THE SCHOOL OF WONDER · Philosophical exercises

Mallorca

7–8 November 2026

The venue in Mallorca will be announced soon.

For centuries, philosophy was not a subject to be studied but a way of life to be practised. The Stoics, the Epicureans, the Platonists trained every day: they learned to pay attention, to look at the world anew, to let go of what does not depend on us, to remember that we will die so as to live the present more fully. The French philosopher Pierre Hadot called these practices spiritual exercises, and showed that ancient texts sought not to inform but to transform those who read them.

This gathering takes up that tradition. Over a weekend, in a small group, we will read aloud philosophers from East and West, talk about the essential questions of life, and practise exercises of attention, of looking and of letting go. No background in philosophy is needed: only curiosity, and a willingness to open up to the new and set down old baggage.

I am a photographer and a philosophical counselor. For more than twenty years I photographed for National Geographic; I studied philosophy at Harvard as a Nieman Fellow, and I hold a master’s degree in the Philosophy of Care from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona. Photography taught me to look; philosophy, to ask what I do with what I see. These gatherings grow out of both crafts.

The gathering will be held in English.

Reserve your space

The theme

The philosophy of tenderness

For years I have been thinking about tenderness not as a soft feeling, but as a way of being in the world: an attention that sets free. This weekend we will explore it along three paths that keep crossing each other.

Una pareja abrazada bailando tango
  • Amor fati. Nietzsche asked us not merely to endure the life we have had, but to love it. Can we be tender with our own life, just as it has been?
  • East and West. The Daodejing says that the tender and the supple are on the side of life. We will set it in conversation with the Stoics and the mystics.
  • The philosophy of otherness. Martin Buber, Emmanuel Levinas, Simone Weil: the other as someone who calls me before I understand them.

These are not three classes. They are threads of a single conversation.

Attention is the rarest and purest form of generosity.

Simone Weil, letter to Joë Bousquet, 1942

The hard and stiff are companions of death; the tender and supple are companions of life.

Daodejing, 76

The practical side

What to expect

  • When. Saturday 7 and Sunday 8 November 2026. We begin on Saturday after breakfast and close on Sunday afternoon.
  • Where. In Mallorca. The venue will be announced soon.
  • Meals. We have lunch and dinner together: we bring food to share and/or eat at a nearby restaurant.
  • Language. English.
  • Fee. 160 euros. Scholarships are available for those who need them.
  • A commitment. If something happens and you cannot come, let me know as soon as possible, so that someone else can take your place.

Hacienda Cusín, September 2026

What they said at Cusín

At the end, each person said aloud what they were taking with them. This video brings those voices together.

With English subtitles.

You began with the question “Who am I?”, and it led us to disarm ourselves, to see that we fill ourselves with accessories, and that we are not those things.

Titi

I cannot change my past, but I can change my story. To be tender with myself: I cannot give what I do not have.

María Teresa

I feel I came in rigid and leave flexible, embracing a sensitivity I often thought was something negative. When you are young, it is hard to find people who talk about these things.

Isabella

It stirred three feelings in me: inspiration, clarity and gratitude. Clarity, because it means going back to the origin, taking the noise out of things, making them simple. We often make life so complicated.

David

It is completely different from what I imagined. I leave wanting more. What a joy to have had a space to pause, to think, to share.

Priscilla

Hacienda Cusín, Ecuador · September 2026

The previous gathering

In September we spent a weekend together at Hacienda Cusín, in Imbabura, Ecuador.

Conversation around the fire
Laughter at the table
The group of the philosophical exercises at Hacienda Cusín
Philosophical exercises, Hacienda Cusín, Ecuador, September 2026.

What the philosophical exercises are

Who guides the gathering

Pablo Corral Vega

Photographer, writer and philosophical counselor. My work has appeared in National Geographic, The New York Times and Smithsonian. I have published eight books —for one of them, Andes, Mario Vargas Llosa wrote twenty short stories—, served on the World Press Photo jury, was a Nieman Fellow at Harvard and Secretary of Culture of Quito. I trained as a lawyer and run a law firm in Quito. I hold a master’s degree in the Philosophy of Care from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona, with a thesis on tenderness, and I am writing a book on the philosophy of tenderness.

But the only thing that matters here is that I have spent my life training a single thing: attention. Forty years learning to look. That —and not a diploma— is what I bring to this gathering.

Reserve your space

Coming to Mallorca?

Places are limited: if you do not reserve in time, I cannot guarantee you a place. Fill in the form and I will write to you to confirm.

Reserve your space

Questions? Write to me on WhatsApp.