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Abstract: Breath is a grounding phenomenon present in many forms of Buddhist medi-tation. In traditional Buddhist meditations (including ānāpānasati and vipassanā), the practitioner observes the breath, surveys various physical and mental phenom-ena, and from there realizes that suffering (duḥkha) is not ultimately binding (and along the way, they may experience the nonduality of body and mind). Similarly, the seated meditation practice (zazen) deployed by Rinzai Zen begins with atten-tion to breath, refines one’s attention to psycho-physical sensations, and fosters a realization of mind-body unity that enables the practitioner to face duḥkha. But this form of Zen recasts the respiratory philosophy of early Buddhism in some important respects. This paper explores how these adaptations take place in terms of an explicitly somaesthetic orientation. Emphasizing the postural form of the body, the capacity to sense the pull of gravity, and the performance of breathing from the hara (lower belly), zazen seeks to awaken the somatic body by transform-ing the weight of suffering into nondual, vital energy.
Keywords: zazen, duḥkha, gravity, grief, somaesthetics, hara, breathing
Published in DiRROS: 14.05.2024; Views: 45; Downloads: 21
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Abstract: Persian philosopher Avicenna (980‒1037) is famous for his thought experiment concerning the flying person,” “floating person” or “person suspended in air.” In this thought experiment, a person is created flying in the air in a state of total sensory deprivation. Scholars have debated for centuries what this thought experiment is all about. Most scholars have interpreted this thought experiment as essentially being about the existence of the soul (al-nafs) in its immateriality, substantiality, and self-awareness, as well as about the difference between the soul and the body. In my article, I will interpret Avicenna’s thought experiment in a totally different manner within the atmospheres of air and breathing. In my reading, I will carefully examine the fact neglected by scholars that this flight happens in the air and that it is the air that defines the existence of the flying person. With this aerial attitude I will argue that this thought experiment is not above all about the soul, but about air and al-nafs as a respiratory self. In my aerial and respiratory interpretation of Avicenna’s flying person, I will use Gaston Bachelard’s phenomenologically oriented aerial thinking as well as etymological analysis of al-nafs.
Keywords: flying person, floating person, breathing, air
Published in DiRROS: 22.03.2022; Views: 447; Downloads: 322
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