Yoginâm 's Magic Harp
According to Yoginâm, people suffer from false identities: they say “I am a Muslim” or “I am a Christian” or “I am an Atheist” or “I am a Buddhist” but also “I am a feminist” or “I am socialist” or “I am gay” or “I am a liberal” or “I am an academic” or “I am a worker” or “I am a woman” or “I am a man”. There is an endless list of false identities that people claim for themselves.
There is nothing essentially wrong with that. It is however never your identity, it is a false identity. It is not self evident and therefore you have to defend it, or remind yourself of it, or express yourself as it. It becomes an occupation to uphold your false identity. This is what is also called Ego.
Such a false identity always involves Habitual Programmes of Perception. You try to create your world on the basis of your false identity. You will however often discover that the world does not always respond in the way you expect it to, on the basis of your false identity.
This creates stress, anxiety and disease. The more society collectively activates people, from an early age onward, to develop false identities, the greater the social and individual problems. This gives an income to psychiatrists, therapists and physicians. Again I think that there is nothing essentially wrong with that, it is the characteristic of society: ‘it makes the world go round’.
However there are people who increasingly doubt this state of affairs, and I believe that those who start to question it are also those who are meant to question it. They have a different task in life. There are ancient spiritual groups who assumed it was thanks to their daily ritual or prayer that the sun would rise. This is a metaphorical expression of the same. Those who question it are meant to be the Carriers that ‘carry’ the realisation onward, as a kind of continuum or continuous base tone that you can hear in oriental music, they provide the stable backbone around which the world weaves itself in endless variety.
The false identity is totally unimportant for such Carriers, who are involved in the search for what it means to be human. People often assume that such a spiritual search is for their benefit because it would lead them to become enlightened. This is an illusion. The real human nature is its transcendental nature, and that lies beyond the false identity, beyond the ego-illusion, beyond anything to become: in short beyond being an individual as an identification.
Of course you are an individual, but that is ‘the end of the line’. Your true nature is the incomprehensible oneness, or Abbah, of which this ego-illusion and its world is an expression. When you experience stress, anxiety and disease, there is something wrong with your relationship with the world, and that is invariably caused by the false identity that you impose on the world.
Letting go of the ego-illusion means letting go of your false identity. It does not matter whether you are straight or gay, black or white, a king or a pauper, religious or secular, follower of this or of that sect, or perform these or those meditation exercises. These are often actually the ropes that bind you to your false identity. What matters is living your true identity. It implies living in the identity of Abbah, living your transcendental nature.
Yoginâm developed LivingNâm lifestyle for the modern human being who lives in a globalising world that is developing towards cooperation and shared living. Power struggles and ‘tribal’ domination of one over the other are anachronistic to a global world. It does not matter who wins or who dominates: what matters is how we all survive.
LivingNâm is the pure expression of the primordial endeavour to live in the essence of living. It is not coloured by distinct cultural mythology or history. It is timeless and ageless. It is rooted in the complete realisation of being human as it unfolds by means of a spiritual phenomenological way of analysis.
Yoginâm's message is as simple as it is profound. It involves a shift away from the false identity to the true identity of human living. Becoming is replaced by being. Soul is replaced by Heart; the drop identity is replaced by a water identity, rationality and emotions are replaced by a silent and unmentionable awareness for which there are no words. This can be compared to the silent moment in which the Zen monk demonstrates to his master that he has grasped the meaning of a Koan.
HarpMood
Long ago there was a Sufi master who used an ancient string instrument during his teachings. Because music was frowned upon by a fundamentalist emir of the city, he was about to be judged by the court. During the court case he was told to present the evidence, therefore he started to play as a demonstration, but while he played, in response to the sounds of his instrument, everybody in the court fell into a deep sleep. Upon which the Sufi master took the chance to pick up his instrument and flee the city, escaping thereby his conviction.
Words are generally understood with the programmes of the false identity. Unless you are a trained musicologist, which in this sense is an obstacle, when you listen to music the false identity is circumvented. You cannot listen with your consciousness alone, nor with your emotions alone, really listening to music involves the ‘all’ of you. When the listener is lost, Abbah is listening to itself.
This is why the HarpMood of Yoginâm is a teaching, a healing and an enlightening experience that carries you on your way towards the realisation of your essence, and demonstrates to you the obstacles of the false identities. When these false identities cause severe disruption as expressed in stress, anxiety and disease, lifting you above the level of the false identity, or ego-illusion, allows space for a healing ‘adjustment’.
In the Indian Vedanta tradition listening to the master is called Satsang. Satsang is often a Q&A. It is a teaching by means of words. Because Yoginâm himself transcended to a level that is not bothered by the distortions of a false identity, he realised that the words in teaching are introducing another limitation that can in fact strengthen the false identity of the listeners when they try to understand the teaching, which means they try to shape what they hear into the framework of their understanding. When this understanding is dictated by a false identity it strengthens their false identity. Some people can become fundamentalists while hearing a talk about freedom and love.
Yoginâm's HarpMood is unique, he is not a musician and due to an accident in the past, his right hand is to a degree incapacitated. He is not a harpist, but he translates his inner state into sounds. His inner state is not that of the individual, it is entirely rooted in a limitless sharing. As a consequence the sounds are a reflection of the resonance of those who are present.
Once people know how to allow the flow of sounds to engulf them, they often experience that during the participation in HarpMood they receive answers to questions or for problems that were bothering them. This can be deep spiritual questions and ordinary problems of day-to-day life. Some people might even find answers to problems with the software of their computers. Others find relief in those physical and psychological diseases from which they were suffering.
The Harp of Yoginâm seems to be a panacea of magical proportions, but that is an illusion. There is nothing magical about it, it is entirely natural and self evident once one realises the nature of being human in its transcendental reality.
As long as a man considers himself as a man and a woman considers herself as a woman, just to mention something that seems to be self-evident, they cannot rise above the limitations of such a false identity. Only when they truly become human beings and rise above the false identity can they find the enlightenment of their essence, in the way Yin and Yang are united in Tai Chi. That which seems to be magical becomes entirely natural.
People derive great benefit from listening to Yoginâm's HarpMood both when performed live during occasions when he is present and by means of live broadcasts and recordings. Because it is wordless it is universal. Religion, secularity, culture, race or education are totally irrelevant. Yoginâm himself never planned or intended to turn to this way of helping people on their way, but was guided to it by a sequence of coincidences that in themselves are quite unusual.
The life of a spiritual master is a life of service. Yoginâm has expressed this in a saying:
I used to be a devotee of the master
And I became a master to the devotee
Then I transcended and illusions vanished
Now I am a devotee of the devotee
For Yoginâm granting people the benefit that is generated by his HarpMood is his service to those who are willing to receive it.
3rd August 2018
What it means to become an Aspirant Carrier of Nâm
~ 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.
How we create a beautiful world
~ A text by Irma ten Brink inspired by the work of Yoginâm ~
How we create a beautiful world
We are creative beings and we are creating our own world. Start dreaming about another world and the resonance will create another world.
In this blog I would like to elaborate more on it because it might be simple but is not as easy as it is simple.
We are the Cause of our own Consequence
This means it is not so much about who we are but what we are that matters. We create with what we are and that is mostly unconscious.
If we do not explore what we are we will, with our mostly unconscious dreams, start creating mostly just our projections. These projections are based on habitual programmes built up in our lives which are not all only beneficial. Also these projections are following individual needs and wishes mostly together with ideologies based on culture and tradition (and realise for a moment that our western culture is expressing at the moment mostly consumerism and a dualistic way of thinking built on an old guilt programme.)
Can you imagine a beautiful world?
Just ask yourself, can you imagine a beautiful world that also fills the needs of a Tibetan farmer, a western doctor, a Russian astronaut, a Persian musician, all children in Africa and a Dutch mother? And not to forget a cow, a bee, an oak, a sardine, a bacteria...?
While unaware with perhaps the best intentions we want to create something we think is good. But the world, as being an ecosystem, part of a galaxy and so on is so big and beyond our grasping, how can we possible begin to think we can know what it needs? How can we make a picture that includes all? And to make it small again, do we these days know still what we really need ourselves?
Living a way of living I could never have dreamed before
If I just look at my own life so far and how it was created this tells me a lot. I am right now living a way of living I could never have dreamed before. If I would have dreamed a life for myself consciously earlier and that would have come out it would not be as it is now, it would be much more limited because it was created with the mind of that moment which was more limited as my mind now and I would regret that (if I would be aware). This because my life right now is absolutely beyond my conscious imagination.
Also in the past I would (being unaware) have dreamed a life without suffering and difficult times. While it is exactly these times that formed and brought me so much and looking back there is not one moment I would want to have missed. Would I have put these difficulties in a conscious future dream? Probably not. Unconsciously yes I did.
Formulating your wishes carefully
Whoever wishes for peace might with that wish automatically create war. Or who wishes there will be plenty of food and riches for you, could that create perhaps for other life a lack? This is similar to the saying 'Where there is light there is darkness', a biblical saying.
So I decided already long ago to be careful about formulating my wishes. Because I also know that a wish that is really sincerely desired can come true, and that again refers to another wise saying 'careful what you wish for' or as Alan Watts (inspired by William Blake) says:'The Road to Hell is Paved with Good Intentions'.
I am not saying it is wrong to dream a beautiful world. Just be aware of the pitfalls and be conscious of the dual way of thinking from where it often starts. Just like the idea of a war that is intended to create peace. Peace will never come as long as you think in this way. You have to start thinking differently, start looking at life differently and start seeing with different eyes, actually become another being in order to start creating something else.
The one dream I had as a child
There is one dream I had as a child which still stands today and this is because it is very open and full of potential. If you would ask me as a child what I would want to become when I was older it was not a doctor or nurse or something, the answer was “I want to become a wise old woman’.
Also there was a longing to serve, I wanted to do something good in the world without knowing or filling in what that was. Later on I asked for Guidance to do that, realising I could not do it on my own.
This is actually a combination of Intent (become a wise woman), a longing to serve and an openness to Guidance which became the driving force which is gradually helping me get past my own projections, likes and dislikes and transforming my Habitual Programmes of Perception. I think it is this combination that has been given and still is giving direction to my ongoing creation. Here I like to dive deeper into these elements with you.
There is a different way of creating we can become aware of
It is really from the inside out that we have to change something and it needs a complete different mindset and orientation which is very new for most people.
Because it is natural for all living to thrive, living beautiful lives with our loved ones and be happy in life, this longing and wishing can be enough to create something beautiful and yes we should continue to long for this and thrive because it is natural like it is natural for a flower to grow towards the light.
Look for your habitual programmes
However if on this way in life we do not explore our habitual programmes we can seriously get lost in our intentions and do harm with them unconsciously.
For example and to make this more concrete look at this typically western programme of wanting more than we actually need. Realise that this is a causal habitual programme of perception from which consumerism is a natural consequence.
Investigating these programmes is never direct, nor a therapeutic action.
It is within a way of living, in which Intent and Attunement are the basic instruments, that these programmes will come up and can be transformed.
The Transcendental Way
LivingNâm provides me with different and very powerful tools for creation that tranforms the above pitfalls and unconscious projections.
It is a way in which I gradually transform my unconscious disturbing Habitual Programmes of Perceptions into beneficial ones.
A way of living that is a very beautiful and powerful way to create true beneficial resonance. Resonance that will create a wonderful world I cannot with my conscious mind imagine anymore, that is beyond my grasp but I do can see that with enough people living such a way, a beautiful world that serves all can be created.
This is the way of ‘Attention in Remembering’.
Essence of Essence
I can best envisage this by sharing an intimate contemplation with you while realising the experience crumbles down to meaningless words as soon as I write it down. Yet it may help and inspire you in your own search.
Recently in a meditation I had a realisation.
“I am the Essence of Essence.
And everything, every phenomena, every experience, every human being, animal, plant, bacteria, the earth, the glaxies are an expression of this Essence of Essence. So also sickness, disaster, war and suffering are expressions of this very Essence of Essence.
This Essence of Essence is not a something, and certainly not a something outside me, a something I can address by prayer and thought.
It is me as it is you,
I exist out of this Essence of Essence!
With my life I am giving it a human expression”
This realisation is not something that just comes up in me out of the blue. It is the basic principle of LivingNâm and I read it, in different words, time and time again in the different texts and books of Yoginâm. So realising it during meditation in a much wider sense than just rationally is a consequence of reading about it regularly and exploring and remembering it with the specific tools I use, and as such the realisation is very valuable to gradualy change myself into a different Cause.
Now going back to creating the world, the answer on how to do so lies in this realisation and by giving form to your life in such a way that you keep reminding yourself of this realisation as much, as deep and as often as you can.
With this realisation you start orienting yourself not to the phenomena of living but to where it comes from, to the Essence of Essence.
Orienting yourself to the Essence of Essence
The stronger your realisation becomes, the stronger your orientation stabilises in something unchangeable, something that was always there, also before your birth. Something that is there right now and also in difficult and confusing times. And something that will be there still when you die. This realisation then becomes an Affirmation, a Certainty that has nothing to do with believing or knowledge. An Affirmation that will eventually become you.
In Oneness all ages unite Time loses itself in timelessness Past and presence and future Unite in a single instant
The everlasting now in all infinity Eternity within eternity Such is Oneness in you
Beings are reduced to dust When your manifestation Withdraws within itself Eternity is now
And now is eternity Evaporated are the distinctions Between yesterday and tomorrow All united in your Love
From ‘Oh Abbah - Songs for Lovers’ by Yoginâm
A Certainty
This orientation becomes a constancy and a Certainty you start to rely on without a need to understand and grasp it. It will grow a trust in you and it becomes something you can hold on to while everything else can fall apart. Because realise that an accident could happen any moment and your health is gone, or your house and wealth, your loved ones and so on, nothing is permanent except that which is always there, that which in spirituality is often referred to as the Transcendence of living.
It is in this Transcendence where we can find answers, Trust, Love and Certainty. It is also in this Transcendence where we can truly contribute to a beautiful world!
We call this shift in orientation the shift from Soul to Heart.
The Breath
“Millennia of spiritual investigation has proven that Attention in Remembering is the best approach. Wisdom does not emerge from the effort of learning, it spreads by itself like light in a dark room when the shutters are opened”.
From ‘The Book of Nâm’ by Yoginâm
The Breath is a powerful tool which opens these shutters. This tool is so powerful because it is beyond our knowing and grasping. The Breath is the ultimate tool of Remembering ourselves of the Essence of Essence of which we cannot know what it is, nevertheless we can Remember!
“The Breath is the instrument that facilitates Remembering and prevents it from deteriorating in beliefs and opinions distorted by the ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ of our habitual programmes of perception”.
From ‘The Book of Nâm’ by Yoginâm
Please contact us for more information in case you are interested in receiving the Breath.
Finding beauty in everything
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder they say.
Aspire to become a Beautiful Human Being by searching for the Essence of Essence in everything.
Learn to whiteness the phenomena as expressions of this Essence of Essence with practising the Breath.
Once you start seeing in everything, everyone, and in all situations the expression of the Essence of Essence, you will naturally start seeing beauty. A kind of beauty in which ugliness is naturally transcended.
Beyond judgement, projections, likes and dislikes you will enter a state of Awe and Wonder.
With this resonance of Awe and Wonder you become a Beautiful Human Being and you contribute in your modest way to a naturally beautiful world full of potential and beyond your comprehension.
Because Yoginâm has said it so many times: “You are the Consequence of your own Cause” Take up this invitation and become a beautiful Cause with which you will create naturally a beautiful Consequence both individually as well as collectively.
This is my way of dreaming a beautiful world and LivingNâm gives me all the tools and inspiration to explore and live this way of living.
A beautiful start for exploring this is the reflectionweek organised about three times a year in Asharum Amonines. Join us in this beautiful adventure, explore with us and discover it yourself!
Thank You
September 14, 2021
Breath of Purification
THE HEALING BREATH OF NÂM
~by Yoginâm Abbahjí~
The task of human living is to tune the resonance of the frequency of experience into the resonance of the frequency of awareness.
Phenomena that we perceive with the sense organs and shape into consciousness by means of the mind, are expressions in space/time of a reality that transcends space/time.
By living, we entered with the permanent state of Being, the temporary state of Becoming, in order to carry Becoming back to Being. This is the act of creation.
We perform that task by means of the realisation, and the consequent attitude that expresses the certainty, that Becoming has never ceased to be Being and that Becoming is one of the infinite Faces of Being.
Being is ever unchanging Ultimate. Living is expressing Being. The Resonance of Living expresses the permanent Silence of Being. Resonance is Silence and Silence is Resonance.
In Becoming, Being is found by discovering the Silence within Resonance. Silence is the deepest nature of Resonance.
Everything in life resonates its frequency. The Breathing supports the Becoming as Experience. Breathing is the pivot around which experience shapes itself. Breath is the Vital Energy that is managed in Breathing.
Carrying with Breathing the sound of the Silence of Being is like an amalgamation of Experience and Awareness.
Breathing becomes a transforming agent for the Task of Living by creating the bridge between Becoming and Being; between experience and awareness. Such is the value of Breathing that is enriched by the Breath.
A lack in performing the Task of Living leads to disharmony and disease. It sets out a course in which Well-Being in Living, in dying and in post-living is obscured. Such a life produces detrimental Karma that becomes a burden.
Performing the Task of Living is like answering the Natural Call. It creates harmony and dissolves the discomfort of physical and mental disease. The Breath is the instrument that heals and liberates: the Jewel that cuts away all obstruction.
There are only two conditions to receiving this powerful instrument:
When these two conditions are not met, the Breath is not the Breath and it has no value as an instrument of healing and transformation.
The Breath can be performed in seclusion, during meditation, and during activity in busy surroundings. The Breath binds Being to Becoming and completes that which without it would remain incomplete.
The Breath represents a Direct Way. The ascending movement of its performance is met by a descending movement of its Grace. The Breath is a spiritual practice on its own. It can also be a valuable tool for intensifying the effect of other spiritual practices
Burnout - Are you asking yourself the right questions?
~ A text by Irma ten Brink inspired by the work of Yoginâm ~
Burnout - Are you asking yourself the right questions?
People who are in a burnout often ask themselves questions.
A frequently asked question is: how can I better guard my limits so that I don't get burned out?
However, from the LivingNâm vision this is not a helpful question at all.
A burnout is a signal that something has gone wrong or rather an invitation that a different course should be taken in life. It is a crisis that offers an opportunity. But then you have to ask the right questions! When you start to look at it from only the perspective of psychotherapeutic principles, you often do not get it.
Nowadays, younger and younger people are getting burnouts. Research has shown that the burnout frequently occurs already with students. The question then arises ‘how is this possible?'
Could this have something to do with the fact that people have lost direction? They have lost beneficial ethics and no longer find direction and meaning in their lives? Religions have disappeared for many people or no longer serve their purpose because of the changes in people due to evolution (globalisation, internet).
Today when people encounter problems, undergo crises, have challenges and questions, this is no longer viewed in the light of transcendence because we no longer know how to do that or even what transcendence is. Previously this was done through the myths of the religions and each religion offered possibilities in its own way. For example, through mythical gods and icons.
However, this no longer works for most modern people, but nothing has come to replace it. So how do we relate to the wholeness? THAT in which we share? And THAT of which the problems and crises, our challenges and our questions are just a part of?
Perhaps we no longer ask life questions because we no longer know to what or whom we can direct ourselves? Or have these questions become (more hidden) buried in a world of commerce, making money and short entertainment?
It is natural to ask yourself, why do I live? What is the meaning of my life? …and of life itself? Is there more ...? People have been asking these questions for centuries and the question will always remain relevant!
Why? Because these questions help us to enter into a relationship with the Resonance of Wholeness in which all and everything is shared.
I think it's not so much about the answers to the questions.
I think it is the asking of the questions itself that matters.
Because asking these questions will get you on a path and will challenge you to start searching. Have more questions and by questioning you go deeper, experiences will be more refined and above all it invites you to gradually open yourself to an answer that is so deep and refined that the search becomes a longing and can become the read thread for your whole lifetime or even more lives.
This search can become an intimate relationship with Totality and by that a guide because when the search is sincere, and you are not only looking for entertainment, you will find yourself being guided, sometimes even mysteriously, that may surprise you. And then…. you have found your inner compass.
If you would like to explore this with some support, check out our easy accessible course 'Discover Meditation'. Or one of our 'Weekends of Silence'.
Treat the other in the way you want to be treated yourself
~ A text by Irma ten Brink inspired by the work of Yoginâm ~
Letting go of yourself…
For about fourteen years I have been privileged to share my life with and take care of a very special horse. On the day I met him, I immediately decided to take up the responsibility of taking care of him, it felt like we belonged together. He knew it, I knew it. And from that moment on our relationship started to grow, and it grew stronger every day. Three years ago I had to let him go, but I still am picking the fruits of that beautiful relationship and I am grateful for what he has taught me over the years.
Two lessons I like to share with you since they have been a great help in my spiritual endeavor.
Now what does this have to do with the spiritual endeavour?
Those who are drawn to a serious spiritual endeavour are preparing themselves for the big ‘Letting Go’. By practicing letting go, again the right intent is here the driving force, you let go of your self-importance, your attachment to ideas, habitual programmes and beliefs. Becoming free in the true sense. This practice of Letting Go is what they also call ‘the letting go of yourself’ which of course does not mean that at the end you will go up in smoke :).
For about 14 years I have lived my life community wise. This means you live together with people, not necessarily of your choosing or liking, and you have to make the best of it.
The two lessons already learned from my horses were very helpful.
Along this way of living in a community I also discovered something else
It appeared to be impossible to learn to know the other. However observing the other, also that which I did not like, taught me much about myself. The power of the community is the possibility of learning to know yourself. Before you can let go of yourself you have to know yourself and transform yourself. This is a phase you cannot skip even though many people try :)! This because only through this transformation slowly you start to let go of yourself…
A dualistic world view is very detrimental
When you look at life from a dualistic world view you will start having problems with this. For example if you see the other as separate from yourself and you apply the first suggestion: ‘not to blame the other’ you will start blaming yourself for everything that goes wrong. This gives a feeling of failure and eventually depression (to avoid these feelings we rather blame the other).
Let’s try another worldview, why not?!
Just consider, like many have done before you, that everything is sharing in a wholeness, wholeness into infinity, ungraspable and impossible to explain or talk about but still, just assume that you are part of this unknown..…
Then the other person is also part of this, right? Into infinity means there is nothing you can put outside it…Not even your worst nightmares!
If so and you’re still with me here…then stop trying and embrace whatever is there. It is not wrong or anything it just merely is!
Then, from this worldview, you are that other as well is he is you…
So the well being of that other is just as important as yours…
And the problems of the other are also yours in a sense…
And if the other is you then naturally you will treat the other in the way you want to be treated yourself …
As soon as your worldview starts to shift to this infinitely wide worldview, your intentions are starting to become wider too.
Less selfish and more directed to the whole of which you are part.
For that you have to let go of the illusion that you are a separate being who has to defend himself, has to fight, has to gain power and wealth and other kind of selfish longings.
Just imagine…
Just imagine that more people would start having this worldview with intentions bigger then for personal gain, higher goals, less personal and more in line with what is good for the whole in which all is sharing in all, and then to make it even bigger: imagine all these people were mirroring each other, could we then be creating a whole other world?!
Just think about it and consider for a moment….
If it can happen in a small community, why could it not happen in a big world?
Now the big question: will you just let me go on dreaming or will you help me to make this dream come true?! What other plans do you have for your life? And the lives of your children?
The meaning of Life
According to the LivingNâm Vision the meaning of life is about transforming natural ignorance (the state in which you are born) into the realisation of Wisdom and Well-Being.
Take a moment and contemplate on that…
Ask yourself the question, what do I really want with my life? What am I longing for? What goal would I like to reach before I die?
If that answer would be Wisdom and Well-Being then I suggest to you not to waste any time and to go and search for that! Find out yourself how you can reach that in life!
Yoginâm's Magic Harp
Yoginâm 's Magic Harp
According to Yoginâm, people suffer from false identities: they say “I am a Muslim” or “I am a Christian” or “I am an Atheist” or “I am a Buddhist” but also “I am a feminist” or “I am socialist” or “I am gay” or “I am a liberal” or “I am an academic” or “I am a worker” or “I am a woman” or “I am a man”. There is an endless list of false identities that people claim for themselves.
There is nothing essentially wrong with that. It is however never your identity, it is a false identity. It is not self evident and therefore you have to defend it, or remind yourself of it, or express yourself as it. It becomes an occupation to uphold your false identity. This is what is also called Ego.
Such a false identity always involves Habitual Programmes of Perception. You try to create your world on the basis of your false identity. You will however often discover that the world does not always respond in the way you expect it to, on the basis of your false identity.
This creates stress, anxiety and disease. The more society collectively activates people, from an early age onward, to develop false identities, the greater the social and individual problems. This gives an income to psychiatrists, therapists and physicians. Again I think that there is nothing essentially wrong with that, it is the characteristic of society: ‘it makes the world go round’.
However there are people who increasingly doubt this state of affairs, and I believe that those who start to question it are also those who are meant to question it. They have a different task in life. There are ancient spiritual groups who assumed it was thanks to their daily ritual or prayer that the sun would rise. This is a metaphorical expression of the same. Those who question it are meant to be the Carriers that ‘carry’ the realisation onward, as a kind of continuum or continuous base tone that you can hear in oriental music, they provide the stable backbone around which the world weaves itself in endless variety.
The false identity is totally unimportant for such Carriers, who are involved in the search for what it means to be human. People often assume that such a spiritual search is for their benefit because it would lead them to become enlightened. This is an illusion. The real human nature is its transcendental nature, and that lies beyond the false identity, beyond the ego-illusion, beyond anything to become: in short beyond being an individual as an identification.
Of course you are an individual, but that is ‘the end of the line’. Your true nature is the incomprehensible oneness, or Abbah, of which this ego-illusion and its world is an expression. When you experience stress, anxiety and disease, there is something wrong with your relationship with the world, and that is invariably caused by the false identity that you impose on the world.
Letting go of the ego-illusion means letting go of your false identity. It does not matter whether you are straight or gay, black or white, a king or a pauper, religious or secular, follower of this or of that sect, or perform these or those meditation exercises. These are often actually the ropes that bind you to your false identity. What matters is living your true identity. It implies living in the identity of Abbah, living your transcendental nature.
Yoginâm developed LivingNâm lifestyle for the modern human being who lives in a globalising world that is developing towards cooperation and shared living. Power struggles and ‘tribal’ domination of one over the other are anachronistic to a global world. It does not matter who wins or who dominates: what matters is how we all survive.
LivingNâm is the pure expression of the primordial endeavour to live in the essence of living. It is not coloured by distinct cultural mythology or history. It is timeless and ageless. It is rooted in the complete realisation of being human as it unfolds by means of a spiritual phenomenological way of analysis.
Yoginâm's message is as simple as it is profound. It involves a shift away from the false identity to the true identity of human living. Becoming is replaced by being. Soul is replaced by Heart; the drop identity is replaced by a water identity, rationality and emotions are replaced by a silent and unmentionable awareness for which there are no words. This can be compared to the silent moment in which the Zen monk demonstrates to his master that he has grasped the meaning of a Koan.
HarpMood
Long ago there was a Sufi master who used an ancient string instrument during his teachings. Because music was frowned upon by a fundamentalist emir of the city, he was about to be judged by the court. During the court case he was told to present the evidence, therefore he started to play as a demonstration, but while he played, in response to the sounds of his instrument, everybody in the court fell into a deep sleep. Upon which the Sufi master took the chance to pick up his instrument and flee the city, escaping thereby his conviction.
Words are generally understood with the programmes of the false identity. Unless you are a trained musicologist, which in this sense is an obstacle, when you listen to music the false identity is circumvented. You cannot listen with your consciousness alone, nor with your emotions alone, really listening to music involves the ‘all’ of you. When the listener is lost, Abbah is listening to itself.
This is why the HarpMood of Yoginâm is a teaching, a healing and an enlightening experience that carries you on your way towards the realisation of your essence, and demonstrates to you the obstacles of the false identities. When these false identities cause severe disruption as expressed in stress, anxiety and disease, lifting you above the level of the false identity, or ego-illusion, allows space for a healing ‘adjustment’.
In the Indian Vedanta tradition listening to the master is called Satsang. Satsang is often a Q&A. It is a teaching by means of words. Because Yoginâm himself transcended to a level that is not bothered by the distortions of a false identity, he realised that the words in teaching are introducing another limitation that can in fact strengthen the false identity of the listeners when they try to understand the teaching, which means they try to shape what they hear into the framework of their understanding. When this understanding is dictated by a false identity it strengthens their false identity. Some people can become fundamentalists while hearing a talk about freedom and love.
Yoginâm's HarpMood is unique, he is not a musician and due to an accident in the past, his right hand is to a degree incapacitated. He is not a harpist, but he translates his inner state into sounds. His inner state is not that of the individual, it is entirely rooted in a limitless sharing. As a consequence the sounds are a reflection of the resonance of those who are present.
Once people know how to allow the flow of sounds to engulf them, they often experience that during the participation in HarpMood they receive answers to questions or for problems that were bothering them. This can be deep spiritual questions and ordinary problems of day-to-day life. Some people might even find answers to problems with the software of their computers. Others find relief in those physical and psychological diseases from which they were suffering.
The Harp of Yoginâm seems to be a panacea of magical proportions, but that is an illusion. There is nothing magical about it, it is entirely natural and self evident once one realises the nature of being human in its transcendental reality.
As long as a man considers himself as a man and a woman considers herself as a woman, just to mention something that seems to be self-evident, they cannot rise above the limitations of such a false identity. Only when they truly become human beings and rise above the false identity can they find the enlightenment of their essence, in the way Yin and Yang are united in Tai Chi. That which seems to be magical becomes entirely natural.
People derive great benefit from listening to Yoginâm's HarpMood both when performed live during occasions when he is present and by means of live broadcasts and recordings. Because it is wordless it is universal. Religion, secularity, culture, race or education are totally irrelevant. Yoginâm himself never planned or intended to turn to this way of helping people on their way, but was guided to it by a sequence of coincidences that in themselves are quite unusual.
The life of a spiritual master is a life of service. Yoginâm has expressed this in a saying:
I used to be a devotee of the master
And I became a master to the devotee
Then I transcended and illusions vanished
Now I am a devotee of the devotee
For Yoginâm granting people the benefit that is generated by his HarpMood is his service to those who are willing to receive it.
3rd August 2018
Self-analysis
~ A text by Yoginâm ~
People generally assume that self-analysis is a kind of psychotherapy that one applies to oneself. This is a very limited view and it demonstrates ignorance about the true state of what it means to be transcendental.
Sheikh Ahmadinejad al-'Alawî, a Sufi mystic of the 20th century, said that there is a hierarchy between Gnostics - the word he used to indicate what I usually call 'mystics' - those who have a knowledge of their Lord, and those who have a knowledge of themselves. Those who have a knowledge of themselves have a stronger Gnosis than those who have a knowledge of their Lord.
This may seem strange from a Western viewpoint that is used to seeing the divine or ultimate as something apart and superior to oneself. From a transcendental viewpoint, however, this statement is obvious.
You may have all kinds of ideas about the Ultimate: about Abbah, but whatever idea you may have, it is always a construction that is determined by the way your habitual programmes of perception work.
On the other hand, knowledge of yourself, which implies knowledge of your transcendental nature of which the divine is an integral part, approaches your Natural State more closely. There is nothing but Abbah, and all is Abbah, therefore you cannot separate Abbah from everything. You cannot put Abbah on a pedestal in order to observe it carefully or to study it properly.
Self-analysis in the true sense, should always start with the vertical dimension. Nothing can be known about the vertical dimensions, but they are always and by definition an elaboration of the main principle that there is nothing but Abbah and that everything in one or another way reflects Abbah.
From this general principle you step to the horizontal dimensions: those dimensions that constitute experience.
With the background of the vertical dimensions the horizontal dimensions gain a very different significance.
For instance you may suffer from a natural feeling of insecurity. It will be obvious that this is rooted in programmes that were formed in early childhood. You may understand these programmes, but it is very difficult to transcend these programmes without the awareness that they are contrary to the Natural State of our transcendental being.
In the transcending awareness all seemingly opposing currents are always transcended in the embracing unity of All is Abbah. This happens in the same way as Yin and Yang are united in Tai Chi, the circle itself. It can also be expressed as the all-embracing Love of the Divine.
What matters is, that in self-analysis a connection is established between our horizontal being that happens in the dimensions of experience and our vertical being that happens in the dimensions of awareness. Only the gnosis of ourselves in this sense is the strong gnosis that Sheikh Al-Alawî mentioned in his comparison.
It is obvious that self-analysis as a tool of the mystical path has a very different meaning than the common meaning. It implies a research into how the 'All is Abbah' is disclosed and unlocked in the daily experience of ordinary life.
In other words, it concentrates on the degree to which the horizontal experience is permeated by the vertical awareness. In this way alone self-analysis is a tool for the LivingNâm.
LivingNâm
~ A text by Yoginâm ~
LivingNâm is the endeavour to live in Attunement to Nâm
Nâm is the unknowable whole, one-ness, multi-ness, all-embracing-ness, before it is turned into, or conceived of as: a god, a pantheon of gods, a revelation, an ideology, a law, a concept or an ideal.
Nâm is what all philosophies, religions, spiritual and secular traditions are derived from, before it is subjected to human speculation and judgements about good and bad; beneficial and detrimental.
Nâm is the multiversal whole in which everybody and everything, knowable and unknowable, equally shares. It is the essence of being and of not-being. It is within the living of the atoms of the cells of your body. It is the very ‘substance’ of thoughts and emotions. Nâm drives you; moves you: in the flow of matter; in the flow of thoughts; in the flow of emotions and that of desires beliefs and ideals.
All cultures, spiritual and religious traditions are equally Nâm, though some are more polluted than others. Pollution diverts the course of living, and of life, away from the nature of Nâm and generates on individual and on social level Disease, instead of Well-Being.
LivingNâm is helpful in removing the pollution and in purifying the Attunement, by means of generating Attitudes and Behaviour that Affirm the nature of Nâm.
Living that affirms the nature of Nâm involves appropriate consciousness about the relationship between the ‘Sense of I’ and the ‘Sense of the World’. It involves recognising the Purpose of Life. It involves an adjustment of the sense of Identification from the emotion- controlled Soul to the awareness-determined Heart. It opens an active management of Experience that allows a transcendental Awareness to emerge, to develop and eventually to flourish in the Well-Being of unconditional happiness, joy and love.
In the awareness of Nâm the life between birth and death is a stage within a whole. Today you are what you were yesterday and after death you become what you were in living. This is the key of the LivingNâm
Individual Well-being leads to social Well-Being. The endeavour to reach optimal individual Attunement in Nâm reflects in the Whole
The Four Steps of LivingNâm
1: The Affirmation
Nâm is beyond concepts. The only way to relate to Nâm is by means of an unconditional Affirmation: a ‘Yes’ beyond the ‘yes and no’. There is neither a ‘something’ that is affirmed, nor an idea that is confirmed. The Affirmation is the movement by means of which individual opinions are transcended and unconditional peace is reached in what is and remains unknowable.
2: Abbah
Abbah is the endeavour to bring Nâm, in attention, to the centre stage of living. In Abbah, Nâm is translated into the human realm of living. It is conceived of as a Beloved that is both infinitely intimate and infinitely wide. This Beloved is the ultimate Ideal and the direction of living. It is the reciprocity of Lover and Beloved that enriches and fulfills.
3: Asha
Asha is the endeavour to gradually see all the appearances and circumstances of daily life as expressing Abbah. Asha becomes a realisation to the degree that Abbah becomes more alive as an orientation that is determined by the bond of Lover and Beloved. This gradual realisation transforms Attitudes and Behaviour in such a way that they, from sources of pollution, become a motor for realisation and fulfillment. The realisation of Asha is strengthened by the Attitudes of Loving-Kindness, Gratitude, Service and Respect.
4: Attunement
Attunement expresses the transcendental nature of living as Nâm. With the appropriate Attitudes and Behaviour in the realisation of Asha, you gradually realise that you are the creator of your life and by means of your participation in Nâm, of all that is. The LivingNâm makes you familiar with the regularity of the overall and supra-material resonance. All activities, thoughts, emotions, desires, beliefs and opinions resonate in a field in which they are reflecting and are reflected back. Attunement closes the circle of Nâm, by means of which individual human life shares in the cosmic dance of Abbah. It is by Attunement that the Purpose of life is performed.
20 October 2018
Becoming a Carrier of Nâm
~ 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?
An Encounter with Yoginâm
Because of the specific nature of such an encounter, which generally is not very well known in the Western tradition, clarification of a few concepts may be helpful for benefitting optimally from such an encounter.
Mystic and Spiritual Master
A mystic is somebody who expresses with his life a realisation of the essential nature of living. The particular spiritual tradition determines how this realisation is expressed. Some call it a close relationship to God, others call it the realisation of the deeper Self, others again call it the annihilation in the Beloved. The latter is the way Yoginâm prefers to express it. It would lead to confusion and misunderstanding when this ‘Beloved’ is assumed to be like the God of Western Christianity, as defined by dogma and theology.
The Essence is unknowable. The human mind emerges from this Essence and cannot know its origin. This Essence is the same for all that is imaginable and unimaginable. The infinite multi-verses and beyond, express this Essence, and so do we in the conscious and unconscious aspects of our being. We are transcendental in our entire being.
The spiritual endeavor is to realise this transcendental nature. For this purpose we need to overcome the Soul-Domination that keeps us prisoner in the Habitual Programmes of Perception, with which we create our familiar worldview and the habitual framework of Thinking and Emotion.
For the purpose of the spiritual endeavor relating to the Essence as the Beloved is profoundly helpful. It does not say anything about the Essence, because we cannot know it. It does however provide a direction for our endeavor. For evoking the Beloved, the unknowable Essence is referred to with the sound ‘Abbah’.
Abbah is a skillful means and a powerful vehicle for the Journey of the Return, as the spiritual endeavor is called LivingNâm. The Journey of the Return is the meaning for all living. For the human niche of living this implies the realisation of transcendence, which is the nature of the realisation of one’s life as Abbah.
The realisation of Abbah becomes the guidance of the mystic’s life. The highest form of mysticism is the expression of such a realisation in the ordinary circumstances of daily living. In this guidance some mystics attract people who are inspired by them. These are the Spiritual Masters. The unfortunate and confusing word ‘master’, does not indicate a degree of proficiency, it indicates the specific task of guiding people.
Because the course towards realisation is not a matter of studying texts or proficiency in exercises, the guidance of a spiritual master is different from that of a teacher of spirituality, religion or philosophy. In the Resonance of Abbah, Yoginâm pulls with his resonance those who open themselves for the possibility of being pulled. The Journey of the Return is an alchemy, for which the different elements need to be cured according to their nature.
Opening oneself for the possibility of being pulled is for most people the major obstacle and most of the initial stages of the Journey of the Return consist in overcoming the rational and emotional obstacles that resist openness.
HarpMood
Guiding people in their spiritual endeavour is not done by telling or teaching them a technique. It is more like planting seeds in soil. It is up to the seeker to take care of the seed and allow it to develop.
Some Spiritual Masters use Satsang for this purpose. This consists in listening to the spiritual master, with the hope that the listeners are carried beyond the meaning of the words. Other Spiritual Masters use Darshan which is guidance through demonstration. Seekers absorb the state of their master by being in his presence in a reverent way.
Yoginâm shares his guidance in the unique way of HarpMood. Participants in the HarpMood can absorb the state of Yoginâm by a specific Darshan, in which the communication is supported by sound. HarpMood is not music in the sense that it aims at an emotional response. In the HarpMood the Resonance of the participant is, in sound and by way of spiritual Attunement, transformed. One can participate in HarpMood individually as guidance and healing, and collectively. In the latter the sounds express the collective state of those present by way of sharing. The individual listener nevertheless receives the sound as an individual blessing and a healing, because it sprouts from the Oneness in which we collectively share, and inner obstacles are less ‘personal’ than one often assumes.
People who participate in HarpMood for the first time may be tempted to listen to it as music and subject it to their liking or disliking. This misses the point. Sometimes a-tonic sounds, that for some are not pleasant to the ear, carry great healing potentiality. Pleasant and harmonious sounds may also carry a very different message than supporting smooth meditation or evoking enjoyment. HarpMood is a Darshan of Sound and is a particularly powerful alchemy from which one benefits according to one’s ability to open oneself.
Blessing
Yoginâm regularly gives Blessing to visitors. Again the word ‘blessing’ has many different meanings which may be confusing. A Blessing by Yoginâm is like communicating vessels in physics. Like the water level in connecting vessels searches to reach the same level, in a Blessing the Resonance of Yoginâm is pulling the Resonance of those who are being blessed. In that pulling obstacles may be removed and specific guidance and healing may occur. After having received a Blessing, many experience a profound lasting influence in the way of dealing with daily life. This effect is not something that happens consciously because we cannot be conscious of the field of Resonance that is involved.
Japanese Saying
There is a Japanese saying that says: “You cannot see God with the eyes with which you look at a cow in the field.” This is the essence of spiritual endeavour. Rational thinking and soul dominated emotion are useless for this purpose. Being in the presence of mystics is universally accepted as having a very beneficial influence and can, with the appropriate attitude, be a powerful motor for the spiritual endeavour, which remains, and this should be stressed, always something that you can only do on your own.
28 November 2017