Soulful Sadhak

How to Order Interbeing when disorder is what we're seeing? What theory or philosophy Will make us bond beyond entropy Turn matter into energy And bring unity through diversity? How to Order Interbeing What can be more deeply freeing Than to arrive with every step Into this Pure Land we create Carrying the jacket of our Bodhicitta Do we take the leap of faith? How to Order Interbeing and to become real human beings To not be lost in thoughts or feelings And find real purpose and meaning Non-selves coming into oneness One Action to True Emptiness How to Order Interbeing And to meet Love’s high demand In the midst of separation We come together to make a stand Build the beloved community Until injustice is forever banned How to Order Interbeing Let our activism be an organism Practice openness, no dogmatism We are the light that breaks inside the prism Liberating us from mental prison Reconnecting us with ancient wisdom How to Order Interbeing And as a species to evolve? For our igno...

  I ran into the ground of my Being yesterday It smacked me in the face while i wasn’t paying attention As the ground rose up from under my feet I fell down touching the Earth and felt Her soft embrace The air was pressed from my lungs A heavy weight lifted from my chest I could breathe freely again While the Earth stood still my head stopped spinning my legs stopped running I was stuck to the ground Where were You when my head was in the clouds swept away by the winds? How did i lose touch? In the midst of my depravity The sky came down on me And as i circled back into Your gravity I was blessed to encounter reality

Here's a little song i wrote. I heard someone singing 'Sweet Home Alabama', and though the melody is catchy, i couldn't really resonate with the lyrics. My spiritual teacher taught me that our true home is the present moment, so i decided to change the lyrics. So this is my blues rock tribute to Thay and Plum Village. It was fun to try and combine the language of these two traditions. Here is how it goes, hope you like it.   Sweet Home Present Moment Melody: Sweet Home Alabama – Lynyrd Skynyrd I was feeling down and out in life Without a place to call my own Wanted to let go of my struggle and strife And find my way back home I heard about a teacher they called Thay Wanted to go and ask him how To find that pie up in the sky But he said: ‘It’s here and now’ CHORUS Sweet home present moment Where the skies are clear and true Sweet home present moment Oh, i'm coming home to you On i went to Plum Village for retreat To go and lay my burden down Time to rest my weary fe...

 This is a new song i wrote, inspired by Plum Village and the mystical poetry of old. In Plum Village, we have this saying: 'to be a drop in the Sangha (community) river' and to 'flow with the Sangha'. This led me to writing this song:       Lyrics   Into You i want to flow and of my self to let go To be one with the waves Any peril i can brave    I will stand through the storm Here i will die and be reborn Won’t you join hands with me as we dive into the sea        CHORUS Sea of love, take me Sea of love, wake me Sea of love   To be a drop in Your ocean Letting go of every notion Swaying only with Your motion Is the most profound emotion   To find the greatest love Far below is high above In these waters i will drown Deeper deeper i go down        CHORUS   To go beyond birth and death from my first to my last breath Sea you are my womb and sea you’ll be my tomb        CHORUS ...

 A cloud never dies Photo: Max Pugh You are leaving, but every moment you are still arriving in every step and every breath I take Your eyes are closed, but I can see you more clearly now in the clouds and in the water in my tea You are no longer here, yet I see you everywhere in the smile of a child and the blossoms of spring Your voice is silent, if it weren’t for the singing of birds and the rustling of leaves in the wind There is no coming and no going as you are leaving, you are only returning to us The greater the distance between us, the more we carry you in our hearts You have left a void, which we can only fill with the the practice you gave us We feel an emptiness, but we know we are only empty of a separate self My sadness is beyond limits, but so are the gratitude and love I feel today A bottomless hole is gaping in my soul, from which a wellspring of compassion rises I am at a loss for words, my mind is blank and yet understanding is born: The boddhisattva stands majes...

The spirituality of a sustainable lifestyle The environment. It is a big issue these days. Our society lags behind in coming up with the right answers. Even in our own lives it is not easy to become aware of all the problems involved and live a life that is wholly sustainable. These issues are so deeply rooted in our society and it would take such a radical change to break away from all of them. It is easy to be acquiescent and just settle for second best. It can be even easier to just lose hope and settle with resentment. However, I think it is worth the effort to try and live a life the is integrally sustainable, for I belief that is not only good for our planet, but it is also a deeply mindful life, one where every action we take connects us with all living beings on our planet. The restoration work of Sadhana Forest I will share with you my story of how I try to live a life that is fully sustainable. It made me quit my job back home in Belgium and move to India to go and live in a ...

Veel meer dan een uiterlijke reis door een enorm (en) kleurrijk subcontinent, is mijn reis door India ook een innerlijke reis. Iedereen die ik hier tegenkom lijkt op zoek te zijn naar zichzelf, op de meest uiteenlopende manieren. Om mijn innerlijke reis beter te begrijpen, is het denk ik belangrijk dat ik eerst wat meer uitleg geef bij mijn beslissing om naar India te komen, en vooral, om geen monnik te worden, zoals ik lang dacht te doen. Tijdens mijn verblijf in Plum Village voelde ik nooit de behoefte om verder te gaan en in te treden. Ik denk dat mijn eigenzinnige en eigenwijze aard mij tegenhield om mij volledig over te geven aan de gemeenschap. Een paar weken na mijn thuiskomst van Plum, kwam echter voor het eerst de gedachte in mij op om in te treden. Je moet zeker eerst iets missen om de waarde ervan in te schatten. Ik heb altijd een hang gehad naar spiritualiteit, zelfs als klein kind al, en ik voelde die diepe behoefte om een spiritueel leven te leiden, een leven dat ‘anders’...

(geschreven voor B-magazine , studentenmagazine Taal- & Letterkunde)   Je moet niet alleen, om de plek te bereiken thuis opstappen, maar ook uit manieren van kijken. Er is niets te zien, en dat moet je zien om alles bij het zeer oude te laten. 'De Plek' – Herman de Coninck Vorm is leegte. Leegte is vorm. Vorm is niets dan leegte. Leegte is niets dan vorm. Alle dingen zijn leeg. Ze kennen geen ontstaan en geen vergaan. Hartsoetra 5u15. Opstaan. Te vroeg, ik wil nog blijven liggen. Ik zie hoe de gedachte om te blijven liggen zich vormt – wat een opmerkelijke gedachte – en weer we ggaat. Alles gaat voorbij. Dat is de enige zekerheid die je hebt. Ergens vaag in mijn achterhoofd hangt het bewustzijn dat ik moe zou moeten zijn, dat ik me aangevallen zou moeten voelen door het geluid van mijn wekker zo vroeg in de ochtend, dat ik me zou moeten verzetten. Andere gevoelens, andere strijd, andere tijden. Ik kom overeind en haal drie keer diep adem. Ik leef! Mijn lichaam z...

(geschreven voor The Voice, Leuvens internationaal studentenmagazine) Everything Flows Heraclitus Knowing yourself is Enlightenment Lao Tzu 'Discover yourself. Begin with the world' is our university’s motto. That is what they teach us while we study here. After I finished my studies however, I did the complete opposite. I discovered myself by locking the world firmly away, which may have taught me even more then all I learned in Uni: I decided to go for an international experience quite different from your average 'Orgasmus Erasmus' and spent over three months... on retreat in a Zen Buddhist monastery. It may sound like a cliché, but if one wants to get to know oneself, one has to come out of his comfort zone. I must say I might have taken that to its extreme. Try living three and a half months in a community, with eight people in one bedroom and virtually no privacy. Try just following a communal schedule (waking up at five in the morning!), without you deciding wha...