A long time ago, in a galaxy, far far away.....
There once was a young boy who dreamt his way through life,
in the cozy city of Nijmegen, hugged on all sides in the low lands,
surrounded by brothers, friends, and family.
Things changed when life became more serious,
in high school, the place where one was told to choose a subculture,
choose a certain attitude, belong to a certain group—if one was to “fit in”.
Unsatisfied, he refused. Choosing sides meant he would lose
contact with his inner world. He was sent to Berlin, to spend time with his grandparents, and that is how he found his first mentor.
As the years passed, through many travels, and even university,
the boy kept dreaming. Dreaming about a world where people allowed
each other to be free. A world where one could freely discover
the different inner and outer worlds.
Coming from a warm family, certain virtues were passed on:
being open, curious, giving,
always believing in oneself,
finding good teachers, education,
respecting oneself
and the natural world.
Being creative is what he liked most, making things, writing, imagining, singing.
Through love and loss, in music the boy found his calling.
He dreamt big dreams of conducting orchestras.
But soon he found out that there was a tradition that did not help musicians become free and loving people.
After a visit to a Zen monastery, he knew he had a mission
to change the tradition from within,
to uncover the deep and rich spiritual tradition of the West
that lies dormant in those musical works.
It was the Zen master who told him, that the great challenge in our time would lie in restoring our spiritual tradition.
After many hardships and travels, he found his way to Vienna, the old capital of music,
where he has been trained by classical musicians for the last several years.
He never forgot his original mission, to transform our musical tradition
by rekindling our spiritual connection within ourselves.
Because instead of competing against each other, only when we recognize our different layers of identity, and that of the other, we become humans again.
And we are able to fully come back home to our true selves.
Because of his imagination, the boy was never marginalized by modern capitalist society.
Through deepening the different layers (body, soul and spirit) of himself,
through writing, violin making, singing, and composing music and poetry,
he has been preparing for his most ambitious project:
A peace project that aims to resolve the collective hurt which binds Germans, Austrians, Israelis, Jews and Palestinians.
In times of moral decay, our true moral backbone becomes visible.
Inspired by German ancestors of mine who stood up against fascism,
and by people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer,
it is my purpose—as I understand it—to deepen my ethics,
so as to be able to remain in contact
with that boy that keeps dreaming
of a world where we as humans are generous
with each other, ourselves, our planet
and all the different cultures and identities that our world has to offer.
Do you want to keep dreaming with me?
Yours,
Simon van den Berg.
Home Impressum