>>> Personal Development Seminars
Lecture
Meditation is usually understood as a form of mental reflection, but we can also experience other ways of opening ourselves to, and receiving, messages from the depths of our being. Painting, too, is a form of meditation. Every meditation generally has an “object” towards which mental acts are directed. Our object will be painting, and our subject transcendence. What, then, does Transcendental Meditation through painting mean? It means developing sensitivity and awareness of how a work of art is created. It means relating painting to the death of the body and the enduring existence of art. It means seeking, through art, an experience that takes us beyond the limits of the body, time and space.
Seminar
In the workshop we seek to understand how our awareness of death acts upon our lives. Usually we do not think about it. We tend to believe ourselves eternal and flee from this ultimate end. But how would our actions and our painting change if we were not afraid of dying? Painting, and artistic practice in general, is a powerful means of moving beyond the mental limitation created by the underlying feeling that everything ends when we die, and that consequently everything we do is lost in the meaninglessness of existence. Painting allows us to express the immortal and divine dimension that dwells within each of us. The only way to overcome the fear of death is to have one or more experiences that deepen our awareness that, although some things truly end, others continue. This is not about defeating death in a head-on confrontation, but about developing our universal side. Exercises specifically designed to strengthen the experience of transcendence can help us do so.
Seminar topics
Who can attend
For people who are sensitive to the existential and psychological theme of death. It is not recommended for those who experience intense fear about this subject and might respond to the seminar with a distressing or overwhelming crisis. Maximum participation: 12 people.
Duration
The seminar lasts a total of 16 hours over Saturday and Sunday, plus a two-hour lecture on Friday evening.
Fee
The fee for each seminar is agreed upon with those interested.
Download workshop information sheet (PDF, Italian)
Lecture preview
Oltre la paura della morte
Fear is part of life. Had we not feared predators, for example, we would have become extinct within a few generations. Yet today there are many fears that make us run away from certain thoughts. Can we really escape our thoughts, or do we carry them with us? A lion is out there: I can move away and save my life. But I cannot run away from the mental fear that causes suffering. In the same way, death is something we cannot escape. It belongs to us; it is part of us. Someone once said that we die every day. How could we disagree?
And yet the psyche continues to act, isolating and separating from other mental contents everything it cannot integrate. It protects us from ourselves, but at the same time our strength and abilities diminish, our wholeness is compromised, and so is a certain inner dynamism. Imagine a hidden file, an encrypted, top-secret folder. It contains information that says something like this: everything you do is pointless, because death will erase and reset it all. If we kept that thought constantly active, we could not work, get out of bed or eat, because life would have no meaning. Yet from time to time we have profound experiences: we see the world differently, feel connected to everything and ask ourselves questions about our existence. Who am I? Where am I going? Why am I here?
Are these not precisely the questions we can put to art? To ask art is to act out of the need to go beyond ourselves and to find answers about the meaning of life. To ask art is to surrender to the world and await a response. Then, while painting, I see things in the picture; I feel those forms speaking. There are two possibilities: either I ought to be admitted to a neurology ward—and many artists have met such a fate—or something curious and fascinating is happening. The gods communicate with us; the depths of our being speak the language of poetry and art. Answers will not arrive by text message, but through unfamiliar channels. Let us ask art, and it will give us answers.