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returning to monchique

Jan 11, 2019
3 min

returning to monchique

It is with pleasure that I can announce the resumption of our silent meditation and yin yoga retreats at Karuna Center in Algarve, Portugal where we will be holding our week-long retreat from July 20th to the 27th, 2019. Some of you may know that we had to interrupt our retreats there due to the wildfires that swept across the Serra de Monchique last summer just after our last period of practice. The center has risen from its ashes and is able to host us again. This is a happ

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today, i hold myself

Oct 19, 2018
3 min

today, i hold myself

I write this as it is approaching three months since I spent six days on a silent meditation retreat in the hills of Monchique, Portugal. I regret not having written this sooner, when my thoughts and feelings would be fresh, having poured out of me and into my journal during those days. I also feel hesitant to return to that time, feeling so far removed from it in this moment. Those six days are now rendered so unreal, so unlike my current state that I must have been only so

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at home in heaven and hell

Sep 2, 2018
3 min

at home in heaven and hell

' In this world we walk on the roof of hell gazing at flowers. " Kobayashi Issa (1763 - 1827) This is heaven, call it home. This is hell, call it home. Whatever it is, become intimate with it. To become intimate with it is to own it. These lines by the Japanese haiku master and Buddhist priest Issa are consoling and speak to us in a direct way about our human condition. What is touching here is how the poet expresses the fundamentally ambiguous nature of the human conditi

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journey of coming home

Aug 21, 2018
10 min

journey of coming home

MAITRI RETREATS AND HAMID EBADI – AN EXTRAORDINARY JOURNEY OF ‘COMING HOME’ “Meditation is a bodily practice.” I will never ever forget these words from Hamid as we prepared to start our meditation practice in Monchique, Portugal in a region called the Algarve. I had never been to Portugal and there I excitedly found myself with nine other practitioners (ahem…students…most of us hugely interested dabblers who had not yet developed a consistent practice). Also with us was Miri

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starting sesshin

Aug 3, 2018
1 min

starting sesshin

orientation talk on the first day of our july 2018 sesshin in sierra de monchique, algarve, portugal. a presentation of the practice of shikantaza, just sitting: to be simply aware of what arises and bringing one's full attention to it during meditation without seeking any reward as a result of it. zen meditation is about what manifests itself right in this moment, right in each moment, without trying to direct what is unfolding from moment to moment to some future goal. we

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sesshin ends

Jul 18, 2018
1 min

sesshin ends

windows shut curtains drawn from the paddies sunlight pouring in screeching of cicadas pouring in no one inside no one outside left the dweller nowhere a dwelling in praise in waves golden to no end pouring in the 9th house, bentuyung, ubud, bali #poetry #zenpoetry #sesshin #bali #ubud

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those greater forces around us

Jun 27, 2018
2 min

those greater forces around us

Less than a month to our silent meditation retreat in the Serra de Monchique, Portugal. Some of you are making the journey from other parts of the planet just to come and share this week of intense practice with me. I feel gratitude and am humbled for your showing up. To sit still in silence for a week is a rare occasion to recollect body-mind and gather oneself in the presence of greater forces and to sense, at moments when the ripples on the mind calm down, the posture beco

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on meeting zen master ryotan tokuda

May 28, 2018
1 min

on meeting zen master ryotan tokuda

it's destiny you said encounter of destinies should one time we meet it is an overnight stay in a rundown hermitage stars spread over the sky they greet your dark flame some untold sorrow of the sea you see my hour go blind you see shades roll over me for i had to step aside #ryotantokuda #zenmaster #eitaiji #zen #sesshin #dharma

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sesshin notes V / april 2018

May 28, 2018
1 min

sesshin notes V / april 2018

cold wind roaring through monchique hills down into the valley though silent we stand on your way are part of your voice with giant boulders young eucalipti we speak through you wind we are your pathway your voice as you unleash your music onto the world #zenpoetry #sesshin #zazen #dharma #meditation #shunyata

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sesshin notes III / april 2018

May 28, 2018
1 min

sesshin notes III / april 2018

early morning sitting on the edge of a cliff a sea of clouds to watch blooming mountains endlessly drift away #monchique #retreat #sesshin #meditationretreat #clouds

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sesshin notes I / april 2018

May 28, 2018
1 min

sesshin notes I / april 2018

preparing sesshin inside trees there was i born there each time i die that moment when the owl's last call with songs of waking birds entwines quelfes, algarve #zenpoetry #zenpoem #sesshin #retreat #owl #quelfes

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shikantaza, just sitting

Mar 11, 2018
3 min

shikantaza, just sitting

Zazen is at once a bare-bone form of meditation and at the same time it is not one. Historically it’s a twice millennial practice passed on through generations by the Buddha as the unique gateway to liberating us humans from the rounds of birth and death and the suffering that comes from being trapped in Samsara, the world of delusion and ignorance. But also it is not meditation in the sense we ordinarily understand it to be. This practice has no object and is not meant to be

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the art of meditation : when we sit in sesshin

Feb 19, 2018
1 min

the art of meditation : when we sit in sesshin

Sitting through a sesshin is something you need to come and experience for yourself as this is as personal an experience as it gets and no one can tell you beforehand what to expect or not to expect. It's above all about deepening your sense of intimacy with yourself, with the breath that fills your lungs, with the thoughts and emotions that disturb and unsettle you at times, with the walls surrounding you, with those sitting in silence next to you, with the roof that shelter

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only humility is endless

Feb 19, 2018
4 min

only humility is endless

My time in Bali is soon coming to an end and in a little more than a month I will be leaving this island after having lived here with my family for nearly six years. The next chapter of this long and unremitting erring on planet earth will take me back to Europe, this time to Portugal. Not at all sure what that will bring but not shying away form the uncertainty. I am not particularly sad about leaving Bali nor really excited about going to live in Portugal. Grateful though f

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things falling apart

Dec 4, 2017
2 min

things falling apart

when things start falling apart, hold on to your seat. albert camus puts it this way: there is no love of life without despair of life. but pain, sadness, grief and and despair are at odds with our deep-rooted belief in a life free from them, a life of permanent bliss and happiness. there is nothing wrong with us wanting this but an honest relationship with life soon makes us understand love and despair, happiness and pain, light and dark are not only inseparable but co

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not knowing

Dec 2, 2017
1 min

not knowing

ease into this the need to know i have blown it out in your heart paths and journeys now silenced are you awake or is this still sleep you don't know rejoice not knowing is the closes Angkor wat, siem reap, Cambodia, 2010 #notknowing #zen #sesshin #angkorwat #siemreap #meditation

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passing through the gate

Dec 2, 2017
1 min

passing through the gate

we passed this gate to reach our place of practice, a towering ganesha greeting us. we sat through an intensive period of meditation knowing little of the tumult unfolding in the world outside. when we ended our retreat and broke silence we found out about the intensified activities of mount agung and its imminent eruption. when you meet the world, your mind quiet and still, you see events in their unfolding, favorable or unfavourable, as they just are: manifestations of impe

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simplicity

Nov 1, 2017
2 min

simplicity

Our one week sesshin, silent zen meditation retreat, in Monchique, Portugal, just ended and in the gallery on this site are some photos of the event to share with you. The use of the word event is a little misleading. An intensive period of meditation practice is more of a non-event than a relatable event of the kind we are used to. Non-event in the sense that what is happening here is you just practising out of the moment. When you come close to and practice out of the momen

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to the broke and the broken

Oct 7, 2017
4 min

to the broke and the broken

Our sesshin (silent meditation retreat) in Monchique, South Portugal, is less than a month away. Some of you have written to express your interest but find it difficult to come for financial reasons. Some others feel you are not in a good enough space to get involved with intensive meditation practice, that it may become overwhelming. Whatever that may be, in the words of Jim Morrison of the Doors, what a lyricist: The time to hesitate is through! Reflecting on these obstacle

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to friends old and new on the path

Oct 7, 2017
2 min

to friends old and new on the path

over the past ten years, i have had the honor to share teachings with many students in india, bali and some other parts of the world. the setting of these teachings has primarily been at yoga teacher trainings, something rather uncommon for a zen teacher, this being the background i am coming from. what distinguishes the common from the uncommon is something you begin to lose sight of the more you follow your own deeper calling. your life has a mysterious way of unfolding the

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