A friend sent me a link to an article on Live Science called: “Earth’s Hum Sounds More Mysterious Than Ever“, by Charles Q. Choi. He writes:

“Earth gives off a relentless hum of countless notes completely imperceptible to the human ear, like a giant, exceptionally quiet symphony, but the origin of this sound remains a mystery. Now unexpected powerful tunes have been discovered in this hum. These new findings could shed light on the source of this enigma.

The planet emanates a constant rumble far below the limits of human hearing, even when the ground isn’t shaking from an earthquake. … Now oscillations have been discovered making up the hum that, oddly, are shaped roughly like rings. Imagine, if you will, rumbles that twist in circles in rock across the upper echelons of the planet, almost like dozens of lazy hurricanes.”

In the Eastern scriptures the humming sound of creation is called OM, which causes all creation to happen. Intonating this sound in the right way transforms the matter of our body and makes it more receptible to the light of the soul. The OM we sing is an utterance of the underlying continuum of the vibration of existence. This is also called the soundless sound or the Voice of Silence. Have a look at the Lunar Messenger on “The Power of OM“.

Rings on the waters of a pond. Photo from last Sunday’s excursion

 And a last story sent by my Indian friend :

“5 important lessons to learn from a humble pencil:

1. It tells you that everything you do will always leave a mark,
2. You can always correct the mistake you make,
3. The important thing in life is what you are from inside and not from out side,
4. In life you will undergo painful sharpenings which will make you better in whatever you do,
5. Finally, to be the best you can be, you must allow yourself to be held and guided by the hand that holds you.”

In our observations about interactions with other people my wife and I frequently observe what we call “test thoughts”. It is a concept she has found in the novel “Night Train to Lisbon“, by the Swiss author Pascal Mercier. These thoughts are not meant for action, though they seem to be. Often we find people saying: “I would like to do this and that” – but they never would. A friend of my wife produces a lot of test thoughts, especially in the form of advice for other people: “You should go for a walk one hour a day for your swollen legs.” – She never would do the walks herself, for she doesn’t like walking.

My wife first was very much irritated by all these proposals and didn’t know what to do with them, until she realised that these were test thoughts, just empty proposals without anything behind. She now replies: “Oh, that’s a very good idea, that would do me good,” – without even thinking of doing it. So there are no discussions and peace is ensured. Next time her friend has forgotten all about it.

Substantial thoughts are a solid basis for action, but test thoughts just are by-products of an over-active mind.

Test thoughts are just passers-by. Travellers on the platform of the Lauterbrunnen railway station

A few days ago my wife had a “direct meeting with Jesus”: In the context of a healing situation for a close friend, a healer and channel (my wife got into contact by chance) transmitted her Jesus’ blessings. He made the proposal to visualise golden light in form of a tetrahedron or a triangular pyramid with Jesus at the top of it and my wife, her friend and the healer as the basis.
By the way, this is an age-old visualisation technique for healing.

My wife tried her best not laugh about the channel and to stay neutral; she even managed to comment with “wow” during the talk. Inwardly she still asks herself if she is totally pig-headed or if the channel is spacy.

The friend of my wife goes to a healer who channels Jesus and tells her friend what to do, and uplifts her. At the end the friend is happy, at least for a while.

We rather prefer the unspectacular way of sitting on a chair and of looking inside. The result is the same, though the “wow-effect” is not there.

For most people the unspectacular way is boring, for us it is pleasantly serene. The “spectacular spirituality” is very fascinating for many, to us, however, it seems to be superficial and to make people addicted to the next “kick”.

You cannot take it for granted that people have a relation to their own inner self. It is much more common and easy to look to the outside, to others, for guidance. There are others who try to look inside, wanting to hear voices and experience phenomena. It took us long years to understand that this, too, kept us away from our own self. It is just an inner cinema, an adventure movie, not the experience of the self. The latter is like the experience of the sun in a clear blue sky.

The Sun behind a mountain – last Sunday afternoon.

Two weeks ago our spiritual teacher, K. Parvathi Kumar, started a meditation network initiative in the groups called “Networking The Global Diamond Temple for Social Justice” (since yesterday the program and structure are online): The plan of a triangle network was conceived by Master DK, and it started after the Second World War as an inner work. Now this initiative is a continuation of the work, but with a new accent.

The idea is to see that social justice, as conceived by the Masters of Wisdom, is brought nearer to the minds of those who are in the governments through prayers and meditation. Justice from this standpoint is to find a common point where the seeming oppositions merge – neither extreme capitalism nor extreme communism or any “ism” of extremity. Through the meditational work we try to work to supply more light. The light knows where to go and what to do. So this way we are not taking sides and not directly getting into the politics of the governments, but stay away to bring nearer the social justice, to see how to include the welfare of all.

Three members residing in a nation form a triangle. The chosen triangle members will conduct the temple building meditation at 6 AM on Sundays, thus building a Diamond Temple. They are integrating nationally to constitute a national Diamond Temple, then such temple is visualised to integrate with the temple visualized for a continent and the continental temples are visualized to form a Global Diamond Temple. It is offered by the networking groups as a humble contribution to the Masters of Wisdom for their appropriate utilisation to inspire the global, continental and national governments with a view to manifest the plan of social justice.

People might be sceptical about such work and its effect. Of course everybody is free to join or not, and mental scepticism is a sure block-off.

It is my experience that there are few who join, for it requires an understanding beyond intellectual taking note, and also quite a commitment of inner determination. I like such meditational work together with friends, and I am sure that the power of combined focus of beneficial attention has a tremendous influence and is an effective work of good will.

A friend from Argentina, from Escuela Claridad, just sent me the Spanish translation of some blog articles I had written together with my wife, about inner processes. These are “Understanding Relations, “Communication or Riding a Bicycle“,”Clouds of Fear and Overcoming Mental Barriers” and “Burnout or Burning“. So if you like to read them in Spanish, have a look at the PDF.

Deep roots. A tree in a nearby park.

The return journey from India last Sunday/Monday was like a kaleidoscope whirlwind, in which situations and impressions followed with an increasing spin. First it took us away from the WTT retreat centre in Visakhapatnam, where we had been for 3 weeks, with the plane to Hyderabad. A friend, from the Spiritual Book Centre, picked us up at the airport in a small car, with another friend as a driver. Gliding through the city, conversations, different encounters, heartfelt hospitality. When entering into the road where the book centre is located, I had to identify at a police control – there had been a terrorist bomb blast directly around the corner some weeks ago.

At the police control. At different places along a small road there were desks with a few policemen.

On the roads motorbikes with women in burqas on the rear seat gave dark spots into the otherwise colourful Hindu surrounding. Nevertheless, it seems that there is a generally peaceful intermingling of the different cultures.

When buying a little lingam holder for a friend in a silver shop, I was impressed by the multi-fold oriental handicraft objects, none of these you would find in a Western shop. In a corner a little Buddha sitting on a heap of coins was covered with red kum-kum-powder, besides a receipt book.

In the night at the airport, faces of Western tourists and businessmen mixed into the crowd of Eastern travellers. Video screen announcements, neon-light, immigration and security checks. Waiting and dozing. Then being packed together into the belly of the airplane for the next jump, to Dubai. Here high halls full of artificial palms, with glittering pomp. Posters promised that when you buy an apartment, you’ll get a BMW or a Bentley for free and have the chance of winning a private jet or a private island – what might be the price of the apartment? Arab ambiance, somewhere in a no-man’s land of transit passengers. Back to check-in, meeting again a friend who had travelled via Chennai, with fever. Also my cold got stronger, preparing for the little fever of the coming days.

Then in the plane, in a virtual dimension we were passing over Iran, the Black Sea, Crimea, back to Europe – without noticing it except on the screen map with the route indications. In the meanwhile the on-board movie system took me to The End of the World with the Pirates of the Caribbean, and to Death at a Funeral with dark British humour. Sitting beside me a young Swiss lady was polishing her finger nails for about an hour – what a deep concentration on a profound subject. Other faces in the plane were also now again very Western: Piercings at a brow instead of brow marks like in India, blond coloured hair with gel, brown holiday faces in sport dressings. Western individualism was coming back to the fore.

When we were riding from Zurich airport back to Berne through a beautiful “warm” winter weather of 6 degrees – about 22 degrees colder than the day before, I thought of the question of the driver in Hyderabad: How can people live in such a cold surrounding in Europe? Do the offices close during the cold times? He had no idea about the living conditions we are used to in the West. I felt that people over here, though many know through travelling to other parts of the globe, have no idea of the worlds the inner journey can lead you. And that it might take some time for me to digest the many diverse impressions.

Inside the Spiritual Book Centre, Hyderabad

A friend from Canada just sent me the following quote from His Holiness The XIVth Dalai Lama:

“As Shantideva says, there are many beings to whom one can make charity, but there are very few beings with respect to whom one can practice patience, and what is more rare is more valuable. An enemy is really most kind. Through cultivating patience one’s power of merit increases, and the practice of patience can only be done in dependence upon an enemy. For this reason, enemies are the main instigators of the increase of meritorious power. An enemy is not someone who prevents the practice of religion but someone who helps practice.”

This quote reminds me of a story, how Master CVV taught a disciple how to deal with enemies, from the book The Aquarian Master, Chap. 3:

“It is interesting to note as to how Master cured a disciple of his limitation of dislike. This disciple had dislike towards many persons and was always complaining. A friend advised him to meet the Master and said that He would make his life sweet.

The disciple went to Master CVV. Instantly, Master understood the disciple. So, the Master enquired the disciple: “Do you have enemies in life?” The disciple felt very happy that Master understood his problem and said “Yes Master. I have many enemies, my life is miserable”.
Master said “Don’t worry, I will take care of them” and gave him a mantra “ENEMY! BE AWARE OF YOURSELF”.

The disciple was happy that he got a mantra to get rid of his enemies and practiced. But, even after 40 days, they did not disappear. So, he went back to the Master and told Him “Master, nothing has happened to my enemies. Your mantra did not work”.

Master said, “You are not doing the mantra properly. I will help you. Please collect the pictures of all your enemies and bring them to me”.
The disciple had difficulty in getting the pictures of his enemies but Master would not budge. Finally, after great difficulty he obtained all the pictures. He had to befriend his enemies to collect their pictures. He returned in a hurry to the Master with the pictures. “Frame them well”, said the Master. The disciple had to further attend on the pictures, frame them at his cost and quickly returned to the Master. He enquired the Master: “Master! where shall I display them for you?” The disciple thought that the Master needed the pictures of the former’s enemies to do some magic on them. The Master answered “They shall be displayed for you and not for me. Keep them in your shrine room, displacing my pictures. Worship them as you worship mine”. A thunder bolt! The disciple got dismayed. “See the Master in those forms” – another thunderbolt. The disciple returned home and practiced as instructed. The disease of dislike gradually disappeared as he started looking for the one person among the many pictures. He developed friendship with the same persons, in due course of time.”

Reflection in the eyes of a cow

I just have published the powerpoint presentations of the series of public evening themes we had from October to December. Friends helped with the translations, and so they are now available in English, German, French and Spanish, as powerpoints and pdf. They might be useful to get an understanding of the wisdom teachings and make them accessible to interested people. So here you get to the presentations.

I used a lot of photos for the slide backgrounds, from spiritual spots in many parts of the world – from Mongolia, Tibet, India, Jordan, and of course of different countries of Europe. I didn’t travel around, but collected the photos from friends – that’s more comfortable (though I like traveling 🙂 )

Making these slides fascinated me very much: How to visualise inner realities with “outer” photos? How to explain in simple words mechanics of subtle experience – to newcomers without any special background. This is a topic which deeply interests me. I think sometimes writing big books is easier than saying the essence in a few words. It is a process of condensation, “essentialising”. In this, I learned a lot from my spiritual teacher, he is really good in expressing sublime and complex thoughts in simple, understandable words. The “motto” is KISS: Keep it simple and stupid…

Here is a picture I took some years ago inside the Planetary Healing Centre, a beautiful spot near Visakhapatnam, India. I hope I will have time to see it again, when we are going to India in January 08.

Yesterday there was an article in the Swiss newspaper Der Bund about an esoteric fair in Berne, which is going on at the moment. There was a quote about the organiser saying that “esoteric is slowly getting adult”: He had cleaned-up the kinds of exhibitors and didn’t want to have people who are trying to manipulate others: “I don’t want to have here all the guruism” – instead he wants to show that “spirituality can be rooted to the soil” and must not be aloof. So at the fair there is now a number of spiritual craftspeople, besides healers, channels, tantra-or Reiki teachers… Of course the article writer doesn’t miss to out herself as “sceptic”…

The commercialisation of esotericism results in funny products. When you consider that originally esotericism was a way to explore one’s higher self, it now is a field for all kinds of psycho-softy’s gadgets.

What the fair organiser, together with many others, dismisses as “guruism” is maybe the pivotal point on the path. Just like you need a teacher in school or when you study an instrument, you need a guide, a “guru” to be able to advance beyond a certain point. You need a role model for orientation, monitoring and correction. Of cause the number of pseudo-gurus and sectarianism have caused a phobia in our society. But what you fear is often where you have a sore point – the absence of reliable guideposts. This lack makes many people even doubt their existence.

In the East the guru or teacher is compared to a magnet, an his presence – not the physical – helps with meditation: “The presence of the teacher transforms the student, as a piece of iron is magnetised in the proximity of a magnet.” This presence is neither an external influence nor the personality or the physical presence of the teacher, but his inner realisation. You might like to read the Basics of Spiritual Life on The Teacher-Student Principle.

A guidepost in the Emmental, Switzerland, November 2007