Course Meaningful Living - A participant speaks

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Garden of Eden

The garden of Asharum Amonines can be compared to the Garden of Eden. All those flowers and plants, those scents, those colors! Insects buzz that it is a sweet treat, the water of the fountain sounds like a soft melody. A curious robin wonders from his hiding place in the bushes what those new, as yet unknown people are doing there. A languid cat stretches on the gravel path and understands it very well, he does exactly the same as those people who walk around there: catch your breath, you give up beauty and love and strength for a possible next step.

The red thread

The maxim or theorem ‘ Attunement in affirmation is the meaning of human living ’, is the guideline for the course. It sounds a bit ambitious, trying to understand the meaning of life in five days. At the same time, what is not possible in five days is probably not possible in five lives. So you might as well try it. Irma is our guide these five days. Step by step, day by day, meditation to meditation, she takes us to a solution. She does this very patiently, with a quip and a lot of understanding, with room for everyone's personal account, which she effortlessly places in the great story that we form together.

How do we deal with today's events?

As different as the background of us as participants is, it becomes clear that we also struggle with the same questions, each in our own way: how can we live, maybe even survive, today full of incomprehensible developments, terrifying ideas and hair-raising events? Should we accept quietly and endure everything? Democracy is not for frightened people, is a saying. But can we counterbalance, offer an alternative that goes further than stop taking news from self-protection? How? How to offer an alternative without losing yourself in political disputes and above all: without making the opponent stronger by your resistance? While we bend over the meaning of tuning, of affirmation, of what it is like to be human and we ultimately also contemplate the meaning of meaning, these questions form a common thread throughout the days.

The insights and answers to the position come, on stocking feet. With every meditation something changes in us, something that cannot be captured in words. I see my own changes reflected in the other participants. Their faces become softer, their voices firmer, their gaze radiates more strength and conviction by the day.

The answers are within ourselves

Answers are already here waiting for us deep within ourselves. We take first steps to get in touch with what else is there. With the Al. And try to face that unknown without fear and prejudice. Perhaps spirituality, like democracy, is not for frightened people either.

Our journey can begin by realizing that we are more than an ‘ opinion ’, more than the experience we experience. We are introduced to new concepts such as ‘ I-World ’ and Irma explains the phenomenon of resonance on the basis of a simple mathematical figure.

Irma navigates us around the rocks of our conviction. 'Knowing you don't know is quite a lot," she says. It is already a step to accept that there is more and that you cannot understand it. And she radiates an unwavering confidence: ‘ although you are touched by the things around you, your wonder and your love resonate in the Al. ’ Then the answer to the previous questions also looms, how to deal with today's challenges? She points out that it is not necessarily necessary to have some kind of ‘ numerical majority ’ to let Love overcome.

Meditation and visualization

It is a lot and it is big what we are trying to learn. Our ideas and experiences as a participant vary widely, but Irma always guides us to a middle with meditation exercises and visualizations, to the place in time and space where the inner and outer world become as one. Symbols also help to get past words. And of course music brings an answer. When we listen to the chant “ The Breath of Heart ’ by Alexander Gustave on Sunday morning, everything that still looked for a place falls into place. Thus, almost unnoticed, the certainty has grown in us that only love is the way, only love can disarm.

Come and experience it too!

Much more happened, the conversations were more comprehensive and the meditations deeper than words can represent. Actually you just have to experience it yourself. And then be quiet.

It is very pleasant to stay at this place in the Ardennes, because of that magic garden full of peace and quiet alone. The food is delicious, the rooms are crystal clear, the atmosphere is silky soft. Irma, Annebeth, Katelijn and Louise lead the dance without noticing, each in their own rhythm and always in the right pace. The Asharum Amonines lives its own promise of love and devotion.

Participant of the course August 2024

 

Find out when a new course starts here

August in Amonines

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Asharum Amonines Journal September

 

Building the new and rebuilding the old

If you look at the cycle of beginnings and endings, birth and death, literally and in terms of energy one sees Nijar and Amonines both mirroring different stadia in this cycle.

A garden bursting into life, new rooms coming into existence, a growing community of people living in Nijar exploring what that means, mirrors the excitement of new beginnings. On the other side Amonines has developed into a stronghold, a place always available to stay with the opportunity to retreat and meditate. A growing group of people feel the comfort to just be without further expectations. Belonging to this part of the cycle there is also decay on the material level, in short a need for renovation and August was the month for it…

 

 

One part of the outer stone wall was falling apart and has been repaired. Our neighbour Guy, who never misses an opportunity to lend a hand on his lawnmower machine, cleared the area in front of the wall.

 

A long standing problem with the leakage destroying the wall of the meditation room has been solved by rerouting the downspout, which will then be connected to the sewer. The wall itself has been newly grouted.

 

Another long-running story was the leakage in the glass extension and the maintenance of the wood to prevent it from being destroyed by the weather. Henny hardly finished repairing the damage when a newly arrived guest joined him who got involved before I could even show him his room. As a professional handyman he was happy to join the maintenance team. A beautiful example of what in Nâm is called Asha. Asha can be seen as a kind of natural regularity, outside of experience, that cannot be known. There is nothing in life that is not Asha, but this situation specifically seems to point to a regularity beyond our comprehension.

 

The wood of the glass extension has a new coat of varnish, the front door has been sanded and painted and the front balcony has been prepared so it just needs a lick of paint.

 

Building the new and rebuilding the old in human relationships

Asharum Amonines is one of the centers expressing community living of Living Nâm. As in all places where people come or live together it is a place where you meet yourself and the other in working together, but the likelihood of themes surfacing in Amonines is considerably higher, since the place invites that. It offers the possibility of mirrors that highlight personal issues. How do you deal with that in Living Nâm and thus in Amonines?

Community living is always an imagined community, but to imagine a community you need something that binds in the imagination and in the expression of it. As I understand it, in the case of Living Nâm one of the things is the understanding that you áre experience and that that living experience is a sharing and not a living that one individually does. One of the instruments and at the same time an expression of being a community is giving service, because it is in this active service that we meet. The fact that you do this service as a way of Attuning is the key to how you deal with each other, when personal issues are being triggered. With Attuning you try to lift the situation above the personal level, not blaming the other for how you feel, left only with the option to take the responsibility for your own feelings and let the occasion reflect back to you what you need to see and possibly transform. This makes a Living Nâm community different from regular communities where you normally converse about a situation expecting the other to take responsibility for his part in your pain.

Truly living the sharing is a constant learning process, because as far as I can see it means there is no escape. Where in other communities there is a selection process of who can come and live there and most of the time a clear definition of the place and role you have, in the Asharum people are brought together not on personal grounds but because in some way they are ready to live in an Asharum, this being Asha. This requires you to build a new relationship with the new person, but it also requires you to rebuild already existing relationships, as no one is being added to the team, it is a creation of a new team.

Another important feature of living in an Asharum is that your place and your role can change daily which makes it difficult to fall back on the security of the tasks that you have. Encountering daily issues, sensitivities, triggers, moods and having no specific place or role to identify with and retreat into, staying available for people visiting the Asharum and for each other sometimes makes the ground disappear from under your feet.

This brings me back where I started, realising that the living experience is not something you do individually, but a sharing in something that cannot be captured in words makes that, through Attunement, the service you give is not in order to gain anything from it, you do it for what is beyond words and is at the same time what you are sharing in, in Living Nâm called Abbah. Personally I might say that every time I remember to Attune the personal dialogue can stop, the weight lifts, hopefully opening my world for the possibility to transform.

For reading about Living Nâm and the instruments available for living in Attunement I happily refer to The Book of Nâm by Yoginâm.

 

Active service during events

Next to helping with renovations there is always the possibility to do active service in Amonines during events. The following dates are available:

Oktober 10-13 - Chi-Kung event

November 3-9 - Nâm Retreat of Silence

November 29 - December 1 - Nâm Weekend of Silence

December 12-15 - The Essence of Meditation

If you are interested please send an e-mail to asharum@amonines.com

 

A preview of next month's newsletter

On the threshold of September, we had the 5-day intensive Meaningful Living. One of the participants wrote a beautiful review, which is already available on this blog.

 

 

Introduction into the Breath

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~ A text by Irma ten Brink - inspired by Yoginâm ~

Do you wonder?

An introduction into the Breath

You may have read or heard it somewhere….someone talking about ‘the Breath’.

If you wonder what this is about, and how this is more than ‘breathing in and breathing out’ which is of course a natural part of it, then this blog article is meant for you.

It is quite impossible to directly tell you what the Breath is. Therefore I need to talk around it.

First of all, for those trying to live in Nâm, the Breath is our most important instrument. Just consider, if you agree on spirituality to be nothing more than living your natural state, how then can the tools to help you find and live your natural state be complicated?

The Breath is a tool of utmost simplicity.

The quality of the Breath, because it is infused by Awareness, is of a complete other reality; beyond words, beyond grasping and beyond understanding.

Breathing is so natural that we often don’t notice we are doing it. Or is it something that happens to us? Or are we a happening altogether which includes this breathing? We can do things with it, manipulate it but ultimately and definitely life as we no it stops when the breathing stops. Food for thought perhaps. And when you contemplate this, then consider as well that the breathing connects us all, we all breathe the same air! It is not for nothing that in many traditions breathing exercises or focussing on breathing is such an important instrument.

As for ‘the Breath’ it may be good to realise that it is small and big at the same time. Small in its simplicity, big in its transcendency. Close in its intimacy, wide in its infinity.

Why use the Breath?

Because the Breath of Yoginâm is given in his name and received in a specific manner it is not of Experience, it is of Awareness (read more about how these terms are used in  the book SIWEB). Without being able to explain what this means, it may help to realise it is and will not become ‘you’ in the narrow sense of the word, meaning it is not part of your habitual self, not part of your programmes. That is where the power of the Breath lies.

The power of doing the Breath makes your attunement in Awareness becomes so strong that your life will gradually free itself from your disturbing programmes. The experience of living will go beyond your habitual self. You may for example experience life living through you or life guiding you. A profound meaning will enter your life in all circumstances.

An important shift in attention ...

Your attention will first of all move from an I-oriented person to an I-World oriented person who realises I and World are intertwined and sharing in a Whole. And with that realisation you will start living accordingly in a very natural and even effortless way.

The Breath is very simple, all you have to do is bring back your focus to the received sounds connected to your breathing. Of course simple is not always easy. You will soon notice when trying how quickly your attention is distracted.

But that is oké, you just try to find and bring back your attention to the Breath. It is the practice of coming back to the Breath that counts more than the losing of your attention.

And with everything else, it just takes practice and consistency. But if you manage this practice and consistency you will find in the Breath your very best friend, a companion for life!

You will notice, in moments of relaxation, the Breath will be accompanying you. When you drive your car, the Breath is there, when you clean your house, the Breath is there. And yes, when life challenges you and presents difficulties that may be hard to digest, the Breath will be there!

However, when struggle hits you with a returning inner dialogue with negative thoughts, triggered by a disturbing programme which we all have, you may need to be strict on yourself in choosing for the Breath. Because negative emotions can pull us hard. But if you practised the Breath often enough in easier days you will find in the Breath your saviour, for it has the power to help you overcome the difficulty, it helps you transform what needs to be transformed.

... ánd an important shift in identification!

In a spiritual endeavour and in fulfilling your task of life the Breath becomes a powerful tool. Not because of some magical trick but simply because it can help you make the shift in identification.

Transforming our daily life events in which we share with our habitual programmes is an ongoing task in life and we are equipped for that naturally. The Breath supports this natural skill and helps to keep our focus and stay attuned to what we are beyond our habitual programmes, Awareness.

In other words, by bringing our attention back to the Breath every time a negative thought comes up or disturbing emotions, instead of pushing them away you shift your attention, this is an act of letting go. And because the Breath is infused with Awareness (which is beyond Experience) in this proces of letting go emotions become transformed and you attune yourself.

This makes the Breath into a tool that shifts our identification with the daily perception of Experience to a wider identification in Awareness, something that happens rather gradually and in this process disturbing programmes are transformed. This shift is what the real mystics like Rumi has appointed as 'the life's task of man'.

Therefore the Breath is the most simple and natural instrument and yet very profound and powerful. A true pearl amongst all instruments that may support a spiritual endeavour.

Do want to make use of this instrument in your daily life as well?

The Breath can be received upon request, please feel free to ask for more information.

Please contact us for questions and if you are interested in receiving the Breath.

August in Amonines

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Asharum Amonines Journal July

An extended Retreat

During an extended period of three weeks in July Anna became a much appreciated part of our life in Asharum Amonines. Quietly fitting into the picture as if she had always been there. Anna gently communicated her need to come for a longer period to retreat and reflect, asking us if this was possible. Anna is a garden architect and despite her need to leave her daily life behind, she seemed seduced by the garden, working with the plants and bushes, creating different shapes in the full acknowledgement of Louise’s adagio of Live and let live.

A true artist in the garden as well as on paper….

 

A quiet invasion

Nowhere do you find as many scouts as in Belgium, where this is a real lifestyle. The groups walk or cycle a certain amount of kilometers, taking everything the way it comes and trusting they will find a place to sleep that night. We are used to scout groups knocking on our door asking if they can spend the night in the Asharum. If the situation allows, we let them sleep in the living room. This time, however, we were somewhat overwhelmed when we heard that the group in question consisted of forty scouts. They were cycling from Leuven to Gouvy, a trip of 150 kilometers in three days. We did not want to send them away. The bigger the group the more obvious it becomes how quiet they are. They ate and watched an important football game in the car park. When they went to sleep we peeked around the door and realised that they were lying there in the living room like sardines in a tin almost on top of each other. It was an endearing sight.

 

 

In The Kitchen

 

The essence of meditation

An insight view into the experience of a participant in this three-day course

At a crossroads

A lot of people do meditation, why would that be? And is it more than listening to a story and paying attention to your breath? And if so, what is it then? And would it be something for me? With these questions, I signed up for the three days course 'The essence of meditation' at Belgium's Asharum Amonines.

I arrive there on Thursday afternoon, along with dog Brody, who is fortunately allowed to come along. Asharum turns out to be located in a beautiful, three-hundred-year-old house. Not somewhere far away and out of the way, but literally at a crossroads in a small village of well-kept houses by the river Aisne. A couple of women are working in the garden and welcome me. I meet Irma, who will let me experience so much that is new in the coming days. But first she shows me the room where I will stay and makes tea. In the introductory conversation, we soon go into depth. A promising start...

There are other guests, but no one interferes. This feels strange and uncomfortable, as one is used to getting acquainted and tuning in to the people around one. "Who are you, what do you do, where are you from?" are questions that are not asked here. And that actually turns out to be very pleasant, we let each other be. At 6 o'clock I join the first Asha meditation and I find out a bit of what's going on. Gradually I learn that the blanket is not for sitting on, but that there are mats for that. And that the cushion you sit on during meditation is not in the middle but on the edge of the mat. That way, on the mat, there is room for your legs, feet and ankles.

And so start three days of new experiences. Where you can enjoy the craftsmanship of, say, a carpenter or an artist, the same goes for 'the meditation game'. Irma takes me through various forms of meditation, with humour and enormous calm and introduces me to new ways of looking at the world, my surroundings and myself. The Asharum is literally at a crossroads and also turns out to be figuratively at a crossroads where you can go in different directions. In and around the house, there are many pleasant places to reflect on all these experiences and literally dwell on what is happening to you.

After a few days, I notice that I feel energised, because of the meditations, the peace and the delicious food. I am welcome here and so is Brody with whom I explore the beautiful surroundings. My questions have been answered: meditation turns out to be much more than conscious breathing and it is definitely for me. Fortunately, I may come back to the people of Asharum Amonines.

 

Taking part in Asha meditations online

From September 4 you can join live Asha meditation broadcast from the Asharum. On Wednesdays at 6 pm and on Sunday at 10 am we broadcast through Zoom. The practical details are on a page protected with a password. Would you like to join the meditation? Please fill out the contact form on our website and you will receive the password. You can find the contact form here.

 

Resting

We are pleasantly surprised with our returning visitors this summer:

July in Amonines

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Asharum Amonines Journal June

 

Nâm Retreat of Silence

The Nâm Retreat of Silence in June was very well received by the participants as well as by our other guest who didn’t participate in the retreat, but was very happy to be given the support of this concentrated form of silence during her stay.

 

 

It was wonderful to be able to go again, after several years, on a Retreat of Silence in the context of- and attunement in Nâm. Certainly also thanks to your loving attention and care in Amonines. I happily take this attunement back home, to the daily life of attachments, the art of living.

Fulfilled and grateful for the profound inner experience and the loving and harmonious, well-organised setting in the Asharum.

Two participants of the Silent Retreat

 

Focus on trees

For a long time our trees got little attention but lately this has changed. 
Here a small summary of how things took flight. First and foremost with Frederique joining us as a volunteer, knowledgeable about trees and who loves taking care of them. Shortly after that a ‘tree team’ was formed; Iman and Roelof were happy to take on the job of cutting down the trees that needed to go. There is also a second ‘tree team’ which consists of two professional tree carers; they take on the difficult jobs: the very high trees or the ones that require special knowledge. And so we could start renewing. Since november nine trees have been cut, three of them old fruit trees, two of which had already fallen down by themselves and one that was hollowed out. They were replaced by four new trees all indigenous.

In addition to all this, June was the month to focus on the front part of the garden, bordering the road and the part of the garden on the left of the house, also bordering the road and out neighbour Guy. 
In the front garden we had been looking for years to remove one or two pine trees that were taking up a lot of space but not giving much pleasure. It is amazing how what takes so long to grow is cut down in a matter almost of minutes. There must be a lesson in that. Two pine trees gone. As also a tall willow already dead but still standing. This whole area now has a nice open and spacious feeling, inviting. The light coming through and the view from the terrace of the white birch and the beautiful large pine brings it in closer connection with the rest of the garden.

Lastly in the border along the road three conifers were taken out which will be replaced by olive willows. The idea is to renew this part of the border.

 

Snail Trail

Live and let live should be the rule for a garden. But then what do you do when your carefully raised and nurtured pet little lettuces are eaten by snails. Many are the solutions that have been tried for this, from extremely violent and murderous to gentle dissuasion. Having tried many of the gentler ones but not satisfied there was suddenly this very nature friendly person who told that she had made ‘snail resorts’ in her garden, special heaps of garden waste, in the shadow, kept moist, with fresh leaves added from time to time, where she put the snails she found in her garden. And they liked it there and stayed. This idea immediately caught on. So in our parking on the left side we created a large elongated heap of garden waste as our snail resort. The first night after the new lettuces were planted, around two o’clock, some fifty snails were collected from the plants and were emigrated to the new resort. The following nights the number slowly dwindled to forty, then thirty and stabilised around twenty. Still a lot. Then an idea. Plastic 5liter bottles with the bottom cut out were used at night to cover the plants most likely to be eaten. And it worked. Last night, after 16 nights of emigration, for the first time not one snail to be found.

(contributed by Louise)

 

The Art of Living

Unwelcome guests or the irony of life

To understand the comic-story featuring the ducks below you need to know the history. For the ones who missed that journal, a small summary:

There was a duck couple who loved our pond. It started in February, when we realised they were polluting the water and the fish started dying. A lot of time, energy, work, patience, love and care went into restoring the quality of the water. We stretched a net over the water to prevent the persistent ducks from entering it. And after more than four months we had a beautiful end result:

Beautifully clear water over the past few days, happy fish, all done, the pond. The ''duck danger'' had been contained, so the nets were removed.

 

And then this happend:

 

Beautiful of course how it goes, being attached to an outcome, namely clear water, gives trouble. Then being able to see that it is funny having mother jumping in with her seven little ones, is an art!

 

The Art of Giving

If you think of giving as making yourself available to life and of receiving as opening to life, then what is actually the difference between giving and receiving?

 

... and receiving

It felt very good to be in an environment where you don't feel judged for wanting to be in silence and do nothing, away from the hectic pace of everyday life. Food was simple and tasty. The garden and house offer many places to sit and just be. I enjoyed the meditations as I'm not attracted to guided meditations. I like the Asha meditation with the rattle followed by stillness.

- Regina, Personal Meditation Retreat

 

Feast of Greater Light

The solstice is a universally known happening, not bound to any culture, and a cause for coming together in Nâm. We call these days the day of Greater Light and the day of Lesser Light and turn them into a celebration of attunement to the infinite unknowable or the essence, the very nature of living, which in Living Nâm is called Abbah.

The online connection between Amonines and Yoginâm feels so close that one can imagine stepping through the screen into the other room. It is really wonderful how one creates an online space where the celebration in Nijar and Amonines really come together.

Thanks to the joint effort in the preparations on the celebration day everyone was available for recitation. Taking turns to recite, the recitation was carried through the day, creating a strong field of resonance, with joyful ritual dance and singing to open and close the day respectively.

June in Amonines

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Asharum Amonines Journal May

 

Garden of Discovery

What there is to discover when you immerse yourself in the garden is truly a whole new universe, which you start to learn about when you work in the garden. When we cut back the vegetation until the stones of the flower beds come into view, the paths double in width and the garden not only becomes more accessible, but also reaches its fullest expression as a garden.

 

 

Working in the garden plays with your perception, as if you enlarge the world by reducing it. To thin the yellow deadnettle, a ground cover, you first follow a whole network of long crawling stems before you can take out the root. An unknown part of the garden emerges when hitherto hidden vegetation and the resting place of a snail is uncovered.

 

In the back of the garden where the apple tree left a clearing two rowan berry trees and an elder have been newly planted to fill the gap. Also in the back, on the border with the neighbours, a  currant tree is going to give us more privacy, all in time of course.
We take care that the new trees we buy are all local trees with the rowan berry trees a favourite with the birds, just like the chard seeds in our vegetable garden, that they have been eating for days in a row, with little hope for us to see it back on the menu.

 

The Diamond

In the garden there is a little glass house in the shape of a diamond. On a sunny morning we decided to clean it, because it deserves to radiate. When the sun comes out it looks very reassuring and promising. However, what seems to be more the rule than the exception are the sudden changes of sun and rain and, in this case, thunderstorm. It makes one appreciate the sunny moments and it makes one run to clean the glass roof and windows in between the showers. An adventure we won't soon forget, looking at the shiny roof reflecting the returning sun.

 

Snail Resort

To minimise the need to dispose of garden waste, we made a compost from garden waste in the car park. This way, the garden waste can be reused in the long run and it also has a second function as a snail resort. To protect the vegetables in the vegetable garden, we had already started taking snails across the road last year with very good results. This month we heard the story of someone who had made snail resorts in her garden; specific places where the snails were allowed to stay and had enough to eat, so there was no need for them to go in search for food. Now, with the snails far away in their resort, we can safely prepare the vegetable garden.

 

Yoga Retreat

As we are used to by now, this month's yoga retreat was fully booked. Although participants sometimes come in pairs to connect with each other and to be away from daily life, they are always open to be in silence during a part of the retreat. This time friends who came together were in the majority, luckily it did not detract from the single person's experience, who especially valued that one can just be with what is, contemplate and occasionally have a good conversation, without social chatter taking the lead. In tune with the enthusiasm on the last day of the retreat the sun showed herself for the participants to enjoy breakfast outside.

Some participants become regular visitors to the yoga retreat; they have integrated yoga in their lives. In a rare case it actually becomes a way of living, for others it is an important tool to bring life back into a flow, the change clearly visible upon return.

 

Spring Energy

Completely in tune with the energy of spring a lot of maintenance work and cleaning has been done this month. The colours of the tiles are reappearing and we are putting the firewood, which has suffered a lot from moisture and rain, under a shelter so it can dry properly. Also part of spring energy can be a feeling of restlessness. Being an Asharum, it is the place where personal themes and histories may surface in order to be transformed, therefore feeling restless is not necessarily exceptional, but during one weekend it seemed to be a peculiar mixture of different aims and needs that brought our guests to Amonines. Some people were in silence and there was somebody for whom silence is threatening and somebody who went away for a whole day, but still felt connected and someone who wanted to connect, but could not stay. Even the silence seemed to go in all directions, not knowing where to settle. Since we all share in the same field, we, as staff, also join and mirror what is there and needs to be resolved. The beauty is at the end of such a weekend when the people surface and it becomes apparent that everyone had exactly the experience they needed. It feels like harmony  has arrived.

 

Did you know that..?

For early birds in the Asharum it is possible to see a fox passing in front of the window of the living room, when you are lucky!

 

May in Amonines

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Asharum Amonines Journal April

 

Renewal

There was a lot of renewal this month. Renewal in the sense of clearing out the old so that life can blossom, as the blossoms and greenery around us show so abundantly.

With several major gardening projects on our list, a real team is now starting to form. Top of the list for this month was creating a healthy pond environment. If you want to achieve this, the presence of ducks in the water is the first thing to avoid, as they bring parasites and their droppings pollute the water. To clean the pond, we had hired a special hoover, but it turned out to work only for aquatic plants and dead leaves. Although still a bit cold, the only way to achieve our goal was with our bare hands, or actually the bare hands of Roelof.

 

 

The presence of ducks in the garden brings something special, but we had to think of something to prevent them from entering the water. We stretched a net over the pond, of which the structure got better and better as the protesting ducks persisted.

 

With these changes we see the ducks less often. On one of their last visits they witnessed how one of the branches from the cherry, heavy from the cherry blossom, could not withstand the wind and broke off.

 

The next thing that presented itself was the drainpipe, of which the part that went underground was clogged. Fortunately, this could be quickly fixed, preventing the water from the washing machine to run into the garden.

 

 

Opening for the essence

As everything was taken care of, the flow of people continued. They worked in the garden, came to enjoy a course or immersed themselves in meditation and silence during the Weekend of Silence and the Nâm Retreat to open to a wider essence.

After such a retreat you might find small attentive notes like this one:

 

A new perspective: 5-day intensive - Meaningful Living

This month Irma gave the course 5-day intensive - Meaningful Living (before: ‘The Reflection Week’). Participants clearly blossomed during the course and Irma was enthusiastic about their questions and the progress of the course, therefore we like to share a little of that experience with you. In Irma’s words:

 

Looking back on a wonderful 5-day Intensive   Meaningful Living Together with a very enthusiastic duo we explored SIWEB from just one angle. Within a clear structure we used different ways of exploring like imagination, reflection, contemplation, meditation and talking moments.

The two participants entered with no expectations of what was coming, their backgrounds were interestingly different, one being Belgium and the other Indian.

The topics of the intensive led to very serieus questions with a lot of free and open space to explore and wonder.

Cultural differences   Because we had two completely different cultures coming together very different questions came up which showed how relative everything is and how much we take for granted as ‘normal’ or quickly conclude ‘that is how it is’.

For example; “Why do people go to someone, like a psychiatrist, to talk to? My wife does so and all of her family, I cannot understand how that works”. And “what is a depression? You have a postnatal depression, a prenatal depression a vital depression…. these words just do not exist where I come from. When a woman is pregnant and after giving birth she is surrounded by all the people of the village and she and the baby are naturally taken care of, such problems don’t occur or probably (he concluded) if they start to occur they are taken care of naturally in a very early stage of developing so it cannot evolve into something problematic”.

“And if you want to be in a community here in the West you have to arrange that (and it can even be considered strange). While in my language the whole word ‘community’ does not exist! Because there is no other way of living than living in a community”.

What am I?!   The topics, which do invite you seriously to start thinking ‘out of the box’ caused some excitement at moments and there was a lot of laughter

And while the intensive was nearing its end the excitement was growing: “…but then, what really is the I?!” Where is it ? If my body is not my I, my mind is not, my feelings are not….,then where is the I, what is the I…!? Is it all of us? Is it in that in what we share, is it everywhere?” And just to go on…”what happens then when we die? Where does the I go or….what goes on, something goes on, no? What happens then? And if the I is All, what happens then with that?!”

Interesting questions and luckily in the beginning they where warned about going home with more questions than answers!

What could be the task of living?   “Now looking back at what we have been doing these last days, what could be the meaning and the task of human living?” was the question on the last day. Again the answer was answered with another question she thought was more interesting “Who is the one giving the task in the first place?!” Or differently put: “Where does the task come from?”

Conclusion….anyone some last questions before we round off?   Once the programme was finished and there was some open space still for questions they wanted to ponder on the idea of this ‘I’ and where or what it was. The serieus life question “What am I” became the highlight of the week.

We already knew that scientifically in the body the I was never found. So the answer to this question had to be searched for elsewhere. For this we watched this wonderful little promo film in search for answers. And in this film we noticed Yoginâm rather speaks about a ‘sense of I’ and a ‘sense of World’. Perhaps this is done with the very reason that perhaps indeed, there is no I in an absolute sense? There are only identifications with ideas and a feeling of some kind of reality that is supposed to be true? The questions upon questions are inviting to explore more of this topic. Therefore all there is more to say is….to be continued…..

This is what the participants wrote:

 

It made my heart skip a beat, the talks and exercises have awakened a deep sense of warmth, joy, connectivity and a childish curiosity - To think of ‘I’ in a different perspective.

 

The laughing & openness during the sessions, the food!! - That ‘I’, which was quite important and big is actually just a dot in this never ending universe.

 

The silence and living in a rhythm, that all I have to do is living life in a simple way. I have to keep it simple - I take Humbleness with me.

 

Did you know that..?

There is a new resident in Asharum Amonines! We are very happy that Annebeth has come to join our team.

 

A poem on dying

/in , /by

A poem on dying

~ A text by Irma ten Brink inspired by the work of Yoginâm ~

July 21, 2023

Death and Life
It is one and the same
I knew this, for I saw it with my waking eyes already many years ago
Death and Life
One and the same
But life is lived in such a way
That we tend to forget this wisdom
We are forgetful beings
Sometimes, only little moments, we may catch a glimpse
A glimpse of Death and Life
as one and the same
It are these moments that are most precious to me
What a joy was it to know with an absolute certainty
That my dear friend was going home
Stepping over, just a very small step it seamed,
to the other side
A home where time changes into timelessness
Where an illusional difference between Death and Life disappears
‘Search for me there, on the other side’ was the message of his Beloved
And he searched until he found Him!
No sorrow, no pain.
All I want is to celebrate!
What a joy it is, to know our dear friend is back home!
Stervensbegeleiding

The Essence of Letting Go

/in , /by

The Essence of Letting Go

~ A text by Yoginâm ~

 

Many people believe that life is about acquiring something

Acquiring knowledge or acquiring possessions

Even about acquiring age, we celebrate our birthdays

As if we have acquired another year

There are many cultures in which age is unimportant

And birthdays are totally ignored

Acquisition is very different from need

A human culture that is based on need

Would be a very different culture

It would not know the manipulation of greed

That is so characteristic to the Western culture

Living is all we have and as such living is important

But ultimately living will come to an end

And everything will stop in a most drastic manner

It is inevitable, it is the only thing you can really be sure of

The question is: are you prepared?

All spiritual endeavour is ultimately rooted

In dealing with the temporariness of life

In this sense people have discovered

Ultimate values that lie beyond that

To which one feels naturally attracted to in living

In a derived sense such ultimate values psychologically

Contribute greatly to the emergence of enviable states

Such as inner tranquility, contentment and Well Being

A drive for acquisition that is considered to be common

In Western society is a bad preparation for death

Death is not about getting something it is about letting go

When the Sufis advice you to learn to die before you die

They are in fact saying: learn how to let go

Before you are forced to let go

Which, when you are ill prepared could be problematic

Learning how to let go has a double advantage

It constitutes a good preparation for the unavoidable end to living

While at the same time it generates

Tranquility, contentment and Well Being in living

Something that cannot be achieved in acquisition

Because the drive for satisfaction in acquisition

Always involves a degree of dissatisfaction

And a lust for ever more

Because people are usually trained to hold opposite ideas

Letting go is generally not well understood

People often associate it with asceticism

Or with an uncaring, lethargic attitude to life

And with a disinterest in the aspects of living

Such ideas are indeed unnatural and often a trap

Because life is all that you are and it is in life that you live

Letting go is something entirely different

Letting go implies to stop relating to life

As something that is of your own

Of course you are the only centre of your universe of experience

And in living you are your universe of experience

Life however is more than experience

Your state of living is an integral whole within a whole

About which proportions and qualities we can have no idea

The letting go that I speak about refers to this whole

It is not restricted to how you deal with the world

Which for instance is the basis of the ascetic attitude to life

Letting go is not something that you do

It is different from trying to overcome your attachments

Letting go refers to you as the universe and the universe as you

Letting go is the ultimately refined expression of

What starts with the effort to overcoming ego attachments

In Letting Go you both flow in development and you contribute to it

In Letting Go everything always goes right

Because in Letting Go you listen first to the flow

In Letting Go the idea of going against the flow does not arise

When things go all right you are in the flow

When things start to go wrong you a diverting from the flow

These are the rights and wrongs of the flow

And not necessarily those of what you like and dislike

Or those of what you consider as important or not

Holding on to likes, dislikes, opinions and beliefs

Is usually an expression of attachment

Letting Go is not fatalistic in any way

It does not mean that you have to give up

Whenever you meet resistance

Your resistance may be part of the flow

While it may also be against the flow

Only open and non-attached listening

May provide an indication

Letting Go can only emerge when it is rooted in Trust

Without Trust there cannot be a Letting Go

There is horizontal trust and vertical trust

Horizontal trust is conditional

It is about who or what you can trust and who or what not

Vertical trust is unconditional

Vertical trust refers to Life in the transcendental sense

Life is geared to optimal living

In joining the optimal living of Life

The phenomenal living of experience

Will equally assume the characteristic of optimality

In the vertical trust there are no conditions

It is not a reflection of circumstances

Vertical Trust is an inner recognition

In Letting Go there is great Well Being

A Well Being that satisfaction cannot achieve

In Letting Go there is Awe and Wonder

In Letting Go all Life is continuously revealing

In Letting Go life becomes a revelation

In order for Letting Go to emerge

You first have to put effort in overcoming attachment

Mainly because such effort will guide you in the proper direction

This will lead you to an ultimate Letting Go

Only in Letting Go will attachments ultimately be overcome

Just trying to overcome your ego attachments

Does not necessarily lead to Letting Go

The necessary ingredient for Letting Go is Trust

When Symeon the New Theologian

Shouted out 1100 years ago

That his hands were God's hands

And that his feet were God's feet

Because he was a liberated theologian

He meant that his hands and feet

Were in the flow of life and that he was not

Imposing his will and his desires on that flow

He was expressing Letting Go

Letting Go is impossible without a profound Trust

It cannot be achieved without the unconditional vertical Trust

Ego cannot let go of ego; ego can only place itself in Trust

Ego can work on attachments as psychological objectives

For Letting Go there must be something to let go in

For this purpose all cultures cherish their gods and revelations

When gods become objects of attachment they become obstacles

And when religions and philosophies become concepts of identification

They lose all purpose and they merely lead astray

I therefore propose Abbah, undefined representing all

Without distinction embracing all transcendence

Abbah is Life and beyond

Abbah is ego and Life and beyond

Abbah is what it is and beyond what we could imagine

Abbah is all states non-living, potential living and living

Abbah is the invitation to Trust

Abbah is ultimate consolation and ultimate joy and beyond

Abbah is the Well Being and beyond

You can only discover Abbah by Letting Go

Ego as Nafs should concentrate on overcoming attachments

Ego as Ruh should elaborate openness and Trust in Awe and Wonder

Ego as Abbah is ultimate transcendence in the annihilation of Letting Go

25 September 2010

What it means to become an Aspirant Carrier of Nâm

/in , /by

~  a text by Yoginâm ~

The Carriers of Nâm

A Carrier of Nâm is somebody who has taken a solemn Intent to search with one’s life for optimal Attunement in Abbah, with the aim of optimally contributing thereby to the performance of the Task of Human Living, in the interest of humanity as a whole.
A Carrier of Nâm thereby aims to live, with Attitudes and Behaviour, the full potential of human living. This is a supreme state of mature human living, however, to claim to be a Carrier of Nâm would be arrogant and such a claim would in fact be its own denial. Those who have made the Intent of Nâm therefore identify themselves as ‘Aspirant Carriers of Nâm (ACN)’.

Mustering the Intent and living life in accordance with Nâm is entirely individual, because everybody is unique as a human being, with circumstances that are unique to one’s life situation. But because all living is Resonance, your individual endeavour resonates in everything into infinity. Like a sound, resonance does not stop. This is the way in which you contribute to collective Asha that shapes human living.
You start the way of an ACN by stating a strong Intent to do so. An Intent is more than the expression of a desire. It is a firm commitment to shape your life according to Nâm. For this purpose, there are a number of instruments that guide your orientation and can lead you. Invariably these instruments do not present a truth or a rule of behaviour. They are rather living infusions that when applied to your daily life, gradually generate a change as from within.

Because our living happens as Resonance, it is advisable that when you make the Intent of Nâm, you do so in front of a witness, preferably somebody who knows what Nâm implies. What happens next is entirely up to the degree in which you take your stated Intent seriously and the degree in which you shape your life with Attitudes and Behaviour that is beneficial for the performance of the Task of Human Living.

The Breath

The major instrument for ACN is the Breath. With it you gradually allow yourself to become opened for Attunement in Awareness. Indeed, Experience has so many facets that it is easy to forget Awareness altogether. The Breath is a constant reminder.
You should always remember Abbah; you should remember that all activities, thoughts, emotions, desires, opinions, ideals and beliefs are relating to Abbah of which they are an expression. Therefore, it is best to consider them as resonance that resonate in all directions. Remembering this by means of the Breath is of major importance.
The Breath is a sound that is repeated inwardly in synchronisation of the physical breathing, and whenever possible strengthened by the use of a string of beads, the Nâm Beads. You cannot select the Breath from a book. In order to benefit from its full resonance, it should have been received by somebody who is authorised to do so, in a particular manner.

The Community of the Aspirant Carriers of Nâm

It is a natural aspect of the human species that we search for each other’s company, particularly when we have something in common. It was in fact what made the Homo Sapiens dominant over the Neanderthals. A community strengthens. When like- minded people gather, that in what they are like-minded is strengthened.
Though the way of the ACN is an individual one, Nâm Asharums have been founded and other activities are undertaken that allow ACNs to come together. Because it is an individual way there is no conformity that rules the community. ACN are discouraged to talk about their way and experience on their way. This would only be confusing for those whose way has a different form. Particularly when the ACN who presents the view is elderly or respected, this may be taken for something to be aspired for as well.

It is the Nâm Affirmation that implies that the ‘you’ that you are is the starting point, every new instant again. Your position is unique and from your position you aspire to live optimally the performance of the Task of Human Living. There are no rules or commandments other than reaching out for Harmony by shaping Attitudes and Behaviour optimally in the corresponding way.

This Harmony however is not necessarily the harmony that you consider as being harmonious. The Harmony of Nâm is the Attunement in Abbah (Attunement in Awareness). Obviously, one is kind and respectful; obviously one avoids anger and destruction; obviously one abstains for exploitation and suppression of others; obviously one generates giving disposition rather than a profiting one.

In the Nâm Affirmation only what is ‘evil’, or against live is rejected. An ACN is a servant of life, supporting life with the optimal performance of the Task of Human Living.

Participating and supporting a Nâm Community is a major instrument to dissolve the exclusive attention to the 'I/World' interests. It is indeed sharing in communal interest of Nâm that is for the ACN a golden way for reaching Attunement in Abbah. In such sharing you meet all the obstacles that are there for you to resolve and that constitutes your specific way towards Attunement in Abbah.
Aspirant Carriers of Nâm are expected to activate the community with activities and financial support. In the Asharums various activities are developed. Some of these activities are directly linked to creating possibilities for as many people as possible to come in contact with the beauty and effectiveness of Nâm as a guidance for living. Other activities provide an income with which the Asharum and the activities can survive.