Technologies of the Self : Krishna Kirtan

Sunday, Feb. 26, 2012 - 1:00 until 3:00

Our last session in the series!

“Unwind, unpeel, unmask yourself for a bit. Enjoy some time with your self. Immerse deep within your heart and sing and dance from there. Meet loving souls and inquire about the essence.

Kirtan is an age old tradition of joyfully connecting with the spirit by diving in the sweet sound of a mantra. Within minutes, it detangles you out of external identities and allows you to just be. The joy experienced is immense and very unworldly. It does not need any faith or knowledge, just presence. It does not impart any faith or any knowledge, just presence.” -Satish More

Kirtan is music but is not entertainment. Rather, it is a form of participatory meditation. The Krishna Mahamantra (hare krishna, hare krishna, krishna krishna, hare hare; hare rama, hare rama, rama rama, hare hare) is considered a sacred and primordial sound and its recitation the most effective practice in this Kali Yuga, the final age of this world cycle. It was popularized by Bengali saint, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, in the 15th century, and is an example of the Bhakti (devotional) Yoga tradition of India. This session will emphasize the joy and ecstasy of singing and cultivating love for the divine.

Satish More will be leading the Kirtan on the harmonium and will be accompanied on the mrdanga (South Indian drum). Participants are welcome to bring their own kartals (small cymbals) if they have them. Be prepared to sing, clap, dance, cry, hug, or simply observe. All ages welcome!

Satish More is a filmmaker and photographer based in Athens, Ohio: <www.satishmore.com>. Event photo by Satish.

***Facilitators are not expecting payment and all sessions are by donation. Please contribute to the cost of their visit, and the rent and maintenance of the studio space, with a small contribution.

Art of the Spirits

Tomorrow (Sunday at 1:00) is the first of our five "Technologies of the Self" events, the ecstatic trance session with Susan Josephson. We have a bunch of chairs and are ready for the big group it seems will be attending! What knowledge will emerge in this "operation" on the self?

According to Felicitas Goodman, this technique is intended to connect the ordinary reality with that of the Spirits, "Ritual is the rainbow bridge over which we can call on the Spirits and the Spirits cross over from their world into ours. ...the ordinary and the other reality belong together. They are two halves of one whole. Only their joining will make a complete world, a world worth living in. The existence of humans is empty without the Spirits, but theirs is equally incomplete without involving us, and the world about us. Although they are so much more powerful than we are, in this sense they need us." (1990, p.55)

Is this cultural appropriation of indigenous spirituality or the recovery of something lost in our 'modern' society? I would love to hear reflections, critiques, suggestions after the event. A discussion could develop here on this blog or elsewhere.

I also thought folks would be interested to see a few drawings Susan made as depictions of visionary experience. To the left are photos of two pen and ink works which incorporate illustrations of ritual body posture.

Reminder: for the best experience, don't eat at least 30 minutes prior to the start of the session. If possible, fast for the whole morning.   -Seth

Technologies of the Self: Conceptual Context

Every Sunday at 1:00 in February and the first Sunday in March the studio on 13 E. Tulane Rd. (itlookslikeitsopen.blogspot.com) will host “Technologies of the Self,” a series of workshops focused on traditional and non-traditional methods of reconstructing or deconstructing personhood through ritual and awareness. All events are by donation.

This program is intended to introduce participants to a set of spiritual disciplines for self knowledge and self transformation. No particular religious affiliation is expected nor need one enter the experience without a critical attitude. It is for you to decide if these practices are beneficial to your own project of life acceptance and adaption. It is my hope that all the practices presented in this series will benefit artists, activists, seekers, and others.

The presentation of these “technologies” is also intended to challenge scholars and academics to step outside purely theoretical or objective modes, and enter into another kind of knowing. Social theorist Michel Foucault, best known for his work on sexuality and theories of power, turned at the end of his life away from “technologies of power” to those technologies which “permit individuals to effect by their own means or with the help of others a certain number of operations on their own bodies and souls, thoughts, conduct, and way of being, so as to transform themselves in order to attain a certain state of happiness, purity, wisdom, perfection, or immortality.” (http://foucault.info/documents/foucault.technologiesOfSelf.en.html) For Foucault, technologies of the self are value-neutral. Neither necessarily good nor bad. They bring to bear regimes of truth onto psychic and somatic inner-life, and through practices of knowing, reformulate the subject, or deconstruct it. Foucault’s primary interest was in how the Greek maxims of “know yourself” and “take care of yourself” were transformed into early Christian techniques of self-disclosure and self-renunciation with the goal of spiritual purity. Here other, largely non-Western, forms and philosophies will be presented for exploration and consideration.

2/5 - Ecstatic Trance with Susan Josephson    http://www.facebook.com/events/209487835811000/

2/12 - Mindfulness Meditation with Daron Larson    http://www.facebook.com/events/174591049313517/

2/19 - Tea Ceremony with Sherab Chen   http://www.facebook.com/events/337423969611899/

2/26 - Krishna Kirtan with Satish More  http://www.facebook.com/events/292017704194841/

3/4 - Restorative Yoga with Ann Tepperman  CANCELED 

seth.josephson@gmail.com for more information.