Course Meaningful Living - A participant speaks

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~ Translated from Dutch into English ~

Garden of Eden

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

The red thread

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

How do we deal with today's events?

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

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

The answers are within ourselves

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

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

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

Meditation and visualisation

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

Come and experience it too!

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

It is very pleasant to stay at this place in the Ardennes, if only because of that magical garden full of peace and quiet. The food is delicious, the rooms are sparkling clean, the atmosphere is silky soft. Irma, Annebeth, Katelijn and Louise lead the dance unobtrusively, each in their own rhythm and always at the right pace. The Asharum Amonines lives its own promise of love and devotion.

Participant of the course August 2024

 

Find out when a new course starts here

Introduction into the Breath as a powerful tool

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

Do you wonder?

An introduction into the Breath

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

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

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

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

The Breath is a tool of utmost simplicity.

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

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

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

Why use the Breath?

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

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

An important shift in attention ...

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

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

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

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

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

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

... ánd an important shift in identification!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

The alchemy of a relationship with a spiritual guide or yogi

A relationship beyond your imagination

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

June 27, 2022

A relationship beyond all of your imagination

There are many different kinds of relationships. In this blog I would like to share with you a very special and quite unknown one.

I am talking about the relationship between the Beloved and the lover, the Master and the devotee, the Guide and the student, many names are given to this very special relationship. Here I choose the one closest to the language of western people, the Spiritual Guide and the student.

From my perspective this is the most beautiful relationship and yet the least understood.

In the West we only know the relation with a teacher and we project that knowledge on the relationship with a Spiritual Guide thinking it is the same, also because in our culture we just don’t have a reference to anything else.

However this is not very helpful and you will miss all extra benefits of the relation with the Guide if you keep looking at him as a teacher. A teacher has knowledge about certain things, he tries to teach you knowledge. This can be very beautiful and valuable but a real Spiritual Guide does something else. Or perhaps he does nothing and he needs nothing and that is his quality. His Guidance relates more to his state, from which the student can benefit, than to teachings.

I consciously use capital letters indicating for example the Spiritual Guide while writing the student with small letters. This does not indicate a hierarchy or inequality but rather different states. And by making the distinction it is clear the students want to move towards a different state. Also it indicates the nature of the Guide as being an instrument.

How it started

From the very beginning, now almost twenty year ago, I was aware of a certain alchemy happening every time I was in the presence of my Spiritual Guide Yoginâm. This presence can be in silence, while he is playing the harp, during a conversation or just in passing by. But also from a distance, by thinking about him, doing the Breath, asking inwardly for help, by writing an email to him, reading a text from his hand or listening to a recording of a former HarpMood. Fulfilling practical tasks, buying him a present or giving a donation, the alchemy is always there. And the more attention you give to all these different aspects and actively use them the stronger the transformative alchemy becomes.

Now is the Spiritual Guide doing all this? Is he creating a certain alchemy, doing something magical? I didn't understand. Once I spoke about this topic with Yoginâm and he says he doesn’t do anything, he just responds to the question or wathever input as a normal daily activity.  So what happens then? What is causing this alchemy that can transform just about anything?

The alchemy

If you aspire such a relationship it is good to realise you will have to bring life into this relationship yourself, then the Guide will reflect you back. The Guide has no needs or wants, he is in service, you are the one who needs something, longs for something and the Guide can help you find it and help you heal what needs to be healed to become more open and more whole and with that closer to your natural state, your authenticity.

The Guide, who also went through the same process, is because of his specific state of being as a clear mirror in which you are projecting yourself. All the different inputs you give into the relationship are ways to project yourself in that mirror and in that happening the alchemy is there which transforms you, it is something that happens naturally in openness. Sometimes you can really experience it, more often however you have no idea about what is happening in different more unconscious levels, you just find yourself changed somehow later on.

Bit by bit your transformations are making you a different person. You start projecting less and less and the mirror which at first was perceived by you in a troubled way becomes more clear. Eventually, because the mirror becomes clear, you start to see the real you, that which you are in Essence.

This all happens in reflection with the Guide being the mirror. Only a Guide, because of his state, can provide such a mirror, this is his task and this is what distinguishes him from a teacher or a therapist.

A Spiritual Guide is not a therapist

If you have serious psychological problems you need to work on them first before you are ready for a Spiritual path. The Guide has another purpose and is not a therapist. Being with a Guide is helping you let go of programmes that stand in the way of openness, this usually happens beyond the conscious field of understanding, you cannot grasp it. So instead of working with the problems you will have to learn to move your attunement towards trust instead of understanding which is often a form of control. When there are serious psychological problems letting go of this control can be too much or even become problematic.

A Spiritual Guide is a necessity for everyone seriously advancing on a Spiritual Path

All serious spiritual traditions underline this: when advancing on a Spiritual Path you need a Spiritual Guide who knows the path, can Guide you through and around the challenges and pitfalls and who gives you something to hold on to when everything else you knew and understood falls away like detrimental habitual programmes and a sense of control. You will learn to trust beyond understanding and enter the present moment. Advancing on the path without this very specific Guidance can even be dangerous.

Now you might think you have your inner Guide and this is enough, I hear this often, we all think “I can do this alone, I should, I need, I can do it myself now” etcetera but this is actually a dangerous thought. It is true, the Spiritual Guide ultimately leads you towards a stronger connection with your inner Guide but you need a long time, healing and Guidance to learn to hear, listen and recognise the difference between your inner Guide and everything else happening in your inner world. How do you know the difference between inner Guidance and ego controlled voices and visions however uplifting they can be? Only by checking your inner Guidance with a real Spiritual Guide, present in this world, can you learn the difference. Without this check you can easily fool yourself and even hurt yourself and others. Especially because the Spiritual Realm is unknown to you.

Only making use of a Spiritual Guide provides this alchemy I spoke of above and you need this alchemy to heal and unveil what we call Heart, the silent void from which all creation comes. When Heart is covered with veils one can never listen to an inner Guide, it only hears the ego needs and wants, one is slave of one’s own liking and disliking.

Ego

Just to be clear about something, there is nothing wrong with ego. Without it we are not able to live. Spirituality however is aiming at transforming the ego in such a way that it serves the whole which includes ourselves.

It is natural to build ego while growing up and those who were not able, because of (traumatic) circumstances or genetic causes, to build a healthy ego, are not ready for the Spiritual Path. They first have to build a healthy ego, meaning being able to live an adult and responsible life without serious psychological or psychiatric problems. Of course everyone has issues that still need to be healed, there just needs to be a certain stability for such a serieus path.

What can the Spiritual Guide do to help you?

To optimally make use of this relationship the Guide, like Yoginâm is doing, can provide you with tools. These can be meditation tools and an example of life ethics and a helpful way of thinking and experiencing. But he can also give you a specific task or provide ways for you to work together with other students within a certain framework in which all serve a higher purpose, this is a perfect means to transform yourself.

Yoginâm created this possibility by starting first the Asharum in Amonines, Belgium and later Asharum Nijar in Spain. Both built up from the ground and through this building and working together we transform ourselves simply because a higher goal is served instead of personal needs like detrimental attachments and programmes.

Customs

Usually there are customs when being around the Spiritual Guide.

Probably these, for Westerners, strange looking customs often give the idea the Spiritual Guide is worshipped. However nothing could be less the case.

These customs and rituals are mere ways to invite for example a kind of humbleness, or as they also call it in some traditions, a spiritual poverty. This is a knowing in a deep and true sense that you don’t know anything, a state of surrendering to Totality (which we cannot know or understand).

Other customs invite gratefulness and respect. Such attitudes are needed to open yourself and to enter the open states of love, awe and wonder. Therefore the customs around the Spiritual Guide are always there to serve you and not the Guide. He is unattached to such customs, often they are even uncomfortable.

Even when the student serves the Guide with certain tasks, eventually he serves himself through the service which is the tool to transform oneself.

Also the Spiritual Guide does not or at least should not desire being worshipped because this would be in the way of true, pure Guidance. It would ripple the mirror let’s say and prevent the students eventually from discovering their true Essence.

It would actually make the student dependent instead of independent, in true Spirituality this dependency can never be the aim. It is the task of the Guide to prevent this from happening, especially with those who are programmed in their lives in such a way that they are actually longing for this dependency, a true Guide will recognise this and help the students stand on their own feet by helping them to transform these programmes. Ultimately the aim of the Guide is to help you find real inner freedom, meaning freed from attachments and disturbing programmes and to build a strong relationship with Totality in which all is sharing.

And perhaps this is what distinguishes a real Guide from profiteers who are out for power and prestige and who depend on the dependency of their students.

How do you know you found the right Spiritual Guide?

There is a wise saying from the old traditions: “It is not you who will find the Spiritual Guide, it is the Guide who will find you”. This is what happened to me too and I hear it all around me.

This means you can only prepare yourself, listen to life as best as possible and when you are ready the Guide will call you in his very mysterious and wondrous way. Then all you have to do is say yes and embrace it realising how lucky you are.

Many go to the East in search for the Guide but will not necessarily find him. I also wanted to go East, however life took me by the hand and sent me to America to prepare myself only to be found by him shortly after and very nearby in my own country.

How do I give form to this relationship?

Of course this is a very intimate question and also you have to discover your way, your form because no two relationships are the same. This is also because of my ego constellation, who I am and how my ego was formed. The programmes and genes that made me what I am today are unique. Consequently the relationship is unique as well.

What I can say is this; mostly I try to visit my spiritual Guide Yoginâm as often as possible, I serve as much as possible, regularly I ask for a private HarpMood, one of his beautiful means of sharing. Not because I have a problem but to connect with him and improve my attunement which is making me a better person, able to better serve the whole. When Guidance seems to come from within but there is doubt I double check with Yoginâm through email. When I go through something for which I feel a need to share I contact him, when there are (spiritual) questions I ask Yoginâm. When I have a difficult time my focus is on Yoginâm, I read and reread his books and texts, I go to retreats, in the beginning years I received regular healings, I am using his tools every day and so on….

Of course there is no right or wrong way, only your way. You have to find a way that works for you and there are as many ways as there are people.  I hope this inspires you to find your own way too.

The Turban

Once upon a time, there was a famous Sufi Master in Baghdad. He had the habit of taking a daily walk through the busiest part of the city with a huge turban on his head, which was covered all around with jewels and gold jewelry. He wore a large cloak with the most beautiful and expensive gold brocade.

He was a very famous Master. One day a spiritual seeker came from another city and wanted to meet him. He arrived at the Master’s house just as he was returning from his daily walk. As usual, he was fully decked out with the turban and cloak. This confused the visitor quite a bit.

That same evening after the meal, he was given the opportunity to speak to the Guide. He said, "I'm glad to see you, but I've always been under the impression that the Sufi Masters are pursuing a simple lifestyle. When I saw you walking today, I was confused. Surely this is not an appropriate behaviour for a Master!"

To this the Master replied, "You have come here because you want to learn from me. In your words, however, there is a condemnation of my behaviour. That is why I cannot be your Master and I ask you to leave tomorrow."

"But I don't want to send you away without helping you a little: Everyone who comes to a Master can benefit from the loving energy of the Master. Through the unconscious exchange of this loving energy, people change, often without realising it themselves."

"I wear this gaudy turban and this ostentatious cloak every day, so that as many people as possible on the street will see me and look at me. This allows as many people as possible to be touched by perhaps a little bit of the loving energy. And through all the little bits together, they very gradually become better people."

"If you condemn my behaviour, even if only a little bit, then you close the door and you cannot receive my loving energy. That's why I can’t take you on as a student."

 

Was this blog helpful for you? Then you might also like the blog 'living the natural state'.

My relationship with Yoginâm

How we create a beautiful world Retreat centre Asharum Amonines - Joyful Meetings

How we create a beautiful world

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~ 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

retraite centrum Asharum Amonines - het uiteindelijke perspectief - een visie op omgaan met moeilijke omstandigheden

Selective Silence

/in , /by

~ 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.

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