Body and Voice as Instruments and Messengers of Movement and Resonance in Asha and Abbah

Data: 14/15 – 17 of August

This course starts on Friday at twelve o’clock (arrival is possible the day before from three o’clock onwards) and finishes on Sunday at twelve o’clock (with the possibility to stay until after lunch)

Curriculum:

During this workshop we will free ourselves, others and our surroundings and think about whom we want to connect with in heart and spirit.

Heart bridges experience and awareness.

Movement and sounding sessions will guide us.

If we encounter suffering, we will question who it is, that is suffering.

If we encounter love, we will explore non-judgement and non-possession.

We will make time stand still and connect to the subtle forces of transformation.

It is a possible that archetypes will accompany us in shared experience and that the neutral vertical connection will keep us busy in our minds.

There will be time spend in nature (also by the river L’Aisne) with quiet guided movement sessions.

During your stay you may read texts of Yoginâm Abbahji of your own choice and possibly we will share extracts and quotes to connect our sounding, breathing and moving.

The main text source for this workshop will be ‘The Asha of Nâm’ by Yoginâm

A quote:

“Inherently together we realize a ‘Beyond-Mind’ transcendence. It is what lives behind the eyes and within the ears. It is for which consciousness is only an approximation. This transcendence as Abbah can best be imagined as an infinite potentiality which image is of course Asha. It does not say anything about Abbah. It is the Asha image that my programmes find meaningful.”

Summary of terms:

Asha is what happens to you as ‘I/World’ in experience in time. You are experience. There is no separation. And Abbah relates to your being in Awareness, which cannot be known, but is a certainty. It is all that is.

Timetable:

Once the workshop has started it will be integrated with the rhythm of life and mediations in the Asharum Amonines. You may help with small chores:

Daily living is movement and sound!

But don’t worry: If rest is what is needed most, you may always choose to take a step back to retreat or take a walk. This workshop hopefully touches upon your deepest needs and desires.

There are two communal meditations per day. One in the morning after breakfast and one in the evening before supper. You are free to join those or not.

“Meditation is a moment of ultimate peace. Therefore, Asha meditation and Breath meditation are pure meditations. The more we live in Awareness, the completer and more natural we are. We can make choices based on better grounds and for better consequences and we become better in facing and handling problems.” (quote by Yoginâm)

Book an extra day!

You also have the choice of an extra day or two of rest prior to the workshop and (silent-)retreat in the Asharum. This then must be arranged separately. I will already be there for some personal conversations.

An organic happening

In general, the curriculum will develop organically with a fixed timetable for the Movement and Sound sessions. They will take place every day between the first meditation and lunch. After lunch there will be time for a siesta. Later in the afternoon we will come together again and join in the second session. Then there will be a second meditation. After that there will be supper. On one of the evenings (most probably Saturday) we might plan a short night-time session, so we can experience working under a night sky. A very early morning session is an option too, to experience the time of the dawn while moving. This depends on how much rest is necessary to stay energized and relaxed.

Over myself as a facilitator:

This part of my practice concerns healing and restores harmony. It does not ‘fix’ anything. I grew up as a dancer, because my body seeks movement-adjustments. I had no choice in it. I used my voice and my hearing to help me understand others better and to shape inner images of sound, landscapes and forms. I was guided to bridge differences in memory, vocality and vocabulary. I was guided to connect to my emotions through inner sensations and through my sense-perceptions of my surrounding environment.

In the year 2002 I met my spiritual master Yoginâm Abbahji. And this niche has deepened, widened and became more intimate. My fears have left me.

In the Asharum Nijar, in its garden, facilities and guesthouse and in the Asharum Amonines all sorrow, accumulated exhaustion and pain always where subject to transformation.

For this particular workshop it is also good to keep the following in mind:

My own inner garden has always as well been connected to the sea and water. The natural water-source on the original piece of land of my grandparents and the natural salt thermal of my hometown, have had significance for replenishing my life-energy. I have had many dreams of Atlantis. I also give Watsu (Waterflow-massage based on Shiatsu and Early Movement Development) and I work as a psychotherapist and dance-movement therapist in Rotterdam.

Now it is winter of 2024. It is time for me to transform all my life’s experiences into giveaways. Not only part of them. All of them. Leave my struggle with drag behind. Receiving help from the earth, other sentient beings, artists and the heavens.

Note: This group-experience will carry anybody without former experience along easily. At the same time, you stay yourself responsible for your own well-being and your own needs. You are a guest, not a servant. But feeling connection in caring is often very joyful or otherwise transformative of traps of separation.