Science, philosophy and art? Can they be clubbed together? How, why? A young friend had these questions writ large on her face when she heard about SPA for the first time. The name SPA sounds exotic! Does it come any closer to the actual experience of real spa? If yes, I’m in! If not..alas! What do you really have in store under the name SPA?
Here’s what I said to her!
The spa that you know, tickles your senses. This SPA tickles your frontal lobe! You go to spa to relax, put all your tensions away, talk deeply with your body and mind and rejuvenate. The SPA that we offer calls for higher attention. It responds to the urge we all have to see newer horizons, the need for serious reflections.
But don’t we have too much on our platter already? Why bother with more serious stuff?
Because deep down we all are already bothered! So many unresolved questions and riddles! So many ideas and conceptions! It is in our nature to be bothered.
Imagine a herd of deer grazing in the meadow in the forest. What a peaceful and pleasant sight. Then there is a slight movement in the bushes, not a leaf crackles, only the stare, and if the wind is favorable there is also a smell..one or two are the first to notice. Drooping ears get erected. In a second everyone is alarmed. They leap and run. As the saying goes, the tiger runs for a meal, the deer runs for life.
Next day, same time, same meadow and the same amazingly peaceful herd! No trace of yesterday’s anxiety in the air. Not that the deer don’t retain any memory from the past, it just doesn’t make them build fences, ignite fire, make tools and weapons and build temples.
We, homo sapiens, did this! Not once, but again and again. What we created changed our environment. That led to newer challenges for us and that, in turn, called for new tools. The game continues till today.
Arguably, the most anxious, discontented and dabbling species on earth. No any real spa in the world would be sufficient to bring us the calm of the deer. Only if we know how to deal with our own selves, we would perhaps save a lot of trouble for ourselves and for the world.
But is this not what they do in spiritual practices and psychology therapy sessions? Why SPA?
Because SPA brings together three ancient responses of mankind. We humans wanted to know the nature of reality, we had passion for what we call wisdom and somewhere in the process of becoming human we learnt to take a broken heart and make it into art! How wonderful it is to weave these responses together and see what emerges. Magic happens when we do it together. It is for this experience- SPA!
In SPA we dig deeper into the history of science, philosophy and art. We see what separated them. We also try and find the bridges that connect them together.
This is something our formal education, our career, seldom allows us to do; to gain perspective on these three fundamental qualities of ours.
New challenges are already showing up on the horizon, the challenges posed by biotechnology and silicon life. It’s our own creation. Soon to crack us open. Are we there? Are we listening? There is no place to leap and run away. If we are not to become a meal, we need to look into the eyes of danger and sustain. We look forward to SPA to talk about this and many other such interesting tales.