Facets of Existence

To capture the nature of ontology driven by aesthetic and ethical sensibilities and practices, the foremost consideration is to map the nature of existence. While we are familiar with various ways of seeing ontology in the history of European philosophy, ours is to see existence as fundamental to ontological discourse. This is not to suggest that meaning ontology or substance ontology are insignificant enterprises. These forms of ontology, I believe, are not antithetical to one another. Existence as a form of ontology is well known. The contour of existence is being mapped starting from celebration of simple life to complex collective rituals, and further of the other world. Inseparable link between the physical and the non-physical world, the living and the non-living have also been highlighted. Indigenous lifeworld builds the essence of existence through aesthetic and ethical expressions and understanding, by first engaging with the ontic world, followed by the trans-bodily sites. From mere feeling it moves to the mystical experience where humans explore their encounter with the world of spirits.