The Awareness Podcast, Ep.39: Living in Not-Knowing with Jenny Beal and Maureen Thienpont: The Stone Reveals the Form
Oct 18, 2022
Episode #39: Living in Not-Knowing with Jenny Beal and Maureen Thienpont: The Stone Reveals the Form
In this Living in Not-Knowing podcast, the sculptress Maureen Thienpont describes how a traumatic event in her life awakened and clarified her understanding that there is more to each of us than just a body-mind. She explains how the events of life itself have guided her towards an ever-deeper recognition of the unity of self with all that exists, and led her to her teacher, Francis Lucille. Her work as an artist producing sculptures from stone is underpinned by not-knowing. She is guided towards a stone, without knowing why. And when she starts to work with the stone she has no idea what form will emerge. We discuss the importance of approaching life without expectations and surrendering to what is. When intuition and connection are not flowing, she leaves the stone until the right moment arises, which may be as much as a year later. To do otherwise would be disrespectful. She gives examples of how she applies this same approach of openness, trust and intuition, to helping friends who are in difficulties.
ABOUT MAUREEN
As a child I often felt alone, not that I had no friends, but in the way I experienced the world. My father once said "you are different, you see things that we do not see". Very often I had the feeling "I do not exist". Either I lost myself completely in the other, I became the other, or I rebelled. To get a sense of existence, I would either please or fight. This exhausted me completely, but it made me look deeper into myself. Meanwhile I read books by Paulo Coelho, Deepak Chopra, Rumi, and the Dalai Lama.
In the early 1990s, something very drastic happened, a milestone in my life. A loved one suddenly died in my arms. This has awakened so much. Then I knew for sure, there is much more than this body and the world. Many events in my life had already made that clear to me.
I didn't really have a teacher. My teacher was, as Francis Lucille puts it beautifully, “The yoga of life”. When I look back, all events, encounters have given me wisdom, inner peace and strength. This became very clear and obvious when I met Francis Lucille.
In 2011, I followed a spiritual course in the GEA center, with Els Van Hoogenbemt and Joost Vanhove. One day they invited me to watch a video of Francis. Never before had I felt such recognition and liberation. After this video I said “I have to meet that man” and in the summer of 2011 I met Francis for the first time in Weyarn, Germany. And in that meeting I found my teacher who inspires me, guides me in my "yoga of life”, to experience love, inner peace but especially the happiness in myself. Thank you, Francis, so much.
Learn more about Maureen and her work at https://maureenthienpont.wixsite.com/artwork
