The most important word in our name is AWARENESS, which can be translated as “awareness.”
Awareness is an innate cognitive ability (but nurtured throughout life) that allows us to realize, develop knowledge, discernment, focus, reflexivity, and understanding. Awareness allows us to have adequate knowledge about ourselves and what is manifesting around us, a sine qua non for us to be optimally present in the world. Without awareness, without knowing where we are, what we are doing, and why we are doing it, we cannot have direction, freedom, or the capacity for self-determination; we cannot have a satisfactory functional presence, establish meaningful interactions, or focus on what brings us closer to fulfillment.
Although we speak of a person’s awareness, its scope and benefit always go beyond the individual, and we can aspire to our awareness being infinitely broader than we can imagine. That’s why we speak of WORLD AWARENESS, in two senses: in the sense that each person can develop the broadest possible consciousness, one that includes everyone and everything; and in the sense of extending consciousness to the largest possible number of individuals, that is, to everyone.
However, this innate capacity that all of us have simply by being human is usually not actualized, but rather potential: we need to activate and work on it. That’s why we speak of awakening: AWAKENING.
To promote this awakening of world consciousness, we take two complementary paths: traditions (TRADITIONS) and science (SCIENCE).
Science is widely considered the most systematic and rigorous form of knowledge that humans have been able to develop, but it is also very limited because, due to its very methodical nature, each of its steps is very slow and difficult to implement. Furthermore, also due to its intrinsically critical nature, its theories are permanently provisional and revisable. This is why it is often said that science reveals the immensity of ignorance more than the greatness of knowledge.
On the other hand, contemplative traditions are another invaluable fruit born from the most diverse cultures of humanity. Through discourses often intertwined with religion, they develop grand narratives that aspire to endow our existence with horizons of meaning and ethical nobility, also offering a wealth of tools to cultivate our human potential.
We believe that science and contemplative traditions can and should be complementary, and only come into conflict when on either side there is an element of fundamentalism that hinders intellectual honesty.
As its name suggests, the TSAWA Foundation aims to be a meeting place for contemplative traditions and scientific development, so that they can support and nourish each other, and contribute to the dissemination of theoretical and instrumental points of view that allow us to understand and develop this global consciousness that we believe is essential for a fuller life and for the overall health of people, communities, and the planet.