~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~
There is no absolute truth, but here is mine to share with you.
Very often I hear people say, wish, cry out: ”I just want to be myself”. “I want to be who I am”. And I know this feeling, this longing very well. I translate it now to a longing to ‘live my natural state’ which means to live the potential of what I am, to live that which I am meant to be living, to live what I was born to be my authentic self.
During this quest, which started getting a more concrete form about almost twenty years ago when I met Yoginâm, I discovered that wanting and wishing things were not so important. It is more about listening to what is meant to be.
And this listening is only possible when you are in the present moment with all your awareness. As long as you are busy with things that happened in the past or wishes, fears, expectations for the future you are not in the present moment.
But this is not as easy as it seems because we are often not aware that we are busy with our past or future. In the discovery of the transformation and letting go of past and future with all its fears, habitual programmes, illusions etc., lies the unveiling of the natural state.
We are transcendental beings, which means there are different levels of being which all influence our experience. We are experience, we are these different states all at the same time. These levels can also be very paradoxical towards each other, therefore there does not exist only one truth; it just depends from which level you approach a truth.
And all these levels are infinite, most levels are also unconscious. Some we can become conscious of to a certain depth, some will remain a mystery forever. But they do influence our lives and to acknowledge that is an important step as is the acknowledgement that comes with it that you don’t know anything at all and that you will never be able to grasp or understand it.
Life is a mystery, we don’t know where we come from, we don’t know where we are going but we can trust it, we can trust that it is as it should be and it is good precisely the way it is. We don’t have to understand in order to trust!
And maybe, if it is meant to be, we may become aware of this intimacy which is always very much here in the present moment. I experience it as a reminder of an undefinable essence from which we came, which is present now and where we will go back to after life.
For me this quest of finding my natural state is very much about becoming aware of these different levels and bringing them into harmony, an ongoing exploration.
And finally it is about letting go of the identification with I because as long as I is up front as most important, the natural state cannot be lived.
The most important instruments for this are silence and meditation techniques.
With the right meditation technique you don’t just dream away and have beautiful feelings which bring tranquility for that moment. Instead you use something, for example your breath, to concentrate on in order to stay in the present moment. The present moment is all the different levels together, not only the material level. If you can stay focused in the present moment everything that needs to be seen and to let go will come up by itself, you don’t have to do anything for that! When you try to do anything you are actually grasping it more instead of letting it go and you will never succeed.
By meditating every day for half an hour (also when you don’t want to, don’t feel like it, don’t have time etc.) you bit by bit start to let go of everything that obstructs you from finding the natural state.
In the beginning you can do this alone, you will discover and let go of disturbing habitual programmes which where created in the past and illusions projected in the future.
But there comes a moment that you can’t do it alone anymore, it can even become dangerous to do it alone. These habitual programmes and illusions are there for a reason; they support us and give us a (false) sense of security. However, if we let it go and don’t have anything else anymore to grasp, it can drive us mad at the end. Therefore we need a focus which is beyond the illusion of I and which can help us transform and open ourselves for a wider perception beyond ourselves.
For that I use the Breath of Heart, a personal sound which I received from Yoginâm as a tool which is connected to the breath. It helps me to focus on something that is not personal so that I can let go of my personal attachments. Also it helps me in moments when everything else seems to disappear and there is nothing else to hold on to anymore.
A mystic can help us to let go of ourselves in the end, to let go of this personal identification with an assumed existing I, to live our natural state and to trust and discover the infinity and the oneness we are all part of.
The Mystic say:
“The saint realizes water
The wise one realizes the ocean
The ignorant one realizes the drop”
By Yoginâm
From Fragments of Voice
Again here we have this paradox. In some states this I is there and we can’t go around it. We have to look left and right before we cross a busy street. But just realize: this is only one state!
Becoming aware, in other states, that no I exists, brings a totally different quality to life. Only letting go of the personal identification with I will help to unveil the natural state. And letting go of I and finding back the natural state on this level brings peace, joy and contentment on other levels. Realizing this on one level is the starting point of starting to live this natural state on another more day-to-day practical level. And there it will be tested by life with all the circumstances and challenges that life will give you in order to strengthen and fine-tune yourself. You start living your potential!
The ethics of resonance
“The resonance of today creates the experience of tomorrow”
We are part of an indescribable oneness. Once we discover we are part of this oneness, life becomes an art.
Everything we think, everything we feel, everything we want, dream, long and wish for, everything we do has a resonance. With this resonance we are creating our world.
This is very subtle and most of it is unconscious. For example by learning as a little child that you are not good enough, you start screaming this resonance into the world “I am not good enough”. With this resonance you are creating your world and you create circumstances which confirm that.
But also liking to watch the suffering of others on television, in aggressive movies, computer games etc. creates the need for that. So by liking and watching it, very subtly you are creating a world that answers to your needs. So the world has people who suffer because others need this in order to feel good!
By becoming more aware of this, observing ourselves, stalking ourselves, we can start creating a kind of world that brings joy, well-being, harmony and bliss for all.
This is a continuous possibility, challenge and responsibility for those who are aware to create a world in peace and to help others to become aware too.
“We are the creators of our entire universe with its infinite possibilities”.
More awareness means also automatically more responsibility which we should all take very seriously in order for the world to find peace. Once you realize we are one, we can’t leave someone else with a problem. If we can solve it or can do something for some one else we have to do it.
This oneness is not possible to describe. Yet mystics have written about it for centuries and present-day science also acknowledges how everything is connected to everything else.
When we start becoming more aware of this oneness, accepting that we will never know what this really means, we start to realize that everything is Love in the widest and deepest sense. And also, this cannot be described, understood or known in any way. And yet this is the most important aspect of life!
When I did my Vision Quest in Death Valley Arizona I became more aware of this connectedness. Because I could not understand, describe or grasp my experiences on the threshold of the quest I received a song in the last night of the Vision Quest; the night you cry out to receive a vision for your life.
This song, which came as close as possible to my experience in this solo quest went as following:
I am the land
I am the sky
I am the water
I am the fire
I am the animals
I am the people
I am I am
In this realisation it is just not possible to hurt anyone anymore.
But because most people have hidden demons inside themselves who are strong and can come up under certain circumstances, they can hurt each other. Also being unconscious can cause pain and suffering to others.
Therefore, while you are on this path of transforming yourself and letting go of these inner demons like jealousy, greed etc. there is one basic principle to always live up to:
“Never intentionally hurt, harm or damage anyone or anything”
Becoming Vegan
~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~
The Asharum has now been cooking vegan for more than two years.
Time to look back!
We became vegan quite suddenly and it was an inspirational boost.
We dived into it, looking for recipes and how to transform our meals into vegan meals since especially our breakfast and supper where leaning on cheese and yoghurt.
Replacing these products with fake cheese and fake yoghurt was not an option because we wanted to offer tasty and healthy meals so we needed other menus.
Hearing back from our clients we think we succeeded. A few of our B&B comments:
“Nice stay! We are not vegan but enjoyed the oatmeal and fresh bread/hummus for breakfast”.
“Delicious and exciting vegan cooking”.
Last week someone said:”I did not know vegan could be so tasty”, and we hear that a lot!
Healthy cooking:
Staying healthy on a vegan diet is also a challenge. Many guests are inspired to become vegan after they have visited us. Wonderful to see how our cooking is an inspiration to others! And yes we do feel it is a much more healthy way of living!
However we always tell them not just to stop eating animal products but to do some study first to avoid vitamin deficiencies later. Also everybody has a different body which needs different care, so find out what is good for you!
For example vitamin B12 and D3 are easily missed out when you stop the animal products. On the internet a lot can be found, not all can be trusted! Some say vitamin B12 can be found in green vegetables and seaweeds, others say these are analogies which prevent the body from taking in the real B12, the one your body needs. Some take supplements to solve this. Some do blood tests but it seems that B12 is needed in the blood for the right acid-base balance so the body will take it first from the other organs before it runs out in the blood. When your blood test shows you have a shortage of B12 then you have already been short of it for a long time and you are much too late. If it says you don’t have short that can be misleading too. Naturopathics have other, more refined ways to test your vitamin and mineral levels. Find out what is best for you!
A very informative book we use a lot and which is also based on scientific research is ‘Becoming Vegan’ by Brenda Davis, RD, and Vesanto Melina, MS, RD’.
There are plans to come with a workshop this year about healthy vegan cooking. More about that later!
Ethics of Resonance
The first reason for us to become vegan is the resonance. Everything we do, feel, believe, think has a resonance and with this resonance we create our world. This is a very subtle and indirect science but also very clear and simple. And the golden rule to this is: ”never do any harm or hurt to anyone or anything”.
When respecting this rule it makes no sense at all to contribute to the bio industry in which animals are brutally hurt (calves are directly after birth separated from their mother because the milk should go to us, a heartbreaking fact it is not?) and living their life for one purpose only; to be killed and eaten.
Yoginâm wrote a lot about this topic since ethics is at the base of spirituality. Without ethics there is no spirituality. For those who like to read more about this we recommend his books.
Yoginâm about Attunement
Upcoming period during the visit of Yoginâm Frédéric in Asharum Amonines he will be talking about ‘Living in Attunement as the Principle, the Purpose and the Practice of the Yoga of Nâm’.
For those who live in Attunement ethics of resonance is a natural thing. Ethics in this way is not something you must do because it is a law, it is something you want to do, it is a natural movement.
About Death and Life
~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~
Death in a spiritual perspective
From a spiritual perspective, the most important moment in life is the moment we die. Life is meant as a preparation for this moment, in order that we may die in a harmonious and enlightened way. Therefore, not wanting to think and reflect on this moment, which will come for everyone, is from a spiritual point of view unwise and you are missing the most important point in your life.
After death
Have you ever been blessed to be with someone who just died without being taken by emotions? Then you must have noticed another quality present, a kind of quietness, as if time really stopped for a moment while outside the room it just continued.
No one knows what will happen after death, also we do not know how we will react at the moment of our own death. In life we can have brave ideas about it, but only at the supreme moment, when death is (suddenly) there, will we really know and experience if we are ready for it.
An important realisation
An important spiritual experience to do with life and death happened to me about two decades ago. It just happened while sitting in my living-room warming myself to the central heating. Suddenly I saw it with my waking eyes but in a different state, and it was really overwhelming:
Life and death are one and the same! There is no difference!
Yes your body will die, but something else, that cannot be described, just stays unchanged.
This realisation made something very clear:
If in life your focus has been only on your body and the material life, death approaching you can be very scary. The same is true for exclusive focus on the mental life and emotions. Because it seems so definitive, you believe everything stops.
But life is not just your body; and not just the house you live in and the car you drive. That is only a very small part of it.
So if, when you are dying, your focus in life has been on that which is unchanging, you will know - by a certainty we shall call Nâm - nothing will change. Death is then just another path you take.
A very different perspective, is it not?
About letting go
Realising that Life and Death are one and the same is one important step. Learning and practicing letting go is another important step and something to do for the rest of your life.
It is a way of living that transforms your life and brings harmony, inner peace and
Well-Being in living and post-living.
Living a more spiritual, transcendental life means living a life of letting go. Learning and practicing this in daily life will help you to let go of everything once the moment of death approaches you.
This daily practice is what counts because we can have beautiful ideas about dying, thinking life will go on once we die, but when the moment is there we still have to do it - we have to let go of the life we became used to and got attached to and we usually have no idea how deep and subtle these attachments are. Since we have a very strong identification with our life, as if we own it, letting go is not necessarily easy, although it can be. For example, letting go of a body we have become so used to, feelings and ideas that we consider as important truths and as ‘ours’, and of course those who stay behind and who might not yet be ready to let you go, is not so easy.
If we have not practiced letting go already in life, we may have a very serious problem and death becomes a struggle once we die. It is not for nothing that the mystics say:
“You have to die before you die”
Being close to death
Some people are confronted with death by close friends and family who died (sometimes too young from their perspective) and yes that can be a very sad thing because you will have to go on without the other, which can, I understand, be very hard. So far I am very blessed with my loved ones still alive. Death came to me in other, many different, ways and I was lucky to have the opportunity to discover more about it from different perspectives like being close to death in an accident myself.
Death has been an important part of my life in a very positive way which is why I am very enthusiastic to share this with others since it is not a sad, difficult and hard thing, it can be beauty in its purest form.
As a young child I used to say:
'What is the worst thing that can happen to you?'
And the own answer was:
'To die, but that is not such a bad thing after all, so there is nothing to be afraid of'.
Embrace life:
I believe that these different experiences with death, looking into it and not trying to walk away from it, really helped me to embrace life more. It brought a much deeper quality to life and knowing on other levels that death and life are one, helps me to attune to this every day again and to recognise it as more important than the material, mental or emotional world. I am very thankful to have discovered a life of letting go because it brings joy, happiness, fulfilment, meaning and well-being!
The workshops:
During the workshops we look closer into what stays after death.
For example we investigate our own death and the principles of letting go. Also we focus on helping the deceased to cross over to another state.
The Benefit of Nâm Meditation and Nâm Silent Retreat
~ A text by Yoginâm ~
Psychological and Spiritual benefits
Many people draw great psychological benefit from regular meditation and from attending silent retreats. However
psychological benefit is not the ultimate purpose of these instruments. For thousands of years they have been used by people for exploring what it means to be human and for searching guidance in finding, in a very practical sense, the purpose of living.
You could meditate for hours every day without drawing spiritual benefit from it. You could sincerely enjoy a silent retreat but, upon return to the ‘ordinary’ world, again be confronted with the same stress, discomfort and anxieties. While at the same time the benefit of meditation and silent retreat could easily be profound and lasting.
In order to draw the greatest benefit from meditation and silent retreat, both psychologically and spiritually, they should
correspond as much as possible with the Purpose of Life in which all members of the human species equally share.
The problem with much of the spiritual activities nowadays is that they are directed at obtaining individual well-being and therefore not spiritual in the real sense. Universally all spiritual endeavour, from ancient times onward, has always been characterised by falling in transcendental self.
The promoted aim of the consumer society is to reach the best possible satisfaction. Of course lasting satisfaction does not exist and needs to be replenished by more buying, more workshops, more methods and more courses.
The Bliss of the Return
The ideal of the spiritual endeavour is not satisfaction. It is a realisation and general application of the Drop-Ocean-Water triangle. Of course this is a metaphor but it is a very illustrative one. Although you may see yourself as an independent drop and act, think, feel and desire accordingly, in reality you are an integral part of an ocean. You flow in the ocean and together with all creatures and environments, you constitute its currents and its waves. But beyond this sharing of all drops together, the ocean and drops are nothing other than water. In the realisation of water there are no drops and there is no ocean. This is the Bliss of the Return.
The Purpose of Living
This is not just a nice idea. The Purpose of Human Living is reaching, by means of this very living that we do, the Water realisation. A drop could describe the drop, it could also imagine what the ocean would be like, but water is beyond that. This is Nâm: the affirmation of Certainty.
In order to reach this ‘water’ realisation you do not need a religion or a belief. It emerges in the very living that you do, provided that you observe the right attunement. which implies attitudes and behaviour. Nâm is not something apart from life, like a philosophy. It is the living itself and most of all it is the constant reminder that this living is expressing infinity itself.
Nâm
Nâm is natural, it is what you are. Meditation and Silent Retreats are occasions in which you open the door for its guidance and its brilliance. By using very simple instruments for inner orientation and attunement during the Nâm silent retreat and meditation, you will be guided away from the trap of ego satisfaction so that you can draw full spiritual benefit from your endeavour.
Never forget you are sharing in the Certainty of Nâm, while the stage between birth and death is a phase of living with a particular purpose. Only fulfilling this purpose generates an unconditional state of Well-Being that applies to living, to dying and to post living.
Act of Service
You are sharing in all, your spiritual endeavour is an act of service to a whole, that is so all-embracing that it is unknowable for us. What we do know is that all that lives shares equally in it.
Therefore always perform your meditation and observe a silent retreat as an act of service to all and everything. When you do, and you will find out for yourself, this is the deep joy that your direction in Nâm generates.
By Yoginâm
Living the natural state
~ A text by Irma ten Brink ~
There is no absolute truth, but here is mine to share with you.
Very often I hear people say, wish, cry out: ”I just want to be myself”. “I want to be who I am”. And I know this feeling, this longing very well. I translate it now to a longing to ‘live my natural state’ which means to live the potential of what I am, to live that which I am meant to be living, to live what I was born to be my authentic self.
During this quest, which started getting a more concrete form about almost twenty years ago when I met Yoginâm, I discovered that wanting and wishing things were not so important. It is more about listening to what is meant to be.
And this listening is only possible when you are in the present moment with all your awareness. As long as you are busy with things that happened in the past or wishes, fears, expectations for the future you are not in the present moment.
But this is not as easy as it seems because we are often not aware that we are busy with our past or future. In the discovery of the transformation and letting go of past and future with all its fears, habitual programmes, illusions etc., lies the unveiling of the natural state.
We are transcendental beings, which means there are different levels of being which all influence our experience. We are experience, we are these different states all at the same time. These levels can also be very paradoxical towards each other, therefore there does not exist only one truth; it just depends from which level you approach a truth.
And all these levels are infinite, most levels are also unconscious. Some we can become conscious of to a certain depth, some will remain a mystery forever. But they do influence our lives and to acknowledge that is an important step as is the acknowledgement that comes with it that you don’t know anything at all and that you will never be able to grasp or understand it.
Life is a mystery, we don’t know where we come from, we don’t know where we are going but we can trust it, we can trust that it is as it should be and it is good precisely the way it is. We don’t have to understand in order to trust!
And maybe, if it is meant to be, we may become aware of this intimacy which is always very much here in the present moment. I experience it as a reminder of an undefinable essence from which we came, which is present now and where we will go back to after life.
For me this quest of finding my natural state is very much about becoming aware of these different levels and bringing them into harmony, an ongoing exploration.
And finally it is about letting go of the identification with I because as long as I is up front as most important, the natural state cannot be lived.
The most important instruments for this are silence and meditation techniques.
With the right meditation technique you don’t just dream away and have beautiful feelings which bring tranquility for that moment. Instead you use something, for example your breath, to concentrate on in order to stay in the present moment. The present moment is all the different levels together, not only the material level. If you can stay focused in the present moment everything that needs to be seen and to let go will come up by itself, you don’t have to do anything for that! When you try to do anything you are actually grasping it more instead of letting it go and you will never succeed.
By meditating every day for half an hour (also when you don’t want to, don’t feel like it, don’t have time etc.) you bit by bit start to let go of everything that obstructs you from finding the natural state.
In the beginning you can do this alone, you will discover and let go of disturbing habitual programmes which where created in the past and illusions projected in the future.
But there comes a moment that you can’t do it alone anymore, it can even become dangerous to do it alone. These habitual programmes and illusions are there for a reason; they support us and give us a (false) sense of security. However, if we let it go and don’t have anything else anymore to grasp, it can drive us mad at the end. Therefore we need a focus which is beyond the illusion of I and which can help us transform and open ourselves for a wider perception beyond ourselves.
For that I use the Breath of Heart, a personal sound which I received from Yoginâm as a tool which is connected to the breath. It helps me to focus on something that is not personal so that I can let go of my personal attachments. Also it helps me in moments when everything else seems to disappear and there is nothing else to hold on to anymore.
A mystic can help us to let go of ourselves in the end, to let go of this personal identification with an assumed existing I, to live our natural state and to trust and discover the infinity and the oneness we are all part of.
The Mystic say:
“The saint realizes water
The wise one realizes the ocean
The ignorant one realizes the drop”
By Yoginâm
From Fragments of Voice
Again here we have this paradox. In some states this I is there and we can’t go around it. We have to look left and right before we cross a busy street. But just realize: this is only one state!
Becoming aware, in other states, that no I exists, brings a totally different quality to life. Only letting go of the personal identification with I will help to unveil the natural state. And letting go of I and finding back the natural state on this level brings peace, joy and contentment on other levels. Realizing this on one level is the starting point of starting to live this natural state on another more day-to-day practical level. And there it will be tested by life with all the circumstances and challenges that life will give you in order to strengthen and fine-tune yourself. You start living your potential!
The ethics of resonance
“The resonance of today creates the experience of tomorrow”
We are part of an indescribable oneness. Once we discover we are part of this oneness, life becomes an art.
Everything we think, everything we feel, everything we want, dream, long and wish for, everything we do has a resonance. With this resonance we are creating our world.
This is very subtle and most of it is unconscious. For example by learning as a little child that you are not good enough, you start screaming this resonance into the world “I am not good enough”. With this resonance you are creating your world and you create circumstances which confirm that.
But also liking to watch the suffering of others on television, in aggressive movies, computer games etc. creates the need for that. So by liking and watching it, very subtly you are creating a world that answers to your needs. So the world has people who suffer because others need this in order to feel good!
By becoming more aware of this, observing ourselves, stalking ourselves, we can start creating a kind of world that brings joy, well-being, harmony and bliss for all.
This is a continuous possibility, challenge and responsibility for those who are aware to create a world in peace and to help others to become aware too.
“We are the creators of our entire universe with its infinite possibilities”.
More awareness means also automatically more responsibility which we should all take very seriously in order for the world to find peace. Once you realize we are one, we can’t leave someone else with a problem. If we can solve it or can do something for some one else we have to do it.
This oneness is not possible to describe. Yet mystics have written about it for centuries and present-day science also acknowledges how everything is connected to everything else.
When we start becoming more aware of this oneness, accepting that we will never know what this really means, we start to realize that everything is Love in the widest and deepest sense. And also, this cannot be described, understood or known in any way. And yet this is the most important aspect of life!
When I did my Vision Quest in Death Valley Arizona I became more aware of this connectedness. Because I could not understand, describe or grasp my experiences on the threshold of the quest I received a song in the last night of the Vision Quest; the night you cry out to receive a vision for your life.
This song, which came as close as possible to my experience in this solo quest went as following:
I am the land
I am the sky
I am the water
I am the fire
I am the animals
I am the people
I am I am
In this realisation it is just not possible to hurt anyone anymore.
But because most people have hidden demons inside themselves who are strong and can come up under certain circumstances, they can hurt each other. Also being unconscious can cause pain and suffering to others.
Therefore, while you are on this path of transforming yourself and letting go of these inner demons like jealousy, greed etc. there is one basic principle to always live up to:
“Never intentionally hurt, harm or damage anyone or anything”
Dealing with Death
~ A text by Yoginâm ~
Death is always the natural end to living
Whenever it happens and in whatever way
Dying is distinct from the circumstances of dying
That is why the sufi's can advise you
To learn to die before you die because
Then you will not die when you die
From the perspective of a oneness of all
In the sense of the quantum unified field
Or like the all embracing and unknowable Dao
Which is identical to what I call Abbah
Life is like a ripple on the surface of the ocean
It comes up and it recedes
Life is an interlude in unchanging permanence
But it is only so from the perspective of living
From the perspective of unchanging permanence
There is no life there is only unchanging permanence
Death is something that takes place
Only from the perspective of living
Something that had been recognised as living
Is no longer living which does not mean
That it has disappeared or vanished
It means only that it is no longer in the state of living
The state of material everyday life
Is one of of many simultaneous states of being
Most of which we are not aware of
Living is one of the many states
And the death of living is like a radio station
That goes off the air
Because living is alive from the perspective of living
Death has always been considered as a great mystery
As its very nature is contrary to living
Every culture has designed ways to deal with it
Thereby two basic orientation are adopted
Dealing with it from a material orientation and
Dealing with it from a spiritual orientation
In the material orientation death is seen
From the perspective of material life
Therefore the concentration is on what is lost
It is the end of something, a reason for sadness
Death is considered from the viewpoint of the bereaved
Who are grieving because they lost someone
Although the Christian religion would suggest otherwise
In the Western tradition one generally chooses
For the material orientation
The spiritual orientation is very different
Herein the concentration is on what is permanent
It is the voyage of the diseased
Which is the focus of attention
Death is seen as a disintegration of living
In which some aspect disappear but others continue
Sometimes a soul is assumed to reincarnate
Or is living on in another kind of existence
Which can be an entirely unknown way of being
Which type of orientation is central in a way of thinking
Is reflected in the various funeral and cremation customs
In the different cultures of the world
Regardless of whether one is religiously inclined or not
Of course the various customs are profoundly relative
Because the process of dying is the same regardless of culture
It is the same disintegration and the same transformation
In my opinion the spiritual orientation is closest
To the energetic reality of human living
The material orientation is a diversion from it
Which, because it is contrary to the energetic reality
Neither helps the diseased nor the bereaved
At death the body disintegrates; life withdraws from it
No attention should be paid to the body
Once it is clear that the diseased has indeed withdrawn from it
The custom to place the body, exposed and made up
At the centre of attention may hamper the withdrawal process
And it will create detrimental soul associations in the bereaved
It is better to wrap the body in a shroud
In preparation for disposal in the earth or in fire
The attire of the body should be other worldly
As it is no longer part of the human world
Expressing great grief is hampering transcendence
The soul currents that accompany such expression
Are of a nature that the diseased can share in
Many traditional cultures create an unpleasant atmosphere
Around death with wailing and screaming
The use of black colours also had this meaning originally
This is meant to chase the diseased away
Thereby helping the transcendence that
Is taking place anyway.
In the spiritual orientation
The main concern and attention
During the rituals and in customs
Is the state of the diseased
The bereaved ones are primarily concerned
With assisting the diseased
With the transformation that is taking place
In the material orientation
The concentration is on the bereaved
Who grief for their loss
The dominant atmosphere
Is one of sadness and remembrance
Proper understanding of the process of dying
Helps the living with preparing
For the unavoidable end to living
It helps the bereaved in dealing with loss
Dying is ultimate letting go
Preparation for dying implies that
One gets accustomed to the idea of letting go
To the idea that nothing is permanent
And that living is a temporary state
That all concerns one has in life
Are relative and exclusively linked
To the state of living
Dying is natural
Not knowing how to deal with death
Is the same as not knowing
How to deal with living
While learning to live is similar
As learning to die
When a dear one dies
The sense of loss is natural
Non-acceptance in anger or protracted grief
Is an expression of ignorance
The only way to deal with death
Is by transcending the experience
By placing it within the context
Of the wider sense of a natural course
This can be by considering it as a divine will
The Will of God, the Course of Life
The Law of the Cosmos, Asha
And similar considerations
Such considerations are a true consolation
For the bereaved in dealing with loss
At the same time they help the diseased
In the process of transformation
Because they correspond to what is actually
Happening during dying
The limitations of the living state fall away
And one gradually orients oneself
Within the much wider framework
Of being in an afterlife state
Dying is as natural as falling asleep
Dying always happens at the right time
Whatever the circumstances and
Whatever the age that one dies
Some people live long and others live short
This depends on how one exists
In Body, Mind, Soul and Spirit
Life is shaping Soul by the transformation
Of experience from phenomena
Into timeless emotion and memory
All live at the human state of living
Contributes to shaping Soul
Both collectively and as each individual life
Everything takes place in order to shape Soul
Duration of life is determined by the specific
Niche that each life represents
The duration is only relevant from
The limited perspective of living
From the perspective of all-embracing one
There is no duration, no dying young or old
In one, life is a cloud that emerges
In a blue sky: an appearance without substance
It shapes itself and it evaporates
Or it solidifies as rain and will eventually evaporate
In living there are no laws
There are merely observable regularities
For specific situations and conditions
Human beings benefit themselves
When they join in the regularities
Observing the energetic content
Of the process of dying is of great benefit
Both for the diseased as well as for the bereaved
Considering the above, everybody
Will be able to discover ways
In which ritual and customs
Can attune to these energetic regularities
With regard to the actual situation of
When a death occurs, I strongly advice
To hold a wake which supports the diseased
And thereby as it demonstrates a universal significance
Of dying it also supports the bereaved.
By Yoginâm
* Abbah is a revealed sound. It is not a name because there is nothing that can be named. It is not defined as something. The sound when expressed relates to an infinite essence that is the core of being. This essence emerges with the realisation that human rationality and the human need for understanding veils it, as understanding itself is of Abbah. We can understand the ‘how’ of living. The ‘that’ of living is beyond understanding because the understanding itself is the movement of living. The sound Abbah indicates that mystery.
Selective Silence
~ A text by Yoginâm ~
Listening to music in a hall, together with other people, is a very different experience than listening to the same music at home. This is not because of the auditive quality of the music, because recordings may have a better quality than a live concert. Something else is happening. In the same way people gather in order to hear a speaker, whereas the message could just as easily be distributed on paper or in mail.
The Causal Link
What is happening in gatherings is the activation of the causal link. The causal link is what I have also called Soul. It is that unconscious dimension of our being that determines what we are. It determines the way we experience ourselves and in reflection experience life. Establishing a causal link is stronger and as memory more durable, than absorbing some information from paper.
Silence in a group
In human communication the causal connection is the only thing that matters. In the way the apes are fleeing each other in company, we talk. The content of what is talked about is secondary to the talking itself. The talking is a mean through which a causal connection is established or re-established. A silence in a group of total strangers does not feel uncomfortable because there is no expectation of a causal sharing. Neither does silence with people you know very well feel uncomfortable because when the causal sharing is strong it does not need to be reaffirmed. Silence in a group of acquaintances is however often awkward because there is a natural inclination to affirm the causal sharing.
Causal sharing and talking
When you explore LivingNâm you may come to a point in which you become aware of the crucial importance of the causal dimension for what you are and consequently for how you experience the world. When you do so, you will start realizing in what way a lot of talking is actually disturbing your causal sharing.
Degeneration to a comical activity
Some people who live together may want to explore silence, this however often degenerates in the comical activity of writing notes to each and even sometimes entering extensive written discussions. Such choices generate the wrong resonance and they activate arrogance and ego-eccentricity.
The university of knowing yourself
In exploring LivingNâm, knowing yourself is not a matter of discovering all your peculiarities, characteristics and hidden programs. Such knowing are the preliminary steps, it is like the primary school. The university of knowing yourself is the gradual awareness that there is nothing to know about yourself, and that in true knowing this self annihilates. From searching for many answers to your single question of knowing yourself, you will arrive at realizing that there is only one single answer to all your possible questions. This is called wisdom.
Living in Silence
Living in Silence is a powerful tool. It is however only appropriate for hermits and for instance for specific retreats in which you observe silence in a group for a specific period of time. When Living in Silence is applied during a retreat in which you interrupt ordinary living it has a great transforming capacity, particularly because afterwards you have to resume your ordinary life again.
Selective Silence
For those who are seriously involved in the search for Transcendental, spiritual Living, and for those who involve themselves in LivingNâm, I want to introduce the powerful instrument of Selective Silence.
The Principle of Selective Silence
The principle of Selective Silence is rooted in the nature of experience and in the pivotal importance of the causal, or Soul, dimension for how we experience. Our life, our death and our post living is determined by the way we share in the causal dimension of being. I have often compared this causal dimension to a garden of which we are the gardener. The causal dimension 'happens' outside our conscious field, we can only tend to it in an indirect manner.
The purpose of Selective Silence
We manage the garden of our causal dimension by managing our resonance. Involving in too much senseless verbal communication is disturbing our causal connection because talking is an activity of the Mind dimension, consequently talking keeps us attuned to the conscious mind dimension. This may confuse and even disturb our causal sharing.
When in the search for Transcendental, Spiritual Living we are exploring the true nature of experience we will gradually become aware of our own transcendental nature in which our causal sharing is much more important than our conscious activities. The gardening of our causal garden becomes paramount, only then will the realization in Abbah* emerge. Selective Silence is both a consequence of increased awareness and it is an instrument for activating the awareness of the true nature of our being.
The Practice of Selective Silence
The practice of Selective Silence is to employ silence in an active way. In no way should Selective Silence be linked to a rejection, an escape or on imposing your choice of silence on others, because that would generate the wrong resonance and it would make Selective Silence useless.
Selective Silence is a choice whether or not to restrict verbal communication. Verbal communication may at times be necessary in order to share relevant information. It may also be something that is socially required, when you are out shopping or when you meet acquaintances. The choice to restrict verbal communication is made in the realization that causal communication is much more essential and at times much more effective than verbal communication. In Selective Silence you do not reject the other, nor do you ignore the other, the opposite is true. In Selective Silence you enter in a closer communication with the other than in verbal communication, because you actively open yourself to the causal dimension in which you both intimately share. Selective Silence is therefore a more intense way of communication than verbal communication.
Selective Silence is valuable when it is rooted in a choice to restrict verbal communication to what is necessary. For instance you may acknowledge something that somebody says in a friendly way with a few words. You could also enter a conversation in which you feel the need to share your viewpoint on the matter, while it does not really matter for the actual outcome, particularly when it is only an exchange of opinions. Expressing your opinions about matters with which you are not directly linked in activity, is always and exclusively a demonstration of 'self-embellishment' . Self-embellishment is obscuring our causal sharing because it is centered in the 'I' illusion.
Chit-chat is always an exchange of opinions. It is generally a discussion about likes and dislikes. Once you realize in what way this affects your causal sharing, it should be a natural decision to stop wasting your time, even if it seem to provide satisfaction. Serving and sharing are natural attributes to people who realize their transcendental nature. Your serving and sharing is obstructed by verbal communication and is only carried by means of the causal component. In Selective Silence you merely concentrate on the causal component and you restrict the verbal aspects to a minimum.
Selective Silence is a choice that you make
Selective Silence cannot be imposed on others, you cannot forbid others to talk with you. This is not what Selective Silence is about. This would generate the wrong resonance. Selective Silence is a choice that you make. It is your choice about how to react to the communication of others. It is your choice whether you enter in a long discussion about your points of view or whether you acknowledge the other's point of view with a friendly nod. You should realize that Selective Silence is useless as a tool when in any way it involves unfriendliness or disregard of others. Selective Silence is not about less communication it is about better and more intense communication.
Complete and Selective Silence
A group of people who live together or who share some time together may decide to observe complete silence for a particular period of time. Such a complete silence is selective in the way that it is based on an agreement that all the participants agree upon beforehand.
* Abbah is a revealed sound. It is not a name because there is nothing that can be named. It is not defined as something. The sound when expressed relates to an infinite essence that is the core of being. This essence emerges with the realization that human rationality and the human need for understanding veils it, as understanding itself is of Abbah. We can understand the ‘how’ of living. The ‘that’ of living is beyond understanding because the understanding itself is the movement of living. The sound Abbah indicates that mystery.
Method of the Nâm Retreat
~ A text by Yoginâm ~
Observing regular periods of silence can be very beneficial. The modern lifestyle with its flow of impulses often allows for little space to wind down. And yet such winding down is very important for the system. Without it the arranging and digesting of both the conscious and unconscious impulses remains incomplete. This may result in stress, anxiety, burnout, loss of sense, depression and a host of other problems.
Nam Silent Retreats are a solution. However, sudden silence for a number of days can also be very stressful, particularly when you are not used to ‘doing nothing’. Meditation is just another word for doing nothing. Because doing nothing can be difficult, people have the tendency to fill this space with all kinds of ‘exercises’, in which the beneficial aspect of the meditation may get lost.
It is natural that, whenever you sit down and close your eyes for meditation, the mind takes
over. It may run wild with all kinds of ideas and projects. Consequently there is no meditation, there is no unwinding and instead of becoming tranquil you may become tired and stressed. Your living environment makes a difference in whether you easily reach a state of meditation or not. Just because most people nowadays live in an environment that is heavily charged with impulses, a period of silence offers a relief. For this reason the Nâm Retreat has been developed. Such a retreat lasts five to ten days.
The Framework of the Nâm Retreat
Certainty:
A worldview that is rooted in certainty is the seed of Well-Being. True certainty, which should not be confused with the surrogate certainties of rational thinking and emotion, en-riches not only your individual life but by means of its resonance, it influences human living as a whole. In this way individual certainty can contribute to a better world.
The certainty, that transcends rationality and emotion, is called Nâm. All spiritual traditions in the word find their origin in the quest for Nâm. They may differ in methods, imaginary and language but their objective is the same: The transcendence of the human being from the limited state toward the Nâm of your True Nature. This requires a knowing of oneself that transcends considerations of rational and emotional analysis.
The Three A'S:
In the LivingNâm the Three A's are an instrument to establish a worldview and a way of behaviour that can contribute to a better world.
1. Abbah: the unknowable Essence of All
2. Asha: the face of Abbah, the natural course of life
3. Attunement: the attuning to the resonance of Abbah in Asha.
These three principles are interconnected. Asha is the visibility of Abbah. Though Abbah is ultimately unknowable, it becomes knowable for us in Asha. Attunement is the way how to deal with Asha in such a way that behaviour and attitudes are conforming to the ultimate Abbah. Abbah, Asha and Attunement are simultaneous. You cannot speak about Abbah without Attunement. Consequently we have to measure our attitudes and behaviour, which means Attunement, to Asha and Abbah.
LivingNâm is exemplified in the Nâm Manifesto:
LivingNâm is the culmination of the ancient tradition in which the realisation of Abbah, Asha and Attunement leads to a way of living that generates Well-being for the individual and for the environment of living as a whole.
In the Certainty that Abbah is One and Asha demonstrates the interconnected, in which individual activities, thoughts, emotions, beliefs, desires and opinions, by means of their resonance, affect the entirety of the interconnected Oneness, we chose to live according to this manifesto for the purpose of improvement of life on this planet, for the quality of which we, as human beings, are fully responsible.
The Instruments of Nâm Retreat
In the atmosphere that is created by means of the instruments, the established habitual programmes are shaken so that a new balance can be established. This makes a Nâm Retreat special and very different from other retreats.
Dynamic Meditation
Meditation is not just a matter of sitting down on the floor with crossed legs. Meditation is a state of mind that can be maintained in a sitting position but also while walking or reclining.
During a Nâm Retreat there are five daily periods of sitting in meditation communally. The periods are relatively short and last between 30 and 45 minutes. Such relative short periods of sitting meditation are preferred, because for many people lengthy periods of sitting meditation can be stressful. The Dynamic Meditation implies that you carry the state of meditation during the rest of the day, while walking, sitting or lying down. In this way the entire period of the retreat can become a continuous meditation, with various intensities.
Breath
The Breath is a double sound. The double sound is synchronised with breathing in and out. The Breath is an ancient psychological instrument that is used in various spiritual traditions. Its purpose is to reach a one-pointed attention. It is natural for the mind to wander as soon at it is left to itself. You cannot ‘stop the mind’. The only thing you can do is to replace the continuous monologue of thoughts by something else.
There are various mantras that have the same effect by forcing the mind to concentrate on the content of the phrase that is repeated. The Breath is different. Concentrating on a meaning of a mantra is still a mind activity. In the Breath the sound has no meaning in a rational sense; its value is trans-rational, and it invites a state of one-pointed attention that is beneficial for a spiritual unfolding and openness that is in accordance with the transcendental nature of life.
The Breath is a major instrument in a Nâm Retreat.
In order for the Breath to have its psychological effect, it should have been received in a particular manner, and it should be guarded in such a way that it is not shared with others. This would disrupt the essential intimacy which is essential for its beneficial effect.
Of course once having received the Breath, its usefulness is not limited to the period of the retreat. For many it becomes a valuable lifelong friend and a support in periods of stress and anxiety.
Those who have not yet had the opportunity to receive the Breath will receive some instructions for Breathing that can be used instead.
Asha Meditation
Asha meditation is helpful for shifting quickly between the state of attention that is required for ordinary living and the state of meditation. Asha meditation is particularly useful when the time that you have for meditation is limited.
The effect of rhythm on the brain is well-known and widely documented. In Asha meditation this effect of rhythm is used for bringing the mind into a different resonance. In practice it means that the period reserved for meditation is divided in two parts. During the first part a regular rhythm is maintained, usually with a rattle, as a preparation for the state of silence in meditation proper. Asha meditation has proved to be very effective and particularly helpful for people who lead a busy life.
The Jewel
The Jewel is an instrument that is directly linked to the realisation of the transcendental nature of living. Dynamic Meditation, Breath and Asha Meditation are primarily psychological instruments, the Jewel introduces a spiritual aspect in the Nâm Retreat, which is also a psychology, but of a different level.
All life is transcendental in the sense that we are primarily spiritual beings with a material
expression in the human body and the human universe of perception. Ignoring our transcendental nature is the same as ignoring the essence of our lives. Such ignorance has a consequence and the state of the modern world with its stress and anxiety is a symptom of this ignorance. Realising your transcendental nature is a psychological necessity for reaching harmony, inner peace and well-being. As long as you ignore it, you are prone to confusion by following detrimental directions. This is not the place to describe in full detail the transcendental nature of living, suffice it however to indicate that we are primarily sharing in an unknowable all-embracing oneness that lies beyond any rational consideration. We cannot know it because we are of it and our knowing itself is one of its infinite expressions.
That which is unknowable is nevertheless very real and intimate. We are of it and therefore we cannot have a relationship with it. We cannot communicate with it; all we can do is open ourselves for its realisation. For the purpose of opening ourselves for our essential essence and as a skillful means, this unknowable wholeness is indicated by the sound ‘Abbah’. This sound is not defined. There are languages in which the sound ‘Abbah’ refers to a meaning, however this is incidental and not relevant for the way in which it is used here.
There are two psychological states that contribute to the gradual realisation of Abbah. The first is the state that is indicated as Sovereignty. This state is expressed in the guiding attitude of Awe and Wonder. The next state is indicated as Guidance. This is expressed as let-ting go, spiritual poverty and the openness of non-knowing. Beyond these states and outside, as in concentric circles, there is Abbah, which no longer has a circumference.
The Jewel expresses the essential nature of the spiritual unfolding. Though many have the tendency to search inside for their spiritual nature, the transcendental nature of life indicates that rather than towards inside, the movement of attention should be directed outside.
Ultimately this may lead to the realisation of the permanence of the infinite all-embracing of our nature, in respect of which the daily ‘I’-concerns lose much of their relevance.
The repetition of the Jewel creates a mind programme with which you can gradually find this
direction. Rationally this may be difficult to grasp. The Jewel is an instrument that may lead to the discovery that you posses other ways of knowing, ways that are more real, enlightening, and certain, because they are rooted in that which is the permanence of our being.
Recitation
The recitation of specific texts is an ancient and proven method for unfolding a direction. The
spiritual endeavour is a psychological process which is not rational and which involves the
unlocking of your supra-rational abilities of realisation.
Understanding a theory may be helpful for realisation as a start, but eventually it is only in living that a realisation is actually realised. The effort of understanding stops a flow in order to consider it. During recitation on the other hand, there is no space for considering what you are reading, you have to go with the flow. This has proven to be very beneficial for a supra-rational realisation, in which other instruments than the rational mind are involved.
During a Nâm Silent Retreat the book ‘Oh Abbah: songs for Lovers’ is used for recitation. The book itself was written as a recitation, which means it emerged in a continuous flow over a weekend of retreat. The different chants are like windows directed toward the same unknowable Abbah, which is ever so wide and ever so close-by.
Recitation leads you through a great number of different states that all find their resolution in the continuous repetition of ‘Oh Abbah’. This has a profound and lasting effect. Recitation opens pathways in the brain that can become highly relevant, also in everyday life situations.
Attunements
The attunements are an instrument that places each of the daily periods of meditation in a particular framework. This instrument has always been used by monastic communities of various spiritual traditions. The attunements of the Nâm Retreat combine the effect of the Asha Meditation with that of the Recitation. The Attunements give a shape to each section of the days of the Nâm Retreat.
Silence
The most obvious instrument of the Nâm Retreat is the silence. I order to be effective the silence should be total. This implies that not only you abstain from speaking, but of any kind of communication, even with the eyes , with the other participants. Apart from the book ‘Oh Abbah’, it is strongly advised not to use phones, tablets, computers or read books during the period of the Nâm Retreat because the distraction that they provide will interfere with the beneficial psychological effect of the Nâm Retreat.
HarpMood
During a Nâm Retreat in which Yoginâm is present during the morning meditation and the five o'clock meditation there is a so-called HarpMood. A HarpMood is like a Satsang by Sound. A HarpMood is a spiritual communication in which Yoginâm communicates with the participants on a supra-rational level. This has the effect that many of the blockages that you may experience during the retreat become dissolved. The effect of the HarpMood is very much determined by the specific need that you may have at that moment. HarpMood is a unique and very valuable element. During Nâm Retreats in which Yoginâm is not present the benefit of the HarpMood will be obtained through a recording.
Nâm Manifesto
1. I will unceasingly strive to incorporate compassion for all and everything in my uni-verse of perception
2. I will abstain from intentionally inflicting avoidable harm, hurt and damage on any-one or anything in my universe of perception.
3. I will apply practical wisdom, that results from the realisation of the transcendental nature of life, to everyday life situations.
4. I will nurture an attitude of loving-kindness and respect for all human beings, animals, and for the environment as a whole.
5. I will cultivate beauty and joy as the fundamental attitude in everyday life situations.
6. I will respect all religions and cultures equally, fostering mutual understanding in a multicultural global society, based on cooperation and interdependency of interests.
7. I will strive unceasingly to reach an eco-sustainable way of living and of production of energy and goods in respect for the planet in whose essence I share.