Stervensbegeleiding

The Essence of Letting Go

/in , /by

The Essence of Letting Go

~ A text by Yoginâm ~

 

Many people believe that life is about acquiring something

Acquiring knowledge or acquiring possessions

Even about acquiring age, we celebrate our birthdays

As if we have acquired another year

There are many cultures in which age is unimportant

And birthdays are totally ignored

Acquisition is very different from need

A human culture that is based on need

Would be a very different culture

It would not know the manipulation of greed

That is so characteristic to the Western culture

Living is all we have and as such living is important

But ultimately living will come to an end

And everything will stop in a most drastic manner

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

The question is: are you prepared?

All spiritual endeavour is ultimately rooted

In dealing with the temporariness of life

In this sense people have discovered

Ultimate values that lie beyond that

To which one feels naturally attracted to in living

In a derived sense such ultimate values psychologically

Contribute greatly to the emergence of enviable states

Such as inner tranquility, contentment and Well Being

A drive for acquisition that is considered to be common

In Western society is a bad preparation for death

Death is not about getting something it is about letting go

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

They are in fact saying: learn how to let go

Before you are forced to let go

Which, when you are ill prepared could be problematic

Learning how to let go has a double advantage

It constitutes a good preparation for the unavoidable end to living

While at the same time it generates

Tranquility, contentment and Well Being in living

Something that cannot be achieved in acquisition

Because the drive for satisfaction in acquisition

Always involves a degree of dissatisfaction

And a lust for ever more

Because people are usually trained to hold opposite ideas

Letting go is generally not well understood

People often associate it with asceticism

Or with an uncaring, lethargic attitude to life

And with a disinterest in the aspects of living

Such ideas are indeed unnatural and often a trap

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

Letting go is something entirely different

Letting go implies to stop relating to life

As something that is of your own

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

And in living you are your universe of experience

Life however is more than experience

Your state of living is an integral whole within a whole

About which proportions and qualities we can have no idea

The letting go that I speak about refers to this whole

It is not restricted to how you deal with the world

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

Letting go is not something that you do

It is different from trying to overcome your attachments

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

Letting go is the ultimately refined expression of

What starts with the effort to overcoming ego attachments

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

In Letting Go everything always goes right

Because in Letting Go you listen first to the flow

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

When things go all right you are in the flow

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

These are the rights and wrongs of the flow

And not necessarily those of what you like and dislike

Or those of what you consider as important or not

Holding on to likes, dislikes, opinions and beliefs

Is usually an expression of attachment

Letting Go is not fatalistic in any way

It does not mean that you have to give up

Whenever you meet resistance

Your resistance may be part of the flow

While it may also be against the flow

Only open and non-attached listening

May provide an indication

Letting Go can only emerge when it is rooted in Trust

Without Trust there cannot be a Letting Go

There is horizontal trust and vertical trust

Horizontal trust is conditional

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

Vertical trust is unconditional

Vertical trust refers to Life in the transcendental sense

Life is geared to optimal living

In joining the optimal living of Life

The phenomenal living of experience

Will equally assume the characteristic of optimality

In the vertical trust there are no conditions

It is not a reflection of circumstances

Vertical Trust is an inner recognition

In Letting Go there is great Well Being

A Well Being that satisfaction cannot achieve

In Letting Go there is Awe and Wonder

In Letting Go all Life is continuously revealing

In Letting Go life becomes a revelation

In order for Letting Go to emerge

You first have to put effort in overcoming attachment

Mainly because such effort will guide you in the proper direction

This will lead you to an ultimate Letting Go

Only in Letting Go will attachments ultimately be overcome

Just trying to overcome your ego attachments

Does not necessarily lead to Letting Go

The necessary ingredient for Letting Go is Trust

When Symeon the New Theologian

Shouted out 1100 years ago

That his hands were God's hands

And that his feet were God's feet

Because he was a liberated theologian

He meant that his hands and feet

Were in the flow of life and that he was not

Imposing his will and his desires on that flow

He was expressing Letting Go

Letting Go is impossible without a profound Trust

It cannot be achieved without the unconditional vertical Trust

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

Ego can work on attachments as psychological objectives

For Letting Go there must be something to let go in

For this purpose all cultures cherish their gods and revelations

When gods become objects of attachment they become obstacles

And when religions and philosophies become concepts of identification

They lose all purpose and they merely lead astray

I therefore propose Abbah, undefined representing all

Without distinction embracing all transcendence

Abbah is Life and beyond

Abbah is ego and Life and beyond

Abbah is what it is and beyond what we could imagine

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

Abbah is the invitation to Trust

Abbah is ultimate consolation and ultimate joy and beyond

Abbah is the Well Being and beyond

You can only discover Abbah by Letting Go

Ego as Nafs should concentrate on overcoming attachments

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

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

25 September 2010

The alchemy of a relationship with a spiritual guide or yogi

A relationship beyond your imagination

/in , , /by

~ 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

What it means to become an Aspirant Carrier of Nâm

/in , /by

~  a text by Yoginâm ~

The Carriers of Nâm

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

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

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

The Breath

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

The Community of the Aspirant Carriers of Nâm

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

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

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

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

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

 

Retreat Centre Asharum Amonines - Breath

Breath of Purification

/in /by

THE HEALING BREATH OF NÂM

~by Yoginâm Abbahjí~

The task of human living is to tune the resonance of the frequency of experience into the resonance of the frequency of awareness.

Phenomena that we perceive with the sense organs and shape into consciousness by means of the mind, are expressions in space/time of a reality that transcends space/time.

By living, we entered with the permanent state of Being, the temporary state of Becoming, in order to carry Becoming back to Being. This is the act of creation.

We perform that task by means of the realisation, and the consequent attitude that expresses the certainty, that Becoming has never ceased to be Being and that Becoming is one of the infinite Faces of Being.

Being is ever unchanging Ultimate. Living is expressing Being. The Resonance of Living expresses the permanent Silence of Being. Resonance is Silence and Silence is Resonance.

In Becoming, Being is found by discovering the Silence within Resonance. Silence is the deepest nature of Resonance.

Everything in life resonates its frequency. The Breathing supports the Becoming as Experience. Breathing is the pivot around which experience shapes itself. Breath is the Vital Energy that is managed in Breathing.

Carrying with Breathing the sound of the Silence of Being is like an amalgamation of Experience and Awareness.

Breathing becomes a transforming agent for the Task of Living by creating the bridge between Becoming and Being; between experience and awareness. Such is the value of Breathing that is enriched by the Breath.

A lack in performing the Task of Living leads to disharmony and disease. It sets out a course in which Well-Being in Living, in dying and in post-living is obscured. Such a life produces detrimental Karma that becomes a burden.

Performing the Task of Living is like answering the Natural Call. It creates harmony and dissolves the discomfort of physical and mental disease. The Breath is the instrument that heals and liberates: the Jewel that cuts away all obstruction.

There are only two conditions to receiving this powerful instrument:

  1. The Breath should be received in a specific way and in a specific state of receptivity.
  2. The Breath should be kept as an inner secret and it should not be shared or communicated with or to others in writing and by voice.

When these two conditions are not met, the Breath is not the Breath and it has no value as an instrument of healing and transformation.

The Breath can be performed in seclusion, during meditation, and during activity in busy surroundings. The Breath binds Being to Becoming and completes that which without it would remain incomplete.

The Breath represents a Direct Way. The ascending movement of its performance is met by a descending movement of its Grace. The Breath is a spiritual practice on its own. It can also be a valuable tool for intensifying the effect of other spiritual practices

Asharum Amonines

Yoginâm's Magic Harp

/in /by

Yoginâm 's Magic Harp

According to Yoginâm, people suffer from false identities: they say “I am a Muslim” or “I am a Christian” or “I am an Atheist” or “I am a Buddhist” but also “I am a feminist” or “I am socialist” or “I am gay” or “I am a liberal” or “I am an academic” or “I am a worker” or “I am a woman” or “I am a man”. There is an endless list of false identities that people claim for themselves.

There is nothing essentially wrong with that. It is however never your identity, it is a false identity. It is not self evident and therefore you have to defend it, or remind yourself of it, or express yourself as it. It becomes an occupation to uphold your false identity. This is what is also called Ego.

Such a false identity always involves Habitual Programmes of Perception. You try to create your world on the basis of your false identity. You will however often discover that the world does not always respond in the way you expect it to, on the basis of your false identity.

This creates stress, anxiety and disease. The more society collectively activates people, from an early age onward, to develop false identities, the greater the social and individual problems. This gives an income to psychiatrists, therapists and physicians. Again I think that there is nothing essentially wrong with that, it is the characteristic of society: ‘it makes the world go round’.

However there are people who increasingly doubt this state of affairs, and I believe that those who start to question it are also those who are meant to question it. They have a different task in life. There are ancient spiritual groups who assumed it was thanks to their daily ritual or prayer that the sun would rise. This is a metaphorical expression of the same. Those who question it are meant to be the Carriers that ‘carry’ the realisation onward, as a kind of continuum or continuous base tone that you can hear in oriental music, they provide the stable backbone around which the world weaves itself in endless variety.

The false identity is totally unimportant for such Carriers, who are involved in the search for what it means to be human. People often assume that such a spiritual search is for their benefit because it would lead them to become enlightened. This is an illusion. The real human nature is its transcendental nature, and that lies beyond the false identity, beyond the ego-illusion, beyond anything to become: in short beyond being an individual as an identification.

Of course you are an individual, but that is ‘the end of the line’. Your true nature is the incomprehensible oneness, or Abbah, of which this ego-illusion and its world is an expression. When you experience stress, anxiety and disease, there is something wrong with your relationship with the world, and that is invariably caused by the false identity that you impose on the world.

Letting go of the ego-illusion means letting go of your false identity. It does not matter whether you are straight or gay, black or white, a king or a pauper, religious or secular, follower of this or of that sect, or perform these or those meditation exercises. These are often actually the ropes that bind you to your false identity. What matters is living your true identity. It implies living in the identity of Abbah, living your transcendental nature.

Yoginâm developed LivingNâm lifestyle for the modern human being who lives in a globalising world that is developing towards cooperation and shared living. Power struggles and ‘tribal’ domination of one over the other are anachronistic to a global world. It does not matter who wins or who dominates: what matters is how we all survive.

LivingNâm is the pure expression of the primordial endeavour to live in the essence of living. It is not coloured by distinct cultural mythology or history. It is timeless and ageless. It is rooted in the complete realisation of being human as it unfolds by means of a spiritual phenomenological way of analysis.

Yoginâm's message is as simple as it is profound. It involves a shift away from the false identity to the true identity of human living. Becoming is replaced by being. Soul is replaced by Heart; the drop identity is replaced by a water identity, rationality and emotions are replaced by a silent and unmentionable awareness for which there are no words. This can be compared to the silent moment in which the Zen monk demonstrates to his master that he has grasped the meaning of a Koan.

HarpMood

Long ago there was a Sufi master who used an ancient string instrument during his teachings. Because music was frowned upon by a fundamentalist emir of the city, he was about to be judged by the court. During the court case he was told to present the evidence, therefore he started to play as a demonstration, but while he played, in response to the sounds of his instrument, everybody in the court fell into a deep sleep. Upon which the Sufi master took the chance to pick up his instrument and flee the city, escaping thereby his conviction.

Words are generally understood with the programmes of the false identity. Unless you are a trained musicologist, which in this sense is an obstacle, when you listen to music the false identity is circumvented. You cannot listen with your consciousness alone, nor with your emotions alone, really listening to music involves the ‘all’ of you. When the listener is lost, Abbah is listening to itself.

This is why the HarpMood of Yoginâm is a teaching, a healing and an enlightening experience that carries you on your way towards the realisation of your essence, and demonstrates to you the obstacles of the false identities. When these false identities cause severe disruption as expressed in stress, anxiety and disease, lifting you above the level of the false identity, or ego-illusion, allows space for a healing ‘adjustment’.

In the Indian Vedanta tradition listening to the master is called Satsang. Satsang is often a Q&A. It is a teaching by means of words. Because Yoginâm himself transcended to a level that is not bothered by the distortions of a false identity, he realised that the words in teaching are introducing another limitation that can in fact strengthen the false identity of the listeners when they try to understand the teaching, which means they try to shape what they hear into the framework of their understanding. When this understanding is dictated by a false identity it strengthens their false identity. Some people can become fundamentalists while hearing a talk about freedom and love.

Yoginâm's HarpMood is unique, he is not a musician and due to an accident in the past, his right hand is to a degree incapacitated. He is not a harpist, but he translates his inner state into sounds. His inner state is not that of the individual, it is entirely rooted in a limitless sharing. As a consequence the sounds are a reflection of the resonance of those who are present.

Once people know how to allow the flow of sounds to engulf them, they often experience that during the participation in HarpMood they receive answers to questions or for problems that were bothering them. This can be deep spiritual questions and ordinary problems of day-to-day life. Some people might even find answers to problems with the software of their computers. Others find relief in those physical and psychological diseases from which they were suffering.

The Harp of Yoginâm seems to be a panacea of magical proportions, but that is an illusion. There is nothing magical about it, it is entirely natural and self evident once one realises the nature of being human in its transcendental reality.

As long as a man considers himself as a man and a woman considers herself as a woman, just to mention something that seems to be self-evident, they cannot rise above the limitations of such a false identity. Only when they truly become human beings and rise above the false identity can they find the enlightenment of their essence, in the way Yin and Yang are united in Tai Chi. That which seems to be magical becomes entirely natural.

People derive great benefit from listening to Yoginâm's HarpMood both when performed live during occasions when he is present and by means of live broadcasts and recordings. Because it is wordless it is universal. Religion, secularity, culture, race or education are totally irrelevant. Yoginâm himself never planned or intended to turn to this way of helping people on their way, but was guided to it by a sequence of coincidences that in themselves are quite unusual.

The life of a spiritual master is a life of service. Yoginâm has expressed this in a saying:

I used to be a devotee of the master
And I became a master to the devotee
Then I transcended and illusions vanished
Now I am a devotee of the devotee

For Yoginâm granting people the benefit that is generated by his HarpMood is his service to those who are willing to receive it.

3rd August 2018

Self-analysis

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~ A text by Yoginâm ~

 

People generally assume that self-analysis is a kind of psychotherapy that one applies to oneself. This is a very limited view and it demonstrates ignorance about the true state of what it means to be transcendental.

Sheikh Ahmadinejad al-'Alawî, a Sufi mystic of the 20th century, said that there is a hierarchy between Gnostics - the word he used to indicate what I usually call 'mystics' - those who have a knowledge of their Lord, and those who have a knowledge of themselves. Those who have a knowledge of themselves have a stronger Gnosis than those who have a knowledge of their Lord.

This may seem strange from a Western viewpoint that is used to seeing the divine or ultimate as something apart and superior to oneself. From a transcendental viewpoint, however, this statement is obvious.
You may have all kinds of ideas about the Ultimate: about Abbah, but whatever idea you may have, it is always a construction that is determined by the way your habitual programmes of perception work.

On the other hand, knowledge of yourself, which implies knowledge of your transcendental nature of which the divine is an integral part, approaches your Natural State more closely. There is nothing but Abbah, and all is Abbah, therefore you cannot separate Abbah from everything. You cannot put Abbah on a pedestal in order to observe it carefully or to study it properly.

Self-analysis in the true sense, should always start with the vertical dimension. Nothing can be known about the vertical dimensions, but they are always and by definition an elaboration of the main principle that there is nothing but Abbah and that everything in one or another way reflects Abbah.

From this general principle you step to the horizontal dimensions: those dimensions that constitute experience.
With the background of the vertical dimensions the horizontal dimensions gain a very different significance.

For instance you may suffer from a natural feeling of insecurity. It will be obvious that this is rooted in programmes that were formed in early childhood. You may understand these programmes, but it is very difficult to transcend these programmes without the awareness that they are contrary to the Natural State of our transcendental being.

In the transcending awareness all seemingly opposing currents are always transcended in the embracing unity of All is Abbah. This happens in the same way as Yin and Yang are united in Tai Chi, the circle itself. It can also be expressed as the all-embracing Love of the Divine.

What matters is, that in self-analysis a connection is established between our horizontal being that happens in the dimensions of experience and our vertical being that happens in the dimensions of awareness. Only the gnosis of ourselves in this sense is the strong gnosis that Sheikh Al-Alawî mentioned in his comparison.

It is obvious that self-analysis as a tool of the mystical path has a very different meaning than the common meaning. It implies a research into how the 'All is Abbah' is disclosed and unlocked in the daily experience of ordinary life.

In other words, it concentrates on the degree to which the horizontal experience is permeated by the vertical awareness. In this way alone self-analysis is a tool for the LivingNâm.

Retraite centrum blog - LivingNâm - Asharum Amonines

LivingNâm

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~ A text by Yoginâm  ~

LivingNâm is the endeavour to live in Attunement to Nâm

Nâm is the unknowable whole, one-ness, multi-ness, all-embracing-ness, before it is turned into, or conceived of as: a god, a pantheon of gods, a revelation, an ideology, a law, a concept or an ideal.

Nâm is what all philosophies, religions, spiritual and secular traditions are derived from, before it is subjected to human speculation and judgements about good and bad; beneficial and detrimental.

Nâm is the multiversal whole in which everybody and everything, knowable and unknowable, equally shares. It is the essence of being and of not-being. It is within the living of the atoms of the cells of your body. It is the very ‘substance’ of thoughts and emotions. Nâm drives you; moves you: in the flow of matter; in the flow of thoughts; in the flow of emotions and that of desires beliefs and ideals.

All cultures, spiritual and religious traditions are equally Nâm, though some are more polluted than others. Pollution diverts the course of living, and of life, away from the nature of Nâm and generates on individual and on social level Disease, instead of Well-Being.

LivingNâm is helpful in removing the pollution and in purifying the Attunement, by means of generating Attitudes and Behaviour that Affirm the nature of Nâm.

Living that affirms the nature of Nâm involves appropriate consciousness about the relationship between the ‘Sense of I’ and the ‘Sense of the World’. It involves recognising the Purpose of Life. It involves an adjustment of the sense of Identification from the emotion- controlled Soul to the awareness-determined Heart. It opens an active management of Experience that allows a transcendental Awareness to emerge, to develop and eventually to flourish in the Well-Being of unconditional happiness, joy and love.

In the awareness of Nâm the life between birth and death is a stage within a whole. Today you are what you were yesterday and after death you become what you were in living. This is the key of the LivingNâm

Individual Well-being leads to social Well-Being. The endeavour to reach optimal individual Attunement in Nâm reflects in the Whole

 

The Four Steps of LivingNâm

1: The Affirmation
Nâm is beyond concepts. The only way to relate to Nâm is by means of an unconditional Affirmation: a ‘Yes’ beyond the ‘yes and no’. There is neither a ‘something’ that is affirmed, nor an idea that is confirmed. The Affirmation is the movement by means of which individual opinions are transcended and unconditional peace is reached in what is and remains unknowable.

2: Abbah
Abbah is the endeavour to bring Nâm, in attention, to the centre stage of living. In Abbah, Nâm is translated into the human realm of living. It is conceived of as a Beloved that is both infinitely intimate and infinitely wide. This Beloved is the ultimate Ideal and the direction of living. It is the reciprocity of Lover and Beloved that enriches and fulfills.

3: Asha
Asha is the endeavour to gradually see all the appearances and circumstances of daily life as expressing Abbah. Asha becomes a realisation to the degree that Abbah becomes more alive as an orientation that is determined by the bond of Lover and Beloved. This gradual realisation transforms Attitudes and Behaviour in such a way that they, from sources of pollution, become a motor for realisation and fulfillment. The realisation of Asha is strengthened by the Attitudes of Loving-Kindness, Gratitude, Service and Respect.

4: Attunement
Attunement expresses the transcendental nature of living as Nâm. With the appropriate Attitudes and Behaviour in the realisation of Asha, you gradually realise that you are the creator of your life and by means of your participation in Nâm, of all that is. The LivingNâm makes you familiar with the regularity of the overall and supra-material resonance. All activities, thoughts, emotions, desires, beliefs and opinions resonate in a field in which they are reflecting and are reflected back. Attunement closes the circle of Nâm, by means of which individual human life shares in the cosmic dance of Abbah. It is by Attunement that the Purpose of life is performed.

20 October 2018

Retraite Centrum - An encounter with Yoginâm - Asharum Amonines

An Encounter with Yoginâm

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Because of the specific nature of such an encounter, which generally is not very well known in the Western tradition, clarification of a few concepts may be helpful for benefitting optimally from such an encounter.

Mystic and Spiritual Master
A mystic is somebody who expresses with his life a realisation of the essential nature of living. The particular spiritual tradition determines how this realisation is expressed. Some call it a close relationship to God, others call it the realisation of the deeper Self, others again call it the annihilation in the Beloved. The latter is the way Yoginâm prefers to express it. It would lead to confusion and misunderstanding when this ‘Beloved’ is assumed to be like the God of Western Christianity, as defined by dogma and theology.

The Essence is unknowable. The human mind emerges from this Essence and cannot know its origin. This Essence is the same for all that is imaginable and unimaginable. The infinite multi-verses and beyond, express this Essence, and so do we in the conscious and unconscious aspects of our being. We are transcendental in our entire being.

The spiritual endeavor is to realise this transcendental nature. For this purpose we need to overcome the Soul-Domination that keeps us prisoner in the Habitual Programmes of Perception, with which we create our familiar worldview and the habitual framework of Thinking and Emotion.

For the purpose of the spiritual endeavor relating to the Essence as the Beloved is profoundly helpful. It does not say anything about the Essence, because we cannot know it. It does however provide a direction for our endeavor. For evoking the Beloved, the unknowable Essence is referred to with the sound ‘Abbah’.

Abbah is a skillful means and a powerful vehicle for the Journey of the Return, as the spiritual endeavor is called LivingNâm. The Journey of the Return is the meaning for all living. For the human niche of living this implies the realisation of transcendence, which is the nature of the realisation of one’s life as Abbah.

The realisation of Abbah becomes the guidance of the mystic’s life. The highest form of mysticism is the expression of such a realisation in the ordinary circumstances of daily living. In this guidance some mystics attract people who are inspired by them. These are the Spiritual Masters. The unfortunate and confusing word ‘master’, does not indicate a degree of proficiency, it indicates the specific task of guiding people.

Because the course towards realisation is not a matter of studying texts or proficiency in exercises, the guidance of a spiritual master is different from that of a teacher of spirituality, religion or philosophy. In the Resonance of Abbah, Yoginâm pulls with his resonance those who open themselves for the possibility of being pulled. The Journey of the Return is an alchemy, for which the different elements need to be cured according to their nature.

Opening oneself for the possibility of being pulled is for most people the major obstacle and most of the initial stages of the Journey of the Return consist in overcoming the rational and emotional obstacles that resist openness.

 

HarpMood
Guiding people in their spiritual endeavour is not done by telling or teaching them a technique. It is more like planting seeds in soil. It is up to the seeker to take care of the seed and allow it to develop.

Some Spiritual Masters use Satsang for this purpose. This consists in listening to the spiritual master, with the hope that the listeners are carried beyond the meaning of the words. Other Spiritual Masters use Darshan which is guidance through demonstration. Seekers absorb the state of their master by being in his presence in a reverent way.

Yoginâm shares his guidance in the unique way of HarpMood. Participants in the HarpMood can absorb the state of Yoginâm by a specific Darshan, in which the communication is supported by sound. HarpMood is not music in the sense that it aims at an emotional response. In the HarpMood the Resonance of the participant is, in sound and by way of spiritual Attunement, transformed. One can participate in HarpMood individually as guidance and healing, and collectively. In the latter the sounds express the collective state of those present by way of sharing. The individual listener nevertheless receives the sound as an individual blessing and a healing, because it sprouts from the Oneness in which we collectively share, and inner obstacles are less ‘personal’ than one often assumes.

People who participate in HarpMood for the first time may be tempted to listen to it as music and subject it to their liking or disliking. This misses the point. Sometimes a-tonic sounds, that for some are not pleasant to the ear, carry great healing potentiality. Pleasant and harmonious sounds may also carry a very different message than supporting smooth meditation or evoking enjoyment. HarpMood is a Darshan of Sound and is a particularly powerful alchemy from which one benefits according to one’s ability to open oneself.

 

Blessing
Yoginâm regularly gives Blessing to visitors. Again the word ‘blessing’ has many different meanings which may be confusing. A Blessing by Yoginâm is like communicating vessels in physics. Like the water level in connecting vessels searches to reach the same level, in a Blessing the Resonance of Yoginâm is pulling the Resonance of those who are being blessed. In that pulling obstacles may be removed and specific guidance and healing may occur. After having received a Blessing, many experience a profound lasting influence in the way of dealing with daily life. This effect is not something that happens consciously because we cannot be conscious of the field of Resonance that is involved.

Japanese Saying
There is a Japanese saying that says: “You cannot see God with the eyes with which you look at a cow in the field.” This is the essence of spiritual endeavour. Rational thinking and soul dominated emotion are useless for this purpose. Being in the presence of mystics is universally accepted as having a very beneficial influence and can, with the appropriate attitude, be a powerful motor for the spiritual endeavour, which remains, and this should be stressed, always something that you can only do on your own.

28 November 2017

Silent meditation retreat in retreat centre Asharum AmoninesAsharum Amonines

The Benefit of Nâm Meditation and Nâm Silent Retreat

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~ 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

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Dealing with Death

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~ 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.