by Ma Prem Sohana
Holland is a tiny country in Northern Europe that is hard to spot on a globe: if you print the name of its capital (Amsterdam) in it, the characters spill into the North Sea in the west and invade Germany on the east. From Amsterdam (close to the west coast) if you drive 80 miles east or south, you’re abroad! It takes a little over an hour, because our speed limit (the lowest of Europe, by the way) is 75 miles per hour.
Forty-two years ago at school, I learned that my country was the second most populated country in the world. We live on top of one another in many medium-sized cities with mainly three or four-story apartment buildings– we cannot build skyscrapers on the sandy bottom of the sea (watching the news these days you will remember that Holland lies below sea level and forms the delta of the river Rhine, where all the water of the Alps passes through.)
We’re famous for cheese and flower-bulbs, and very grateful that cows need green pastures and the bulbs need fields, so we get to enjoy some greenery. Close to the border we have even saved a few patches of woods.
It was in one of these wooded areas that 14 Dutch Avatar Masters and one Belgian Avatar Master—inspired by Dutch Master Berry Cloosterman—created a beautiful place to teach Avatar. The stylish old mansion (a former spa) is owned by a Transcendental Meditation Academy that has only recently opened its doors to other groups.
Sixty students joined us here: new ones, old ones, and a few Masters who wanted to deepen their Avatar experience.
The night before, it started raining “miracles” in the form of a highly unusual “ice-rain,” so we all had to drive up here at 20 to 40 mph (remember our usual speed limits). Consequently we could not start on time, but by the end of the day we all had reached goal one. The silence after the Compassion Exercise was pin-drop: 75 individual selves integrated into one silent compassionate being.
Integration continued every day, even among the Avatars and the TM staff (we will welcome them to the course next year). And of course inside each of us: the process of integrating our noisy, struggling crowd of identities into one silent awareness—Source.
A Source that quietly appreciates. A Source that amuses itself with the game of life against the background of eternity. A Source for whom all is simply OK.
The old trees became our teachers; they never uttered a sound in response to any of our noises. They never judged our internal struggle or our pain. They never asked us “Why?” or “How come you still...” thus showing us how to also watch ourselves without response.
The beautiful house never confused its silence with our talking heads. Helping us to become aware of our own inner house, our still eternal stage upon which the drama (or the comedy, depending on what we believe) of our lives goes on in all its cruelty or splendor.
One evening we did an improv talent show. Amateur singers, players and poets captured our attention as much as the professional writer and musicians. We laughed, sometimes cried, and drank warm cider. Our hearts beat as One.
The next day had another “miracle” for us, a real snowstorm! We went out for a group photo and a snowball fight.
The last day, one of the participants received the news of the unexpected and sudden death of her sister, a young woman like herself. In the closing ceremony, we gave her a silent send-off and felt her immortal Presence. Then we danced to Pachelbel’s music and sang, “Hallelujah” and celebrated the Silence. Leaving was sad and joyous at the same time.
What follows is a selection of how the participants have tried to give words to the unspeakable.
“AVATAR helps me to live the way I want, being myself, independent from everything and everybody around me—connected with everybody and everything around me.”
“Enlightening & expansive. A homecoming in myself.”
“My whole life I have felt that I could not reach my joy. By going through all the layers that prevented me, hurrah, I am there, I feel joy!”
“Since Avatar I live life more fully and I enjoy life just as it is...
The simplicity of it all amazes me over and over.”
“After a long, long journey, I have made contact with the simplicity of feeling!”
“Never in my life have I experienced so much love and respect....”
“Feeling love and acceptance, everything is allowed to be.”
“My heart grows in all dimensions, giving me lots of joy and happy feelings. I felt like a rose- bud, and now I am open...”
“I always thought my flower bulb would need a full season to grow. But now, after eight days, I see light.”
“Avatar has opened my eyes. I will never close them again!”
“I am a bright sun amidst all the other bright suns...”
“Avatar, the ultimate discovery of peace and silence...”
“A new beginning. I have felt that Source is the place from where I want to live, from where I want to be. That place includes everything. No, that place is everything.”
“In the beginning I did not like it too much, so I constantly withdrew myself. Now I see that I did that, that it was my own pattern. I feel lots better and wiser and hope to become as good a Master as my Masters.”
“I didn’t realize I had such an immense variety of beautiful, fantastic colors in me.”
“I have experienced the tremendous power of alignment. Amazingly effortlessly we created a climate where differences were tolerated and a space where I could develop and feel my increasing ability in contributing to the creation of an enlightened planetary civilization.”
The 15 Masters were:
Berry Cloosterman, Francien van den Boomen, Willem Geene, Frank Jongen, Yoyo van der Kooi, Thomas Klerks, Shahien Mohamedraja, Mia Nagel, Carla Oude Lenferink, Veerle de Ridder, Henk Schoenmakers, Guido Sleddens, Ma Prem Sohana, Archana van Stroe and Dorith van der Waerden.
return to issue 9.1 | return to Journal archives | top of page
All content copyright 2008, Star’s Edge, Inc. EPC is a service mark of Star's Edge, Inc. Avatar®, ReSurfacing®, Thoughtstorm®, Love Precious Humanity®, Enlightened Planetary Civilization® and Star’s Edge International® are registered trademarks of Star’s Edge, Inc. All rights reserved.