This morning a friend mailed me a link to a video on Google France entitled Earthlings (with French sub-titles). The film shows how animals serve mankind and how man is dealing with animals. The entry to the film says: “The images you are about to see are not isolated cases. These are the Industry Standard for animals bred as pets, food, clothing, for entertainment and research. Viewer discretion is advised.” And a comment besides the film says in French that the documentary is not recommended for children under 16 years or for sensitive souls.

I had a look into the 1.36 h film, which left quite an impact. The speaker brought a quote which summarises the message: “We need a wiser, more comprehensive and maybe a more mystical concept of animals.”

For this topic see also the blogpost on “Vegetarianism – A Contribution to Fighting Climate Change“.

A news in the German IT-newsletter Heise.de reported games developers are sure that in 2 years characters in computer games will have photo-realistic faces with authentic facial expressions, expressing emotions. These human-like characters should be difficult to distinguish from presentations of human beings. Ian Livingstone, from Eidos, the producer of the “Tomb Raider“- series even says: “We will be able to play with the emotions of the people – we can make them laugh or cry, we can make them sad.”

Digital life is more and more mingling with real life, the boundaries are getting more and more blurred: A whole parallel universe is developing on the platform Second Life, a virtual 3D internet world with over 3 million gamers. Here nearly everything is like in real life – shops, banks, enterprises – and above all entertainment: Chatting with friends, going to parties, creating your own fantastic outlook or surrounding – in a city or on an island of your own.

The virtual life is also a bonanza for making money or marketing. So it is no wonder that the “real” world is penetrating the virtual world with big enterprises like Mercedes or IBM opening branches there. Sweden has opened an “embassy” there and the big German media house Bild.T-Online is publishing an English second-life magazine called The AvaStar, reporting only about events in the virtual world, of course available only electronically. The title is a combination of the words “star” (and everyone in Second Live wants to be a star) and “avatar”, the virtual personality – and in spirituality an incarnation of the Divine.

The virtual second life reminds of the etheric plane or more subtle planes of “first life”, which you might contact in out-of-body experiences or about which people with near-death experiences report: After having shed the body and before passing on to higher planes the soul stays for a while in a world of subtle forms called kama-loka in Eastern wisdom, the world of desire-forms. You can get stuck there – very much like in the virtual world of electronic games. The headline of The AvaStar: “Newbies Lost in Grid Chaos – confused newbies suffer first day nightmares in Second Life” could very well refer to the experiences of a person arriving in the world of near-death experiences. Have a look at the Lunar Messenger on “Etheric Existence and Good Will“.

A friend sent me today a link to a YouTube-video about change of lighthouse crews, with the words:

“On those days when you think you’ve hit every roadblock possible, or you think the hurdles to get the service activity done seem insurmountable, think of the lighthouse crew.”

The scene is not just a video-clip, but is full of deep spiritual symbolism: The waves represent the turbulences of outer life, the ocean the totality of the background existence. The boat can be seen as the man who is steering his way through the waves. The lighthouse is a symbol of the higher self, the soul, giving illumination. There is a gap between the boat and the lighthouse, which is bridged by a rope, via which the crew ascends and descends. It says that between the personality and the soul, resp. between the higher and the lower mind there is a gap, which has to be bridged on the spiritual path. Read more about this in the Lunar Messenger on “Building the Bridge“.

So contemplating on a situation may give you a deeper understanding than just watching the outer scenes

Today a friend from Califonia sent me a link to a fantastic video (8-9 min.) of a pantomime/puppet act, if you can call it that. It is an art that leaves you wondering like a good magic show, but it has the beauty and awe of Cirque du Soleil. The artist is Jerome Murat, from France, also called “The Man with Two Heads”.

Pantomine is acting in silence, thus focussing on the action, and often like here masks are used to sharpen the focus. In the show Jerome Murat even reduces the colours and uses only white. This reduction to the essential is something very much needed on the spiritual path. Though here it is a pantomine “show”, it is showing very basic elements, playing with illusion. Enjoy and keep aware.

A friend sent me a link to a beautiful video on YouTube with Chinese female dancers representing in a performance the Thousand-Handed Goddess of Mercy. It is the female representation of the Buddha Avalokiteshvara, known in China as “Kuan Yin” and in India as the Boddhisattva of Compassion. All 21 dancers are deaf-and-dumb. Inspiring !

In the last two days I got two beautiful powerpoint presentations from friends in Spain, one with photos from a journey to Tibet (3 MB), another with most delicate motives from China (5.9 MB). Have a look at them, if you like to make a journey in your imagination.

I got today an interesting presentation about the huge dimensions of creation – really awe-inspiring. You can see it here as a pdf-file.

A friend from Munich send me a link to an inspiring sildes-movie by Kate Nowak: “May you be blessed“, if you like to see it. See also the text of it.