Interview: Geertje Couwenbergh

november 17th, 2010 | Author: Ruby

1. I am: don’t ask this to a Buddhist. A Buddhist would say i am empty, i am nothing, and I am an idea. But to be a bit more concrete…. I am alive, i am a writer, i am a Buddhist, i am a student.

2. I get my inspiration from: from being alive and paying attention to life.

3. My maven is: Dolly Parton…. I think she’s great, a real example of how you can live your life. she has an enormous amount of vision. She started of with nothing, a typical rags to riches story. She doesn’t take herself too serious; thats why she’s a great entertainer. The past 7 years my appreciation has grown for her! To me she has unique wisdom, she’s self-deprecative and self-relative, which just makes me love her even more.

4. Buddhism? What is Buddhism according to you? Who, what, when, how? Your experience? As a teenager I got interested in Buddhism but when I turned 21 the real click was developed. I started meditating. What I think is so powerful about Buddhism is that its nothing new, it’s merely a reminder of what we already know. We forget quite quickly who we are, what we can do and how we can be as human beings. You don’t need Buddhism to realize these things but I use it as a tool. It’s like a series of observations to help me remember. It all has to come from within you.

5. How do you live Buddhism and spirituality in your daily life? It is extremely easy, you need hardly anything. However you do have to do something for it. I meditate everyday and I do special programs every now and again. The funny and somewhat controversial thing is is that you do something for it but in fact you do nothing at all. It’s quite odd. When I meditate everyday and I attend these programs it’s not for the fun of it but i’ve noticed that in my daily life I have more space in my head and heart and that is more than worth it. It feels so great! You feel connected and the meditating really helps with that. I try to see people as if they are more real, each unique and alive. The people around you are sort of like extras in your life, but when you really look at them as if they are each real person with a life story it gives you a totally different feeling and different viewpoint of life.

6. What does the word sustainability mean for you? To me it has to do with living with the awareness of the natural cycle. That you understand that things don’t always increase or get bigger and better but theta they also have to come down again. And then having this awareness on all levels of life.

7. My style is: My style is focused on connecting the inner world with the outer world. How you do anything is how you do everything. How you dress is also a spiritual process. Attention.

8. How do you see your future? Well how I hope for it to be is…. I would really like to continue to write, continue to meditate and continue to stay on the Buddhist path. Those two main things are the most important to me.

9. How did you get where you are today? How did you experience the journey? I had a very fortunate childhood and upbringing, very supportive parents, met many special teachers and from that I feel very blessed with the foundation I got. But i’ve had my fair share of life dramas.

10. What is your favorite motto(s)?

Always let go and never give up.

The quote is from a teacher of mine. It is the contrast, which inspires me. Even with the positive things, all things are temporary. On one hand trying your best whilst it being meaningless.

11. On your facebook page there is a little quote:

“There are two tragedies in life: not getting what you want, and getting what you want.” George Bernard Shaw

Explain what this means to you?

We always think that we will be happier when we receive something or get what we want. It doesn’t matter what it is, we think in “if then…”. When we get what we want it often disappoints or there is already a new desire. Getting what you want is highly overrated. This society is living by the “ me plan”. When you think of others you get a lot more happiness from that! You will see that your happiness lies within that. When we do something for someone else we feel good, so why don’t we do it more.

12. 10 wys….How did the idea for the book come about?

I was walking around with the idea for a while already, when I met lisette I told her my idea and she was completely in. So we decided to give it a go together. We actually wrote it separate from each other. I wrote the 10 main chapters of life themes and lisette added the lifestyle tips at the end of each chapter.

13. What is your personal goal for this book?

I already got out of it what I wanted and hoped to get out of it. Writing the book was a sort of therapy. The process was quite intense. If I would die tomorrow then i’m content with having left my life visions behind. The “10 wys” are just the main general themes of life, so all the smaller or different ones can all be sub life themes of the main ones i’ve included in this book.

14. What do you wish this book will bring others?

I hope this book will bring others what it brought me; for people to look at their lives with a fresh outlook because a lot of the time we are unaware of our own life’s, what we’re doing and where its going and ultimately if we are really happy about the way its going. “Is this really the way I want it to go”? For example what is the worth of money, what is its meaning? In the introduction of the book I wrote; “its as if we are becoming aliens, as if we are aliens looking at our owns lives”. When you look at your life with an aliens perspective you will see that you will wake up, and see the opportunities for change. When you’re caught up in your own life and routine you can easily develop a tunnel view. It’s to make the change, the world needs it. If people when reading the book get the feeling of “oh yeh.” that is to me the biggest compliment.

15. The theme of 10 WYS is pretty serious and deep, how did you make sure that it remained light and still fun?

I tried to make my text very accessible, the book designs very quirky and light and the added lifestyle tips from lisette make it a very easy and practical book

16. Do you still enjoy what you do?

Yes absolutely. Writing makes me as happy as a kid in a candy store. Whenever I write I never have the feeling of that I should be doing something else. I feel that there is nothing better that I can do. Just fulfilled. This feeling really broke through when I started writing 10 wys. The moment that I really thought I want to dedicate my life to this was actually the beginning of 10 wys.

17. What advice would you give to inspire someone else?

Try not to search too much for the “what” but much more in how you want to be in the world and what characteristics you would like to have. To be content, see what you already have. Even more important is how you are as a person and how you can deal with things that don’t go the way you want them to go.

18. What is your ultimate goal to achieve? Being of benefit to others.

19. What advice would you give to someone who wants to turn something they love into a job?

Be very focused and strong minded on the long term, and very open and flexible on the short term. So for example, if you have a passion for writing, let nothing keep you from it. If on the short term that means getting a job as a waitress; do it. Be flexible. Set your eyes on your goal, but accept that the path leading there has many curves and is as part of the journey as the destination itself.

20. Bucket list? 5 things you want to do before you die?

OMG. Okay… I want to get married (and really mean it), I want to go to Dolly wood, Dolly Parton’s version of Disneyland, I want to publish a collection of poetry, create world peace and study with Pema Chodron, one of my biggest inspirations -aside from Dolly, yes.

21. What do the words love, create and celebrate mean to you?

They sum up this magical experience we call being alive. They feed off each other. I think it is a beautiful affirmation for this time.

22. On your invitation for the book presentation of 10 wys it says: “Forget succes and even happiness, wisdom is the new status symbol of the generation Y”. I am very intrigued about that so could you elaborate? Also the y generation…in relation to the soul fudge generation

I think that too often people settle for less. Being successful and happy usually means that we get what we want. This makes our happiness very dependant on various situations where we often don’t have any control over. Wisdom, on the contrary is on a level below. Wisdom has to completely do with living, experiencing everything and not to be scared for who you are. It means being flexible and to separate all information and choices through asking yourself the question: does this make my life bigger or smaller? This exactly is the challenge for generation Y and most definitely for the soulfudge generation. It’s like Generation Einstein who is already being overloaded with information and a changing world.

I’m very curious as to how you guys are going to shape the world. It’s up to you!

23. Recently you have become a fulltime writer, why do you want this, what does it bring you?

My life is never boring, but I also don’t know how I am going to pay my rent from in three months. What it brings me is the priceless feeling that there is nothing which id rather do. I’m living my life to the fullest and that is what I believe is true richness