Erik Jacobsen: Yoga, Philosophy, and Art

Mind–body dualism is a philosophical view which holds that mental phenomena are, at least in certain respects, not physical phenomena, meaning that the mind and the body are distinct and separable from one another.

Of course… If you practice yoga, you know this is definitely not the case.

We feel, think, and often remember through our body. Our body is a part of Prakriti “primary subatomic particles.” Our minds are also a part Prakriti. And what is left after prakriti is gone is simply awareness: Purusha, what we might call “Presence.”

We are awareness you and I. We are linked. This is Paramatman. We are joined this way.

False dichotomies are rife in our society. Red Blue. Body Mind. Them Us. High Brow Low Brow. Our guest today, our dear friend, Erik Jacobsen is a student. Self taught. In that he’s a life long learner with a passion for understanding being and demonstrating right action.

Erik is a tattoo artist. He’s punk. He’s self made. He went to art school (but that is not exactly school) and has buried his art in the ground. And he’s buried it inside this impermanent flesh — another kind of ground.

But Erik is also this: He’s an artist whose material, whose ground, is the the body. And nothing more so activates his art then his audience… The flesh. Flesh which itself represents the consciousness waking up, aware of itself housed inside a body.

In painting we often refer to the ground as two things: First, it’s the treatment of the canvas or wood with a preservative that keeps the oil from eating away at it. Second, it’s the space in which the subject sits—an apple for example. The mistake a young artist often makes is to say that two are separate. That is to say, the subject becomes an object with no context. And to suggest that the context doesn’t affect the subject is a lie. That the light is not a part of the being of the apple is an untruth.

The apple is light. Absolutely everything is made of stardust. And this is where we're meeting Jacob today... somewhere amongst the stars.

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FIND OUT MORE ABOUT ERIK JACOBSEN

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