Searching for meaning in living is a joyful event!

Dates for 2024:

August 28 - September 1, 2024

March 5 - 9, 2025

May 28 - June 1, 2025

August 27 - 31, 2025

Checking in is possible between 3pm and 4pm. On the day of arrival the programme will start at 5pm and, on the day of departure, it ends at 12pm.

Welcome to the five-day intensive Meaningful Living

In Asharum Amonines we live as a small community a contemplative monastic life. Contemplation and reflection are part of our daily life. Where reflection and contemplation are our tools, our goal is to find meaning in our daily lives, even when things are difficult. We search for this meaning in the transcendence of our living.

Instead of reflecting on certain themes, these days we will focus on the perception from which we reflect; the perception from which we look at ourselves and the world in which we share.

We offer a different perspective that can give our reflections and contemplations a surprising outcome! It is this perspective that can lift everyday life to a meaningful life. It is this other way of looking at life that we would like to take with you during this beautiful intensive.

Programme in the morning

In the morning there is a joint programme, in which we use our imagination to investigate. There is a clear structure and you are creatively encouraged to widen your usual way of thinking. This can lead to a new look at the same reality that not only gives you back your own direction over your life, it can help you see everyday life again in its full beauty and in all its magic. This will bring you back into wonder as if you were looking again like through the eyes of a child.

Exploring the surroundings in the afternoon

In the afternoon you have time to enjoy the beautiful nature in the immediate vicinity of the Asharum, visit one of the beautiful ancient towns or continue your reflection on one of the dolmens and menhirs, experienced by many as power places, in Wéris.

Meditation throughout the day

In support of this, there is meditation three times a day. The inner silence that arises in this way makes it possible to reflect optimally from the most open position possible.

LivingNâm

During this week, we will introduce you to the way of LivingNâm.
Living Nâm is akin to well known traditions such as Buddhism, Sufism and Taoism. However, the language and tools are adapted to the modern western way of living.

Beyond duality

We will go beyond the duality that characterises our thinking. We will focus on the transcendental aspects of everyday life which we will explore and experience. For those who are open to this, this week can be the start of a new phase in your life where you are in charge.

LivingNâm is inspiring and surprisingly natural
LivingNâm opens to the natural attitude of awe and wonder
LivingNâm is practical and easily applicable in everyday life
LivingNâm contains the keys to transform your life into a life of beauty, which is in harmony with the whole
LivingNâm is peaceful recognition of what is, acceptance of what is to come and surrender to what stays
LivingNâm is the way to what you already are, the way back to your essence!

Because I had already participated in a number of weeks of Silence with this organisation, I somehow thought that it would resemble my previous experience. This was certainly true but there was an element in the course that was very surprising. It immediately brought me back to the silence and space I needed for myself.

It has made me come closer to myself again and I can definitely apply parts of the method and what I learned in the course in everyday life. Very valuable and I am very happy with this.

Participant 5-day intensive Meaningful Living March 2022

Your stay

You will stay in a private room based on full board (3 meals a day, coffee and tea)
If you are coming with a friend or partner, it is possible to share a room.

Online participation from the location Asharum Amonines

Since 2021 we also offer this programme online. In our experience, physical distance does not stand in the way of a valuable experience. Because the meditation room remains available in a constant online connection, the energy of the space can also be felt in your home and helps to create the right environment for a powerful experience.

The teachers

The teachers Irma ten Brink and, when enough participants, Hubertus Bahorie have for almost twenty years been exploring intensively living 'a way of life' based on the wisdom that everything shares in a wider whole. Their practice is especially focussed on how this wisdom is reflected and applied in daily life. Practicing living with this wisdom brings harmony, joy and lasting well-being.

Irma has been trying to apply this in a contemplative monastic life in Asharum Amonines for almost twenty years. Hubertus has lived this way of living for years in the middle of 'the world' in the Netherlands, as a teacher of philosophy and also while caring for his family. For several years now he has let go of this life and, together with his family, he lives in the Nâm retreat center in Nijar Spain.

Both are inspired and guided by the contemporary mystic Yoginâm.

Read in the blog Creating a Beautiful World about what life can become when we start practicing this way of living