VENEER MAGAZINE 05/18

Its fore-edge is barred by spray foam. On the inside are sea cucumbers, Oakleys, accounts of aliens from the decks of nuclear naval carriers, memristors, cassoulet, with Adrian Piper writing for us and doing her yoga routine. There is also a problematic, foiled-laced tear-off wall calendar perforated in there.

ISBN: 978-1-934399-08-8
COVER: 3/0 + FOAM, TEXT: 1/1, 4/4, 4/4 CALENDAR
172 PP, LETTERPRESSED, OFFSET, FOIL STAMPED
14cm X 22.9cm (VARIABLE DUE TO FOAM)
RETAIL EDITION: 700
2009, 25 USD

Ve WEBSITE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT THE SUBSCRIPTION EDITION.

AN EXCERPT FROM "SADHANA" BY ADRIAN PIPER, PAGE 140:

"And because - and here is where our extra assumption becomes useful - consciousness is identical to energy, these acts of self-awareness generate intentional objects of consciousness that have physical reality as well. These individuated forms constitute our familiar, causally-determined world of multiplicity and include human beings. So this world, including humanity, is a product of Brahman, is co-extensive with Brahman, is saturated with Brahman, and is also an illusion that conceals the steady, unitary state of consciousness that Brahman is in fact.

Sadhana comprises spiritual practices within the familiar world of multiplicity that enable us to trace this path back in the opposite direction, from 'the world of name and form' to 'the One without a second' that underlies it. In the Upanishads, individual human consciousness is an extension of the original, unitary consciousness that engenders it. Like that original consciousness, individual human consciousness in turn creates further objects of awareness* - then enters into them, then gets lost in them. Identifying with and pursuing the objects of individual consciousness we have created, we lose our connection to the true Self whose objects they are.

In different ways, all of the eight limbs of yoga train us in two habits. First, sadhana trains us to observe and control our mental and physical reactions to stimuli. Second, sadhana cultivates the ability to detach our awareness from those reactions: from our perceptions, interpretations, and beliefs; from the emotions and desires we feel in response to them; from the actions our emotions and desires move us to perform; and, finally, from the fruits of those actions outside us. Thus, sadhana trains us in the habit of self-awareness.

* This implies creating the actual states of affairs that these intentional objects denote only in the limiting case of original, unitary consciousness (Brahman) in which consciousness and energy are presumed to be strictly identical."