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Internal Practice • Amanda Haas Abd El Halim

@internalpractice

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Collective somatics in Yoga & Zen Buddhism
🪬 PhD cand. 🧿
🙏🏼 Decolonial healing justice
🤲🏼 Slow powered
📎 @amandahase
🖇 @schoolofobservation

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My article on “Finding liberation through anger” has been released and is now available in the latest @ursachewirkung magazine. It is loosely based on @lamarodofficial Lama Rod Owen’s book “Love and Rage” and my experiences in Buddhist and spiritual practices.

It seems quite a current topic, in a time where yoga teachers are being called out for speaking up on matters of justice and a majority of spiritual guides on the other hand being completely silent.

Social justice is an integral part of Yogic and Buddhist practice.

Ahimsa, non-harming is a practice in all spiritual practices, but has different names. It shouldn’t be confused with avoidance. Avoidance can be a form of Spiritual Bypassing.

#ahimsa #zen #budhhism #zenbuddhism #yoga by @internalpractice

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3 years ago

Once I’ve worn the Keffiyeh during a meditation practice at my then Zen place in Berlin of five years. Apparently an Is reelli had felt frightened by me. Each time I had spoken to the teacher in the aftermath, he reported more people had felt intimidated. At one point he was telling me five people (!) stepped forward, to raise their voices against me. Had someone been shopping for feedback? They felt intimated by me wearing a piece of cloth. By a PoC, who was expressing a connection to the suffering of an indigenous people, during an ongoing brutal and live-streamed gncide, executed scrupulously by a fscst settlr c()l0nialist entity—not unlike what happened in Germany and through Germans not so long ago 🫠.

It’s so easy to mistake wrong view as right. Or to have ‘no view’ at all. Apparently especially in Germany 🙄. I guess somehow some people lost their moral compass along the way? And apparently there’s a lot of righteousness in predominantly white spaces in what is a ‘correct’ way of grieving and what is the acceptable amount of solidarity expression.

I’ve had it.
I left that community a couple of months ago. Racism and ignorance has no place in Buddhist practice.

I’m just so sorry it took me so long to see this. And I’m so sorry I can’t leave a marker of warning at the front door: “Please don’t enter here”. But then also, maybe it’s not needed: I’m just particularly patient and slow in understanding. 🫣

#zen #zengermany #zenberlin #notsociallyengaged #meditation #sangha #berlin #zazen by @internalpractice

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13

a year ago

I am more than happy that my article has been published in “Buddhismus Aktuell”. The text raises questions on how we can be more supportive of marginalised persons and what it means to practice awakening and the path of liberation in Western and predominantly white Buddhist communities. Sometimes such sanghas can have white spots in certain areas and behaviours. Some norms and values may be taken for granted and we may have preferences without questioning the status quo. This lack of awareness of one's own biases can close the doors to a more diverse and inclusive community. People in positions of responsibility - and everyone else, of course - please do more research. Let's practice the path of the bodhisattva: opening up to the possibility that our individual suffering is connected to the suffering of everyone else.

I hope to get some feedback from you!

#zen #buddhism #buddhismus #community #sangha #whitespot #bipoc #diversity by @internalpractice

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4 years ago

Our ancestors, and the numberless Buddhas and Arhats are with us. They left us their instructions how to move forward and how to rest in stillness, how to be with the deceased, how to be with the beloved and especially also how to relate to the hated ones.

I’m so thankful for the numerous teachers that support me and keep me from connecting with teachers that speak loudly and claim perfection 🙄. And I’m thankful that they guide me again and again towards kindness and attention and the ability to hear the quiet whispers of the wind.

As long as we’re alive we’re creating new memories and new knots in the web of things. Let’s just walk each other, fully and friendly, guided by these knots 🪢 holding the ropes of the karma as our guidelines. And let’s just listen to the many ways the wind, the butterflies and flowers are popping into our vision. Let’s learn from them. The lotus flower grows in fertile muddy waters.

🪷

Forever grateful for one of my biggest teachers, that passed away. And also heartbroken 💔. The last four weeks were not the same. We’re forever with you, you’re forever with us. ♾️ Thank you for showing me unconditional love, again and again.

#ancestors #buddhism #zen by @internalpractice

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3 months ago

Join us for the upcoming CityZen: yin yoga (gentle stretching), Zen meditation and sharing circle.

📿
Sa, 30. Mai 2026, 15–18 Uhr
📍@zendo_am_fluss & Zoom (bei Anmeldung vermerken)

📿
Auch im Jahr 2026 treffen wir uns wieder gelegentlich zum gemeinsamen sanften Yin Yoga und kurzen Meditationen. Wir tauschen uns nach der Praxis bei Tee aus. Einige Übungen werden im Sitzen oder im Liegen durchgeführt, andere im Gehen und beim Sprechen praktiziert. Es sind keine Vorkenntnisse erforderlich.

Zukünftige gatherings:
Sa, 22. August 2026, 12–16 Uhr
💎💎💎

🪷🌝
Amanda Rengetsu (she/they) ist langjährige Yogalehrer*in und seit 2005 Zen-Praktizierende in diversen Lehrkreisen die mit Soto-Shu und San Francisco Zen Center verbunden sind. Luzern > Japan > Berlin > Basel > Ägypten: Amandas nomadische Praxis steht für Inklusivität und sozialem Engagement und für transformative Prozesse die sich aus dem somatischem Körpererlebnis nähren.

Anmeldung
Bitte möglichst früh, bis 3 Tage vorher via E-Mail: info@internalpractice.com

Teilnahme spendenbasiert
Spendenempfehlungen:

CHF <25 Geringes Einkommen
CHF ~55 Normalverdiener*in
CHF 55+ Unterstützer*in

www.internalpractice.com/cityzen2026

Wear comfortable cloths.
Come as you are.
Experienced or meditation newbies.
All welcome.

#sangha #zen #zazen #cityzen #zendoamfluss by @internalpractice

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5 months ago

Am I enlightened yet?
(Please mind your head. Niedrige Decke)

#buddhistretreat #meditation #introspection #internalpractice #hausderbesinnung by @internalpractice

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4 months ago

Ensō, perfect imperfect circle of life.

⭕️

Our baby boy-cat is all of a sudden in his 21st year! Every day is a blessing.

🖤🤍🐈‍⬛ by @internalpractice

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7 months ago

Join us for the upcoming CityZen: yin yoga (gentle stretching), Zen meditation and sharing circle.

📿
So, 26. April 2026, 13–17 Uhr
📍@zendo_am_fluss & Zoom

📿
Auch im Jahr 2026 treffen wir uns wieder gelegentlich zum gemeinsamen sanften Yin Yoga und kurzen Meditationen. Wir tauschen uns nach der Praxis bei Tee aus. Einige Übungen werden im Sitzen oder im Liegen durchgeführt, andere im Gehen und beim Sprechen praktiziert. Es sind keine Vorkenntnisse erforderlich.

Future gatherings:
Sa, 30. Mai 2026, 15–18 Uhr
Sa, 22. August 2026, 12–16 Uhr
💎💎💎

🪷🌝
Amanda Rengetsu (she/they) ist langjährige Yogalehrer*in und seit 2005 Zen-Praktizierende in diversen Lehrkreisen die mit Soto-Shu und San Francisco Zen Center verbunden sind. Luzern > Japan > Berlin > Basel > Ägypten: Amandas nomadische Praxis steht für Inklusivität und sozialem Engagement und für transformative Prozesse die sich aus dem somatischem Körpererlebnis nähren.

Anmeldung
Bitte möglichst früh, bis 3 Tage vorher via E-Mail: info@internalpractice.com

Teilnahme spendenbasiert
Spendenempfehlungen:

CHF <25 Geringes Einkommen
CHF ~55 Normalverdiener*in
CHF 55+ Unterstützer*in

www.internalpractice.com/cityzen2026

Wear comfortable cloths.
Come as you are.
Experienced or meditation newbies.
All welcome.

#sangha #zen #zazen #cityzen #zendoamfluss by @internalpractice

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7 months ago

I visited a Zendo I didn’t know yet,
with a long held routine of sitting.
In every place, the rules may differ,
the sitting is the same, anywhere.

And the sitting itself,
is never comparable.

Thank you for practicing together.

🧘🏻🙏🏼🪷 by @internalpractice

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9 months ago

My biggest gift to myself is nothing, or I’d say, everything. It changes so much, once I truly and really started to believe and value the emotions that were arising. I felt I could also act on them, or not. Sounds so simple, but I believe we’ve been trained to override and even stop listening to ourselves to ‚function‘ well or when survival mode.
This of course doesn’t mean, I always have to act them out. It’s mainly about recognising and fully acknowledging what is arising as being fully okay, instead of gaslighting myself or pretending otherwise.

#meditation by @internalpractice

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9 months ago

Nature is healing and nurturing. Basqui our 20,5 year old companion is my greatest teacher. And I don’t need to buy myself into any system. All I really like to do, is to study and understand more about this life. And to get rid of harmful habits. If some people want to come along with me, let’s be friends!

The Okesa, the Buddha‘s robe, I am hand sewing is coming along bit by bit. It feels like a testimony to my capacity to touch on grief and also on great joy.

I hope this practice will work against the false narrative of neutrality. When it actually means the perpetuation of an oppressive status quo, power system that benefits a certain group and class mostly. It feels oddly violent this current way of having to match the convictions of „how to be a good Buddhist“ before being invited in and seen as worthy. Such has Buddhism in the west become, that it is just plain out biased.

„Maybe rest is truly a form of resistance,“ is a quote from a video I’ve recently made on creative Egyptian resistance in the face of neoliberal exploitation and privatisation of public gardens in Cairo. How to protest such an act without officially protesting, in a place that doesn’t allow for political mobilisations?

And this brings me back to the Kesa sewing. I’m totally enjoying this process, and the negation of effectiveness. It’s really like an act of resistance to take it slow, but to keep on dedicating myself to it. I’ve been practicing this practice of Zen Buddhism since now 21 years, and plus a few more years in Chan. Such a practice gives and has been offering refuge for hundreds of years. It’s a great tradition. But what isn’t such a great thing, is the complete ignorance of Western teachers towards the tradition of incorporating one’s own suffering to the practice. That’s why a practice is never neutral. And a practice place is not an apolitical place. The claim of neutrality is one of brutality: it’s connecting only a certain kind of suffering to the practice, everything outside of it, will be labelled as distraction. That’s not been my practice understanding. Everything is part of the practice. No pick and choose. No shutting out of certain topics and situations.
😌 taken in With Friends by @internalpractice

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10 months ago

It’s time for our first tiny online community retreat! The Inclusive Buddhists (QT BIPoC All Inclusive Community) is open to everyone, with a focus to underrepresented folks. Please sit with us Saturday, December 6, 10am-12pm CET. free.

🔗 Link on request.

Our small community is growing and it’s very much needed. We already meet daily online in the mornings for sitting practices, we occasionally hold dharma talks and listen to each other’s sharing. And now we’re going to have a small first online retreat, hopefully many more will follow.

#meditation #bipoc #qt #buddhism #inclusivebuddhism taken in Zoom Online by @internalpractice

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a year ago