1983 — I began aikido training with Sinia Blondin in Gent.
1984 — Seminars with Michel Bécart began — I would follow him for years, training in Gent, Lille, Paris, Vannes.
1985 — Rudy Joliet took over teaching in Gent. Seminars with Tamura Nobuyoshi and Yamada Yoshimitsu. I discovered taijiquan with Liu Wai-sang at the Sabatini theater.
1986 — I began studying Oriental Languages at UGent — Japanese & Classical Chinese. Sugano Seiichi seminar in Gent.
1987 — The Kobayashi Hirokazu seminars stand apart. Three days in Brussels, two days again, then five days in February 1988 — watching him move, I fell in love with aikido. That love has never left. Training with waka sensei Moriteru Ueshiba (son of Kisshomaru, grandson of the founder, now the Doshu) in Brussels and Charleroi.
1988 — Roland Rech gave lectures at the Blandijn auditorium at UGent. Zazen practice began — sitting at the Gent zen dojo (Deshimaru lineage), with Frank De Waele's circle, attending sesshin.
1989-93 — Years of wide searching with Alain Peyrache (from November 1989) and Philippe Voarino (from 1991). Training with different teachers, different approaches, different lineages. By now I'd trained with Tamura, Yamada, Sugano, Kanetsuka, Kobayashi, Bécart, Peyrache — and even with Moriteru Ueshiba himself.
In 1990, at a Day of the Rising Sun event in Antwerp organized by Frank van Hoeck, I first met Tomita Seiji. He demonstrated both aikido and iaijutsu. Something about his presence, his decision, his embodiment of the art stayed with me.
By 1992, I was living in Brussels (Ixelles), near Tomita's brand new dojo at rue Malibran. The seminar book tells the story clearly: in November 1992, I attended three Peyrache seminars and three Tomita seminars. The choice wasn't clean. I was still training with both simultaneously.
Six months of hesitation. Tomita Seiji doesn't teach techniques — completely different from other aikido approaches I'd experienced. He teaches what is universal in all martial arts, bringing aikido movements back to their essence. I kept wondering: Is this really the aikido I'd commit to?
During that one year in Brussels, I was translating Kisshomaru Ueshiba's old aikido instruction book as my master thesis — the son of the founder. The book taught techniques, forms, methods — traditional instruction. But in one small passage, about controlling balance through certain contact, I found confirmation of what Tomita was transmitting. That passage pointed to principle. Tomita taught from principle, not toward it.
This was the pivotal decision that shaped everything that followed.
I received my master's degree at UGent in July 1993. Even after choosing Tomita, the seminars continued broadly: Voarino again in October 1993, Kobayashi in June 1994. The choice wasn't clear cut yet, but the center of gravity had shifted.
In early 1993, Tomita began formally teaching iaijutsu at Malibran. He'd been teaching bokuto and jo within aikido before, but now iaijutsu was presented as a separate art — though he explained aikido principles through it. In his teaching, they were always inseparable. The sword revealed what the empty hand practice could not communicate.
Later in 1993, I returned to Gent and established the BSJ dojo at BLOSO sportshall, co-organized with Henk Coudenys. Tomita taught Tuesday, I taught Thursday. Early students included Marc Eliaert, Steven Trenson, Erwin Sevens.
For five years — 1993 to 1998 — I organized for Tomita Sensei, built the dojo, served as his representative in Gent. I didn't know it then, but this period was laying a foundation of trust that would endure through everything that followed — through my sudden resignation, through two decades of going my own way, through years of less intense seminar practice. That foundation was laid.
In the summer and autumn of 1997, Steven Trenson and I went to Japan through Tomita's contacts. We trained at Takeuchi dojo, which Tomita had founded in 1971 — a very refined aikido.
It was clear: Tomita's aikido in Belgium was higher level than what we found in Kyoto dojos. The six months of doubt in 1992, the choice over Peyrache — all of it validated in those months in Japan.
But the truly transformative meeting was Yamakoshi Masaki sensei — 20th generation Muso Jikiden Eishin Ryu Iai. Real koryu transmission. Watching him move, I understood something that has stayed with me ever since: there is a deep connection between the old ways of the sword and aikido.
In 1998, I suddenly resigned from BSJ Gent. After five years of building that foundation with Tomita, I needed to explore more independently.
Around 1999, the Krishnamurti thread deepened significantly. I became involved with Vereniging Leerproject — reading circles, video showings, the Belgian Krishnamurti Committee. These meetings began at my Achterstraat dojo.
From 1999-2002, I ran my own dojo in Achterstraat, St Amandsberg. Here conscious integration began: teaching aikido, teaching meditation, hosting Liu's private taijiquan and Taoism philosophy classes. Liu also taught Qi Yi Dao. The threads crossed, mingled, recognized each other.
Around 2001-2002, Yamakoshi Masaki visited Belgium, invited by Tomita. I hosted an afternoon of him teaching at Achterstraat.
Aikido, iaijutsu, taijiquan, zazen — they were portals into the same awareness. The body as a gateway. Not transcending the physical but discovering attention through the physical.
In 2004, I started Suishin dojo in rural Lembeke near Eeklo. A deliberate choice — evading the transient city environment where students come and go easily. For fifteen years, we built stable practice there, carrying both aikido and iaijutsu forward — Tomita's transmission of universal principles at its heart.
Taijiquan (1985-now): Liu Wai-sang taught at Sabatini theater (1985), Hogeschool Gent (1991), through Igor Houwen (1994-96), and privately at Achterstraat (1999-2002) — 17 years. Marc De Bruyn, Liu's first student, taught mind boxing at Café de Pinguin (2014-15). Luc De Smet, another advanced student of Liu, taught in Bruges (2022-25, paused December 2025).
Zazen (1988-now): Roland Rech and Frank De Waele (1988-2000s), Edel Maex (2010 MBSR, 2024 silent retreat as genuine zen teacher). Mindfulness Vereniging (2024-now).
Krishnamurti (1981-now): Books (1981), Leerproject (1999-now), Padmanabhan Krishna (met before la Maison, which started 2008), Mukesh Gupta (2012-now) — la Maison retreats continuing, Maria Aalter retreats (2020-now).
It began in 1981 at the Yogacentrum on the Muinkkaai — books by someone called Krishnamurti. The reading continued quietly for years.
The real start was 1999. Becoming involved with Vereniging Leerproject — reading circles, video showings. From member to librarian, to co-organising weekends and summer weeks, to president of the board. A community of inquiry, deepening steadily.
Around 2008, I began attending retreats at la Maison in Beaumont-la-Ferrière, France, led by Padmanabhan Krishna. Several years of sitting with serious inquiry in that space, before everything shifted in 2012.
In 2012, at la Maison, I met Mukesh Gupta. Everything I'd been exploring for thirty years — Krishnamurti's writings since 1981, the reading circles since 1999, the embodied practice through martial arts, the years with P. Krishna — culminated.
Mukesh's approach is greatly based on the art of listening: learning to attend without the filter of conclusion, expectation, or memory imposing itself on what is. We've worked together intensely ever since — retreats at la Maison continuing year after year, and for the last five years, retreats in Belgium at Maria Aalter, organised in cooperation with Leerproject.
The two threads — martial arts and Krishnamurti inquiry — no longer parallel but one.
Around 2010, Benoît de Spoelberch returned from Japan. Ben had started aikido at BSJ Brussels, then lived in Japan for years, training intensely with Yamakoshi Masaki sensei. He received his 'kongen no maki' scroll and was asked to teach this traditional iai in the West.
When Ben started teaching in Brussels, Leuven and Lembeke, I became one of his first students. The circle closed — practicing the same way Steven and I had practiced in Kyoto in 1997. Recently I received 4dan from Ben sensei.
When you hold a sword, there's no room for mediocrity. The quality of your attention is immediately visible. When you receive an attack in aikido, no gap between sensing and acting. Listening with the whole body — not conceptually, but actually.
Iaijutsu is being in connection. This connection is essential not only in iai, but in aiki, in taiji, even in yoga, zazen, self-inquiry, daily living. This is what the art of listening is about: deep connection, being one.
"You don't need books or techniques. Life itself is the teacher." — Mukesh Gupta
In October 2024, I attended a silent retreat with Edel Maex. Here I discovered him as a genuine zen teacher — something that hadn't been visible through the MBSR context fourteen years earlier. Edel and Mukesh point to the same ground through different vocabularies.
Around 2019-2020, I passed responsibility for Lembeke dojo to Filip De Smet and Greet De Baets. I continued visiting about once a month.
In October 2025, I began teaching bi-weekly at Brussels Ban Sen Juku, where Tomita Seiji — now 87 — still teaches when he can. Filling a role that is still finding its shape.
What I can offer is how Tomita sensei was teaching in his earlier days in Belgium, when he was young and strong. What I can offer is where I've arrived through his instruction. This isn't Tomita's way. It's what emerged from sincere practice across multiple lineages: Tomita's transmission of universal principles, Liu's taijiquan and his students, Yamakoshi's and Benoît's koryu iaijutsu, the Deshimaru zen lineage, Mukesh's self-inquiry.
The story isn't concluded. It continues to unfold.
I owe gratitude to all the teachers mentioned in the curriculum above, as well as to:
Georges Rousseau, Yamakawa Yasunari, Eric Gomes, Jules Buteyn, Caroline Gallet, Peter Aelbrecht, Pol van den Broecke, Charles Willemen.
To those who helped build the dojos: Henk Coudenys (BSJ Gent co-organizer), Lieven De Smedt (Bakermat dojo setup), Esser Reiner (IJskelderstraat dojo building), Corinne Debroye (children's class Bakermat), Marc Eliaert, Erwin Sevens (took over BSJ Gent), Dries Cappon, Greet De Baets & Filip De Smet (took over Suishin dojo 2019-20).
To all the students and friends who have been part of this journey — a thousand thanks.
To Kim, Marieken and Andreas: without you none of this would be possible. 🙏🏻