Aesthetics of Diagrammatic Contemplation: Abhinavagupta's and Martin Heidegger's Views on Being as Such and How It Can Be Disclosed Through Aesthetic Contemplation
January 1, 2025 Khang Bao Nguyen
This philosophical paper compares Heidegger's and Abhinavagupta's accounts of aesthetic contemplation as ways to surpass the subject/object duality and disclose fundamental dimensions of being and knowing. Heidegger argues that Van Gogh's painting of shoes, especially its indeterminate background, resists conceptual mastery and can reveal Being as such. Abhinavagupta describes aesthetic relishing as identification and universalization that temporarily elevate awareness beyond the self/other divide. The author contends that both approaches fall short of the nondual consciousness of Shiva in Kashmir Shaivism and proposes that the tradition's three means (anavopaya, shaktopaya, shambavopaya) can be visually expressed in drawing and painting to guide contemplative practice toward nondual awareness.