The Own and the Other
The newspaper headlines yesterday were speaking about a rassist assault on a German with African origin 3 days ago, replacing the previous days’ headlines of a court-case about a murder of a Turkish origin woman by her brothers, to reestablishing the “family honour”. On our way for a visit of Schloss Sanssouci in Potsdam, a Unesco World Heritage castle where the Prussian kings had resided, we came along the ancient barracks of the British military administration, where now an electronic supermarket and other shops were located. We passed the ancient border between East and West, where the change in the architecture marked still visibly the difference between the worlds. During our walk through the Sanssouci Park one of our German friends told me that she was half Cherokee, being the child of a mother from Berlin and a high-rank American military official, whose remains now are resting on the famous Arlington cemetary in the States. In the Sanssouci park we saw statues of Greek gods and heros and China-inspired temples. From another friend we heard the life-story reflecting the time of the East German communist rule, with events of the “Stasi” secret service and the individual experiences during the dramatic fall of the Berlin Wall.
The recent world history is so present here, most controverse influences reflect in the lives of the citizens. Lines of past and present destinies focus in speedily pulsating rhythm. What is one’s own, what is the foreign, the influence one wants to keep out?
The rassist assault mentioned above bears witness of the fears caused by non-integrated forces. My spiritual teacher Dr. Parvathi Kumar says “Integrate, do not disintegrate”, and he told me two months ago: “It is much more difficult to integrate than to exclude.”
To be able to integrate I have to be integrated within myself, to be in connection with my self, my soul. When I am well linked-up, I can be open and bear the controversies in the currents of the outer world, without being washed away by them.
