10-17 September 2019

Minimalise with philosopher Michel Dijkstra

A workshop on Zen in the landscape.

Take a week off from your overloaded life and travel to Mull to focus on less. You will experience that this training in practical zen by Michel Dijkstra will give access to become part of a landscape by concentrating on your senses one by one.

Day 1 arrival / short walk up to Knockvologan hill / dinner

Day 2 breakfast / crossing The Narrows / zenmeditation / lecture R & M / lunch / circle walk in Tireragan / dinner 

Day 3 breakfast / crossing The Narrows / socratic dialog / lunch / exercises on the beach / dinner 

Day 4 free day / visit to Iona Abbey / dinner in de Pink granite quarrie in Fionnphort  / filmscreening Chi-hwa-seon (Painted Fire)

Day 5 breakfast / crossing The Narrows  long walk to Traigh Gheal - gathering ingredients - cooking together / dinner

Day 6 breakfast / summery / zazen – kinhin / lunch / departure to Oban/Glasgow

All accommodation and food is included. You staying at the Erraid peninsula in one of the Stevensons Lighthousebuilders houses. 

Costs: 1600 pond including travel, all accommodation and food.

Michel Dijkstra studied Philosophy, Sanskrit en Journalism in Groningen. He writes on a regular basis on Eastern philosophy, especially Chanbuddhism and Taoism, in philosophy magazines and newspapers and published five books. Also, he teaches Eastern and Chinese philosophy at the Internationale School Voor Wijsbegeerte (ISVW) at Leusden in The Netherlands. Currently he prepares a comparative philosophical dissertation on Meister Eckhart and Zenmaster Dōgen.

In his thesis Dijkstra focuses on Eckhart’s and Dōgens thinking on the great metaphysical question of the relation between the One and the Many. He investigates this question on the basis of Arvind Sharma’s concept of “reciprocal illumination”: the idea that philosophical texts from different cultures can be each other’s mirror and thus lead to a deeper understanding of both.