Day for the zen meditation groups in Holland

Last sundag there was a day for the zenmeditation groups in Holland. Lots of people came. When Jiun roshi was introduced to all the people, I got inspired to make this cartoon.

Hiding behind the boeddha

Happy Easter, with or without gluten...

Is it because of our chemical manipulated food that we become more and more intolerant or even allergic to gluten or milkproducts? 

Or is it because of the quality of our food that the number of people that become sick from eating bread increases? 

On the web I learn that wheat is like a poison and there heas been much manipulations with it, so that it has different qualities nowadays. Qualities that are not good for our health. But on another webpage I learn that this is totally nonsense, and that there is no scientific evidence for this. 

Companies are taking advance of this aversion of people against gluten. You can buy gluten free beer. And gluten free ice or pineapples. But actually, there are no gluten in ice or pineapples. But they sell it 'glutenfree', because people want to buy it. 

I'm not a foodexpert. But I'm a cook. And that's why it concerns me. When I cook for groups nowadays it appears that there are five times as much people with a diet than three years ago. And for me, as a cook, that is becoming a little bit too much...

So I ask myself:" how is it possible that the amount of diets has increased so fast?" I don't have an answer to  that question. At the Noorder Poort, where I work, we have now the rule that we only take care of diets when it is accompanied with a disposition of a doctor. This rule diminishes the amount of diets a lot. 

This weekend I cook for a group of thirty people. Two people have a diet. I'm going to make a nice Easter brunch on the second Easter day. With homemade Easterbread. And eggs from hens that have much space to move. 

I hope it becomes a happy Easter for everybody. With or without gluten. 

A gorgeous teacher

The door of compassion

It seems like there are happening more and more  bad things in our world. Wars, refugees, terrorism, pollution in our environment, rich people that become more rich and more poor people on the other hand. Animals that suffer in horrible circumstances.

And it also seems as if we become more and more indifferent of that. As if we suffer from a collective fatigue. 

 As a buddhist I often say: " I resolve to save all sentient beings". And this means to me, that I promise myself not to turn away from all the misery. 

Off course, the philosophy behind this is that I am not separated from everything there is. So, if I save myself, I'll save also all other sentient beings. Therefore, the first thing I have to do is to look at my own misery. And also to look deeply into that little "me" that still resists to live an enlightened life. 

This little me that chooses sometimes to exclude from all the misery. The 'me' that becomes tired from all the bad things happening in this world.

And also the 'me' that can become angry and resentful on, for example, the men of Boko Haram who rape little girls. Or becomes angry to the people from Shell that destroy beautiful nature in order to earn more money. 

Because that means also excluding myself. And it means denying the interconnectedness of everything.  I reason out of 'me versus them'.

So, 'saving all sentient' beings means for me that I must not separate myself. That I have to realize that I am everything and everyone. That I am deeply connected with everything and everyone. 

That I am the pig, living in horrible circumstances in the cattle industry. But that I am also the farmer who treats his animals badly. That I am the Isis- fighter but that I am also the refugee. That I am the director of a bank who earns a salary of more than €10.000,- a month. But that I am also the mother with three children who has no idea how she will manage to feed all her children.

A very big inspiration for me is the famous poem of Thich Nath Hanh: " Call me by my true names." A poem that brings me into tears, and effects me a lot. And it ends in  this beautiful phrase: 

"........and so the door of my heart can be left open, 

the door of compassion."

Call Me by My True Names

Do not say that I'll depart tomorrow 
because even today I still arrive.

Look deeply: I arrive in every second 
to be a bud on a spring branch, 
to be a tiny bird, with wings still fragile, 
learning to sing in my new nest, 
to be a caterpillar in the heart of a flower, 
to be a jewel hiding itself in a stone.

I still arrive, in order to laugh and to cry, 
in order to fear and to hope. 
The rhythm of my heart is the birth and 
death of all that are alive.

I am the mayfly metamorphosing on the surface of the river,
and I am the bird which, when spring comes, arrives in time 
to eat the mayfly.

I am the frog swimming happily in the clear pond, 
and I am also the grass-snake who, approaching in silence, 
feeds itself on the frog.

I am the child in Uganda, all skin and bones, 
my legs as thin as bamboo sticks, 
and I am the arms merchant, selling deadly weapons to 
Uganda.

I am the twelve-year-old girl, refugee on a small boat,
who throws herself into the ocean after being raped by a sea
pirate,
and I am the pirate, my heart not yet capable of seeing and
loving.

I am a member of the politburo, with plenty of power in my
hands,
and I am the man who has to pay his "debt of blood" to, my
people,
dying slowly in a forced labor camp.

My joy is like spring, so warm it makes flowers bloom in all
walks of life.
My pain is like a river of tears, so full it fills the four oceans.

Please call me by my true names, 
so I can hear all my cries and laughs at once, 
so I can see that my joy and pain are one.

Please call me by my true names, 
so I can wake up, 
and so the door of my heart can be left open, 
the door of compassion.

Thich Nhat Hanh

Busstation, some young people and a mobile phone

Doing nothing