International Zen Institute - EN - news

Sonrizas y Lagrimas (Smiles and Tears)
Invitation for a Seminar with Cheward "Happy Heart"

December 15-17 2003 a two days seminar will be held at Noorder Poort in which we will use clowning as a means of practice. Cheward, who will guide this seminar, lived and trained at Noorder Poort for a period of 3 years until spring 2001. During an introductory course he discovered his enthusiasm for clowning. He attended a 2 months- course in Ibiza and a short time later left for Ibiza to deepen his training. He lives now in Ibiza with his wife and son.

Last year he gave a weekend-course together with Nitiman (Sati) in Cologne, which had a very positive resonance and brought up the idea to continue this sort of seminar at the Noorder Poort.

Cheward will encourage us through clowning-exercises, but even more through the direct and lovable way in which he addresses people, to awaken the "inner clown". The goal of this seminar is not to learn clowning, but to discover the playful side of ourselves, which enables us to spontaneously and directly respond to what this moment presents to us. As the inner clown is beyond language, german or dutch language will not be a hindrance to participate. English translations will be provided when needed.

Poetry from Noorder Poort

'Still; poetry on Rilke', is a recent booklet with poems by the participants of a poetry workshop led by Alvara Tozan Hine. The workshop, with fourteen participants, was held at Noorder Poort Zen Center. Some 25 poems of the ‘Sonnets to Orpheus’ of Rilke were studied with the purpose to see how the importance and the Buddhist undertones of the sonnets resonated within the participants. This led to the composition of a poetry with themes of childhood, parting, celebration, lamentation and death. Tozan gives poetry workshops every year. 'Zen students make for good poets', he says in his introduction. 'Prabhasa Dharma has always felt it imperative that her students write as an additional Zen practice.' Still is available in the shop at Noorder Poort.

A small selection of the poems:

The white chest
of the turning lapwing
orange for a second
in the morning sun

Frans Koopman

Heart-stone

There is a singing in the tree
It wants to rise in you
When you lose sight while dancing on one leg
Embrace the trunk of death.

The stone wants flesh and blood
As green bursts forth from wood.
And flesh needs stone
Of skull and bone to grow in you.

When entering the temple through your bark
Descend and in descending listen.
There is a rustling in your heart.
The petals fall in silence.

Thomas Hötte

He and She

he has a microscope full of water drops
he has a bread-knife that crumbles the cake
he has a tea-pot full of sulphur fume
he drags his sailing-vessel with an automobile

and she walks with rubber hairs, doesn't she?
a coat and skirt made of iron she hangs up
sternly she grabs the tender ants with hot pincers
she lays a badger-dog in the rattan cradle

all paper whirls upwards in the burning
and all winds blow us to bethlehem
and hold our child, with holes in his hands
and hear our child, with cracks in her voice

he was a child, sweet as jam were the beaches
she was a girl accompanied by a bird
a car passed by with red, red teeth
loosely our father scoured his skin

Hans Reddingius

More old news