On Philosophy
I wanted to start this post with the bombastic statement: “Philosophy has always been my vocation”. But I couldn’t, because I immediately...| Dhammavicaya
I wanted to start this post with the bombastic statement: “Philosophy has always been my vocation”. But I couldn’t, because I immediately...| Dhammavicaya
(The 'syllabus' for Get in Contact – a series of classes about CI, from a contemplative perspective) Contact Improvisation is not a...| Dhammavicaya
Dhammavicaya provides open access resources about philosophy and ancient Buddhist meditative practices for daily life, and in higher education.| Dhammavicaya
In the past, I had multiple occasions to deepen my theoretical knowledge of Christianity, especially through the philosophical study of some of its tenets and authors. I’ve been working on Christian ideas about free will, God’s divine intervention in nature, the notion of ‘creation’, the interpretation of Scripture, and the relation between science, faith and religion. While I acquired a certain amount of knowledge in all these domains, very little of it made (or even invited me to be...| Dhammavicaya
Recordare, Jesu pie, Quod sum causa tuae viae. Ne me perdas illa die. Quaerens me sedisti lassus, Redemisti crucem passus: Tantus labor...| Dhammavicaya
I’d like to synthetize the key insights that have been ripening over the past months, some of them since my first conversion in January,...| Dhammavicaya
Rejoice in the Lord always. I will say it again: Rejoice! Let your gentleness be evident to all. The Lord is near. Philippians 4:4-5 ...| Dhammavicaya
Create in me a clean heart, God; renew in me a resolute spirit. Psalm 51 (50): 12 When I fell in the dark, Where nobody would bring Me...| Dhammavicaya
Dear C., I’m very glad to hear about your recent powerful experience about the Christian faith. Being touched by God’s love changes...| Dhammavicaya
We are playing chess. But in this game I win insofar as I surrender to you. I am exalted if I let you conquer me. I witness you every day...| Dhammavicaya
I am the way and the truth and the life. (John 14:6) The life. I’m surrounded by the astonishing nature of California. Majestic trees embrace me, as I walk through the grass full of little flowers. I can feel the life buzzing everywhere, growing from the earth, reaching towards the sky, sucking the light in, breathing out joy—the joy of being alive. The creation is still ongoing, it is continuously ongoing. The creation happens through a Word: ‘let this be’, and it comes—and it is ...| Dhammavicaya
The third time he said to him, “Simon son of John, do you love me?” Peter was hurt because Jesus asked him the third time, “Do you love me?” He said, “Lord, you know all things; you know that I love you.” Jesus said, “Feed my sheep. Very truly I tell you, when you were younger you dressed yourself and went where you wanted; but when you are old you will stretch out your hands, and someone else will dress you and lead you where you do not want to go.” Jesus said this to ...| Dhammavicaya
Back home in Italy for a few days, I wanted to consult my personal archive. I keep a regular journal since I'm 13 and I wanted to check...| Dhammavicaya
One month has passed since what happened in Freiburg (see here ). This has been a rich month, in which I've started delving deeper into...| Dhammavicaya
I often hear Contact Improvisation teachers emphasizing the importance of ‘keeping one’s own solo dance’ (variously phrased). What they...| Dhammavicaya
At a recent workshop in Vienna, Ralf Jaroschinski proposed to reflect and approach contact improvisation from the point of view of...| Dhammavicaya
I walk. People around. A lot. But are they there? Social roles, of course, keep us apart. Everybody is playing their part. You must...| Dhammavicaya
I’m on my way back from another very inspiring week of the CI teacher training in Freiburg. This time the most insightful aspect emerged...| Dhammavicaya
The Pharisee took up his position and spoke this prayer to himself, ‘O God, I thank you that I am not like the rest of humanity — greedy, dishonest, adulterous — or even like this tax collector. I fast twice a week, and I pay tithes on my whole income.' (Luke, 18: 11-12)A few weeks ago I published a post entitled “Abjure” in which I used somewhat hard language to distance myself from much of what I’ve done in the past. After more pondering, and also taking into account the effect ...| Dhammavicaya
We live in an immense supermarket. Everything is available, often in innumerable forms and shades. We spend most of our time walking through the shelfs, pondering whether we want this kind of peanut butter or that kind, often forgetting that we don’t really need any. Our culture has little patience with metaphysical systems, with eternal truths, with God(s), with anything that sounds or promises to be everlasting. After all, that would not be good for business. We are fast multitaskers, alw...| Dhammavicaya
Over the past months I have occasionally pondered the meaning and impact of the Christian symbol of Jesus on the Cross. When I visit a new city, I often happen to visit the main local church, more as a habit and out of artistic interest than for religious reasons. For some time, I have been puzzled by the idea of taking the Cross as a symbol for a whole religious revelation. Compared with the meditating Buddha, the smiling Krishna, or the dancing Shiva, the Cross brings definitely a very differe| Dhammavicaya
How do we establish authentic connections? How do we get in touch with one another in such a way that we are both honoured in what we are, and yet we remain fully open to the other? As constitutively relational beings, we can’t avoid this sort of questions. Our daily life moves through a number of socially codified scripts that show patterns for relating with other beings, via specific roles that we learned to play. To some extent, this social scaffolding is necessary and helpful. Yet, it a...| Dhammavicaya
Turning 38 in a bit more than a month from now, I’m discovering that there is a truth in distinguishing different phases in life. This is an old truth, which has been codified in many cultures around the world, but for some reason I always regarded it as a more or less plausible socio-theoretical construction, without ever relating to it directly. Now, I do. I remember my childhood (‘phase one’) as relatively scattered, as something growing in different directions in different ways, of...| Dhammavicaya
I spend quite some time without thinking much at anything. Often when I walk, or sit, or just attend to ordinary activities, I like being quiet and silent inside. But I like thinking, namely, I like trying to articulate and spelling out what often seems intuitively clear and interesting, but at first also a bit mysterious. The point is not to take the mystery away, but just to fully understand what the mystery is about. Over the past four months or so, I transitioned from a very still and re...| Dhammavicaya
Over the past four months I’ve been discovering and experimenting with Contact Improvisation (CI). I’m primarily interested not so much in the performance side of CI, but in its potential as a tool for exploring and better understanding what it means (and entails) to have an experience. After all, this is the kind of interest that drives me most of the time, no matter what I happen to be doing. In this regard, I’ve noticed two very interesting and related aspects that I’ve never encou...| Dhammavicaya
