Revelation presupposes both the veil and reality; māyā is the veil that the apokalypsis unveils. Māyā is the veiled goddess who becomes visible through the very veil that, by covering her, reveals her. “Nature (physis) likes to hide,” Heraclitus will say, and Heidegger, two and a half millennia later, will comment at length on that passage; “the power (śakti) of God hides in his very qualities,” an Upaniṣad will say; “Yahweh has said that he wishes to dwell in darkness,” the Bible will affirm. Maya not only conceals reality, but by veiling it, makes it visible; the world is precisely a world because in it Being does not manifest itself fully.

• Raimon Panikkar, Maya e Apocalisse, Abate, Roma, 1966; Misterio y revelación, Marova, Madrid, 1971; «Introducción» (Vārāṇasī, Advent, 1965).

We adopt this expression by Panikkar as the framework for the studium we are conducting over three semesters, focusing on three Spanish-language authors: Hugo Mujica (Buenos Aires, 1942–), Eugenio Trías (Barcelona, 1942–2013), and Salvador Pániker (Barcelona, 1927–2017).

Eugenio Trías Sagnier (Barcelona, 1942–2013), a Catalan philosopher with an unfulfilled poetic and literary vocation, as well as a music and film lover, unfolds in an extensive body of work written in Spanish a personal and profound philosophical journey that seeks to:

To reaffirm the traditions established by Unamuno, Ortega, Zubiri, and D’Ors, moving toward a philosophy rooted in the language, writing, and thought characteristic of the Hispanic community. My intention has been to create a distinct space (linguistic, in writing, and in style) that cannot be reduced to mere “trends,” one that might inspire those who, like me, wish to express themselves in Hispanic language and writing in philosophy and wish to maintain that spirit of absolute freedom—to express themselves according to the geniuses and demons of their own languages (Spanish, Catalan, Galician, etc.).

This is the central path of his philosophical journey: La filosofía y su sombra (1969), Filosofía y carnaval (1970), Teoría de las ideologías (1970), La dispersión (1971), Metodología del pensamiento mágico (1971), Drama e identidad (1973), El artista y la ciudad (1975), Meditación sobre el poder (1976), La memoria perdida de las cosas (1977), Tratado de la pasión (1978), Lo bello y lo siniestro (1982), Filosofía del futuro (1985), Los límites del mundo (1985), La aventura filosófica (1987), Lógica del límite (1991), La edad del espíritu (1994), Pensar la religión (1997), Vértigo y pasión (1998), La razón fronteriza (1999), Ética y condición humana (2000), Ciudad sobre Ciudad (2001), El hilo de la verdad (2004), La política y su sombra (2005), El canto de las sirenas. Argumentos musicales (2007), La imaginación sonora. Argumentos musicales (2010), Forma y tiempos de la música (2012), De cine. Aventuras y extravíos (2013).

I do not know whether I chose philosophy or philosophy chose me. It took me a while to realize that my life was shaped by this unusual and unique discipline with its Socratic and Platonic roots. […] From the first to the last of my books, there is always a spontaneous commitment to philosophy understood in its most radical sense—as a reflection on the meaning of being and existence. This commitment has extended to the possible ways of guiding our conduct, as promoted by ethics; or to the ways of approaching the realm of sensibility, as formalized in aesthetics and the theory of the arts. Finally, it has led to a deeper exploration of humanity’s possible connections with the sacred, and to the discovery, within one’s own experience, of a spiritual dimension that links the subject (whom I redefine as “borderline”) to the realm of mystery that overwhelms and transcends him.

From the period in which Trias developed his concept of the “being of the limit”—from Los límites del mundo (1985) to La razón fronteriza (1999)—we have chosen for our studium what can be considered his opus magnum: La edad del espíritu (1994). A work of great ambition, which received the prestigious 13th International Friedrich Nietzsche Prize in 1995, in which Eugenio Trías conceives of the symbol as onto-logy, as the structure of the real in which the event, the appearance, and the interplay of mystery and revelation take place.

A leap. A leap to where? To Nothingness, to Being, to nirvāṇa, to Grace, to the plērōma, to Space-Light? This nervous, restless question has perhaps been jolted into being by the gust of northern wind that has compelled me, here and now, to reconnect with the pen and the blank page. Is it possible to conceive of the possibility of a leap beyond all law, all grammar, all linguistic expression and communication? Can that beyond even be sensed, intuited, imagined, or conceived? Can it be discovered and colonized? Are there paths, methods, or access points that make it possible to reach the inaccessible, or to say the unspeakable, or to express and communicate what can never be said?

• Eugenio Trías, La edad del espíritu, Destino, Barcelona, 1994, p. 12; with several editions; latest edition in Penguin-debolsillo, Barcelona, 2006, 2023⁷.

As preliminary or supplementary reading, we recommend a collection of articles and essays that offer a good introduction to Eugenio Trías’s philosophical journey. The titles speak for themselves: «Filosofía y religión ante el próximo milenio», «Exilio occidental y viaje a Oriente», «La religión del espíritu», «Los tres principios de la experiencia religiosa», «El símbolo y lo sagrado», «Estética del símbolo», «Filosofía, profecía, sabiduría», «El sujeto del límite», «Dios del límite», «El acontecimiento ético».

This book brings together various essays written before and after the publication of La edad del espíritu (1994). All of them focus on the philosophical-religious themes that found their proper expression in that book. One should therefore look for no other coherence than that which stems from the common themes and a shared orientation. My interest in religion stems from internal needs within my own reflection, a point I already made clear at the end of Lógica del límite (1991). The adoption of the concept of the being of the limit as the definition of what I understand by being and existence (and of man as the being who faces, or confronts, that borderline condition that defines him) required me, even then, to embark on an adventure into what lies beyond the limit, and which I define as the sacred.

• Eugenio Trías, Pensar la religión, Destino, Barcelona, 1997, p. 13; in various editions, the latest of which in Galaxia Gutenberg, Barcelona, 2015.

Here you will find the seminar program, in which we engage the text—the focus of our study—in dialogue with various authors.

We can find various interviews, lectures, discussions, and articles online… for example:

• «El espíritu. Eugenio Trías y Salvador Pániker (I-II)», dialogue, Fernando Sanchez Dragó, Negro sobre blanco, La2 TVE (1997).
• «Ciudad sobre ciudad», interview, Fernando Sanchez Dragó, Negro sobre blanco, La2 TVE (2002)
• «Eugenio Trías. Tiempo del espíritu», feature story, Teresa Oñate, La UNED en TVE-2 (January 30, 2009)
• «Eugenio Trías», feature story, with Rafael Argullol, Xavier Güell and Arash Arjomandi, Pienso luego existo, La2 (October 30, 2011)