A glimpse of approach in the Gothic Quarter: meeting Francisco
For Francisco, that shows that philosophy can be lived as well as idea.
“There are evenings one never forgets; often, a solitary experience gives indicating to a life.”
Some nights never fade. I remember one in October 2000, in Barcelona, straying via the enigmatic streets of the Gothic Quarter. The memory stays sharp, as if the city itself had actually murmured to me. I strolled with a tight chest, oppressed by the anxiety provoked by my doctoral thesis. That objective loomed prior to me like a wall surface without doors. Both my health and my spirit were faltering.
It was on Site de l’Àngel — that lively pedestrian opportunity introducing the Gothic heart of my city– that Francisco showed up, as if emerging from another age. Discreet, alert, and carrying that rare mix of cordiality and function only a few people have. His invite was simple: attend the Viewpoint for Living training course. I could conveniently have passed him by, as one does amidst the tide of confidential faces on a jampacked road. Yet, for factors I still can not totally explain, I stopped. And nearly without knowing, as if born upon some subconscious existing, I stated yes. I have long thought that specific choices– silent, anonymous– open doors no fanfare ever announces. This was mine. A motion so slight it could have dissolved into the circulation of the day, and yet it proved decisive: it led me to New Castle , an international organisation which, with viewpoint, culture and service, risks to suggest a higher perfect of life. An insignificant selection, it appeared; but because delicate tilt of decision, an entire path changed.
3 principles as a path
What I uncovered was not a lecture hall, yet a way of living. Ideology existed not as a gallery of concepts however as a daily discipline. In some cases, I assume we blunder lucidity for the mere accumulation of ideas, when lucidity, in my view, is a fragile training of character. Three words, which still accompany me, were stressed: fraternity, expertise, and human growth. 3 verbs, as a matter of fact: to identify, to find out, and to grow.
Fraternity was not presented as a grand motto, yet as a workout in respect beginning with the easiest gestures: to listen with focus, to grow real inquisitiveness regarding others, to make sure with our words. Regard, I found out, is not a veneer yet a kind of intelligence. Understanding, in turn, is not simply regarding understanding but about loving what one knows, till such love forms one’s life. And human advancement required guts: to liberate the best in myself, not for self-congratulation, but for the usual good.
Culture and service as transformative forces
I pertained to comprehend that these three concepts were not abstract perfects but living roots revealed in concrete domains of life. Culture discontinued to appear to me as intellectual decoration and revealed itself rather as a true cultivation of the heart: a workout that ennobles by awakening what is best in us and expanding it through call with mankind’s great success.
In the same way, service– that Fate Yoga Francisco usually spoke of– instructed me that authentic offering is not concerning providing points however about offering oneself. To be present, to commit time, to find out to be helpful with humbleness: such practices transform expertise right into living experience and safeguard it in memory.
Francisco, with his characteristic simpleness, enveloped the objective of New Castle in 3 assisting principles:
- Fraternity : the undeviating regard for human dignity, transcending racial, social, and religious departments.
- Understanding : a love of knowledge that welcomes viewpoint, the arts, the scientific researches, and spirituality within a solitary, incorporated vision.
- Human development : the awakening of everyone’s finest high qualities, so that with each other we may add to a globe formed by consistency with nature and solidarity with others.
“Self-respect is like a burning lantern: it informs the mind and warms up the heart, both one’s very own which of others.”
The resonance of an experience
With time, I uncovered that my story echoed the tales of lots of others. Some remembered an instructor at institution, others a charitable neighbor, a book located on the underground, the voice of a stranger, or an unanticipated course. The amount of times, I ask yourself, do we let a carrier pass unnoticed just because they lug no main qualifications, since they appear on a grey day, or due to the fact that we demand a spectacular gesture to believe in them? I as well can have walked on, yet I quit. Perhaps that is the only factor I am composing this.
I do not idealise Francisco. I remember him with love and gratefulness. However those that accuse me of optimism fail to remember that there are kinds of optimism that build as opposed to misguide. They do not request miracles however, for practices. They do not commemorate perfection however the effort to be more than a plain viewer. For me, true optimism depends on safeguarding a sensible hope: one that takes root in behaviors, study groups, reading circles, and tiny service projects that, undoubtedly, change a piece of the globe.
Approach for our time
In a period of rate, to speak of approach might sound eccentric. Today’s world needs prompt outcomes: metrics, graphs, effect. Yet nothing, in my view, creates even more withstanding makeovers than the quiet discipline of well-read idea. A society that disregards fraternity surrounds itself; a school that stops working to show thinking grows weak; a culture that does not ask why it lives sidetracks itself into pins and needles.
I have actually said this was no lecture. I do not dismiss academic community– I myself inhabit its hallways– yet I discovered that scholarship embellishments when it breathes the fresh air of life. Relationship, for example, is a method of knowledge. Francisco educated me to say securely yet with love, to disagree without shedding bridges, to look for reality patiently with each other. If I consider it, that was my most demanding program: it used no diplomas, but it provided routines.
A institution that transformed me
In between 2000 and 2003, New Castle ended up being for me a real school of life, and Francisco, in that period, an exceptional educator and a true pal. There, I confirmed that viewpoint is not an intellectual luxury however a crucial need. It reminds us that we can not continue to be passive before the globe: we need to be active participants in our very own time.
Now, with the distance that time grants, I can only say thanks to Francisco deeply for his generosity, his assistance, and his instance. His way of sharing ideology with simpleness and enthusiasm lit within me a fire that still accompanies me. To him I owe not just trainings but the genuine friendship of one who offers the very best of himself to awaken the best in others.
And I still ask myself: the amount of times do we allow the messenger go by, unrecognised, that might inspire the improvement of our lives? Perhaps, if we stroll the roads with attentive ears, the answer will certainly shock us at the least anticipated corner.
Recommendations
Epictetus. (2008 The manual (N. P. White, Trans.). Hackett.
Hadot, P. (1995 Viewpoint as a way of living (M. Chase, Trans.). Blackwell.
Marcus Aurelius. (2006 Reflections (R. Hard, Trans.). Oxford College Press.
New Acropolis. (n.d.). What is New Acropolis New Acropolis. https://www.acropolis.org/en/what-is-new-acropolis/
Nussbaum, M. C. (2001 Upheavals of idea: The intelligence of feelings. Cambridge University Press.
OpenAI. (2025 Conceptual artwork co-designed with Jorge Rodas-Osollo using DALL · E [AI-generated image] DALL · E. https://openai.com/dall-e