So, finally, after another year of non-activity on this website, things are starting to move again. It all comes along fairly slowly, but still i proceed at a steady pace. What follows is a summary of work in progress.
For starters, my returning readers will have probably noticed that i have totally refurbished the layout of ontoscopy.net.
It is now fully responsive for smartphones and tablets, and should provide a better reading experience overall.
What else is new?
As i have been going through some personal phases of growth and transformation, my perspectives have evolved. My thinking has matured and become much more subtle. Also, there is a definite change of tone in my style of writing. This is why the oldest meditations on this website are now categorized under “the angry years”.
I have invested a considerable amount of time into getting to a better understanding of the concepts of matter, energy, space and time, determinism, chaos, order, chance and randomness. I have also been studying basic linguistics, special relativity and quantum physics and i have developed a fair understanding of the workings of the human body.
I must admit that i continue to be heavily inspired by the works of the late David Bohm (including his ontological interpretation of quantum physics, his theory of implicate order and also the holistic and process-based view of the world and the cosmos, as further researched by his former assistant prof. Basil Hiley) but i also looked into other theories, together with the established paradigms. As a matter of fact, i still do, that part of the work is never finished.
Many might wonder why i put so much time and effort in looking at science, but to me it is quite essential to incorporate and to arrive at a healthier, more complete and sustainable world view. By this i mean a basic outlook that takes into account invisible, non-material aspects of reality and that has room for the mysteries that remain unsolved up till now (those who think that scientific paradigms will no longer undergo radical shifts are surely neglecting the growing amount of findings that need a proper explanation with more and/or different concepts).
Philosophy, psychology and eastern wisdom traditions have also remained under my scrutiny, to integrate them in a framework that accommodates multiple perspectives. For those want a little name dropping, Dōgen Kigen, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, Martin Heidegger, Abraham Maslow, Carl Jung, Charles T. Tart, Shinzen Young and John Welwood are definitely worth checking out. Of course Jiddu Krishnamurti still lingers around in my thoughts as well.
Lately i have been trying to grasp some of the ideas of the late Yasuo Yuasa, a Japanese professor of religion and philosophy who wrote extensively on the meaning of the body and its relationship to mind, and on the differences and similarities between western and eastern (history of) philosophy.
If you like to find out more, here is a list of books that helped shape my thinking and which might inspire you.
Process and system based thinking, a subtle form of organicism, non-duality and the importance of context and meaning/information are the focal points of my research, without neglecting the merits of classical science, which is still grounded in mechanistic mind-matter duality or materialistic monism (≅ “everything can be reduced to matter”).
I finally feel like i am ready to get writing again, with a more solid and broad foundation to start from. Of course as the explanations unfold, i might turn into new, unforeseen directions.
I would also like to re-emphasize that it is not my intention to reinvent the wheel or to make up new, complex theories, on the contrary. My goal is to provide a sensible world view that goes beyond the predominant views of this day and age, without falling into new age clichés and half-truths. There is an abundance of nonsense out there already.
The way i see it, a lot of far-reaching scientific and spiritual discoveries and ideas are known and mostly well-documented, only they have not found their way into the mainstream. One of the biggest challenges is to find ways of making them more accessible, by using the right metaphors and without corrupting their original meaning.
With this in mind, i am working out a series of comic strips that are in connection with the ideas described above. Current plans include finding ways to illustrate process, relationships & synchronicity. For the connoisseurs: think of Franquin meets Chris Ware meets cubism meets … 🙂
I also plan on producing non-sequential visual artworks that show a different perspective on a plenitude of issues.
One of the themes i am currently interested in is the impact of the lens (in our eyes and our cameras) on our experiencing of space and time, something the great David Hockney has been investigating as well.
As for the rest, i also try to post regular updates to my other little web projects:
- at Perspectivist i am posting different perspectives on science (especially mind-brain issues), metaphysics, philosophy, religion, mindfulness, etc.
- at Nonsensefiltr you can find a melting pot of interesting news articles, talks, interviews, infographics, …, that have usually not made it into the mainstream
- the Kishudo tumblr collects a variety of information on kiko / qi gong (a form of mind-body attunement which i also practice)
In short, a new series of meditations is on its way, accompanied by related artwork.
As my health and other circumstances might put some delay on my projects, I am not setting any strict deadlines…
However, no matter what, i always persevere.
There is a lot of work to be done, but results are on their way.
Don’t say i didn’t warn you! 😉
Interesting post. I was looking for a picture of a plant growing through asphalt, which is often a perfect analogy of human nature and some of our more personal joys and pains. Due to copyright laws i wanted to ask, is this your picture, if so may I use it for my website?
Hi Elena,
due to technical reasons i noticed your comment just now.
I picked it from the internet, i am a bit naughty when it comes to this copyright thing…. 🙂