#borup

[yoramkelmer]

#borup #sjælland #imzug #see #dämmerung #fernweh #anywherebuthere #wolken #horizont #travelling (hier: Borup, Roskilde, Denmark) https://www.instagram.com/p/CYerx5ntS-H/?utm_medium=tumblr

[ox-head]

Suzuki's "Zen" is not the Zen of the Zen sect (or school, Zenshu) as an institutional and living religion. "True Zen" is defined through its (classical) texts, taking them at face value to represent (an idealized) reality. Zen becomes a concept, a transcendent essence, underlying Buddhism and all religions in their different manifestations. Zen study therefore is the way to "Zen" (Kirita 1996, 114). Zen is the quintessence of the "religious consciousness of mankind" (1970A, preface), of "the human spirit" (1970C, 347) and - though Rudolf Otto seems to have been more inspired by Suzuki than the other way round - Zen gets a taste of "The Holy". "Zen is the ocean, Zen is the air ... Zen is man" (1969B, 45), and "the spirit of all religions and philosophies" (ibid., 44). Suzuki can therefore also find "Zen" in both Buddhism, Christianity, Islam, Daoism and Confucianism (1956, 111) and among both Swedenborg, Emerson, Blavatsky, Eckhart and other western mystics. Suzuki found Zen perfectly suitable to modernity. Or rather, he found modernity perfectly suitable to Zen. But - like the spiritual theosophists, the romanticists, the mystical depth psychologists, the essentialist historians of religion - Suzuki could only sustain this spiritualism by rejecting or complementing modernity and universalism.

Jørn Borup, “Zen and the Art of Inverting Orientalism: Religious Studies and Genealogical Networks”, New Approaches to the Study of Religion

[ox-head]

Pali-canonic Theravada Buddhism was, by others, baptized "Protestantism of the East" (Almond, 1988, 74), in opposition to the corrupt "Catholic" Mahayana Buddhism (and Hinduism) with all its folklore, magic, superstition and idolatry. To Victorian Protestants and the "Pali Text Society Spirit" (Faure 1991, 89), monastic life was not interesting, it expressed Catholic practice. Meditation was often seen to express ritualized (and thus legitimate) laziness. Perhaps the most important quality of Buddhism was its status as "dead": Actual living Buddhism was looked upon as a false folk-religion, degenerated from pure and only existing "real" textual Buddhism. Living Buddhists were not true Buddhists. They did not understand their own religion. Religious practice was considered to be a minor and false aspect of religious discourse. From the outset there were built-in dichotomies in the approach to Buddhism; original versus degenerated, theory versus practice, doctrine versus ritual, spiritual essence versus material manifestation etc - with the former part of the dichotomy having the hierarchical priority. Buddhism became an invented tradition, and a projected battlefield, reflecting the mind and culture of the 'discoverer'.

Jørn Borup, "Zen and the Art of Inverting Orientalism: Religious Studies and Genealogical Networks", New Approaches to the Study of Religion

[gliga030]

#BorUp #Efeel #Selfie

[ruddydunx]

Borup, Oquendo and the City of New York

New York for one week and two faces have dominated my time so far.

One is of Donna Joan Borup. Wanted by the authorities and lit up for the crowds to see in Times Square. Possibly the most expensive ad space in the world, and this lady, greyed and on the run takes her place next to Uniqlo and McDonalds as one of New York's most sought after commodities. 

The other is of Avonte Oquendo. A mute autistic child whose face adorns every subway stop, every 'big box' store, every spare lamp-post. Oquendo is missing, "the search is frantic", yet every day in New York City at least 42 children go missing for terrible reasons like abduction or them running away. Even if you accept the questionable statistics from "The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children" that 97% of missing children are returned, it means that more than one child permanently disappears every day in NYC for non-benign reasons. 

So why all the attention on Oquendo and Borup and not other missing individuals? 

Oquendo disappeared from a state-funded school during supervised time, so his permanent disappearance would result in a major lawsuit against the city. Borup allegedly tossed a caustic substance into the eyes of a Port Authority Police officer during an anti-apartheid rally in 1981 - the city never forgets an enemy.

The ubiquity of these faces and the high priority with which they are dealt is a reminder that in this city the state is as much a self-interested party as the shopkeeper or the corporation.  It gets to the heart of what this city suffers from. Exchanges between people are mutilated by the pursuit or perceived pursuit of self-interest. I sometimes wonder whether love is ever possible in this city or whether it's an alignment of mutually beneficial socio-economic goals. 

It's hard to overstate how much competition there is for our attention in NYC. Brands and images are everywhere. So seeing these faces so prominently and memorably delivers a powerful message that even the state is out to unashamedly serve its own purposes at the expense of others that need its protection or need to face justice.

:(

[pressxplatform]

The first game to be presented on the PRESS (X) is the game the platform was named after: PRESS [X] TO GIVE UP, a Nordic Game Jam 2013 game (and 2nd place finalist), made by Anders Børup, Bram Michielsen, Henrike Lode, Jonas Maaløe, Jonatan Van Hove & Mads Johansen, with a title logo by Thomas Ryder. PRESS [X] TO GIVE UP was featured on (among other websites) PcGamer, Indiegames.com, Rock Paper Shotgun & The Gameological Society. PRESS [X] TO GIVE UP

[incommensurables]

NEW URL: http://borups.tumblr.com/