INVESTIGATIONS
INTO REALITY
Welcome
to an online laboratory for real-life transformation
collecting materials, reflections, open access resources, and announcements for online and in-person events, aimed at exploring the deeper dimensions of life and existence in a cross-cultural perspective.
DHAMMAVICAYA
TRILOGY
Three related works that explore the nature of selfhood, how it is constructed, how it can be deconstructed, and what can we learn from it.
VOL. 1
THE TRAGEDY OF THE SELF.
LECTURES ON GLOBAL HERMENEUTICS
Why do human beings interpret their overall experience in terms of selfhood? How was the notion and sense of self shaped at different times and in different cultures? What sort of problems or paradoxes did these constructions face? These lectures address these and related questions by sketching a roadmap of possible theoretical avenues for conceiving of the self, bringing to the foreground its soteriological implications, while also testing this theoretical outlook against insights offered by various disciplines and in specific historical cultures. The resulting journey is a way of practicing hermeneutics, the art of understanding and interpreting experience in its multifarious manifestations.
VOL. 2
AN INTRODUCTION TO FRIENDLINESS (METTĀ).
EMOTIONAL INTELLIGENCE AND FREEDOM IN THE PĀLI DISCOURSES OF THE BUDDHA.
Friendliness (mettā in Pāli) is an emotional and intentional attitude of goodwill and non-aversion towards all sentient beings, including oneself. It is rooted in both feeling and understanding. In the Pāli discourses of the Buddha, friendliness is repeatedly stressed and encouraged for its numerous benefits. It supports and develops a form of emotional intelligence and provides an ideal pathway to explore deeper aspects of one’s experience and their philosophical implications.
VOL. 3
Spinoza's Yoga.
Practice of Power and Experience of Infinity.
Today, human beings have unprecedented (scientific, technological, military, political) power at their disposal. To obtain it, the entire planet has been profoundly transformed. Yet, at the height of this power, humanity is brought face to face with challenges towards which it seems utterly powerless, from disproportionate socio-economic inequalities to climate disaster. Baruch Spinoza's philosophy may offer a new perspective to understand the heart of this paradox and its possible solution. Spinoza indicates how effective empowerment must result in an enhancement of the kind of knowledge we have access to, and how in the process of empowerment it is natural to discover an unlimited and inexhaustible source of vital energy precisely in the knowledge of how each being is part and expression of the whole.
In progress.
To be released in IT, EN, NL, FR, SP...
I plan to develop a gradual system of practice to put into practice some of the teachings and insights outlined in the books of the trilogy above. In particular, a form of yoga based on Spinoza's philosophy, but integrating practices and methods from the Buddhist, Yoga and Tantric traditions.
Hilaritas:
Enhancing body and mind
A half-day urban immersion dedicated to outlining the basics.
Details TBA
Potentia:
Building a wider view
A 5-day residential retreat to consolidate the practice and explore some of its main premises and implications.
Details TBA
Gloria:
Salvation, blessedness, freedom
A 10-day residential retreat to deepen the more subtle aspects and experiment with the intellectual love of God.
Details TBA
