I today got an e-mail from an Argentinean friend informing about a fantastic project of the UNESCO, the World Digital Library, which has been inaugurated in Paris on April 21st, 09.

It is an on-line library that will have as its content the knowledge of the cultural patrimony of all the countries added to the initiative. The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

The navigation and content descriptions are in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The portal has been created with famous institutions from all over the world such as The Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Egypt, the Library of the Congress of the United States and the national libraries and some cultural and educational institutions of more than ten different countries. Have a look at the description on Wikipedia.

The Ch’onha chido (Atlas of the world), the traditional Korean atlas produced in the early Ch’oson dynasty (1392-1910), derived from a map produced during the Chinese Ming Empire (1368-1644). From WDL.

An Indian friend sent me a very beautiful and touching powerpoint about an old Chinese story called “The Cracked Pot“. It is about the value of the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. Enjoy!

A cracked pot, from an art exposition, photo of my son.

A friend living in the States sent me the link to the presentation of a film called “Playing for Change: Peace Through Music“, described as “a pan-global survey — and marriage — of varying styles of world music…” On the site there is an inspiring video with the soundtrack “Stand me by”:

“Starting on the pedestrian mall in Santa Monica, Calif., helmers Mark Johnson (who narrates) and Jonathan Walls made a recording of street singer Roger Ridley performing “Stand by Me” then took that tape all over the world. They added singers in New Orleans and Amsterdam, a guitarist in France, a Congolese drummer, some Zuni drummers in New Mexico, making musical collaborators out of people who’d never met.”

(c) from the website Playing for Change
“Long-range partnerships of singers all around the world are being formed: A singer sings in Buenos Aires, and his female backup trio, the Oneness Choir, is in India… A lot of the musicians are not seen playing in their own homelands — sometimes by choice, sometimes by the choices of others.”

(c) from the video

My friend also sent me another link, to the blog of Gita Saraydarian, with a beautiful recent post “Ode to Joy. The Power of Music”. Gita Saraydarian is the Founder and President of TSG Foundation, an organization dedicated to the Ageless Wisdom Teachings. Year ago I read some books of her late father, Torkom Saraydarian, to whom the organization is dedicated.

Yesterday and today I got some beautiful links from friends.

Here is a very good video from Greenpeace, called “Breathe” – it shows the pulsating nature of Nature, what we call in spirituality the sound of SOHAM, of existence. (You might also like to read the Lunar Messenger on Pulsation or the one on The Art of Breathing.)

This is a beautiful website: Poetry Chaikhana – Sacred Poetry from Around the World.

The “Dirty Car Art Gallery” shows how you can create art on dirty car windows.

And here is a beautiful inspirational video called “Buddha Verse“.

Birds – photo of a friend

I just got an e-mail with a beautiful powerpoint and the following text (link added by me):

“As an artist  myself, I am sending you the attachment to one of the world’s most  unique and deeply inspiring experiences for art and garden lovers of  all ages created by Bruno Torfs.  On Saturday the raging fires  in Victoria completely destroyed his unique forest creation taking  over 300 paintings and scuptures.  As you take a walk through  the forest on the attachment herein, please take a  moment to reflect on the beauty gone and the many people  who have lost their homes, their loved ones, their livelihoods, the  severely injured, the animal life and the dedicated firefighters,  police, civilians, and those involved in caring for the traumatized  and injured. Peccato! Schade.”

Interestingly enough, the name of this garden artist is “Torf”, a German name for peat, which is used to nourish plants…

May the powerpoint and the website keep this bygone beauty in a good memory.

Photo from the powerpoint presentation.

From another friend in California I got the link to a website called Architects of a New Dawn. It is a new social networking site by the musician Carlos Santana that is devoted to positive and transformative music and media.

On the site it says:

“Architects of A New Dawn is a project, born from the dream and vision of Carlos Santana, to create a new global network, driven by extraordinary music and powerful media content. It is designed to engage people of all walks of life to work together to create positive change in the global community where love can replace fear and where peace can replace conflict.”

Carlos Santana writes: “One of the things that has become very clear to me in recent months is that after carrying an idea in my mind and soul for decades that the time had come to bring my vision of Architects Of A New Dawn into reality. The world today is as deeply challenged as it is inspired. Never has there been a more profound time to harness the possibilities for positive change, especially in this era of mass communication. This is my invitation to you to join us in this transformational work.”

On the site you find a number of beautiful videos, and music videos, like “Sacred” (with scenes of Buddhist monks in the old Ankor Wat temple, Cambodia)

The site “is an invitation to join and connect with other Architects literally from every part of the globe to find ways to effect change and transform our world together.”

A friend from California sent me as a New Year’s greetings a link to a very inspiring video posted on the NASA-website (astronomy picture of the day). However, this one wasn’t about spacecrafts or galaxies, but of a man by name Matt Harding traveling around the planet and dancing. And animating people everywhere to dance with him.

The video is also on YouTube, and elsewhere. He has a website: Where the Hell is Matt?, where you can read more about him.

Matt got his journey around the world financed by a chewing gum producer, on the site of which you can also download the video in hi-res and different formats. Through his dances he is spreading joy and inspiration.

My friend sent the link with the words: “The video reminds us of the Tibetan’s quote ‘May the Love of the divine Self be shed abroad in our hearts, through our Group and throughout the World. And may the power of the spirit of Man triumph.’ And so it is…”

Last week I read an interview with the Swiss professor of art history, Johannes Stückelberger, about the relation between art and religion. He is teaching at two universities in Switzerland and will start teaching at the National Taiwan University in Taipeh (see link). In the interview he remarked that in the last years famous artists have started decorating churches with glass windows or art expositions are being held in churches in a way which was impossible some decades ago: Artists would have ruined their reputation: Religion was considered to be something private, and the churches were turned more to the inside. Now they go out again into visibility and understand their buildings as public places.

This thought is very fascinating: In other cultures religion or spirituality are much more part of public life. When traveling through India you see signs of the religious attitude of the people everywhere along the roads or in cars, at home or elsewhere in public. I have seen offices with pictures of gods and gurus in a way you would never show here in the west. Though at my office several collegues have little pictures of either a spiritual teacher or a representation of the Divine –  a little statue, a flower – it is quite uncommon at other places. The Christmas displays are more of a decoration value then of a declaration of one’s beliefs. The head-scarf, however, has here quite clearly a religious connotation, coming from a cultural background which didn’t go through the process of secularization.

I myself feel it is more natural today to speak about spiritual activities than it  it was some years or a decade ago. There seems to be a change towards a greater openness, and artists seem to experience this opening towards subtler spheres of perception, in their search for new ways of interpreting the reality. A sign for the growth of the Aquarian age?

An angel in front of a café / bar in Engelberg.

This morning while doing some shoppings in the city of Berne I discovered some nice shop window scenes. I love these “kitsch as kitsch can”-sceneries. The Indian Gods on tour in Swiss shop window decorations – what a colourful meeting.

Reflections of reflections – passers-by and display dummies

Non-attachment in the shop display: The Buddha meditating

The child Krishna playing, accompanied with some Sarasvathis, and Durga listening in the back, on a tiger

Hanuman between some vases – ready to serve

Shiva and Parvathi with Ganesha between the storage racks

Shiva sitting on a lotus, with his drum and kamandulu (bowl), surrounded by serpents (symbols of time), blessing the photographer.

Krishna playing flute, with Nandi at his feet.

Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman in a boat, surrounded by white horses

Sarasvathi, the Goddess of the Word and of Wisdom, sitting on the white swan (symbol of respiration), playing veena (instrument with 7 strings, symbolising the 7 planes, the music of creation).

Another statue of Hanuman, in deep devotion

Enchanting Krishna, playing the music of the soul

Riding through the ocean of shopping illusions

Melancholic angel: When shall I be redeemed from this boring shop existence?

Harlekin pondering on the mysteries of commercialism

Last Saturday the sun was shining from a brilliant blue sky and reflecting in the fresh snow. I went to the nearby Villa Mettlen to take some winter shots. In the villa there is the music school of our town, it is surrounded by a beautiful park.

Boxwood balls with snow-caps

The Villa – snow magic

A natural Christmas tree in the park

Old hut in the little forest

Another enchanted hut in the cold sun rays

The sculpture of the Black Sun

The boxwood dance around the winter fountain

Angel’s Spring

Sunrise over the boxwood globe

View through the old terrace window

Dwarfs’ greetings

Ducks in the river light

An old hermitage chapel

Christmas bells in front of the town hall