Dharmavidya

Watching Melancholia

Last night we watched the film Melancholia, directed by Lars von Triers. It has wonderful photography, beautiful effects, an intriguing plot, compelling characterisations and a star studded cast with Kirsten Dunst  as Justine, Charlotte Gainsbourg as her sister Claire, Alexander Skarsgard as her husband Michael, Kiefer Sutherland as Claire's husband John, Stellan Skarsgard as Jack, Charlotte Rampling and John Hurt as Justine's dysfunctional parents. There is also Jack (Stellan Skarsgard), Justine's boss, and the wedding planner is played by Udo Kier,  

The film deals with two interlocking themes, madness and the end of the world. At first sight it might seem rash to take on two such major themes in one film, but the cunning here is that fear of the end of the world is a kind of madness that we can all participate in.

The acting is superb and I found that I could readily identify with many of the charters, both supposedly sane and insane, though the insane ones are more sympathetic than the sane ones, which is a story in itself. Not only does the film give one sympathy for the insane, it is also sculpted in such a manner that one experiences some elements of insanity just by watching. The theme of the imminent end of the world is not apparent in the early part of the film, rather we are treated to the spectacle of a rich wedding in which, although everybody behaves in a completely believable manner, it all seems rather absurd. At the same time, the continual interweaving of love and hate, pretence and sincerity, embarrassment and duty is entirely credible and sometimes touching. The sense that we are all a bit mad is unavoidable. 

The heroine bit by bit reveals her oddness, but is she really much odder than all the supposedly sane people around her? The doom of the world theme only starts to unfold little by little for us the audience, just as it might in the mind of a schizophrenic person, even though we have had a hint of it in the film's preamble which itself conveys a sense that "all the world is out of joint".  The film is a work of art and as such it is what it is and different viewers will be affected in different ways. A variety of interpretations are possible. One can see it as an invitation to us, the audience, to experience madness or we can see it as a plot in which the insane members turn out to have a better grasp of the real situation than the sane ones do.

There are many wonderful details, subtle dynamics and symbolic twists. The attempt to get a luxury long limo up a winding country road reflects the absurdity that is to follow and the heroine's enjoyment of that absurdity is both her tragedy and her saving grace. The whole plot unfolds in a country house on the edge of the sea, symbol of the unconscious. The isolation is significant. Various attempts to "go to the village" and get a reality check fail. Neither the horses nor the vehicle will cross the bridge to do so. This adds to the sense of living in an encapsulated world that is characteristic of the experience of madness. We also see how when people are locked into a relationship with a mad person they become enmeshed in the dance. As one party becomes more mad the other has to play the part of the sane person and when they fail to do so the mad person may have to become more sane in order to help them so that the roles become reversed. There is a palpable sense here of "all the world's a stage and all the men and women merely players", though here many of the players are alienated from or within their parts and to pull this off in a way that leaves the on-looker feeling "There but for the grace of God go I" or "I can be like that myself sometimes" or even "This is how it is," requires great skill on the part of the actors.

The images and themes from the film have been with me all day and I'm sure that they will go on reverberating for many days more. This is certainly a very fine film. 

 

The Conditions and Limits to Intimacy

I have been reading "El Camino del Encuentro" by Jorge Bucay. Learning Spanish is opening up for me a new universe of thought and literature which is absolutely wonderful. I am only a third of the way through this book, so I could still change my opinion before the end. Reading in a language not one's own slows one down a bit. Nonetheless, so far, I am finding his approach refreshing and stimulating. You know that feeling that you get when you read a book that says clearly things that one has felt intuitvely for a long time?

Here I'd like to share just one bit of his philosophy. He is looking at the question of intimacy. What does it take to have an intimate relationship? He is not just talking about couples. Intimacy can occur between friends, between family members, even sometimes in work situations, though in the latter case it is going beyond the requirements of the job. Intimacy is that type of relationship in which one can drop one's defenses and be willing to take the risk of being more completely available to the other person and inviting them to reciprocate.

Bucay asserts that there are three necessary conditions for intimacy: love, attraction and trust. He then goes on to point out that none of these are within the range of one's will. I can choose to respect you, but I cannot choose to love you. I cannot choose to find you attractive. I cannot choose to trust you. Either I do find you trustworthy or I don't. Either I do find you attractive or I don't. Either I find you loveable or I don't. There is not much I can do about it from my side.

Of course, from your side, you can choose to act in ways that may lead me to find you more loveable, attractive and trustworthy or in ways that will undermine these for me. Similarly, the other way round. I can act in ways that will make it more likely that you will love me, trust me and find me attractive. 
Bucay claims that all three are necessary. It is as a three legged table. It cannot sand without all three legs. This all seems to me liberatingly realistic. Injunctions to love everybody, find everybody attractive and trust everyone are not grounded in the real world. Injunctions to live in such a way that more people will love one, trust one and find one attractive, however, do have some grounding in reality.
This implies, of course, that one does not have a right to be loved, that one will not, in fact, be loved by everybody, that one does not actually love every other person, nor trust them, nor find them attractive. This is the real world. Spiritual awakening is not a matter of pretending that some unreal ideal is the case, but of waking up to how things actually are.

In this real world there is every reason to act well. It will, in general, lead to more intimacy and thus to more peak experience. Many people, however, exist in life situations where they think that they should have intimacy with this or that person and that such and such person owes them intimacy, but if the three factors of love, trust and attraction are simply not all there, it will not happen and no amount of pretending will make it so.

In my book Love and Its Disappointment I take it that love is a fundamental part of human existence, but not that one loves everything. In the approach that I used in that book, Bucay's "love2 and his "attracion" are conflated. I have to agree with him, however, that trust is also a very important variable. One can love a person and find them intensely attractive, but if experience tells you that they are not to be trusted, enduring intimacy is impossible and short term intimacy generally leads to pain and grief. On the other hand, one may have a comrade who is totally trustworthy and one may even share secrets with such a person, but there has to be something more, something in the realm of personal attraction or positive chemistry before one will, in practice, open one's heart to them fully.
Sometimes we proceed as though we think that all human problems can be solved to the point where we shall enjoy intimacy with everybody. This is unreal. It is not true that if we just communicate enough we shall reach such a point. With those whom we find loveable, attractive and trustworthy, yes; with others, no. Furthermore, the "others" are likely to be many. Yet, is this really a problem? Not really. A person needs some intimacy; they do not need intimacy with everybody.

Discussing the Art of Loving and reflecting on my changed perspective

We recently had a seminar at The Buddhist House on the ideas of Erich Fromm, especially his thesis on The Art of Loving. It was apparent to me that his approach to the subject in the now classic book was very different to that which I took in Love and Its Disappointment. In Fromm's approach love is something rare whereas in mine it is extrmely common. In Fromm it is a high art attained to only by a few whereas in LAID it is the essence of life and the basic source of motivation for everybody. Fromm does, however, emphasise the importance of loving rather than being loved. Much literature in popular psychology emphasises the need that each person has to be loved. Fromm and I agree in emphasising the need that individuals have to love over the need to be loved.
Fromm sees love as rooted in the experience of separateness and asserts that (a) much that is commonly called love is actually a pseudo-love based on the need to reduce the displeasure of feeling separate and (b) true love can only be practised by those who have overcome this particular sense of lack: "the ability to be alone is the condition for the ability to love". My approach is rather different. I do not see love as rooted in or arising from some other need. I see love as fundamental - as itself the root motive. I see the problems of love arising from the conflict of loves rather than from failure to master the art.
However, both Fromm and I see narcissistic preoccupation as one of the primary pathologies of love. Since Fromm's time, narcissistic preoccupation has become a lot more socially acceptable than it was in his time. The goal of many followers of contemporary pop psychology is to learn how to love themselves. For Fromm real love is an urge to give and "For the productive character, giving... is the highest expression of potency." He thinks that the "productive character" needs to develop a strong sense of self. I feel that there is some contradiction here between the renunciation of narcissism on the one hand and the necessity of self-development on the other. In my view, "productive character" flows from practice in the act of loving rather than being a prerequisite for it and such character does not depend upon a developed subjective sense of self at all, but upon a positive engagement with the life-world.
Fromm's emphasis upon the non-possessive nature of true love narrows his subject. This makes his work akin to many contemporary theses in which an ideal that is beyond what is found on earth is posited and then the means to its attainment set out, such means being the eradication of something that is ineradicable in human nature. I once found this approach inspiring but nowadays find it less than satisfactory. I am very taken with the need to speak to andfor real human beings who are not going to give up all possessiveness, not going to attain to a completely unconditional or universal love. Real people love specific others - things, people and metaphyisical objects and ideals. They love them passionately and this passion involves them in conflict with others and with themselves. This is the struggle of life.
I do value the ideal, but as something to worship from afar rather than something to consider to be within one's grasp. A greater humility is called for. This does not require a strong sense of self, but rather a willingness to see one's own faults and limitations and, through them, to find fellow feeling with one's comrades in this life.
When I was young I was greatly inspired by Fromm's ideas and the shift of emphasis from needing to be loved to needing to love was and still is a liberating idea. On this central plank of his argument I can still join him even though I have moved a long way since those days in how I now contextualise the philosophical task.

Writings from David

I'm feeling some satisfaction about the launch of my Facebook group Writings from David. The group is very wide ranging and somewhat provocative aiming to stimulate intelligent debate as well as broadcast news of my publishing activities. I started off as you do with these things adding a lot of my friends and some, of course, immediately left, but others have joined and there are currently way over 1500 members. More importantly, it has stimulated some really vibrant discussions. 

Popular items have been:
# On the possibility of the collapse of the dollar economy: 71 responses; 
# Impermanence causes and cures depression, 32 responses;
# On Buddha's compassion (drawn from my The Feeling Buddha book), 29 responses;
# On talking to angels, featuring Susan Phoenix, 19 responses;
# What is the optimum length for a book? 19 responses;
# announcement of contact for my autobiography, 16 responses;
# depression, anxiety and hysteria, 14 responses;
# Is Twitter populism the democracy of the future, 11 responses;
# Writing "small stones", 10 responses;

New discussions on
# ritual and duty to ancestors
# the economic strength of Europe
are already attracting attention.

Other items concern
# the poetry of Anna Akhmatova
# a forthcoming book on mindfulness in Italian
# feedback on the Garrison Conference of Buddhist teachers
# Compassion Therapy
# harvesting lavendar
# fear and enlightenment
# a haiku on impermanence
# the forthcoming Japanese translation of Love and Its Disappointment
and lots of smaller items

In effect the group has become a kind of small scale on-line journal. My thanks to all who have contributed.

29.7.11: dance art from Duato

We went to see a excellent performance by the Compania Nacional de Danza under the artisitic directorship of Herve Palito, which formed part of the 15th Festival International de Teatro, Musica y Danza here in Las Palmas. The performance consisted of three separate pieces. 

The first was called "Orbitas y derivas" choreographed by Angels Margarit. The  original music by Joan Saura was compelling, rythmic and mostly without melody, evoking images of wind, rain and other natural phenomena. It was immediately apparent that the dancers were extremely skilled and fluent. It consisted of a succession of smaller pieces that could have been regarded as separate exercises, mostly involving several sets of three of four dancers acting in concert but unsynchronized, rather as waves on the sea or patterns forming and reforming in wheat blowing in the wind. 

The second piece was "O Domina Nostra" choreographed by Nacho Duato. This powerful piece used choral music that Hanryk Gorecki composed between 1982 and 1985 as a tribute to the Black Virgin of Polonia. However, in contrast to the clear religious theme of the music, the dance, which involved one woman and ten men, skilfully portrayed a turmoil of emotions and inner stuggle. The piece could be taken at several levels, most notably either as the woman's soul wrestling with her animus or, alternatively, as the dilemma of the woman - perhaps particularly the modern woman - torn between sexual liberation and inhibition.   
The third piece was called "Gwana". In this performance Duato used a variety of music and somewhat more traditional dance forms to evoke the sensuality of the culture of the Meditarranean lands, both European and North African. 

Although the three were composed separately and no overall title was given to the evening's event, it was possible, for me at least, to see a coherence in the whole in that the first section appeared to be inspired by vegetable and inanimate movement, which is to say, by wholly natural forces; while the second section was an archetypal theme - that of the anima and animus; and the third section showed human social life and coupling and was much closer to the conventional conception of dancing. Naturally enough the audience enjoyed the last piece most and the first least, though the earlier peices seemed to me more adventurous and the second especially was, to my eye, the most profound by a substantial margin, not only giving coherence to the whole by showing the the potency of incohate force within the human being, but doing so with an impressive measure of dramatic cohesion that was less apparent in the other two sections. While the first and third were highly competent, the O Domina Nostra fully embodied a depth of artisitic and psychological expression that the other two pieces only touched upon and, furthermore, setting this within the context of the religious music with its haunting repetitious invocations of divine power was truly impressive.

We watched the performance in an open air ampitheatre in the middle of the city. The ambience, with its the mild intrusions of city sounds and lights on the one hand and the canopy of clouded sky above on the other, seemed to add to the experience, tokening as it did the contrast of human and natural processes that were being displayed in consummate symbolism on the stage.

Afterwards we strolled home along the promenade, with the ocean rolling in against the sea wall, it being high tide.

12th May: Matt Osmond on Cecil Collins and other modern artists

The first presentation at the Living Buddhism Conference: Culturally Engaged Buddhism introduced us to a range of images from modern art in which a romantic, unconscious, or other power influence can be seen. This was held up in contrast to the currents of secular rationalism that have produced abstract art and surrealism in which there seems to be an attempt to sub-ordinate improvisation to intellectual principle. Aside from the fascinating imagery, I was particularly interested in the proferred definition of improvisation as not being purely spontaneous nor self-expressive, but rather being an interactional, responsive process in which one simply does not know what is going to happen next. Matt was drawing extensively on the ideas in the section of my book Love and Its Disappointment that deals with art and the notions of other-centredness and of transforming how the world is perceived by seeking the sublimity of unpromising subjects. Matt talked particularl;y about the work of Cecil Collins and Ken Kiff particularly.

There was a general feeling that this presentation had been especially apt and an excellent way to bring the conference theme to life. There is now a sense of a strong energy in the group. What will tomorrow bring?

 

Scott Fitzgerald: The Great Gatsby

A review

Iris Murdoch: The Italian Girl

A review

Post-Modern Sargasso Sea

Comments stimulated by Cy Twomby's art

Loy: History of Lack

A review of

A Buddhist History of the West: Studies in Lack
David R. Loy
State University of New York Press 2002
244pp, with notes, bibliography and index. Paperback.