Life often means worry, fear, grief, stress, and overload for the body and mind. Our modern lives have become very dense and fast-paced. Every day, we have to process so many impressions, pieces of informations and tension. Both cause blockages and hardening in our bodies, preventing our breath, our life energy, and our joy from flowing freely. When everyday life pushes us to our limits, when we find ourselves in an inner crisis, or when we are ill, it is important to have a quiet and protected space where we feel safe and secure, where we can let go, draw strength, and gain clarity. How can we create this space for ourselves? Externally and internally? How can we regain our strength? How do we find our way forward?
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Returning to the Source
A protected, quiet, and healing atmosphere allows us to pause, calm down, let go, and relax deeply. When we are no longer in constant conflict with the present moment and remain still in an alert, warmly embracing awareness, our body and mind become more relaxed and calm, recovering and unwinding. The mind becomes clearer. Life energy and joie de vivre can flow more freely again. Deep relaxation, conscious movement, and sitting in silence enable physical and mental release, a reconnection to our inner home and source, to which we can always return.
A healing space for body and mind is a space where we can simply be as we are. Nothing to change, nothing to achieve, nothing to do, nothing to have to do. Letting go. When tensions are released, the mind becomes more stable, the heart calms down, and deep relaxation occurs. In this unintentional openness, seeing and understanding arise from within, and a warm compassion for ourselves emerges. Arriving and being at home within ourselves, feeling good in body and mind.
In Villeberny (France), we offer free Zazen meditation, Jin Shin Jyutsu and Qigong. Anyone interested is welcome to join us.
Jin Shin Jyutsu
Location: Le Petit Zendo (Villeberny – France)
Duration: 1 hour
Jin Shin Jyutsu is a gentle and profound self-help and treatment method from Japan. It involves touching and holding certain points on the body to release tension and blockages. A quiet and soothing way to relax the body and mind and draw strength and calm.
Participation is free of charge. Registration is required.
Registration via our contact form.
Qigong
Location: Le Petit Zendo (Villeberny – France)
Duration: 1 hour
Open evening. Small group with up to 5 participants.
Meditative movement (Qigong), deep relaxation, silent presence in the warm and protected space of simply being. Arriving within yourself.
Participation is free of charge. Registration is required.
Registration via our contact form.
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| Nutrition and the Art of Cooking |
The Zen cuisine does not adhere to any nutritional dogmas or recipes. If you pay close attention to everything in the kitchen and within yourself, a delicious meal will naturally emerge. Being present with things and perceiving them with all your senses is the main ingredient in Zen cuisine. You could say that this is the taste of Zen.
Zen master Dogen (1200-1253) wrote the “Tenzo Kyokun,” instructions for the cook, a cookbook for life. It does not contain recipes, but rather practical and spiritual instructions that teach that energetic everyday work is not separate from the spiritual path. This is the essence of Zen. Zen is life and not separate from it.
In the Zen monasteries of ancient Japan, being a cook (tenzo) was very strenuous and challenging work, and therefore highly valued. This task was reserved for only the most experienced Zen monks.
Of course, we need some knowledge and experience in the art of cooking, but it is even more important to explore for ourselves and trust our own perceptions and tastes. It doesn’t matter whether the ingredients are simple or luxurious, fresh or not. When I look and listen, the ingredients themselves tell me the right way to prepare them. What do I combine, how do I cut, how do I season, what goes in the pot and what goes in the oven?
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Susanne Shonen Roth was responsible for the kitchen in a Zen monastery for 15 years.
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