July in Amonines

Asharum Amonines Journal June

 

Nâm Retreat of Silence

The Nâm Retreat of Silence in June was very well received by the participants as well as by our other guest who didn’t participate in the retreat, but was very happy to be given the support of this concentrated form of silence during her stay.

 

 

It was wonderful to be able to go again, after several years, on a Retreat of Silence in the context of- and attunement in Nâm. Certainly also thanks to your loving attention and care in Amonines. I happily take this attunement back home, to the daily life of attachments, the art of living.

Fulfilled and grateful for the profound inner experience and the loving and harmonious, well-organised setting in the Asharum.

Two participants of the Silent Retreat

 

Focus on trees

For a long time our trees got little attention but lately this has changed. 
Here a small summary of how things took flight. First and foremost with Frederique joining us as a volunteer, knowledgeable about trees and who loves taking care of them. Shortly after that a ‘tree team’ was formed; Iman and Roelof were happy to take on the job of cutting down the trees that needed to go. There is also a second ‘tree team’ which consists of two professional tree carers; they take on the difficult jobs: the very high trees or the ones that require special knowledge. And so we could start renewing. Since november nine trees have been cut, three of them old fruit trees, two of which had already fallen down by themselves and one that was hollowed out. They were replaced by four new trees all indigenous.

In addition to all this, June was the month to focus on the front part of the garden, bordering the road and the part of the garden on the left of the house, also bordering the road and out neighbour Guy. 
In the front garden we had been looking for years to remove one or two pine trees that were taking up a lot of space but not giving much pleasure. It is amazing how what takes so long to grow is cut down in a matter almost of minutes. There must be a lesson in that. Two pine trees gone. As also a tall willow already dead but still standing. This whole area now has a nice open and spacious feeling, inviting. The light coming through and the view from the terrace of the white birch and the beautiful large pine brings it in closer connection with the rest of the garden.

Lastly in the border along the road three conifers were taken out which will be replaced by olive willows. The idea is to renew this part of the border.

 

Snail Trail

Live and let live should be the rule for a garden. But then what do you do when your carefully raised and nurtured pet little lettuces are eaten by snails. Many are the solutions that have been tried for this, from extremely violent and murderous to gentle dissuasion. Having tried many of the gentler ones but not satisfied there was suddenly this very nature friendly person who told that she had made ‘snail resorts’ in her garden, special heaps of garden waste, in the shadow, kept moist, with fresh leaves added from time to time, where she put the snails she found in her garden. And they liked it there and stayed. This idea immediately caught on. So in our parking on the left side we created a large elongated heap of garden waste as our snail resort. The first night after the new lettuces were planted, around two o’clock, some fifty snails were collected from the plants and were emigrated to the new resort. The following nights the number slowly dwindled to forty, then thirty and stabilised around twenty. Still a lot. Then an idea. Plastic 5liter bottles with the bottom cut out were used at night to cover the plants most likely to be eaten. And it worked. Last night, after 16 nights of emigration, for the first time not one snail to be found.

(contributed by Louise)

 

The Art of Living

Unwelcome guests or the irony of life

To understand the comic-story featuring the ducks below you need to know the history. For the ones who missed that journal, a small summary:

There was a duck couple who loved our pond. It started in February, when we realised they were polluting the water and the fish started dying. A lot of time, energy, work, patience, love and care went into restoring the quality of the water. We stretched a net over the water to prevent the persistent ducks from entering it. And after more than four months we had a beautiful end result:

Beautifully clear water over the past few days, happy fish, all done, the pond. The ''duck danger'' had been contained, so the nets were removed.

 

And then this happend:

 

Beautiful of course how it goes, being attached to an outcome, namely clear water, gives trouble. Then being able to see that it is funny having mother jumping in with her seven little ones, is an art!

 

The Art of Giving

If you think of giving as making yourself available to life and of receiving as opening to life, then what is actually the difference between giving and receiving?

 

... and receiving

It felt very good to be in an environment where you don't feel judged for wanting to be in silence and do nothing, away from the hectic pace of everyday life. Food was simple and tasty. The garden and house offer many places to sit and just be. I enjoyed the meditations as I'm not attracted to guided meditations. I like the Asha meditation with the rattle followed by stillness.

- Regina, Personal Meditation Retreat

 

Feast of Greater Light

The solstice is a universally known happening, not bound to any culture, and a cause for coming together in Nâm. We call these days the day of Greater Light and the day of Lesser Light and turn them into a celebration of attunement to the infinite unknowable or the essence, the very nature of living, which in Living Nâm is called Abbah.

The online connection between Amonines and Yoginâm feels so close that one can imagine stepping through the screen into the other room. It is really wonderful how one creates an online space where the celebration in Nijar and Amonines really come together.

Thanks to the joint effort in the preparations on the celebration day everyone was available for recitation. Taking turns to recite, the recitation was carried through the day, creating a strong field of resonance, with joyful ritual dance and singing to open and close the day respectively.