During my last stay in January 2018 at the WTT Retreat Centre in Visakhapatnam, India I participated in a one hour video discussion moderated by Anuraag Saxena, an Indian from Singapore, originally from Visakhapatnam. See here my previous post.

Five other group members from the West also took part in the lively discussion. It was about our spiritual path in search of the eternal wisdom, in India called Sanatana Dharma.

With his videos, Anuraag is trying to inform Indians abroad about the rich heritage of India and make Indians aware of their treasures of Sanatana Dharma, the essence of Hinduism. None of us Westerners would coin ourselves as “Hindus” (the title of the video says “Why I became a Hindu?”) but we deeply agreed with the core values, esp. also “Vasudhaiva Kutumbaka” (see in one of the video links), meaning “all the world is one family”.

Here are the links to the video discussion as well as to the 10 4-5 min. snippets. These are his accounts on Facebook and on Twitter.

1.       Sanatana Dharma. What’s so cool about it?
2.       Singularity & Vasudeva Kutumbakam
3.       Katy Perry Vs. Spirituality
4.       Science Vs Spirituality: Opposing forces?
5.       Wealthy but lonely. The curse of Western Capitalism
6.       Digestion & Appropriation of Indic knowledge
7.       Is God a woman?
8.       Why is Catholicism against Diversity & Inclusion?
9.       Purushattva & the resurgence of Yoddhas
10.     In the end: Be Liberal

It is certainly not the purpose of the Lufthansa commercial “Dance with the Arctic Ocean” (#LifeChangingPlaces Lofoten) to stimulate pondering upon the adventure of turning inward. No, this is an amazing video to deliver the feeling of the thrill of extreme experiences. It shows the surf photographer Chris Burkard changing his old life in warm California against a new life in Norway’s ice, storms and cold. The solitude of surfing in the surge of the Lofoten at minus 23 degrees as the ultimate kick, after feeling bored with the most beautiful surf beaches at the top spots of the world: “In this moment I knew: This is exactly what I have been searching for… I came here because I didn’t want to do always the same. Now I know, I don’t want anything else.”

This sounds like the words of someone who has overcome all bodily limitations and experiences the Yogic state of bliss; whose thoughts and desires have been burnt in the inner fire and who is in deep inner peace. Yogis too, are sometimes living in extreme climatic conditions without being touched by them – their path is just a tiny step ahead of the search of extreme sportsmen and photographers.

The inner journey, however, goes deeper than the thrill of ecstasy brought about by all kinds of extreme experiences which many are searching for today. Maybe the craze of high performance sports with their celebration at the Olympic Games or football championships is just a preparation for the ultimate step towards oneself and from there to the One Source.

Photo: Lufthansa video #LifeChangingPlaces Lofoten (c)

I came across a number of beautiful digital gifts (videos and photos), see the links below. There are fantastic collections of pictures and plenty of good commercials – partly with a profound, touching message. Some of them are real treasures – enjoy!
I put short comments to help you to orient.  May you have a good Christmas time and all the best for 2018!

1. Photos

• Advent Calendar with space photos – a must-see ! The calendar is still running
• 2017 in Volcanic Activity – fiery world!!!
• Winners of the 2017 National Geographic Photo Contest – sublime
• Hopeful Images from 2017 – Touching

2. Commercials – Videos 1 (Not Christmas commercials)

• “We’ll take care of you, wherever you are.” – Samsung India Service (SVC). Great! Very well done and touching! More than 150 Mio views. Showing a technician on his way to a particular repair order in the Himalayas.
• Ping Pong Trick Shots 3
• Kia Niro commercial 🙂 Funny
• Marconi Union – Weightless (Official Video) Relaxing Video – A ballet of drones dancing over a mountain lake. About the band – Article about the video

3. Commercials – Videos 2 (Christmas commercials)

• Christmas in the Andes – together it will be better! – by OTTO – Extraordinary, very well done. My favorite
• Christmas – a time for reconciling – A moving commercial from Penny
• Gifts of a homeless man – German Railway / Deutsche Bundesbahn
• “Miracles don’t happen, you make them” – a demented women from an old age home, sees again the home of her youth – well done!
• Christmas, a festival of love – A robot in search of Christmas. Nice Edeka “end time” commercial 🙂
• Becoming friend of a monster – John Lewis Christmas campaign, something for children.
• London Heathrow Bears – cute
• Find your fairytale Christmas – a modern Cinderella
• Apple: A “christmas-neutral” spot, playfully dancing
• “Beautifully normal” – celebrate your kind of Christmas – a bit weird but “it need not be perfect….”
• A Christmas Miracle of animals in a forest – in German

 
Picture from the Video: Gemeinsam wird’s Weihnachten – Der OTTO-Weihnachtsfilm 2017

The last weeks two friends sent me links to videos of Sean Buranahiran, a young and very successful Thai internet star who is talking about doing something good and living an ethical life. More than 2 million people by now have subscribed to his Facebook page and he publishes one wisdom video per week on his YouTube channel, with over 120.000 subscribers.

Sean Buranahiran, image extract (c) from a YouTube video

The videos are done with simple means – it seems either by himself with a mobile or with the help of friends. He teaches moral principles with catchy stories and in a language which people can easily understand. And he has a magic way of speaking which inspires and touches the listeners.

He is giving public talks, too, although I heard him say on a video that he doesn’t want to travel much any more since he gets headache – he had been a kick-boxer and got whams on his head… Above all, he speaks in a “down to earth” and humble way about things like having respect of others and oneself or about finding inner peace.

On his website, you find classes/lessons in which he shares his thoughts, techniques and personal experiences. He calls it IVM (meaning 4 – the Latin IV – and M, meaning mastering). The four M are:

1. Mastery: How to a master a skill. The higher you go the more humble you must become.
2. Mission: How to set life’s purpose and make a living from it.
3. Mindfulness: Make peace inside and out, then you will hear what is in your heart.
4. Manners: Having good manners will take you where money can’t.

He gives people the feeling they can do something for themselves and others – really a work of good will!

Btw., he speaks a lot about a practical philosophy of life but on the web and in his social media channels I found nothing about him as a person. Although he seems to be active in Thailand, he gives as his address L.A. (Los Angeles) – what does it matter for universal wisdom?

The Buddha and the Beggar

Be Proud of your Scars – A lesson from a broken Japanese bowl

The Worst Day Ever – a poem with a surprising turn, performed by Sean, written by Chanie Gorkin

For the celebration of the May Call Day, a team from Argentina, Switzerland and India has realised a video as a “Homage to the Mother of the World“. A part of the recordings was filmed in a home in Argentina, which is supported by the WTT group Sudama, Buenos Aires. The children are either orphans or have been taken away from their parents because of drugs or violence.

The music was composed and played by the WTT group of Mysore. I moderated the project and gave some support. We drew the inspiration from the book on “Sri Suktam – The Nature and Characteristics of the World Mother” by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar. It was a very inspiring group activity.

Sebastián Rey Aristomuño, from Lipika Films in Buenos Aires, realized a video clip on the basis of my painting “Aries – Permeation”. Here you can read more about its symbolism:

The ancient Vedic seers described profound wisdom with the help of symbols. They saw the manifestation of a new creation as coming out of a Golden Egg and permeating the different dimensions of space. They visualised the beginning of a new cycle with the story of how the head of the proud Daksha was cut and replaced by the head of a ram, the symbol of Aries, the power of stepping forth and penetrating. They further took the horse as a symbol for the life force and they saw Aries as the head of the horse. The sunrays, the transmitter of life force, are called horses and the seven rays are seen as seven horses drawing the chariot of the sun. The sunrays are understood as permeating space, being at the same time present in the Sun, on Earth and in between.

The image slowly developed while meditating on these symbols and qualities for several days. I took the ram head from the photo of a fountain in the old city of Berne. I placed it into a circle of twelve suns and created a sphere with the seven spectral colours on a starry background of space. In the middle of the circle I placed an egg-shaped form out of which light permeates – a symbol for the Primordial Deep, Aditi, the Mother, which gives birth to the devas, beginning with the Sun-god.

At the lower part of the image I created a fiery sphere around the Sun and I placed seven white horseheads and I added to their heads flames in the colours of the seven rays. I created the horseheads with the help of a Wikipedia photo by “Aleph” showing the Brandenburg Gate Quadriga in Berlin at night.

The painting has been done with the inspiration of “Spiritual Astrology” by Dr. E. Krishnamacharya (Master EK). Sebastián brought the different layers of the image into movement and thus shows the  various dimensions of it. He had already done the clip “The Aquarian Zodiac“.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Aries paintings.

12 December 2016, pencils and photo work

From time to time, I have forwarded nice image collections or links to videos and more via e-mail to a “friends’ list”. I call them “digital gifts”. I receive them from friends or find them on the web.

I normally do not publish them in the blog – I don’t want to get copyright issues with pictures and many of the “gifts” are just a nice pastime.

Here you find the link collection which I gathered over the last months – I don’t add the pictures and don’t  frame the videos here…

Nice commercials – in German, but you will understand:

• Always there for you: Immer für dich da – 125 Jahre LEIBNIZ Butterkeks
• Miniature Wonderland on Google Maps – something for the adult children
• Intel: 500 Drones Light Show – impressive

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• Where the Hell is Matt? – Dancing around the World !!!
• More of Matt: Outtakes
• How did Matt get people dance with him?

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• Elemonics – Scientist translates chemistry into Music !
• Pictures about “Nowhere Lands” by French photographer David de Rueda: Old spaceships, ghost cities, powerstations, (German explanations)

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• Photo Dharma : Around 10,000 photographs of Buddhist archeological sites, pilgrimage centres, and temples in SE Asia, as well as Videos, Maps, Posters, etc.
• Holybooks.com : free PDFs of many sacred and spiritual texts from many traditions, also Theosophy
• Dharma Vidya : Lots of pictures of Indian deities
• Hindu Devotional Power : pictures and texts, stories and more
• Mygodpictures.com : pictures of Gods of many cultures

Where the Hell is Matt? (2012):

Extract from the video (c. Matt Harding)

The clip “The Aquarian Zodiac” was realised by Sebastián Rey Aristomuño (Lipikas Production) from Buenos Aires, in cooperation with me, on the basis of the “Images of Synthesis“. It is released now on the occasion of the celebration of the Master May Call (29 May) a video-clip is released in homage to Master CVV.
Thank you Seba for the good cooperation!

Some kind of a Christmas present: The French TV channel France 2 is running a talent show “Prodiges”, about high talent children in the fields of classical dance, music and song. For their program of 27 December, they have realised an extraordinary flashmob at the “Centre Commercial de Beaugrenelle”, at Paris. Here you find photos about the “making of”, and here videos of different young talents. I don’t like boosting children under the label of “child prodigy” with the related pressure of competition and career but just enjoy the joy of the young performers.

Not a talent show, but if you want to send some Christmas greetings to a friend, you find here some e-cards with pictures I took during the last winters.

Photo from the YouTube video (c France 2)

Mikhail Sadovnikov, a Russian artist and former mathematician, uses a spinning potter’s wheel to create hypnotizing dynamic patterns from out of wet clay sludge. On a high level of artistry, he transforms and melts the design to ever changing geometrical forms. The beautiful video “Dance on the Circle” is accompanied by a calm but driving Russian music.

Here is another video about Mikhail Sadovnikov, “The Magic Of the Pottery Wheel“, where he shows children his unique ability to create magic images – and the children enjoy creating their own ones. And if you can read Russian – here is an article with some pictures about the creation of this outstanding performance. Mikhail’s clay art reminded me of the sand art by Ilana Yahav, about which I had blogged 6 years ago.