Learning to trust life

Are we allowed to fly for this?

I have been travelling through Tanzania for ten years and I have been living here for three years now. I want to try to convey in this blog why I think Mindful Adventure, in this time of serious attention to climate change, is allowed still to invite people to fly to Tanzania.

In the Netherlands I have come a long way in returning to my essence and increasing clarity about the distinction between essence and mind, between real and unreal, between that which is free and that which is programmed. From that process, Mindful Adventure emerged. Allthough I realised that I had to look into my cultural conditionings more deeply, I never could have imagined that I would end up in Tanzania to learn the total surrender to existence, to the whole. My cultural conditionings shook to their foundations in a way which is simply not possible in the Netherlands or in one’s own culture. In Tanzania I have been forced to my bones to let go and to completely surrender to what presented itself in the moment. It was high school mindfulness. All the control compulsion, all the insistence on self-control, all the perfectionism, all the resistance to “disturbances” from life itself, all the hidden superiority, all the pride was severely frustrated. I had zero control over most of my days and I struggled and resisted until a little puppy walked in my garden and died a few days later. Then I finally let go.

Moving along

I surrendered but this time completely and learned to listen openly to what presents itself in every moment, no matter how big the problem seems to be that walks in and how disruptive. I learned to move along with situations, against which everything in me was rearing. I learned to be curious about what wanted to manifest itself instead of panicking. I learned to trust what presents itself, like Tanzanians have learned from an early age due to lack of control. Rama was and is my biggest mirror in this. The world of wild animals has a special gift to mirror it also. You can’t experience this in the Netherlands as in Africa. I felt like Job in the Bible, not my will be done, but thy will be done. If I had one misery behind me, the next misery came immediately the next day. It hunted me down.

When the mind breaks open…

And how grateful I am now for this profound experience that Tanzanians learn at a young age. My mind broke open under enormous pressure in a complete surrender to existence, allowing me to relax even deeper into myself and my relationship with life. All panic disappeared like snow in the sun. Panic can’t stay if we truly surrender. There is a powerful compulsion and a wisdom in existence for which I now bow in humility. A humility that is very necessary for me, and frankly the West in general, to feel more, if we want to dare to return to nature. Everyone who comes to Tanzania is going to encounter this. For example, what do you experience when you enter a Masai village? Do you see huts that provide shelter from predators? Do you see the fire inside that gives warmth? Do you see the waterfall nearby that gives unlimited water? Or do you thank God on your knees for being born somewhere else. Through these kinds of confrontations and situations you get the chance to see the truth about life more deeply.

When the mind breaks open… it looks like this

Tanzania invites us to restore our faith in existence. A trust that has been deeply damaged in me and in the Western culture with all the devastating consequences for the earth that entails. In Africa, confidence in life is bigger. The African experiences daily that miraculously, without any possessions, a meal appears at the end of the day. He has learned to be able to rely on that. Do you dare? We taunt them when we see that after receiving the salary, they do not show up at work for days, until the money is used up. In reality, it shows a realization that existence takes good care of them. No worries is their most popular expression. In the West, we have little contact with that anymore. Our minds are worry machines. We are therefore under the spell of more, more, more, collecting more security through possession, consumptism and a large network around you. Tanzania has freed me from the ideal self, which demands that others are as I expect and that I am as others expect. It has freed me from the requirement that life is as I expect it to be. And if life is going like I want, I am happy.

Why a safari or retreat in Tanzania means an investment in consciouness

I had to learn this lesson in trust completely alone in Africa. From there I can support you. By gaining in trust, the addiction for consumption in all of us, will fade by itself. In Africa I have also learned to let go of fixed principles, no matter how beautiful they sound or even are. I put my ears to hear in the moment. I search with my eyes in the moment, I feel my skin in the moment and embrace what presents itself. Mindful Adventure will die if existence determines that my gift is no longer justified or desired. I’m totally open to that. Am I going to sell peanuts? Fine too. There are simply no guarantees. And that’s totally okay if you like adult freedom.

There is an added value to entering into consciousness processes outside your own culture. As long as we are fundamentally scared for life, we can’t change easily. Trust is the solid foundation for sustainability. That is why a trip to Tanzania is an investment in raising awareness.

Karibu Tanzania