I today received at my office a press release of Save the Children about a joint statement of 31 winners of the Nobel Peace Prize calling for urgent action to implement quality education and build peace in conflict-affected countries. Since it is a really urgent and worthy matter, you find it also mentioned here in the blog-post.

The Nobel Laureates have come together to call for change, as part of a campaign, “Save the Children”  Rewrite the Future” which fights for education for all children affected by conflict. The very true slogan is: “Peace begins in the minds of children” – and adults as well, you might add.

It is impressive that so many Nobel Peace Prize Laureates have joined to support this cause. The laureates, including President Jimmy Carter, the Dalai Lama, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, and Burma’s Aung San Suu Kyi, urged world leaders to pay more attention to the educational needs of more the 37 million children who live in fragile states and are unable to go to school.

You can find here some statements of Nobel laureates about the need for education of children in conflict.

Children in Ethiopia, photo of a friend

I yesterday dropped over a website on Buddhist jokes called “A Lighter Side of Buddhism”, by a Buddhist software engineer working at Google. His motto is, “Life is too important to be taken seriously.” Though not all jokes are easily understandable for non-Buddhists, you find a lot of funny staff.

You can also go to “Beliefnet” (“Inspiration, Spirituality, Faith”) where you find a daily joke, and you can group the jokes by faith (Christian, Jewish, Buddhist, Muslim, Hindu, Pagan, Everybody, More… ) or by topic … They have put a “Bad Joke Disclaimer” on their side, as a protection against bigots and others: “We recognize that religious humor can be risky. It is our hope that by laughing at ourselves (and others) we can make this subject more approachable. If you find any of these objectionable, we apologize. As with most jokes, the original authors are unknown – but we thank them.”

Jokes and humour are a great skill of teaching. Our spiritual teacher, Sri K. Parvathi Kumar, often brings laughter to his listeners and thus opens the doors of attention.

Also Master EK’s talks were full of humour. Photo of a friend.

In a pause during the workshop on image language I had a talk with a colleague who is interested in yoga and spirituality. She just has finished a psychological formation over 2.5 years and is now planning to participate in a formation in esoterics, as she said. I found out on the web that it is a “spiritually oriented therapy“, by a retired pychiatrist who was head of a clinic and is working together with a healer. He is quite known here, because already before his retirement he broke the barrier between orthodox psychiatry and spiritual healing, something part of his colleagues didn’t appreciate. My friend said that for the next year the course is already full, she is trying to get into it for the following year. The spiritual psychiatrist is going with the times: You can have telephonic counseling for € 2.16/Min. …

Though still marginalised, it is interesting to see how subtle topics are slowly getting into the mainstream of attention: Last week I came across a website of the Faculty of Humanities of the University of Amsterdam, where you now can study Western Esotericism. They have a major studies trajectory “Mysticism and Western Esotericism”, with topics like Neoplatonism, Manicheism, Sufis, Kabbalah, Mesmerism, Occultism, Illuminism, and they offer courses on “Heksen, Ketters en Neopaganisten” (Witches, Heretics and Neo-Paganism), “New Religious Movement and New Age”, “Filosofen als grenswachters” (Philosophers as frontier guards)…

Having gone through long years of studies in similar fields, I don’t think that an academic approach of studying different concepts of esotericism is the right path into fields of the higher mind and beyond, for it demands more inner work than outer (mental) studies. But may such an approach inspire people to enter into a path of self-transformation.

Building an enlightened house of life. Photo of a room in the house of a friend

The last weeks had been quiet turbulent at my office,  and it seems that the stormy days aren’t over yet. The launch of the new intranet is approaching and there are many things to keep an eye upon – besides other work going on. I sometimes had the feeling as if my mind was filled to the brim.  So I didn’t take much time for blogging.

Yesterday evening we had the first meeting of three evening themes of our Circle of Good-Will group in a nearby hotel, like we did a few times in the past. The general theme is The Call of the Soul, and the evenings are about 1. Awakening, 2. The Journey, 3. The Fellowship.

We had put an article into the local weekly paper, an announcement in another and distributed flyers in the circle of friends. There had been no reaction from any “outsider”, but a few friends from the yoga group of my wife and members of our group came, all together we were 9 persons.

At first it took me a moment to get into the flow of speaking. We started with singing three times OM and a little invocation and this broke the ice. Somehow it opened the inner doors and the thoughts flowed smoothly and with inspiration. I had prepared a powerpoint presentation (see the German version, English will follow later) with beautiful photos mostly of sunrises from all around the world. Soon there was a magic spell in the room, which continued the whole time. It is fascinating to experience the subtle presence and sweeping away the dross of everyday troubles and the previous flurry. The thoughts from the wisdom teachings are so uplifting, and everyone in the room felt their inspiration.

After a little pause my wife conducted a short meditation: We sang 21 times OM and then observed the silence for 10 minutes. Afterwards everyone said what he or she experienced during that time. It is fascinating how the field created through the group meditation gave all of us an experience of deep silence and relaxing inner expansion. You cannot describe this experience with words, it needs to be experienced…

However, when you share the experience after meditation the words still resonate with the taste of the experience and give a clearer understanding.

Sunrise over the Lake Titicaca, photo of a friend

Yesterday evening I discovered a parcel in the mailbox – a book I had ordered some weeks ago. It is about the “Religious Communities in the Canton Berne” (Switzerland). The author, Stefan Rademacher, from the Institute of Religious Studies of the University of Berne, had come for a talk in summer 2006. At first I was a bit sceptical, but his impartial approach to work out a “map” of the different religious groups in our area was somehow fascinating. He is avoiding the word “sectarian”, since it is emotionally charged and stigmatising. We had quite an indepth conversation about the Circle of Good Will and our backgrounds. A week after the talk he sent me the draft of his article, which I reviewed, and he included the corrections. And now it is a section in the book, in a chapter on theosophy and its offsprings…

My thoughts went back to the days of my study of religious science in the 70ies in Germany. The academical and distanced approach to a topic which deals with inner transformation and relation to one’s deepest roots is somehow a paradox. A systematized approach to deeper realities is of a great importance, but you can’t stay at a distance to yourself when going through a process of transformation. As long as you do, you stay in the intellect and out of the experience. You only have a shallow aftertaste.

The autumn days are growing shorter with a great pace, and some storms have swept the trees and covered the streets with a wet, slippery foliage. Like the vital force of the trees is withdrawing inside, the mood of the time is also turning more inside. A time for more subjective work, to counter-balance the outgoing tide.

There are still a lot of faint green and golden yellow leaves on the branches, but you virtually feel that the pulse of life is receding. At work, it doesn’t seem to be be so, for the waves of activity are running high, though the peak in the project I’m managing seems to be over now.

In the morning when driving to my office the lights of the cars and the street lamps create mosaics of  specks of light, especially when it is raining. At the moment, however, the autumn sun is shedding golden rays through a blue sky. The photos show scenes from my way to the office of last Thursday.

A street light overgrown with ivy – a synthesis of nature and technology…

A play of light and darkness – street light at the entrance of the seat of the South Corean ambassador in Berne.

Beautiful autumn light is spreading over the country. The time of withdrawal prepares with many shades of colour. Some photo impressions of yesterday afternoon’s walk in the nearby countryside.

Into the country

The ringing of the big cow bells was resounding over the country

Old apple trees glowing with red and golden fruits

The river Aare with an old covered bridge in the mild afternoon light

Along the river, the pathway with soft waves made by the roots of the trees

The cows returning back to the farm for milking

Autumn elves in a garden center at the parking from where we started

I yesterday saw a small video with a talk by Paul Hawken about his book “Blessed Unrest. How the largest movement of the world came into being and why no one saw it coming.” I was deeply touched by the way he presents the global development of hundreds of thousands of grassroots organizations that address social and environmental justice.

“Paul Hawken has spent over a decade researching organizations dedicated to restoring the environment and fostering social justice. From billion-dollar nonprofits to single-person dot.causes, these groups collectively comprise the largest movement on earth, a movement that has no name, leader, or location, and that has gone largely ignored by politicians and the media. Like nature itself, it is organizing from the bottom up, in every city, town, and culture. and is emerging to be an extraordinary and creative expression of people’s needs worldwide.

Blessed Unrest explores the diversity of the movement, its brilliant ideas, innovative strategies, and hidden history, which date back many centuries. A culmination of Hawken’s many years of leadership in the environmental and social justice fields, it will inspire and delight any and all who despair of the world’s fate, and its conclusions will surprise even those within the movement itself. Fundamentally, it is a description of humanity’s collective genius, and the unstoppable movement to reimagine our relationship to the environment and one another.”

Paul Hawken is giving voice to the phonomenon of global good will expressing through very many people everywhere in the world. See also his website.

For most of us it is so normal to have electricity coming out of the wall outlet that we hardly can imagine living without. But for people living far away from the network of technical industrialization it does not at all go without saying. In third world countries, especially in rural areas, having access to electricity is often great step ahead – and be it just to charge a mobile.

A group of African Harvard undergraduates and university scientists, have created a social enterprise working in off-grid energy delivery and lighting technology in Tanzania. They call it “Lebônê“, pronounced [La – bo – ney], a Northern Sotho word for light, lamp, or candle.

They “combine efficient lighting technology with a simple energy source readily available to all Africans in the form of microbial fuel cells. These inexpensive fuel cells run on animal and plant waste and naturally occurring soil microbes, and are framed around a flexible substrate (wood, steel, etc) that can vary by geographic availability. This is truly electricity right out of the ground. These fuel cells are used to charge a battery or cheap supercapacitor, which in turn will be used to power a high-efficiency efficient LED or PLED lamp.”

To reach the target group of people they combine their innovative technologies with an innovative implementation strategy that will promote local entrepreneurship and youth involvement.

Another very innovative approach is the initiatve of a retired Swiss journalist in Kenia, Peter Baumgartner. He has realised a magazine for sustainable agriculture called “The Organic Farmer“. They are publishing “relevant, reliable and ecologically sound information which is both, appropriate as well as applicable for farmers in Africa.” It is monthly magazine with 18’000 copies, distributed nation-wide in Kenya and reaches around 100’000 readers. The electronic version can be accessed free of charge and has been used so far by farmers and researchers in over 20 tropical countries. Since end of August 08 they are also on the radio in Kiswahili and they offer the programs as MP3-files. They are supported by different sponsors, among others the Swiss government and www.infonet-biovision.org, an information platform for ecological control of plant pests and disease transmitters.

Their initiative has a very strong resonance, with more than 150 e-mails, sms and phone calls after every emission. People are asking questions about pests or other kinds of information. They have a team of specialists. One strength of the magazine is the intelligent distribution structure via farmer groups, church organisations and schools. So they can spread the knowledge of a gentle biological farming with a minimum of chemicals. The journal with 8 to 12 pages per month has also spread to neighbour countries. Each copy is read by about 7 – 9 persons in the average.

A very inspiring initiative for supporting local farmers by sharing know-how – good will in action.

A meadow in Switzerland – biological farming is also an important factor here.

After a final sprint during the last days, we finally managed to install the relaunch of the good-will website. It has just been opened. My son (16) has helped me a lot with the technical side, and now it’s nearly done…. We have integrated the blog into the site design, and the technical basis is quite better than before. Enjoy!