Lecture given at the EHU (University of the Basque Country) Summer Courses, 2026 (continuation and final) 8. The Jewish and Christian Biblical Tradition The Judeo-Christian Bible is a world in itself; it contains everything. There are texts that celebrate old age as a blessing from God, and texts that lament the burdens of old age […]
Lecture presented at the EHU (University of the Basque Country) Summer Courses, 2026 (continuation) 7. Contemporary philosopher and literature a) Arthur Schopenhauer (1788-1860) Arthur Schopenhauer is considered one of the most brilliant philosophers of the nineteenth century and one of the most important figures in contemporary Western philosophy. His last work, unfinished and published posthumously, […]
I am reproducing here a text written in response to a question posed by Denis Guénoun, following my recent meeting in Paris with the Foyer de l’Âme community, a reformed parish of the Liberal United Protestant Church of France. Denis Guénoun was born in Oran (Algeria) in 1946 and brought up in an agnostic Jewish […]
I come to express, my dear Joxé, my long-standing, silent gratitude and admiration. You possessed extraordinary qualities: you were a sharp thinker, a brilliant speaker, and a prolific writer. A spur to reflection, an inspiration for action, a tactful companion of the flesh-and-blood human being full of contradictions, a spirited promoter of a society made […]
You left us “with the palms of your hands to the wind, with no other handhold than the air, where the Being, my true home, breathes”. You were an attentive companion, inspired witness to the Silence, vibrant voice of the Presence “of the pure Witness that in our depth breathes, palpitates and cries out to […]
In the morning of March 22, I received the following email message: “Last night, Hélène left us in her sleep, quietly, just like that. She passed away gently, with no fighting. She was efficient all her life and without making any fuss. We will miss her”. These words express all the essentials with the sober […]
Easter arrived again. It is the Easterof Jesus, the crucified prophet, the singular image for Christians of the universal hope for all crucified people. It is the Easter of the first full moon of spring that so many cultures have celebrated thousands of years before our Christian Era: Chinese, Indians, Sumerians, Babilonians and Jews, and […]
We do not like to talk about death, in spite of its being part of our daily life. We do not like to talk about death, but –or, better yet, because- death hurts. And it is somebody else’s death the one that hurts most, the dejected solitude and the sadness of the void it left […]
Parabole in memory of all those whose apparent presence we lost An Autumn afternoon I was in a park, contemplating a pretty and very small leaf shaped as a heart. It was reddish and it dangled from a branch, as if it were about to fall. I spent a long time with it and asked […]
On January 22nd, Thich Nhat Hanh, Vietnamese writer and poet, Zen buddist monk and teacher of life in mindfulness died at the age of 95. He was a peace activist. He fought in the VietNam and was persecuted both by the communist North as well as by US backed South. In 1972 he became a […]
