Levinas and 'the face'

Today was quite a day, my first encounter with moral theology and moral theologian was profound. We learned about Emmanuel Levinas and his theory of responsibility from one of his close friends and disciples. The professor teaching the course is renowned scholar on Levinas and he is also involved in teaching in Poone and Bangalore back home. He had so much energy and enthusiasm to teach that I was quite stunned. He took his class in a traditional way, no power points, a black board and a chalk and off course loads and loads of stories. The stories were about his personal interaction with Levinas and though the stories initially felt out of place, by the end of five hours we realized how the stories actually helped us get glimpses of levinas as a person beyond his philosophy. In fact at some point of time sitting in the class, i felt as if i was time to go to bed, a perfect environment, a warm class (outside it was freezing cold), warm and laughing professor and his interesting stories. I did manage to keep awake through most of his lecture. I must confess that most of his talk was not just a theory but something that each one of us could reflect upon in terms of our personal lives and it did become a bit confronting in context of my recent life events. But as another friend later said to me, that is what philosophy is all about, it hits you somewhere within. I will remember the professor of this morning every time i look at a 'Face' as we spend quite a lot of time talking about the face. My worldview towards facebook also has undergone a profound change after the face discussion. How lightly we take the other, how easily we reduce the other to its visible form and how important it is to let the other speak through its form. There were many beautiful one liners in the class today, I should have written them down.

Well after a slump in my mood after levinas impact on my mind, I had another adventure this evening. Today was my first day at zen meditation program. I met 6 zen practitioners who were all very friendly. I realized how difficult it is for me to sit in a correct posture. My back, legs were hurting as I was trying to concentrate on my breathing. The teacher told me not to struggle, to let go and that is the key to start living zen way, to wash dishes in a zen way and to do a laundry in zen way. I know I have a long way to go but I am glad that I have taken first step towards letting go and I will keep working on it till I can really let go. I am looking forward to meeting them all again next tuesday.

My classmates right now are still lingering over Levinas, worrying about tomorrows class or even the case studies which are due submission soon. I like the mad email exchange is going around. I am not going to read Levinas or the articles for tomorrow. I think I am going to go to bed and fall asleep thinking about some of the stories I heard this morning in the class.

Good Night world..