HABITUS: Objects, Behaviours, Rooms by Justin Ascott

Habitus' explores - through a creative dialectic - the way human consciousness is shaped by the compartmentalised structures of the places we inhabit -- primarily the home and workplace - and the habituated behaviours we perform within these various nodes. The mechanical actions we carry out each day -- lead to feelings of disillusionment and disengagement with social reality. The only objects and 'tools' that have the transformative power to expand consciousness are those commonly used by shamans in ritualised contexts - to induce altered states of perception for the purposes of healing, transcendence and revelation.

Habitus refers to lifestyle, the values, the dispositions and expectation of particular social groups that are acquired through the activities and experiences of everyday life. Perhaps in more basic terms, the habitus could be understood as a structure of the mind characterized by a set of acquired schemata, sensibilities, dispositions and taste. The particular contents of the habitus are the result of the objectification of social structure at the level of individual subjectivity. The habitus can be seen as counterpoint to the notions of rationality that are prevalent within other disciplines of social science research. It is perhaps best understood in relation to the notion of the 'habitus' and 'field', which describes the relationship between individual agents and the contextual environment.

Pierre Bourdieu elaborates on the notion of Habitus by explaining its dependency on history and human memory. For instance, a certain behaviour or belief becomes part of a society's structure when the original purpose of that behaviour or belief can no longer be recalled and becomes socialized into individuals of that culture.

Specialisation is for Insects

"A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying. Take orders, give orders, co-operate, act alone, solve equations, analyse a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialisation is for insects". - Robert Heinlein

I would add play a musical instrument, dance and have a command of at least two languages. 

Audio for the Weekend

Here are two downloads for the weekend. One for the mind and the other for your soul (you can decide which is which or maybe it is both):

Jacques on Religion
Part 1
Part 2
This extended interview with Jacques Derrida was conducted by John D. Caputo, Kevin Hart, and Yvonne Sherwood as the plenary session of the 2002 joint annual meeting of the American Academy of Religion (AAR) and the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL). The interview gives Derrida the opportunity to speak on a range of subjects from his secret life of prayer, to the Judeo-Christian heritage of deconstruction, to sacrifice, belief, faith, secularization, atheism, finitude, and beyond. But what pervades throughout is a certain feeling of anxiety, reserve, and humility, which to those already familiar with Derrida's work, should be of no surprise.

Ragas of Morning and Night
(Todi, Darbari) Gramavision 18-7018-7 (1986)
Rage Todi
Raga Darbari
This is a rare recording from 1968 India of Pandit PranNath singing Rags Todi and Darbari.

Pran Nath's Ragas of Morning & Night has nothing to do with entertainment, everything to do with meditation and everything to do with New Age music, so much of which is profoundly influenced by traditional Indian music. As we listen, we are drawn in, captivated and eventually transported to psycho-spiritual clarity. Ragas is an intense album for serious listeners who regard listening as a process of inner development.

All this is brought to us by UBUWEB

Yama

Allen Ginsberg: The Last Day on Earth

Ten years ago. It is April 1997 and I had just returned from 8 months in India and Thailand. My travels had been partly inspired by poet Allen Ginsberg's 1970 publication of his Indian Journals. In New York Ginsberg lies dying in his apartment surrounded by friends and family. Some Tibetan Buddhist monks are chanting the text of the Bardo Thodol to free Ginsberg's spirit as it begins it 40 days on the after death plain before choosing a rebirth or liberation from the cycle of Maya. Ginsberg died on 5th April 1997 in what appeared to be a model for a peaceful and harmonious death. The image above is taken from Jonas Mekas' film Allen's Last Three Days on Earth as a Spirit (1997) which is now streamed online at UBUWEB. Watching the film yesterday I was touched by the whole scene played out in Ginsberg apartment as he peacefully approached the end. The group of Tibetans in attendance chant the Liberation through Hearing in the Intermediate State and friends and family move about as if they were just dropping by to say hello (or is goodbye).

Inspired by this I have posted a special audio recording to the Internet Archive. Part of a recording I made of a three day Yama Durga Puja at Diskit Gompa in the north east of Ladakh (part of India) in the Nubra Valley. Diskit Gompa is a monastery of the Dge-lugs-pa or Yellow Hat sect of Tibetan Buddhism. The ceremony took place in September 1996. Diskit Gompa was built by Changzem Tserab Zangpo, a disciple of Tsong-kha-pa, the Diskit Gompa dates back to the 14th century. In this recording there are around 70 monks chanting in the main hall of the monastery. Bowls of butter tea and sampa can be heard occasionally sliding along the benches as some monks take a break and others step forward to take their place. The chanting went late into the night from very early in the morning for three days. The first few seconds is audio from one of the many irrigation channels that direct the snow melt from the mountains down to the cultivated valleys in Ladakh.

Diskit Gompa Ladakh