Bioethics
Nuria’s Bioethics of
THAUMA
Astonishment · Marvel · Wonder
Creative Eudynamics
Nourish Passionate Compositions
Aikido / Poetry / Dialoguing / Eros
My philosophy of Thauma emerged through the Tetractys exercise during a philosophical consultation with Luis de Miranda—a key element of the SMILE_PH method that I now use in my own philosophical counselling practice. This simple yet profound structure aligns one’s cosmology, sense of purpose, and lived practices into a coherent, unfolding whole. It was within this space of reflection that Thauma revealed itself to me as a guiding principle: astonishment, marvel, wonder—the subtle spark through which being becomes aware of itself as alive. Thauma is not something we contemplate from afar; it arises through attention. It is in the quality of our attention that the world becomes vivid, that existence discloses itself as meaningful, surprising, and inexhaustible. Attention is the threshold: what we attend to begins to live more intensely. In this sense, Thauma names both a condition and a practice—the cultivation of a way of perceiving and inhabiting reality where life can gather itself, deepen, and unfold into richer forms. On the earthly plane, this becomes creative eudynamics: the dynamic flourishing of life through creation, where wonder is not only felt, but enacted. In the human realm, this unfolding takes shape as what I call passionate compositions—a way of orienting one’s life toward the attentive cultivation and expression of vitality. In my practice, this orientation becomes embodied through four interwoven paths: Aikido, Poetry, Dialoguing, and Eros—each a way of composing forces, language, relationships, and desires. Each of these is also a discipline of attention: attention to movement and energy, to words and silence, to others and meaning, to desire and intensity. The dimension of Eros is explored more deeply through the ECLIPSE method, a semi-structured approach to philosophical sexuology that I have developed. Here, attention becomes a central tool for exploring desire, intimacy, and relational presence—not as isolated aspects of life, but as meaningful and transformative expressions of one’s philosophical orientation. My counselling offers a space to explore and compose your own alignment: to refine your attention, clarify your worldview, deepen your sense of purpose, and bring it into form through practices that resonate with who you are becoming. To live in Thauma is to remain available to wonder—to cultivate a way of attending to life in which existence can be more fully felt, created, and shared.
Thauma is the cosmic principle of wonder. It is the beginning of all philosophy and the root of relational health, where the astonishment of being meets the mystery of the other.
Creative Eudynamics is the earthly expression of Thauma. It is the dynamic flourishing of life through creation, the movement by which wonder becomes vitality, growth, and generative participation in the world.
Passionate Compositions are the unique ways we weave meaning into our lives. They are the artifacts of our nourishment, born from the encounter between our inner truth and the living world.
The four practices—Aikido, Poetry, Dialoguing, and Eros—are the embodied pathways to this health. They invite us to remain present, open to wonder, and transformed through the grace of relation.
The Art of Encounter:
Aikido and Philosophical Counselling
Embodied Bioethics:
At the heart of embodied bioethics lies a question of relation. Who we are, what we value, and how we flourish emerge not in isolation, but through our embodied encounters with others and with the world. Drawing on embodied cognition and dialogical philosophy (particularly Martin Buber), I understand ethical life (bios ethicos) as a practice of attention through which encounters become sources of meaning, transformation, and flourishing.
Aikido has been one of the principal laboratories of this inquiry. As a 4th Dan aikido teacher and founder of Aikikai Limoges, I approach aikido as a bodily philosophy of encounter. Practice is not the application of technique to an opponent, but a dialogue in motion.
In aikido, the fundamental pair is that of Tori and Uke. Like Buber's “I–Thou,” this is not a meeting of two separate individuals, but a relational unity: one does not exist without the other, and the encounter itself gives rise to both. Practice cultivates a quality of attention in which one receives and responds without seeking control, allowing meaning to emerge through relation itself.
Here, philosophical dialogue and aikido converge. Both require the capacity to remain genuinely present to another without reducing them to an object, a role, or a problem to be solved. Both involve listening to what is unfolding in the encounter rather than imposing a predetermined outcome. In this sense, philosophical counselling, like aikido, is not the application of knowledge to a situation, but the unfolding of meaning within a lived relationship.
My work in philosophical counselling is deeply informed by this practice. Just as aikido seeks harmony without domination, philosophical dialogue seeks understanding without reduction. In both, transformation arises not from control, but from attentive participation in a shared process of discovery.