"Today, those who most fervently defend the existence of God are scientists"

Francisco Contreras, known as Niño de Elche, is a multifaceted and intriguing artist who exudes spirituality. He is currently immersed in mysticism. Recently, he published a new collection of poems, 'Conversations with a Wooden Monk' (Espasa), where he engages in dialogue with a sculpture carved by poet and theologian Ernesto Cardenal, who served as Minister of Culture during the Sandinista revolution. To craft these poems, many in prose, he delved into the works of St. John of the Cross, St. Teresa, St. Ignatius, St. Benedict, St. Augustine, and a host of other saints, while also exploring monks who have ardently pursued silence.

"How did this book come about, what is its origin?"

"When I acquired this figure by Ernesto Cardenal, the sculpture became a monk with whom I converse, and it caught me at a moment of deep spirituality. I understood that this monk arrived to engage in conversations like the ones we've had."

"Do you feel enlightened?"

"I am involved in the artistic world, which gives me a certain connection to spirituality and other energies unrelated to it. Anyone involved in art inevitably has a relationship with spirituality, with the inexplicable, with the mysterious aspects of existence."

"Is this a book that draws from the Spanish mystical tradition?"

"To write this book, I immersed myself in many others, especially those related to monastic practice. Much of the reflections are drawn from there, but apart from that, there is also a wealth of tradition or texts related to silence."

"Should we live each day as if it were a miracle?"

"Yes, that's how I live. It's one of the great lessons of spirituality. Not so much understanding it as 'carpe diem', but as the gratitude felt for every miracle. An author who has greatly helped me is Christian Bobin, who said one must be attentive to the daily miracle God has in store for you. From that listening, I believe one should approach life."

"Is the aspiration of every artist to become a classic?"

"I have a radio program, 'The Classics Await Us Tomorrow', on RNE, and there I understood that one of the meanings of the classic is that which is worthy of imitation, which seems positive to me. If being a classic means anchoring oneself in a static conservative canon, then no."

"And what does the Trappist monk sculpted by Ernesto Cardenal say to you?"

"It's a conversation of madmen at first glance, because one of the receivers and transmitters relates from silence, so one of the virtues of this conversation is listening from the silence he emits. That's why many times in the book I wonder where the sender and the receiver are."

"And do you feel like a Trappist monk?"

"Very little, very little. But well, some time ago, my astrological chart was read from the Vedic perspective. My life is always between the extremes of the demon Raju and the monastic. It's something I've been told a lot, and in my experience, I live it that way every day."

"Is it necessary to retreat to a monastery to seek spirituality?"

"No, and to seek silence, neither. The poet and musicologist Ramón Andrés teaches us that silence is above all an awareness."

"Do you believe in God, how do you imagine Him?"

"Well, I could say that I believe in God, yes. For a Catholic, God shapes humans in His image and likeness. But in other religious traditions, it's not thought of that way."

"And are your convictions made up of pieces from different religions? Are you dogmatic?"

"I am a person of rituals, those daily rituals related to everyday life. In everything, science must be considered. Today, those who most fervently defend the existence of God are astrophysicists, scientists, especially in the 20th century. There is a wonderful book, 'Divine Planet', by Antony Flew, the great atheist philosopher who later converted to deism, arguing that all his scientific and philosophical basis was to demonstrate the existence of God."

"Do you believe in the vow of chastity? Does sex make us free or does it dull us?"

"I have experienced that one of the great virtues of the human being, and I say this because of that monastic demon thing they say I have from past lives, has to do with self-control. And that self-control also relates to sex. But well, I am a very sexual person and I understand that God is also there, of course. Ecstasy has to do with that too, with the ideas of St. John of the Cross, who reached orgasm solely with the passion of love for God."

"Once, Ernesto Cardenal, a liberation theologian, knelt before Pope John Paul II and was scolded by him."

"Kneeling before institutional authorities is often humiliating. It's one of the things spirituality and many people related to the Church teach us. The delusion is having understood the Church as an institution close to the State or even within the sphere of the state. The Church should be understood as a counterpower."

"Ernesto Cardenal didn't mind cleaning toilets when he was a Trappist monk. He said that humility and simplicity gave him perfection in writing. Would you go that far?"

"I believe that it permeates your way of writing and being. Buddhists have the rite of cleaning associated with spirituality. My friend Andoni Luis Aduriz, one of the great Spanish chefs, who runs the Mugaritz restaurant, taught his workers, including his chefs, to fold the cloth meticulously. When one reaches that virtue, that point, things are much easier, although at first it may seem trivial."

"And do you practice those rituals to meditate?"

"In many things, yes. When having breakfast, for example, I perform a series of rituals to arrange things in a non-geometric way. And order and ritual are etymologically sister words. Everything has to do with finding a state. I have never sung in my house, nor will I, because the state of the home has nothing to do with what I need to activate the voice."

"In your collection of poems, you say: 'love is what fuels the fire of poetry, and everyone who sings with the soul burns in flashes through the mouth'."

"For me, singing is like burning, like igniting something. And it has to do with the ultimate sense of love."