“Although space has been designated “empty”,
In reality it is inexpressible;
Although the nature of mind is called “clear light”,
Its every ascription is baseless verbal fiction.
The mind’s original nature is like space;
It pervades and embraces all things under the sun.
Be still and stay relaxed in genuine ease,
Be quiet and let sound reverberate as an echo,
Keep your mind silent and watch the ending of all worlds.”
(Tilopa’s Instruction to Naropa)
Sometimes poststructuralism, the detotalisation of metanarratives, the trajectory(s) of complication, difference within academia… seem like a perverse and westernised way of envisioning an underlying emptiness in being. Dualities that are infused with hierarchies such as man/woman, human/machine… are theoretically split open, power removed from the dominant end and made unstable within both poles, a discursive rotatory movement that is never fixed. Within both poles is the possibility of multiple perspectives, never ending possibilities and vantage points that we can adopt. The man/machine distinction is made problematic with say… cybernetics, the coming of the cyborg, and the nature of being transverses the space between. Other conceptual ends and identity frameworks are brought into the picture, bringing the discourse closer to to the model of a labyrinth. Issues of race, nationality, sexuality, personal narratives intertwine with the primary duality. Thus, it becomes an issue of man—machine intersecting and intertwining with hetero—homo, my narrative—your narrative, body—mind and so on. To look at things within the framework of one particular duality would be to repress other ‘existing’ structures that are very much in the picture. Never less, to look at things within a totality, to account for everything that is happening around us, would be impossible. Rather, we thread the particular trajectories, forming our own routes within the labyrinth. To consider another duality would be to branch of into a new path, repressing the one before. Whatever we do we are always stuck within a kinda fascism. But then maybe its just the nature of the mind, the coming of particular thoughts and its inevitable exit. Even when u try to empty out your mind, thoughts vibrate in your mind. If u entertain it, it stays. Soon enough u forget and it goes away. Or another thought takes precedence. But can we at least imagine what it would be like to look at this picture in its totality? To imagine what it would be like to travel multiple trajectories, not being stuck to one subjectivity but be the bearer of multiple subjectivities. To imagine through an active articulation, through discourse or a stream of consciousness would be to embark on an irregular trajectory. Still a trajectory and hardly schizo. U consider one thing, add another, minus another, plus another, lead to another. But perpetually stuck within the present whatever. To consider and illuminate the present would be another thing. It would slow down the speed of this imagination, making the present a vantage point that could connect with any poles present with thought. Maybe it would even empty or reduce the presence of such poles. Wouldn’t this correspond to an imagination of totality? Just a dot on an empty canvas. Present not as a BwO but as a dot without the need for desire to function. Could it show that emptiness precedes imagination? Empty brain enabling the multiplicity of thought. Poststructuralism, postmodernity and your own postbox has generally displayed a particular subjectivity within a vast ocean of subjectivities. You are in ur own subjectivity, other people in theirs. But to adopt a particular subjectivity would be seeing urself within your own subjective structure. It is still a particular point. To talk about the flows, intersections of subjectivities, links the postbox to the postal network. Mail trajectories, still lines moving in particular directions. It sucks to lose packages. We demand that the network works. But then a lost package, dropped out of a flow, gets stuck in a particular position that is outside any trajectory. Lost and never found, stuck in a transcendental present. Somewhere but u dunno where it is. The package dissipates into the air. Could we be so aware of the present, slow down though processes to the point that you simply drop out of the assembly lines of subjectivities into a present that is neither here nor there. Like a sound that echoes into nothingness. While networks and flows achieves the effect of illuminating interconnectivity, it is still a schizo-system. Schizo but still a system. It is a machinic way of imagining totality. Could we imagine and think without any theories or structures, using direct experience in heightening the present? How to experience emptiness, to express what is inexpressible within the constraints of our reality? By not insuring our mail maybe…
