Socrates, Death and Self-Transformation

Description

A journey into the birthplace of Western culture: ancient Greece, by exploring together the "Phaedo" by Plato. This text teaches us about the preparation for death, the act of "meeting" death and the question of what lies beyond it.

It is a reflection on the meaning of life and our deepest and most true identity. This text also speaks about the meaning and purpose of philosophy, as well as mysticism.

Often, when we want to learn about spiritual enlightenment, we turn to the traditions of Buddhism, yogic knowledge, Sufism, the Kabbalah, Christianity or other religious schools.

Rarely do we realise that we could simply take a closer look at one of the birthplaces of Western culture: ancient Greece. There, amongst the philosophers, we can find teachings that are deep, radical and truly amazing. Importantly, these teachings frequently talk about enlightenment and the path to spiritual liberation. In the teachings of Plato we can find treasures of spiritual guidance and spiritual practice that have the power to change our experience and our perception.

You are invited to a series of what we call “philosophy satsangs”, by which we mean meetings that will combine practices, guided meditations and other teaching elements in order to create an experiential learning journey of philosophical texts; texts that are actually texts of liberation.

The text that we will be exploring together is the “Phaedo” by Plato. It is a dramatic text, in the sense that it actually documents the last conversation between Socrates and his students, just before the former drinks the poison hemlock that will kill him. This text teaches us about the preparation for death, the act of “meeting” death and the question of what lies beyond it. It is a reflection on the meaning of life and our deepest and most true identity. This text also speaks about the meaning and purpose of philosophy, as well as mysticism.

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