Site permanently Welcome! My name is Jan Barendrecht, an early retired engineer enjoying a more than average fitness thanks to active K. and being a fruitarian, living in a fruit paradise, the Republic of Panama. The pictures were taken with a simple digital camera during my frequent hikes, some in the mountains of Tenerife, where rock-solid silence and solitude were reigning supreme. Music is made with the aid of the computer - a great tool for artistic expression. Music Pictures Drop me a line...

Where the Canary Islands (where I have been living for 15 years, before emigrating to the Republic of Panama) are situated will be clear from the picture, depicting the journey of the bananas, grown here:   The islands are said to be the the remains of the sunken continent of Atlantis, but that is just a legend. The islands are volcanoes, rising from the bottom of the ocean and are consisting of lava. Some of it is very fertile whereas other parts are very infertile. A part of Tenerife's national park looks more like the surface of the moon: only barren rock where nothing grows... Spain's highest mountain, Teide (devil), is located at Tenerife, its height is 12,200 feet  and the second highest mountain is located "next" to it, the Pico Viejo (old peak). In winter, these volcanos are sometimes covered with snow and on such day, when the roads aren't closed, one can ski there in the morning and take a dip in the ocean in the afternoon.

Enlightenment   If enlightenment would have a start, it would have an end - and not be different from "whatever can be observed and experienced". What is meant with a phrase like "he became enlightened, sitting under the bodhi tree" is that the condition, preventing to "see what neither has a beginning nor an end", disappeared.    And such a one could state something like:   "To wake up from.... yes, from what? It cannot be remembered anymore, yet something very nice did happen one cannot convey in words as it appears nothing did happen after all, but a sweetheart would notice the difference immediately".   All paths, systems of mediation, yogas, are aiming at the disappearance of the condition(ing)  that prevents to " see what neither has a beginning nor an end ". As a rule, this conditioning starts in early childhood - and unless put to an end, it will only increase with age. It works like encaging oneself, causing one to feel increasingly unhappy and sooner or later, a heartfelt cry is uttered: "enough!!" - and a spiritual seeker is born. Having come at an end regarding "what the world has on offer", one is ready for a change. Often, it will be characterized by renunciation  - for one having had more than a fair share of "pleasure and pain", that will be easy.   The other alternative is (alas) rare but not impossible: conditioning doesn't develop enough to veil "seeing what neither has a beginning nor an end" and then, there is nothing to renounce - instead, life is experienced as a joy, despite the "ups and downs" because one can see things "as they are":  the transiency of a flower doesn't diminish its beauty and although plastic flowers will be unchanged when both the giver and the receiver are dead, which loved one would accept a bouquet of plastic roses as a token of love?    Would it be possible to accumulate conditioning, having parents "seeing what neither has a beginning nor an end"? Rather unlikely, and one would be brought up in an ambiance of love, devotion, compassion and surrender. This would not end suffering - losing a loved one still would be a loss and probably would be even felt stronger...   Of course one's real nature isn't veiled completely by this conditioning of the mind - there are enough moments when it still can be seen, shining in its pristine beauty - only one isn't aware of that. When fully absorbed in creative work like painting, composing etc., there is but "creative work being done" and there isn't the slightest sense of "I", doership or a thought about being conditioned - that is the natural state and without conditioning, one is ever aware of it -  the real nature, the one "Dweller in every house"...   And love neither does mix with a sense of "I" or "doership: the "mark" of love is total surrender. Because surrender is total, nothing remains to be aware of the real nature, yet it shines, and a great lesson can be learnt: surrender in less "favorable" conditions and discover that love didn't leave...       a common denominator of "paths, systems of meditation and yogas"?

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