Blog Marcos L. Mucheroni Filosofia, Noosfera e cibercultura

No, it is not about the art of observing nature or the universe, as the act of observing is also an “active life” as there will certainly not be any interpretation or detail that catches our attention.
It is about other meanings: listening without interpreting, looking with a purified gaze and understanding what is incomprehensible to human reason, so it is not a rational attitude, nor a madness or sensitive delirium, it is an exercise of “inactivity” writes Byung- Chul Han.
The author writes in Vita Contemplativa: ou sobre a inativa (Han, 2023, p. 11): “Inactivity constitutes the Humanum. What makes doing genuinely human is the amount of inactivity in it. Without a moment of hesitation or restraint, acting degenerates into blind action and reaction. Without rest, a new barbarism emerges.” (above the painting by Rembrandt The Philosopher).
Therefore, contemplative inactivity is not to be confused with laziness, absence of action, but a rest for clairvoyant action and deep speech, says the author: “It is silence that gives depth to speech. Without silence there is no music, but only noise and noise. Play is the essence of beauty. Where only the scheme of stimulus and reaction, of lack and satisfaction, of problem and solution, of objective and action, prevails, life is reduced to survival, to naked animal life” (idem) and it is not by chance that it is confused with current modern life .
We are not machines always destined to function, the true life of conscious action begins when the concern with survival ceases (also in the sense of prolonging the experience) and the need for raw and non-bare life arises.
The confusion arose because of the confusion between history and culture, not the history of ideas (in the sense of the Greek eidos), but that which ignores culture and deals only with the pleasure, power and oppression of people, says the Han: “ action is, in fact, constitutive for history, but it is not the formative force of culture” (Han, 2023, p. 12) it may even be a consequence, but made of silent reflection it is just noise and impulsive manifestation.
And he adds in the same passage: “Not war, but celebration, not weapons, but jewelry, are the origin of culture. History and cultural do not coincide” (Han, idem).
“Jewelry” may seem strange, but the core of our culture is ornamental. It is situated beyond functionality and utility. With the ornamental that is emancipated from any purpose or utility, life insists on being more than survival” (idem).
This is the biblical example of eternal life, where the narrator explains Jesus’ speech: the kingdom of God (Mt 13:44) “is like treasure hidden in the field. A man finds him and keeps him hidden. Filled with joy, he goes, sells all his possessions and buys that field” and he will also say this about a pearl buyer who finds a large pearl.
HAN, Byung-Chul. (2023) Contemplative Life. Trans. Lucas Machado, Brazil, RJ: Petropolis.