NO-POINT PERSPECTIVE (1st BOOK), BOOK, Berlin, Germany, 2020
SHORT TEXT by JUSTIN ALLEN
This project roughly planned to be a kind of modern-day, normal-people, non-stigmatized, non-religious and no-beliefs-affiliated Bhagavad Gita – a simple dialogue between Justin Allen (the prince Arjuna) and his guide Andreas Müller (Krishna). However, it turned out that Justin is not a prince and Andreas is not a guide. In that sense, this is just a collection of talks about so-called “non-duality” (no-point perspective) with no spiritual, religious or scientific intentions. However, amazingly, it turned out to be an apparently “deep“ exploration on this topic.
The conversations took place from October 23, 2019 to March 23, 2020 and have been transcribed and thoughtfully edited to maintain their casual energy.
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EXTENDED TEXT by JUSTIN ALLEN:
This is at most a collection of talks between a self-confirmed apparent person and an unconfirmed non-person, which ultimately offers nothing of value to any persons. It is not a book which you will read and then be able to do something afterwards with the newly acquired knowledge, like understand the equation E = mc2 or bake a cake or know what is right or wrong, and it won’t provide any helpful or useful information on how to live life better or worse.
Yet there are illustrations, and it is possible that the reader relates to and identifies with myself as an apparent person trying to figure something out unsuccessfully. Maybe reading these talks triggers an apparent clarity regarding the absurdity of seeking in which ever form it comes, through teachers, gurus, jobs, family, relationships, location, rebellion, diet, meditation, therapy, drugs, partying, sport, a combination of things or giving up or “letting go.” At least, this book captures the absurdity of my seeking.
I consider myself to be average. I am of an average age (40), an average upbringing, an average social status and a sort of well-rounded every-person of sorts. I have dabbled in several paths to fulfillment as mentioned above, and I am unconvinced of every path I have tried. I was even unconvinced while trying them and unconvinced of my “unconvincement.” By “fulfillment” I mean that search for the thing or things, in whichever form or forms they may come, that you think will end the search for fulfillment and leave you contented. For example, when I finally find the right place to live, with the right partner and a good job, I will have it all (and be done searching). And even though I am confessing that I am unconvinced of the search for fulfillment in whatever form it comes, I still can’t stop searching.
This project that I have undertaken with Andreas Müller was a setup to share this dilemma of seeking, which you can’t seem to stop and doesn’t seem possible for you to end, even when you know it’s basically futile. I use the word “basically” because it softens the seeming fact that there is no point. In our talks, in this sense, I am the experimental lab rat or the average Joe, and I wanted to share my dilemma in the form of a chronologically ordered series of talks between myself as a self-confirmed person or a “me” and Andreas Müller as a non-person or a “no me,” to see what happens. In a sense we have put the dilemma on display with me as the mannequin.