Over the last months, we met several times via Skype as the steering committee for the “CVV Sharing” – five members to plan and organize this year’s meeting at spring equinox weekend.

Yesterday, Sunday evening, we had an extraordinary meeting where we wanted to discuss the impact of the corona virus and the latest anti-virus regulations – how to continue with next weekend’s meeting in Northern Germany. Our two dear friends from Denmark, team members, just had informed that they would not be able to come – Denmark had just closed down the borders to Germany. I thought of “ro-pla”, rolling planning. I had evaluated the dangers and was resolved to go in spite of difficulties. In the afternoon already, I had checked official German and Swiss websites and saw that the border to Germany was not closed – not yet.

During our Skype meeting, we had an interesting exchange. I told what I had experienced in my surrounding – what the situation was doing with the people and the heating up of the topic via mails, social media, newspaper. I told what I heard from my son, an officer of Swiss Army and ambulance man who might have to go this week for service at the Italian border supporting hospitals in emergency. One team member expressed that he feels it is a hype, that the fear and virulence of discussion is stronger than the effects of the virus. He shared some interesting thoughts from his perspective of being a spiritual astrologer – about the Pluto-Saturn conjunction in Capricorn and its impact on societies.

The other member, also a spiritual astrologer and in addition a profound symbologist, mathematician and IT specialist, said that he tries to understand the effect of the corona virus not by “what the virus is” but by observing how it expresses – its signature and symbolic characteristics. For him, it has to do with fire, it shows qualities of Leo, the royal sign, and it even carries the Latin name for “crown”.

Now the rulers of nations close the borders of their “kingdoms” – something some have dreamt of before – and people get locked up in their places. It affects the way we rule our lives. Environmentalists did not succeed in what the nearly invisible virus brought about in a few weeks – drastically cutting down flights and other travels.

Observing the statistics published about the fast spreading virus, he sees that this dynamism will for sure not be stopped in a matter of a few weeks – the graphics show a development intensity that will take months to calm down again, even with new and effective medicines on the markets….

Suddenly during the conversation my telephone started ringing. My youngest son just came back from Germany and my wife was driving him to his home. They told me that at 8 am next morning Germany will shut down the borders to Switzerland and other countries.

I realised that I cannot travel, will stay locked up. In the Skype meeting we discussed the new situation. My friends decided that they will try to keep up the group life. I could no more join them.

In the night, while I was sending out the invitations that the online study groups will continue this week with a special for equinox celebration, they communicated,
“The CVV sharing is taking place. We think it’s important to meet in this situation for joint meditation and seek the vertical connection to the Master energy. The program will change because we have some cancellations… Our plea: Come to share! There is no better way to strengthen the immune system as social / spiritual contacts, group meditation, the testimony to Timeless Wisdom, Love… and humour! Let us remain aligned in love.”

I will join in spirit – and with our online groups.

P.S.: My friend mentioned above commented:

“Dear Ludger, the Latin word corona has so many meanings. One main is the surrounding, limiting circle, a Saturn symbolism. Once upon a time, the world power Rome crowned its slaves. Rome, the Lion capital of the Lion country Italy – a really heartful country, but also the first corona-infected in Europe!
Our world is divided in rich and poor. Most of humanity lives in poverty. The apparently privileged people in Europe and all over the world are becoming slaves to the financial and economic systems. More and more we are loosing our creativity, our big Lion potential – the other side of the meaning: corona, the heavenly the Sun power.
I hope we will return to that power and the main Lion gifts – giving and loving.”

This is the 1500th blog-post. I started blogging on 31 March 2006. I called the blog “Flowers on the Wayside”, along the roads of Good Will.

This post is about incense. Recently in an online-meeting with friends someone said, “But please don’t bring these black heavy ones…” They preferred light, Japanese incense. I also like but I silently thought of “these black heavy ones” which had become my trusted companions since many years. And I thought to write some words about them.

Of course, there’s no arguing about taste, and we can also add, no arguing about smell. Smell has a profound influence and you can remember it over many years. I know of a sandalwood fragrance which was used at a meditation seminar in summer 1975. I got one package, and it was so delicious… I never found that species again.

Many others followed. In a way, it became a dear meditation habit to light an incense. And when once one of my sisters told me that it was a dangerous habit, that the smoke is harmful to the lungs, that in India, living with open windows, it might be OK but here it is not – I thought, then may it be my little addiction… I especially like some of the kinds manufactured in the Sri Aurobindo ashram – they are striving for perfection.

I came to know the “black heavy ones” when I first came to the WTT group lives end of the 90s. They were not my favourites in the beginning. But I heard that they are made according to a recipe given by Master EK. I had felt a long, long calling by Master EK, over nearly 2 decades, before I approached and joined the path. And the incense became something linking me to this. And they became dear to me.

I heard from others saying, “I do not like them” – but I started liking. Maybe it was similar like with coffee, tea or smoking; it often does not taste well in the beginning but you can get accustomed. There are different flavours, and each time I am in India I get a good amount of them – for myself and also as a gift to friends. There is also one kind called “Sandal” – it does not smell much like sandal; however, I also like.

Incense supports alignment of the mind in meditation, to get the divine presence. In a group life in Argentina 2015 Sri Kumar said : “As far as incense is used it is to help you to get the presence. Once you are so well established in your prayers that you can relate to the presence even without incense, the incense shall not bother you.” Master CVV recommended incense, saying incense is important because the Master energy works through air, it is the permeating principle of the air. Therefore, having a good odour in the ambience is important.

Among all perfumes, sandalwood is considered to be the most sacred, because it supports the will in an excellent way, and it opens doors into super mundane much more effectively than any other perfume, than any other incense. There should be no artificial perfumes, only natural ones. Also before going to sleep you should light an incense and then go asleep, having conducted a prayer. Lighting a candle and an incense would dispel negative elements from the room. Sandalwood is also helpful for an easy departure and entry into the subtle planes at the moment of death.

Whenever we read a scripture about subtle topics, we should have incense and a candle. It is helpful to pray for the cooperation of the author of the scripture, as his presence is with the scripture. It is like a big light that can show us the intricacies of the text.

I yesterday found a thrilling video about the history of Europe from about 400 BC to the present (published 1. 1. 2018) in less than 12 minutes.

For every year, it shows – partly just for a split-second – the borders and populations of each country in Europe, northern Africa and Middle East. (Vassal states and colonies are not included in the count of a country’s population.)

The rise and fall of great empires – of the Romans, the Huns and Mongols, of Napoleon or the two world wars of last century – they all appear like the pulsating heart of a part of humanity. Behind all this flickering of states lie the destinies and sufferings of millions of people.

Keep in mind that from the larger perspective of the immortality of the soul, we all have gone through many incarnational experiences in the past leading us to where we are working out our lives now.

Did you notice? Unbounded space disappeared! It seems to be so inconspicuous that nobody seems to take note of it.

This morning, when I came along the construction site in our neighbourhood, I noticed it again. When the walls are put up, suddenly the sky starts disappearing and the unbounded space seems to condense into a tiny hall called a room.

I very well remember how, as a little boy, I several times run from the garden into my parents’ home and then came out again, and I wondered how it can be that space disappears in the house. And how it feels being inside, cut off from the freedom of vastness.

It is like getting into the mother’s womb. From out of the unlimited space of the subtle dimensions shrinking into the narrowness and confinement of body, with its heaviness. As a child, I had the feeling that I did not really want to come down. And it took me many years to get accustomed to live in such a narrow thing like the body.

Yes, the curtain slowly falls and you get used to it. As you get used to live in a room.

At the beginning, you can still see the larger space. Space…. another word for spirit. Slowly you forget that you are not an island, in a corner of space, but contain in you the great whole.

In the morning, when I walk over the field, looking up to the blue sky where just some clouds block the view, and where on the one side the ring of the horizon is limited by the residential area and on the other by the mountain range of the Alps in the distance, I feel like opening up my subtle bodies which envelop the encased spark of the Sun called I AM.

And when I come back into the street of the settlement, it narrows down again, a kind of crippling. Do the people living here notice it?

But when I go down the stairs into the house where I am living, and then the staircase up to our apartment – although it gets really narrow outside, it feels like having re-connected to the vault of heaven. And that the cosmic vastness is also here.

Morning sun shining on some dahlias from the nearby farmhouse, with the Sripada statue in the background, in my study.

About hornets, spammers and subtle attacks…

When the summer was rising I noticed an increased activity of “flight operations” in front of my balcony windows: Big insects arrived with some speed, landed on the roller shutter and seemed to do an inspection there.

They were too big for wasps – hornets! They had invaded the roller shutter box and disappeared through some holes. I googled, found out that they were less aggressive than wasps – which had visited us on the other balcony in the past years – and that they were protected animals.

Fine, I thought – but each time I tried to air the room they managed to come inside and were vagabonding around. In the morning and evening I could easily guide them to the toilet by switching on the lamps there, opening the window and closing the door – gone. During the day it took more time to get them out again.

It was getting hot – something had to be done. One by one I stuffed the chinks along the roller shutter with plastic bags – they could get in through tiny holes. When they noticed my activities, they increased their efforts. They could not really remove the plastic though they tried to gnaw it away. However, they managed to dig a little hole into the wall.

A group of hornets stayed together in one corner while the others brought food – a bigger hornet – the queen was sitting in the centre. I didn’t dare to go too close with my camera.

I observed it for about two weeks and tried to deter them with clove oil – no effect. When some days it was raining, there seemed to be less hornets – and I found dead ones on the balcony. Then – three hornets, two, sometimes just one, the lonely queen. Sometimes I thought they were gone again but then several hornets flew an attack against the window, clashing against the glass. But window and door were closed.

Then about a week ago finally they had disappeared – though not totally. I sometimes still see them flying around but they must have found another save haven. I pondered on the meaning of this experience… They reminded me of my vagabonding thoughts in a turbulent meditation – how to keep the windows closed? Wakefulness, discrimination, “non-refoulement”…

Two weeks ago, there was another kind of attack:

My provider informed me that my “spam@” e-mail had been hacked; lots of e-mails had been sent from the account so that the provider had to shut it. At the same time I was flooded by return e-mails blocked by other providers. I quickly changed the password – my provider told me that after a few days the flood might go down again.

It did not but increased: The “spammer friends” used my e-mail address without sending from my account to distribute their e-mails where lonely ladies were longing for lusty lovers… Each day 1-2 thousand return mails from other providers – from east, west, north, south, in varous languages ….

My provider installed some filters on my server but it only had a small effect for two-three days, then again over thousand return mails popped in. My provider told me that the only thing I could do is to put filters in my webmail. And so I defined a number of filters deleting the return mails. I suppose that the mail flood abusing my e-mail address is still going high but there is again silence in the spam inbox.
And again, I pondered on the meaning of the experience – shut out any unwanted “over-activity” of outer impulses trying to drag us away from ourselves.

A third kind of experience:

A few days ago, the daughter of a friend skyped me and explained about some strange experiences in her neighbourhood – I don’t go into details but she described how she received subtle attacks draining her energy. I rate her as an alert and quite down-to-earth person not prone to fantasies. She knew already a number of things of how to protect herself from attacks but wanted to know more about it. (I had blogged already about protection from energy vampirism before, see also here.) We spoke about mantrams and exercises like the double pyramid to insulate oneself of destructive intrusions.

Like with the other attacks, of hornets or spam mails, you need to keep your protective shields strong and your thoughts pure. You find interesting hints in the books of Agni Yoga, esp. “Supermundane“:

“People protect themselves from poisonous gases by wearing gas masks. But they should provide themselves with one more mask — the protective mask of pure thought — for only thought can shield one from the poisonous breath. People should admit that there is such poison, and remember that thought has the power to resist the most harmful vibrations. ” (Supermundane 291)

“You may also ask how to counter unwelcome visitors — only through the valor of the spirit, not permitting them to contact your essence. Urusvati knows how these unwelcome guests have recoiled; it was not even necessary to drive them away, for they could not penetrate the protective net. Such natural protection is always the best, but for this, training of the spirit is required. Depression is the most gloomy magnet, and irritation also entices these ugly guests.” (Supermundane 430)

P.S.: A friend from Miami wrote me as a feedback about “Attack and Defence”:
“I also have been reflecting, sadly, because the opening of schools in Miami Dade has had the emphasis in surviving attacks. I understand that preparedness is important, but it is sad anyways.”
Indeed, a sad thing – training children in schools to survive shooting violence a horrible consequence of the craze for weapons…
 

To get into the mood on Friday afternoon, everyone had brought something and put it on the altar: some books, pictures, small statues of Ganesha or turtles… In the evening we talked about the message of Sri Kumar on the energy qualities of the new year (contained in the Vaisakh Newsletter Aries): the name of the year, Vikari, indicates that there will be significant changes in all areas this year.

When the new cycle of the year begins on the vernal equinox and nature awakens again everywhere, a new beginning lies in the air. The CVV Sharings use this very special energy and the meetings for meditation and exchange in the spirit of synthesis are very intense and inspiring. This year the 10th CVV-Sharing took place, and for the fifth time we gathered at the seminar centre “Lichtblick” at Hude near Oldenburg, surrounded by meadows and forests.

For this year’s CVV Sharing Sri Kumar gave a message of Master CVV about inner observation; it began with the words: “In this yoga ‘thought power’ is essential and inner observation is most essential. Without these two, no one can get any salvation…” This year, too, the focus of the Sharing was increasingly on meditation: every three hours we made a meditative alignment, with longer meditations at 6 o’clock in the morning and evening as well as at lunchtime.

On Saturday morning a small talk introduced us to the myth of Chiron and we explored the associated qualities with an inner journey and group exchange. Later, triangular work led to reflections on topics of disconnectedness and valuations in us.

In the afternoon there was an introduction to the art of archery; then we practiced our first steps outside with bows and arrows. Afterwards we talked about the experience of illness and healing. And in the evening musical performances on the guitar lifted us up into subtle planes.

Sunday began with a fire ritual after the morning meditation. It was a magical atmosphere as the flames rose up and everyone put a piece of wood into the fire. And as we gathered for the group photo, the morning sun slowly rose above the dew-fresh meadow.

Later we shared about what makes us open our hearts and when and where we meet the light in others. We did a visualization exercise where we moved up and met on a platform in the subtle world. There we also want to meet for the full moons throughout the year.

Afterwards we took a group walk to a small lake in a nearby forest to say the World Peace Prayer. In the final round you could feel joy about the Sharing meeting; through the intensity of deep encounters the group grew together further.

The CVV-Sharing 2020 cannot take place at the seminar centre “Lichtblick”; the meeting will again be, like in 2016, at the “Seminarhof Drawehn” in Wendland, from 20 to 22 March 2020 – please make a note!

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With gratefulness I am looking at a new flower next to my office table – an audumbara plant. I would like to tell you the story of its background.

2015-16, when I was translating the biography of Srīpāda Srīvallabha to German, I came to know about the spiritual importance of the audumbara (ficus racemosa), which is said to carry the energy of Lord Dattatreya. In the book there are many mentions of the audumbara and in one part a saint is quoted saying:

“When the period of death approaches a sadguru may subject His disciple to terrible mental agony, horrible dishonours, unbearable troubles and losses and erase accumulated karma and grant him rebirth. An incarnation may subject His dependant to slight trouble and grant him rebirth. However, Srī Dattatreya attracts the life force of His dependants to the audumbara tree where He always lives and rescues the body of the dependant from the life force released from the audumbara tree. The ignorant dependant thinks that he is alive from the life force in his body, but the fact is that the life force emanating from the audumbara tree is conducting the bodily functions of the devotee uninterruptedly. The moment the period of death elapses the life force issuing forth from the audumbara tree firmly establishes in the devotee and the devotee lives for some more time. The audumbara tree will remain perfect however much the life force may be released from it. The reason for that is Srī Dattatreya remains well established at the base of every audumbara tree in a subtle form…
Whenever any difficulties arose in our house we used to solemnly go round the audumbara tree and present our troubles to that great tree. Our suffering was reaching Lord Datta. Our troubles were solved in an unanticipated way. The audumbara tree was acting like a bridge of friendship between us and Srī Dattatreya.
Sir, worship of the audumbara tree is a very important duty of Datta devotees. If an audumbara tree is in the house, it is as though Srī Dattatreya is verily in our house. However much the efficacy of the audumbara tree is described it amounts to an understatement only.”

When in January 2017, I presented the book to the temple at the birthplace of Srīpāda in Pithapuram, South India, I received some small fruits from the audumbara tree at the temple. I later gave them to Elli; she is a group member from Germany and regularly participating in the online study groups I am organising. Elli can make plants and flowers grow; she has a “green thumb” and a deep inner relation to plants. Two weeks ago, she brought 60 pots with audumbara plants for the members of the May Call celebration in Germany grown from these audumbara fruits (and she will distribute about 40 more plants at the seminar with Sri Kumar end of July in Billerbeck, North Germany). Their entire apartment had been filled with pots containing the saplings, and her husband had managed to store all the 60 plants in their camping bus, without accidents… I spoke a bit about the importance of the audumbara and Elli asked the members to chose their audumbara trees. Thus, the 60 saplings started their journeys to several parts of Europe – and one came to my home.

Audumbara trees on the window sill at the May Call celebration

When a member from Miami wanted to get seeds, Elli said to me that growing the audumbaras was not so easy: “I opened the small figs and put the tiny seeds, like yellow sand, on kitchen paper. And I sprayed water over them, several times a day. Over two months, nothing happened. Then 7 seeds started to sprout, and suddenly the entire paper was filled with green sprouts.”

Now, after more than a year, beautiful little plants have developed. Elli was very enthusiastic: “They were spreading such a lovely atmosphere all around. And when by accident a leave fell down, I rubbed them a bit and they emanated a wonderful smell.” And she felt the healing powers of the plants and described them to me. I was wonderstruck by her great love for the plants.

She then wrote a care sheet for those who got a plant:

Please note that the tree is growing in the tropics !!!! It cannot stand frost. The plant needs a lot of sun and heat.
Water: Test: Touch the earth with your finger to see if the earth is dry or damp.
Only water the plant when the soil is dry. The amount of water the plant needs is very varied.
If the leaves roll or hang down, the plant gets too much water. Please check if there is water in the planter. Pour the water out.
Place the tree, only in the plant pot, on a saucer 2-3 days in the sun. The audumbara tree does not like wet feet.

Plant mantra: OM Srim Hretaja Namaha
(Please contact the Devas for this plant to be beautiful.)

From July on every tree needs a bigger pot. The audumbara tree also requires a special soil: tub plant soil for “Mediterranean trees.”
If a leaflet is accidentally broken off by the audumbara tree, put the leaf on the spot causing pain or just on the forehead. If the leaf has dried for more than 2 days, it smells wonderful and the healing powers are more intense. Just try it.

My flower is now already in a bigger pot, of course with tub plant soil for “Mediterranean trees.” And with a little Dattatreya statue in front of it.

Today 18 years ago, on 16 May 2000, I passed a threshold in my life. It happened at the beginning of a group life with Sri Kumar at the then Taurus full moon, and it was my active joining the World Teacher Trust. I already wrote about it in two blogpost four years ago, “How I joined the WTT” (WTT: World Teacher Trust), and “Fire and Flame for the Fire Ritual”. I do not want to repeat these memories but I would like to share some facets of the unfoldment which started from that date on and was speeded up ever since.

Step by step, new activities and responsibilities crept into my life. For a long time, I did not realise their inter-relatedness. But looking back, I notice that while the scope and intensity of activities grew new skills developed. New activities build upon existing ones, and the latter always had to be maintained as a basis. For example, when I started publishing a newsletter, the related activity  had to be maintained and incoming new activities had to be integrated.

This way, the activities gradually started spreading into other fields, mainly by writing, structuring, condensing. The growth took partly place in my profession but it was more so in the realm of my volunteer activities for the wisdom teachings. For a long time, the two fields developed in parallel. Later, when I left my job, I focussed intensely on the latter activities.

I don’t want to give a list, but looking back, I see that the inner blessings came following the power of rhythm. I think this is nothing specific with me but of a general relevance. When you pick up an activity of goodwill and follow it with the related attention and continuity, its rhythm generates a magnetism attracting new and similar aspects.

I witness that although I do things with an active commitment, its impact is much better when it is not related to my personality. Things grow by themselves, through me as a doer but not by my feeling as a doer. It might sound strange to some but it contains the “magic trick”. Another, more “magic trick” is to stay aligned with the inner, the divine, to keep contact and follow the rhythm of inner work. Without this, the outer cannot thrive.

A basis topic in what I am doing since many years is: How to reduce complexity and make complex ideas or systems available in an easy manner. I started synthesizing themes of the wisdom teachings already in the 1970s with meditation seminar and in a way it has accompanied me in many forms. But only since I receive the conscious guidance of Sri Kumar, my mental structures became clearer and more fluid. And by following great role models, I got deeply formed, inside out.

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)

Normally, this blog is not the place to speak about private topics. But since yesterday (12 February) my wife and I completed a 30 years of marriage cycle – a bit more than a cycle of Saturn – I would like to share some thoughts. Especially since what I am doing towards the outside would never be possible without her support from the background.

We intensely live together but also in “different worlds”, treading our paths each in our own ways. From the very beginning, our relation was oriented to spirituality; however, it also was a training camp for both of us – partnership, children education, bridging the gaps between the different challenges of life.

We decided to marry in Aquarius, not yet knowing much about the astrological significance. However, it was meaningful and quite a shaping experience. Mutual freedom together with trust is a great value for us. For our marriage, I had created a symbol expressing our relation which we used on the invitation and also on the marriage candle.

When we selected the wedding rings, we chose one which was not closed but open – for us, it meant to be open towards greater things, towards the divine. At the open part, there is a pentagram. In the inside there is, besides the date and our names, the symbol you see at the header of the website with my paintings.

Around the time of selecting the rings in 1987

For the marriage, we designed a ceremony ourselves and looked for a priest who was willing to cooperate, and he was. Besides the exchange of the rings, there was a candle ceremony, where we spoke the invocation of the Tibetan, “We are a small light within a greater Light… and thus we stand.” This “thus we stand” was probably the most important for our path. From the candles in the centre, all participants lighted their candles.

Later, the wedding party took place in a nearby restaurant on a mountain, “Mänziwilegg”; it included the drama of my father getting a stroke and intense snow fall in the afternoon…

For our wedding jubilee we wanted to visit again this place. On the web, we saw that the restaurant had been closed for some years but recently re-opened on a smaller scale by the retired owners. Last weekend was a bit turbulent. Our granddaughter Lina (2) was there during three days; she now has learned to move all different things from one place to the other, spreading them all over our apartment. It is a challenge in which my wife is better than me. She said she can well activate the learnings from the education of our two sons and she is good in dealing with “child management”. We nearly had given up the plans to go to the Mänziwilegg but finally decided to go there on Sunday afternoon.

There was rain mixed with snowflakes in the valley but intense snowfall started on the mountain, like 30 years ago. We nevertheless wanted to walk the last kilometre from a parking. Instead of a beautiful view of the Alps, however, it was partly difficult to see the tops of the nearby trees. But we enjoyed it. We felt a bit like arriving at the South Pole when we saw the “closed” sign of the restaurant and laughed that both of us had forgotten the opening hours – Sundays closed.

We carefully drove downhill, bought an ice-cream in a service station shop and celebrated the marriage jubilee with Lina at home, in our “training camp” or “family ashram”.