Joost holds a master's degree in Oriental Languages and History (Modern Japanese – Classical Chinese) from Ghent University — an academic deepening of the same listening that runs through all his practice: what do body, mind and silence share?
The bodily practice began early: hatha yoga (Eric Gomes, 1981) and taijiquan in the Liu Wai-sang tradition (1985) laid a foundation of soft, attentive movement that continued to permeate everything that followed. At the centre of Joost's practice stands aikido (5th dan) under Tomita Seiji Shihan, whose student he has been since 1992, and iaijutsu, the art of Japanese sword-drawing (4th dan, Musō Jikiden Eishin Ryū) under Benoît de Spoelberch and Yamakoshi Masaki. Both paths point to the same thing: when the self is not in the way, connection arises naturally.
Alongside this, a second thread developed: sitting meditation in the Deshimaru lineage (1988), in the tradition of Maezumi Roshi with Frank De Waele (1998–99), later broadened through mindfulness MBSR training with Edel Maex. From 1999 onwards, member and later board member of the Leerproject Association — a community of dialogue and inquiry in the spirit of Krishnamurti — a connection that continues to this day.
Since 2012, this deepens through self-inquiry guided by Mukesh Gupta (School for Self-Inquiry). Slowly all paths converge — aikido, iai, taijiquan, meditation, dialogue. As a question that goes deeper than any discipline: what is the ground from which we stand, move, listen? What is true stillness, presence, deep contact? That question is not the end of the practice. It is its foundation.
He teaches at Ban Sen Juku Brussels and leads meditative walks in the forests around Bruges. More at meditative.be.