Dostojevskij and mindfulness

Its not that Fjodor Dostojevskij practised mindfulness. He probably didn't know about meditation outside a christian context.

What Dostojevskij had in common with mindfulness is the view of the human mind:
it doesn't add up to a whole.

In, for instance, "Crime and Punishment", Raskolnikov is influenced by Nietzschean ideas of ubermensch; some people are allowed to do crimes for the sake of good, aren't they.
But he also doubts he's ideas. Isn't he just a sick student without money?

The different sides of his mind is also illustrated by the people he meet, the drunkard Marmeladov and his  daughter Sofia that fall in love with Raskolnikov and tries to help him.

People hallucinate and fool themselves.

In the Brothers Karamazov, tha last novel, we can see Dostojevskij in all of the three siblings;
one guided by feelings and cravings, one by the intellect and one by God. And a half brother has epilepsy as Dostojevskij himself had. 

If the different parts of our mind is in conflict of each other, we will often be in a state of ambivalens.

One way to get rid of that ambivalence is to meditate, to concentrate on the breath and to let the thoughts and feelings come and go.

The advice; "follow your inner voice" may be a foolish one, as we have a lot of voices inside of us.

Dostojevskij  called his writing style for "realism of the soul".

The same name could also fit for the music of Bach, as it has many voices in it;






Comments

  1. Smith Benson21 January 2021 at 12:00

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