Picture: The path leading to the Maasvlakte Beach
We zig-zag the roads and highways through the immense Port of Rotterdam: kilometres and kilometres of tubes, chimneys, steel and concrete constructions, smoking refinery plant towers, waste basins with no-entry warnings, no man land stretches between. A strange, almost beautiful ugliness of the industrial world this civilisation has created. It seems endless, but eventually we reach the end of it and leave the car in an empty parking lot under a raised embankment. Only few steps and there we are: At a beautiful, long, and broad sandy beach. It feels we are among the first to enter here – clean, sea-washed sand at the low tide, seagulls, and flocks of more birds and ship on the horizon.
The cool waves of the Atlantic and its strong pull. The wild joy of being enveloped in the elements of sun, wind, and water. If I did not come that way, I would never believe we are still a walking distance from the industrial harbour. A perfect beach afternoon. A perfect experience of discovering, being fully present and tuned. A meditation. Yes, the harbour is a metaphor to our mind: the maze full of smoking structures, complicated forms. Yes, it is useful; the seeming chaos is in fact ordered to create wealth. Yes, it is often tiring and demanding. When in mind, we do not see easily beyond, we do not know about the existence of the spacious shore of the pure consciousness. Until we willingly step out of it and into the immense territory. We gasp with awe and acknowledge our presence and joy. The place to come and rest and find strength and confidence.
Well, well, I am learning to live in both simultaneously; to seek beauty in the chaos of the mind, to go regularly into more openness and purity of the consciousness. It is the binding and supporting force of the mind, anyway. There are many ways to get there; skipping LSD and other drugs, I choose breathing techniques, asana practice and meditation.
But roads are many, we create them with every step.
To visit Maasvlakte beach:
https://www.maasvlakte2.com/en/index/show/id/452/beach-art
