Retraite Centrum blog - becoming a carrier of light - Asharum Amonines

Becoming a Carrier of Nâm

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~ a text by Irma ten Brink ~

Some say the present age is called the Kali Yuga, an age of destruction, an age which ancient seers have predicted. When we look around us this could very well be the case however this being true or not is not very relevant. What is more relevant is how to deal with what is happening worldwide at the moment both close at home as on the planet at large and beyond.

Many may think “I cannot change the world, there is nothing I can do”. Perhaps this is so, the world goes on and small individual actions are not enough to turn the tide. Perhaps this is also how it should be, evolution on which we have little influence. But perhaps not. Perhaps every small act is a contribution. Truth is, we don’t really know!

However ……!

What we can and should do, as Yoginâm keeps reminding us of, is Carry on the Light. The Light of Nâm* which has always been there and will always be there no matter what happens to the world and its people.

Throughout the ages there were people who were attuned to this Essence. Who were not influenced by religions, cultures and happenings. Those people where the Carriers of Light which now in LivingNâm we call the Carriers of Nâm. They carried on the Light through evolution of time up till now.

Since childhood times I felt I had a task in life and I had visions which were related to that. I searched how, always knew it had something to do with the world. I longed for peace and bringing peace but then there was this frustration that my small effort could not bring peace at large.
Every act is just a drop on a hot plate so what purpose is there, why bother? Seeds for depression!

Living a serious spiritual life brought me answers. I found out how I am contributing to the world by creating with resonance every instant of living and I found out how I can influence this in a way which can bring peace. That this is just on a small scale does not really matter because I found out that whether it is (or should be) small or big is not up to me.

What helps me in not becoming frustrated is the acceptance ‘It is what it is and I do the best I can do’. In this acceptance lies peace, meaning & joy that is beyond the matters and affairs of the world. Only with this acceptance as a starting point creation can flow in a beneficial way.

*
During a LivingNâm Study weekend I realised how attached I was to the idea of ‘saving the world’. This attachment prevented me from being free and pure so I started to ask myself the questions: ‘Can I let this attachment go? What will be the consequence? Can I still find purpose and meaning in life without this drive?”.

Surprisingly enough I was able to let go and dive into the unknown depth. I am able to let go because I have the Breath, an ancient instrument which is an indispensable tool on the Journey of the Return. This letting go in trust opened me for a very new realisation and a much deeper sense of meaning & joy.

*

Beyond ‘doing something like creating’ there is something else which perhaps is even more important: this is about ‘being’. Actually these two things belong together. Your doing something comes forth from your state of being.

This became my starting point, my state of being, because I realised that all my doing is coloured by my being. In living a spiritual life this ‘doing and being’ come together. The tools like meditation, the Breath, the Relationship of Love with a spiritual master etc. are tools for purifying this being in order for the doing to become more pure and a contribution to the whole in which all and everything shares.

This purification of the state of being is like opening the windows in a darkened room. The more windows are opened, the more light enters the room and this I think is my purpose of life, to open the windows and to keep them open by continuously guarding this. From there the rest goes by itself because life is living itself.

*
A meditation in the presence of Yoginâm:

Tonight during meditation I was very sad and in this sadness a question came up:”How must the world go on?’ Very suddenly a sentence came up: "I am not of this world". And it was as if I answered directly with "But I love this world”.

*

LivingNâm has tools to open the windows, to purify yourself and to help you guard your state in every instant of living.

The Carrier of Nâm has the task and responsibility to Carry the Light which is beyond the world, which has always been there and always will remain through the evolution of time. This Carrying is a task that never ends.

Perhaps you aspire to become a Carrier too?

Retraite centrum Vegan cooking in Belgium - Asharum Amonines

Becoming Vegan

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~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~

The Asharum has now been cooking vegan for more than two years.
Time to look back!

We became vegan quite suddenly and it was an inspirational boost.
We dived into it, looking for recipes and how to transform our meals into vegan meals since especially our breakfast and supper where leaning on cheese and yoghurt.

Replacing these products with fake cheese and fake yoghurt was not an option because we wanted to offer tasty and healthy meals so we needed other menus.

Hearing back from our clients we think we succeeded. A few of our B&B comments:
“Nice stay! We are not vegan but enjoyed the oatmeal and fresh bread/hummus for breakfast”.
“Delicious and exciting vegan cooking”.

Last week someone said:”I did not know vegan could be so tasty”, and we hear that a lot!

Healthy cooking:

Staying healthy on a vegan diet is also a challenge. Many guests are inspired to become vegan after they have visited us. Wonderful to see how our cooking is an inspiration to others! And yes we do feel it is a much more healthy way of living!

However we always tell them not just to stop eating animal products but to do some study first to avoid vitamin deficiencies later. Also everybody has a different body which needs different care, so find out what is good for you!

For example vitamin B12 and D3 are easily missed out when you stop the animal products. On the internet a lot can be found, not all can be trusted! Some say vitamin B12 can be found in green vegetables and seaweeds, others say these are analogies which prevent the body from taking in the real B12, the one your body needs. Some take supplements to solve this. Some do blood tests but it seems that B12 is needed in the blood for the right acid-base balance so the body will take it first from the other organs before it runs out in the blood. When your blood test shows you have a shortage of B12 then you have already been short of it for a long time and you are much too late. If it says you don’t have short that can be misleading too. Naturopathics have other, more refined ways to test your vitamin and mineral levels. Find out what is best for you!

A very informative book we use a lot and which is also based on scientific research is ‘Becoming Vegan’ by Brenda Davis, RD, and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD’.

There are plans to come with a workshop this year about healthy vegan cooking. More about that later!

Ethics of Resonance

The first reason for us to become vegan is the resonance. Everything we do, feel, believe, think has a resonance and with this resonance we create our world. This is a very subtle and indirect science but also very clear and simple. And the golden rule to this is: ”never do any harm or hurt to anyone or anything”.

When respecting this rule it makes no sense at all to contribute to the bio industry in which animals are brutally hurt (calves are directly after birth separated from their mother because the milk should go to us, a heartbreaking fact it is not?) and living their life for one purpose only; to be killed and eaten.

Yoginâm wrote a lot about this topic since ethics is at the base of spirituality. Without ethics there is no spirituality. For those who like to read more about this we recommend his books.

Yoginâm about Attunement

Upcoming period during the visit of Yoginâm Frédéric in Asharum Amonines he will be talking about ‘Living in Attunement as the Principle, the Purpose and the Practice of the Yoga of Nâm’.

For those who live in Attunement ethics of resonance is a natural thing. Ethics in this way is not something you must do because it is a law, it is something you want to do, it is a natural movement.

Retraite centrum blog - about death & life Asharum Amonines

About Death and Life

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~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~

Death in a spiritual perspective

From a spiritual perspective, the most important moment in life is the moment we die. Life is meant as a preparation for this moment, in order that we may die in a harmonious and enlightened way. Therefore, not wanting to think and reflect on this moment, which will come for everyone, is from a spiritual point of view unwise and you are missing the most important point in your life.

After death
Have you ever been blessed to be with someone who just died without being taken by emotions? Then you must have noticed another quality present, a kind of quietness, as if time really stopped for a moment while outside the room it just continued.

No one knows what will happen after death, also we do not know how we will react at the moment of our own death. In life we can have brave ideas about it, but only at the supreme moment, when death is (suddenly) there, will we really know and experience if we are ready for it.

An important realisation
An important spiritual experience to do with life and death happened to me about two decades ago. It just happened while sitting in my living-room warming myself to the central heating. Suddenly I saw it with my waking eyes but in a different state, and it was really overwhelming:

Life and death are one and the same! There is no difference!

Yes your body will die, but something else, that cannot be described, just stays unchanged.

This realisation made something very clear:
If in life your focus has been only on your body and the material life, death approaching you can be very scary. The same is true for exclusive focus on the mental life and emotions. Because it seems so definitive, you believe everything stops.
But life is not just your body; and not just the house you live in and the car you drive. That is only a very small part of it.
So if, when you are dying, your focus in life has been on that which is unchanging, you will know - by a certainty we shall call Nâm - nothing will change. Death is then just another path you take.
A very different perspective, is it not?

About letting go
Realising that Life and Death are one and the same is one important step. Learning and practicing letting go is another important step and something to do for the rest of your life.

It is a way of living that transforms your life and brings harmony, inner peace and
Well-Being in living and post-living.

Living a more spiritual, transcendental life means living a life of letting go. Learning and practicing this in daily life will help you to let go of everything once the moment of death approaches you.

This daily practice is what counts because we can have beautiful ideas about dying, thinking life will go on once we die, but when the moment is there we still have to do it - we have to let go of the life we became used to and got attached to and we usually have no idea how deep and subtle these attachments are. Since we have a very strong identification with our life, as if we own it, letting go is not necessarily easy, although it can be. For example, letting go of a body we have become so used to, feelings and ideas that we consider as important truths and as ‘ours’, and of course those who stay behind and who might not yet be ready to let you go, is not so easy.

If we have not practiced letting go already in life, we may have a very serious problem and death becomes a struggle once we die. It is not for nothing that the mystics say:

“You have to die before you die”

Being close to death
Some people are confronted with death by close friends and family who died (sometimes too young from their perspective) and yes that can be a very sad thing because you will have to go on without the other, which can, I understand, be very hard. So far I am very blessed with my loved ones still alive. Death came to me in other, many different, ways and I was lucky to have the opportunity to discover more about it from different perspectives like being close to death in an accident myself.

Death has been an important part of my life in a very positive way which is why I am very enthusiastic to share this with others since it is not a sad, difficult and hard thing, it can be beauty in its purest form.

As a young child I used to say:
'What is the worst thing that can happen to you?'
And the own answer was:
'To die, but that is not such a bad thing after all, so there is nothing to be afraid of'.

Embrace life:
I believe that these different experiences with death, looking into it and not trying to walk away from it, really helped me to embrace life more. It brought a much deeper quality to life and knowing on other levels that death and life are one, helps me to attune to this every day again and to recognise it as more important than the material, mental or emotional world. I am very thankful to have discovered a life of letting go because it brings joy, happiness, fulfilment, meaning and well-being!

The workshops:
During the workshops we look closer into what stays after death.
For example we investigate our own death and the principles of letting go. Also we focus on helping the deceased to cross over to another state.

 

cursussen in retraite centrum Belgie Living the natural state

Living the natural state

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~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~

 

There is no absolute truth, but here is mine to share with you.

Very often I hear people say, wish, cry out: ”I just want to be myself”. “I want to be who I am”. And I know this feeling, this longing very well. I translate it now to a longing to ‘live my natural state’ which means to live the potential of what I am, to live that which I am meant to be living, to live what I was born to be my authentic self.

During this quest, which started getting a more concrete form about almost twenty years ago when I met Yoginâm, I discovered that wanting and wishing things were not so important. It is more about listening to what is meant to be.

And this listening is only possible when you are in the present moment with all your awareness. As long as you are busy with things that happened in the past or wishes, fears, expectations for the future you are not in the present moment.

But this is not as easy as it seems because we are often not aware that we are busy with our past or future. In the discovery of the transformation and letting go of past and future with all its fears, habitual programmes, illusions etc., lies the unveiling of the natural state.

We are transcendental beings, which means there are different levels of being which all influence our experience. We are experience, we are these different states all at the same time. These levels can also be very paradoxical towards each other, therefore there does not exist only one truth; it just depends from which level you approach a truth.

And all these levels are infinite, most levels are also unconscious. Some we can become conscious of to a certain depth, some will remain a mystery forever. But they do influence our lives and to acknowledge that is an important step as is the acknowledgement that comes with it that you don’t know anything at all and that you will never be able to grasp or understand it.

Life is a mystery, we don’t know where we come from, we don’t know where we are going but we can trust it, we can trust that it is as it should be and it is good precisely the way it is. We don’t have to understand in order to trust!

And maybe, if it is meant to be, we may become aware of this intimacy which is always very much here in the present moment. I experience it as a reminder of an undefinable essence from which we came, which is present now and where we will go back to after life.

For me this quest of finding my natural state is very much about becoming aware of these different levels and bringing them into harmony, an ongoing exploration.

And finally it is about letting go of the identification with I because as long as I is up front as most important, the natural state cannot be lived.

The most important instruments for this are silence and meditation techniques.

With the right meditation technique you don’t just dream away and have beautiful feelings which bring tranquility for that moment. Instead you use something, for example your breath, to concentrate on in order to stay in the present moment. The present moment is all the different levels together, not only the material level. If you can stay focused in the present moment everything that needs to be seen and to let go will come up by itself, you don’t have to do anything for that! When you try to do anything you are actually grasping it more instead of letting it go and you will never succeed.

By meditating every day for half an hour (also when you don’t want to, don’t feel like it, don’t have time etc.) you bit by bit start to let go of everything that obstructs you from finding the natural state.

In the beginning you can do this alone, you will discover and let go of disturbing habitual programmes which where created in the past and illusions projected in the future.

But there comes a moment that you can’t do it alone anymore, it can even become dangerous to do it alone. These habitual programmes and illusions are there for a reason; they support us and give us a (false) sense of security. However, if we let it go and don’t have anything else anymore to grasp, it can drive us mad at the end. Therefore we need a focus which is beyond the illusion of I and which can help us transform and open ourselves for a wider perception beyond ourselves.

For that I use the Breath of Heart, a personal sound which I received from Yoginâm as a tool which is connected to the breath. It helps me to focus on something that is not personal so that I can let go of my personal attachments. Also it helps me in moments when everything else seems to disappear and there is nothing else to hold on to anymore.
A mystic can help us to let go of ourselves in the end, to let go of this personal identification with an assumed existing I, to live our natural state and to trust and discover the infinity and the oneness we are all part of.

The Mystic say:
“The saint realizes water
The wise one realizes the ocean
The ignorant one realizes the drop”

By Yoginâm
From Fragments of Voice

Again here we have this paradox. In some states this I is there and we can’t go around it. We have to look left and right before we cross a busy street. But just realize: this is only one state!

Becoming aware, in other states, that no I exists, brings a totally different quality to life. Only letting go of the personal identification with I will help to unveil the natural state. And letting go of I and finding back the natural state on this level brings peace, joy and contentment on other levels. Realizing this on one level is the starting point of starting to live this natural state on another more day-to-day practical level. And there it will be tested by life with all the circumstances and challenges that life will give you in order to strengthen and fine-tune yourself. You start living your potential!

The ethics of resonance

“The resonance of today creates the experience of tomorrow”

We are part of an indescribable oneness. Once we discover we are part of this oneness, life becomes an art.

Everything we think, everything we feel, everything we want, dream, long and wish for, everything we do has a resonance. With this resonance we are creating our world.

This is very subtle and most of it is unconscious. For example by learning as a little child that you are not good enough, you start screaming this resonance into the world “I am not good enough”. With this resonance you are creating your world and you create circumstances which confirm that.

But also liking to watch the suffering of others on television, in aggressive movies, computer games etc. creates the need for that. So by liking and watching it, very subtly you are creating a world that answers to your needs. So the world has people who suffer because others need this in order to feel good!

By becoming more aware of this, observing ourselves, stalking ourselves, we can start creating a kind of world that brings joy, well-being, harmony and bliss for all.

This is a continuous possibility, challenge and responsibility for those who are aware to create a world in peace and to help others to become aware too.

“We are the creators of our entire universe with its infinite possibilities”.

More awareness means also automatically more responsibility which we should all take very seriously in order for the world to find peace. Once you realize we are one, we can’t leave someone else with a problem. If we can solve it or can do something for some one else we have to do it.

This oneness is not possible to describe. Yet mystics have written about it for centuries and present-day science also acknowledges how everything is connected to everything else.

When we start becoming more aware of this oneness, accepting that we will never know what this really means, we start to realize that everything is Love in the widest and deepest sense. And also, this cannot be described, understood or known in any way. And yet this is the most important aspect of life!

When I did my Vision Quest in Death Valley Arizona I became more aware of this connectedness. Because I could not understand, describe or grasp my experiences on the threshold of the quest I received a song in the last night of the Vision Quest; the night you cry out to receive a vision for your life.

This song, which came as close as possible to my experience in this solo quest went as following:

I am the land
I am the sky
I am the water
I am the fire
I am the animals
I am the people
I am I am

In this realisation it is just not possible to hurt anyone anymore.

But because most people have hidden demons inside themselves who are strong and can come up under certain circumstances, they can hurt each other. Also being unconscious can cause pain and suffering to others.

Therefore, while you are on this path of transforming yourself and letting go of these inner demons like jealousy, greed etc. there is one basic principle to always live up to:

“Never intentionally hurt, harm or damage anyone or anything”