Ptaste of wonder is one of the many opportunities offered by Soul the first Spirituality festival, starting in Milan on March 13th. A program full of events scattered throughout the city to do experience of the extraordinary in the ordinary. Promoted byCatholic University of Sacred Heart and fromArchdiocese of Milan with the patronage of the municipality of Milan it is free and open to all. Listening, thinking, talking, meditating, experimenting: SOUL Festival of Spirituality And a project that aims to offer opportunities for reflection around the “human that is common”, captured in its many manifestations, in constant dialogue with different cultural sensitivities and religious traditions. Musical encounters, with poetry, with literature and science, philosophy, theatre. And the wonder will also be the driving force behind two walks what a Maia Cornacchia he will drive on Friday 15th and Sunday 17th from 10 to 11.30, starting in front of the Natural Sciences Museum of Milan.
Living the enchantment of the world
The two wonder walks have as their title Living the enchantment of the world. Maia Cornacchia, 74 years old, has been researching theater and philosophy for more than 50 years – “my debt, as well as with very young children, is with the theatre Grotowski and the philosophical research of Carlo Sini”, he says – he leads them. Here he tells why wonder can be the gateway to the world of the invisible, of which we are all part. Even when we don’t remember it.
What is spirituality?
“I believe that spirituality is a constitutive need of the human being. In the simplest sense, that is, that of feel that we are part of something bigger than ourselves, of something that cannot be explained. The spiritual dimension is very mysterious, and for me having the perception of mystery is important because mystery allows us to venture into the unknown. It takes a lot of confidence to venture into what you don’t know. But it’s the one that makes the most sense, at least that’s how it was for me in my journey. And today, when I am 74 years old, always continues to give meaning and flavor to my life» declares Maia Cornacchia.
Two ways of knowing
Aristotle distinguished between two ways of knowing: Episteme and Sophia The first is the scientific approach, which reads the objective, measurable aspect of reality. «There is another approach, which presupposes that there is also mystery and which presupposes that there is something that is neither measurable nor calculable nor objectifiable, which escapes this scientific approach» says the guide of these two walks of wonder. «I have always felt close to Sofia, to the path towards the unknown. This attraction has greatly increased with age and I feel like a path of freedom given by old age, this desire to venture into the vastness of what I don’t know. The beautiful thing is that what we know, the experience I am having, does not disappear in the face of the unknown. But what I am when I venture beyond the known presents itself with a precision that I could never plan. And it generates a feeling of surprise, which is very connected to spiritual experience. And how I intend to propose spirituality in these walks of wonder”, says Maia Cornacchia.
Children are the best example
«Very young children they are my best teachers, because they they constantly venture into I don’t know, precisely because they don’t know yet. If as you get older you manage to maintain this openness of heart and mind, which leads you to… venture into life with confidencewith the trust little children have unconditionally, this sense of wonder remains, you truly become a child again!” suggests our interlocutor.
Why walk to wonder?
«In these walks of wonder I propose something that is closely connected to my lifelong quest. Of which one of the pillars is theater and body research. When I started teaching theater at 21 years old, learning together with my students, the work was on the body, on perception, listening, feeling. The moment of experience, therefore, as a moment of giving space to venturing into the unknown. While rationality, very precious for reflecting on experiences, is a subsequent step. If we listen to the present moment, what happens to children happens, for whom every gesture is newthe same game repeated ten times is renewed every time.”
During During these walks of wonder I will give indications that come from all cultures and all teachings and which help us to listen. I will show how to try to get out of the very powerful automatisms that push us to crush the experience of the present moment under the weight of our rational will.”
Wonderful walks vs mountain walks
A view of the Casentino Forests and the Sasso Fratino Integral Reserve (photo Getty Images).
“I worked a lot in the mountains on perception and listening, in the woods for example. I had the biggest difficulties with the mountain people. Because mountain people have developed such a close relationship with the mountains that it is closely linked to our culture. “I have to get to the refuge and my walking is a function of going to the refuge” is the objective in mind of those who go walking in the mountains. In order to notice everything you encounter on that journey towards the refuge, you need to slow down and listen. This is what I will do on these walks of wonder. Trying to help people break the habit of walking around to get to a certain place. I will suggest that people open their perception and grasp moment by moment what arrives” says the guide who helps to find the extraordinary in the ordinary.
Touch and be touched
«“When I touch I am also touched” observed another philosopher, Maurice Merleau Ponty” says Maia Cornacchia. “The walks of wonder lead to alerting all the senses, opening the meshes of the skin. I like to say that it goes from being found by the air, by the sounds, by the images, to the presence and quality of presence of the people around. I’m interested in letting people experience what happens when they’re listening in a park, which is something closer to nature. And what happens when I venture into the city. I can maintain this openness of perception and realize how every time I listen, what comes to me can amaze me, It’s new. It’s another way of listening that can make us imagine how our way of presenting ourselves changes experiences.”
Walking between visible and invisible
«Training myself to remain open and present to every perception, as I did with Grotowski, made me realize that in that state even the most ordinary experience becomes extraordinary, Even peeling a hard-boiled egg.for the wonder of discovering so many small sensations that change the concept of the hard-boiled egg you’ve made. It is important to go and come from one dimension to another: call it a boiled egg and share this concept with others in communication. And live the experience in a beyond, in a more subtle, invisible spiritual dimension of the divine, the unknown, of everything that is bigger than us and that has nothing to do with what is considered reality, unfortunately sometimes the only reality we are given to experience.”
Can one desire to experience the invisible but also be frightened by it?
«There is a phrase from the poet Rilke that has always accompanied me: “we must accumulate the honey of the visible in the great hive of the invisible”. Familiarizing ourselves with the visible, everything in life teaches us to do it, indeed it also gives us the illusion of being able to control it. But as children we are always in more relationship with the invisible than with the visible. I can hide my nervousness with an adult but a child gets nervous if he feels I am nervous, and therefore is more in relation with the invisible than with the visible.
Just touching something that is bigger than you can be scary. To venture into the unknown, trust is the fundamental ingredient. The same mechanism of fear is triggered which, when I think about it, magnifies us, but if I immediately face it it diminishes. The type of experience I am referring to it is analogous to that of mindfulness which is this being present and attentive to what you are experiencing. If you are attentive, aware of what you are experiencing then you have the ability to venture into the unknown into the invisible without anxiety. Anxiety arises from thinking that I’m dealing with something I don’t know how to handle. But it’s nice to find out that we can handle things, and we have a capacity to know that cannot be learned but which belongs to us”.
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