We asked our teachers five questions about them and their lives. Here is what Martine responded:
1) If you could go back in time, what would you tell your younger self / what do you wish you’d known at the beginning when you started out on this path?
Nothing to say about that one. I am happy with what I did. I would say: good choice.
2) What brings you joy? What makes you unhappy?
To appreciate things brings me a quiet joy. Stress and fatigue lower my limits and I can become irritated for brief periods and be less patient.
3) If you weren’t teaching what career would you have liked to have?
This is the best thing I could ever have done. In my youth I thought of becoming a journalist.
4) What one phrase or teaching do you come back to the most / have you found most useful? (Buddhist or not)
“The busier you are the slower you should go.” by a Korean elder nun, a great practitioner.
5) Whats the most unusual place you’ve meditated or taught?
A sort of rundown boy scout house in Germany with stacks of beer in the entrance.
You can find the responses of our other teachers here.