FIRST CONGRESS ON CONTEMPLATIVE SCIENCES

Humans have intrinsically strived for excellence, perfection of character, enlightenment and self-realisation, which is why ways and methods that help to achieve this purpose have been developed throughout history by every civilisation. Common to spiritual traditions are the description of rituals and practices whose main aim is to take the aspiring individual, the initiate, to achieve states and stages of empowerment, of progressive lifting of the levels of egocentricity that hinder the vision of the light, truth or being. The Sufi tradition, in particular, has passed on a series of teachings associated with states or stages of perfection. The disciple must transit through them in order to achieve the total release of their individual personality that is being held captive by the ego. The pilgrimage undertaken by the adept will allow them, God willing, to be able to contemplate the unity that transcends the multiplicity; henceforth, their sole personality will unfold with wonder and wonderfully as a radiant, generous, majestic and serene, splendid and powerful super-individual. This session offers an introduction to how Sufism deals with the soul of the aspiring individual, the ways in which to seek personal self-knowledge and, finally, a session of dhikr (remembrance) or sama (listening) that consists of reciting divine names and chants as part of a ritual dance that takes initiates to states of detachment and union.

This workshop will allow participants to become acquainted with and experience the most characteristic practices of the Vajrayana tradition of Tibetan Buddhism. Basic aspects, such as visualisation, work with sound, pure perception and dissolution into emptiness will be presented and practised, and spaces will be given in which to clarify their application. The methods of Vajrayana are designed to lead practitioners to free themselves of the dualistic perception and their identification with an ego, and ultimately to recognise their true condition and reveal their innate wisdom. Through these practices, the individual gradually refines their internal energy and leaves behind limiting concepts of themselves in order to connect with their intrinsic potential, open themselves to the non-intellectual aspect of their being, releasing themselves from the unconscious habits that determine their experience and recognising the true nature of all phenomena and the illusory nature of the ego. A path towards profound transformation that enables them to attain Buddhahood and release themselves from suffering, for the purpose of benefiting all beings, without exception.