes the Christian cross – are scientific and utilitarian, and fall short of sufficient for sustaining life. For H. symbols are embued with so much meaning that they structure how we think about and act in our world – to a degree to which they are ‘sustaining.’ ‘Can we get on,’ without them – ? he wonders in the final moments of his reflection.
The author’s cynicism is countered with his enthusiasm for Shiva, a comprehensive symbol which tells us that we must kill the ego to find our way, and learn to contemplate which will us free us. Continue reading
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