Monthly Archives: March 2020

Daily life, Spirituality

Robuki in the Time of Covid-19

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When most of us on the planet are more or less locked down at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic, when lots of stressful information are endless released all around the world, I was wondering “what can I do, as a shakuhachi player?” And then I got this message from Kiku Day:

“We are a group of shakuhachi players who did a little brain storm and we came up with the idea of a ROBUKI WAVE. We suggest to make a ROBUKI WAVE across our planet as a gesture of solidarity, contemplation and healing of the situation with Covid-19 we are in at present! Join us playing ROBUKI at 12 noon your own time for as long or short as you want. We start tomorrow Monday 23rd March 2020! We will at least continue for a week and see if we continue further. Imagine as the Earth rotate there will be people playing robuki at 12 noon across the whole planet. […Facebook event details…] We will try to make a video with ROBUKIi across the whole planet afterwards.”

I immediately loved the idea of blowing RO together to connect and join our efforts and thoughts for the planet. I passed on the message to my students and friends in the Netherlands & Belgium and some of them reacted with a strong enthusiasm. This made me think that it would be nice to meet up online to blow together. I had never used ZOOM before, so it was a good opportunity to learn quickly how to use it and set up a daily Robuki-meeting!

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Shakuhachi practice

ONLINE SHAKUHACHI

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Spring

After a long Winter period, I was ready for Spring and couldn’t wait to get started. Next to the usual individual lessons, I had again some performances & workshops planed. They all didn’t resist the restrictions due to the Covid-19 pandemic, like everywhere in the world for many many many other freelance artists…

What does this pandemic tell us about ourselves? Since the last weeks, I see that it forces us to think different and be creative. I see so many nice initiatives popping up online and in real (playing at your window for or with your neighbours). And for myself, I see it as a new challenge.
And it reminds me every day how important health is, how important it is to live a healthy life and care for others.
Protect yourself, and also protect the others. In our very individualist modern societies, the Coronavirus shows us how strongly we are all interconnected and that we cannot ignore that.

“Man sacrifices is health in order to make money. Then he sacrifices his money to recuperate his health. And then he is so anxious about the future that he does not enjoy the present. As a result he does not live in the present or in the future. He lives as if he is never going to die and then dies having never really lived.”

His Holiness the 14th Dalai Lama

So it is time to live in the present! To find new ways and enjoy being connected!
As well as my colleagues around the world, I will get more online the coming months. Starting with teaching. How does this work?

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