About me

There are moments you never forget. A moment when everything feels different for a while. As if the world becomes quieter, yet more alive at the same time. As if you are completely present, without having to do anything. I had a moment like that when I was young. And although I couldn’t place it then, I knew: there is something here. I never entirely lost that feeling, even if it sometimes faded into the background.

My name is Martijn Vlamings. For more than thirty years, my day-to-day work has been in the world of IT. A world of systems, structures, processes and logic. Work in which clear thinking, overview and solving complex problems are central. At the same time, another current always ran alongside it. A quiet interest in consciousness, meaning and the question of what becomes visible when thinking stops for a moment.

What began as curiosity about movement and energy grew into a deepening path through Qigong, the I-Ching and Advaita (non-dualism), among others. Not as beliefs to adopt, but as ways into direct experience. Ways of exploring what happens when you do less, perceive more and look more openly.

Over the years, these worlds drew ever closer together. Where technology often revolves around understanding, organising and improving, this work points to simplicity, stillness and insight. Not opposed to each other, but complementary. In complex systems, too, it is often true that when you remove the noise, the essence becomes visible.

The reflection cards and the book 64 Gateways to Insight are an expression of this. Not answers to every question, but invitations to reflect. A way to pause, to look and to recognise what is presenting itself right now.

My book on Qigong has now been published too: Beyond the Practice. In it I write about the silent core of Qigong, about healing and presence, and about what remains when the practice itself gradually falls away.