meditative.be

Meditative VZW brings together meditation, movement and self-inquiry around Bruges: meditative walks in the Ryckevelde woods and an annual retreat with Mukesh Gupta.

an invitation to pause, listen, and simply be

Dear friends, let’s slow down for a moment and simply be here. Just as we are.

Deep listening is the gateway to that unconditional space of being… This deep listening means being fully present without any resistance.

— Mukesh Gupta

What meditation is

Most people think that meditation involves sitting still for a long time, breathing techniques, concentration, or chanting mantras. In fact, you can go through life meditating; you don’t have to meet certain conditions. Meditation is not a technique. Meditation is creating space, sensitively observing what is there. It is more about having an open mind, looking and listening with a certain gentleness. The form is free.

It is being fully present with what is happening here and now. It is not ‘I’ who is paying attention. Attention without a centre, without ulterior motive. The moment you start practising it, you turn it into something to be achieved. Presence is our natural state of being, when the mind is not busy trying, controlling, becoming. We already breathe spontaneously; attention is already present.

Meditation is not a journey to somewhere else. It is coming home to what is.

Meditative walking in the Ryckevelde forest

When we are not rushing anywhere, walking brings us back to the body, to the ground, to the present moment. The mental buzz falls silent; awareness, consciousness, is more fully present.

These walks are not guided meditations. They are walks. Slow, quiet, mindful. The ground beneath your feet, a breath of wind, the light filtering through the trees.

Something happens when we walk together without rushing anywhere.

→ About aware walking

Inspired by Mukesh Gupta & J. Krishnamurti

The walks and the retreat draw on the same source: the work of J. Krishnamurti and of Mukesh Gupta (School for Self-Inquiry) — listening, looking and living in this very moment.

Deep Learning Retreat in Cadzand

Meditative VZW organises a multi-day retreat facilitated by Mukesh Gupta (School for Self-Inquiry). From Friday 17 to Sunday 19 September 2027 we gather in Cadzand, just across the Dutch border, around The Art of Listening, Looking & Living in this very moment — through dialogue, meditation, meditative walks through the dunes and polder, and silent reflection.

No prior knowledge is needed; everyone begins as a fellow traveller. Participation: €380 (shared twin room) or €435 (single room), accommodation and full board included.

→ All about the retreat

Mental hygiene

These are brief notes, written over a period of twenty years. Not as instructions, but rather as memories.

→ Read the reflections (2007, 2023 & 2026)

Also: aikido in Bruges

Joost also teaches aikido in Bruges, on Monday evenings at the Tempelhof sports centre. Every class begins and ends with mokusō, a moment of silent sitting, and the emphasis is on inner work: the same attention that makes a walk quiet and alive, but in movement, together with a partner.

→ All details on dojo.be