I came across two very different videos which have something in common: Unmanned cameras provide vistas unseen before thus they discover astonishing new dimensions for a more holistic understanding.

The Government of Catalonia, Spain, has done a pilot project to evaluate the use of UAVs, popularly known as ‘drones’, in the field of public administration. They recorded images with drones inside and outside of the Abbey of Montserrat and the Montserrat Natural Park. Impressive views from bird’s eye.

Entering the Montserrat Monastery from above. Image (c) Generalitat de Catalunya

The other video is even more spectacular: 3D views of the valleys, canyons, lava flows and the highest known mountain in the Solar System on the surface of Mars. The pics are taken by a high resolution stereo camera on board the Mars Express spacecraft. The topography of the Red Planet appears so three-dimensional that you could walk through it. This is possible because of the unusual imaging principle used by the camera: Nine light-sensitive detectors sweep the surface in sequence from nine different observation angles. This data is then processed into three-dimensional images by the DLR German Aerospace Center.

The scientists put the camera images together piece by piece like a jigsaw puzzle, creating a global map of Mars. Of the 145 million square kilometres of the surface of Mars, 97 million have already been covered at very high resolution, where one pixel corresponds to less than 20 metres on the surface. Almost the entire surface of Mars has now been imaged at a resolution of better than 100 metres. “We can see the entire topography almost as well as if we were standing on Mars ourselves,” says Jaumann, project manager for the mission at the DLR (Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt).

The spacecraft with the camera on board was launched on 2 June 2003. Since its arrival at Mars six-and-a-half months later, it has orbited the planet over 12,500 times. The video was released by the DLR German Aerospace Center as part of the ten years of Mars Express celebrations in June 2013.

View of the Valles Marineris (C) DLR video

If you want to walk at the surface of the Red Planet, have a look at this 30° Gigapixel image from NASA’s Mars Exploration Program and its rover named Curiosity. Well, in view of the rugged surface, I wouldn’t like to live there.

The Canadian film maker, musician and meditation teacher Daniel Schmidt and his wife Eva Dametto have created a beautiful film called “Inner Worlds, Outer Worlds“. The film could be described as the external reflection of their own adventures in meditation. The movie consists of 4 parts which they have published for free on YouTube: Part 1 Akasha, Part 2 – The Spiral, Part 3 – The Serpent and the Lotus, and Part 4 – Beyond Thinking. There is also an additional musical part, called Pranava – Deep Chant and Yantra Meditation, and a trailer.

On their website you see their profound motivation which is behind these films:

“It became clear during the making of the film that Inner Worlds Outer Worlds had to be released for free for the benefit of all beings. In the ancient traditions the dharma or “the truth” was always taught freely and never for personal gain or profit in order to preserve the purity of the teachings. It is Daniel and Eva’s belief that to awaken one’s true self, one must awaken the entire world. Daniel and Eva have started the Awaken the World initiative www.awakentheworld.com to bring the ancient knowledge back to the earth in order to restore balance and harmony on the planet.”

Even if you don’t have the time to see all the videos, it is worthwhile to have a look – beautiful images and good texts. You can read more on the Facebook-page of the film. Or, if you feel motivated to “spread the word”, there is also a call for help to translate.

A spiral – a manifestation of the basic energy of life (c) from the video The Spiral

Part 1 Akasha
“Akasha is the unmanifested, the “nothing” or emptiness which fills the vacuum of space. As Einstein realized, empty space is not really empty. Saints, sages and yogis who have looked within themselves have also realized that within the emptiness is unfathomable power, a web of information or energy which connects all things….”

Part 2 – The Spiral

“The Pythagorian philosopher Plato hinted enigmatically that there was a golden key that unified all of the mysteries of the universe. The golden key is the intelligence of the logos, the source of the primordial om. One could say that it is the mind of God. The source of this divine symmetry is the greatest mystery of our existence….”

Part 3 – The Serpent and the Lotus

“The primordial spiral is the manifested world, while Akasha is the unmanifested, or emptiness itself. All of reality is an interplay between these two things; Yang and Yin, or consciousness and matter. The spiral has often been represented by the snake, the downward current, while the bird or blooming lotus flower has represented the upward current or transcendence….”

Part 4 – Beyond Thinking

“We live our lives pursuing happiness “out there” as if it is a commodity. We have become slaves to our own desires and craving. Happiness isn’t something that can be pursued or purchased like a cheap suit. This is Maya, illusion, the endless play of form….”

There are very inspiring and valuable activities all over the world to make a change in life conditions. I just came across KarmaTube.org, a video platform “dedicated to bringing inspirational stories to light, using the power of video and the internet to multiply acts of kindness, beauty, and generosity.” Their motto is “Watch. Be inspired. Act.” Have a look!

KarmaTube is a project of ServiceSpace, a very interesting volunteer run organization. Their aim is to enable individuals to contribute in meaningful ways to the world around them: “Together, we hope to ‘be the change we wish to see in the world’.”

Here is a video highlighted on KarmaTube, “The Overview Effect”, which has been done for the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the famous ‘Blue Marble’ photograph taken of Earth from space. It documents some of the astronauts’ life-changing stories of seeing the Earth from the outside – the Overview Effect. It has been creating a new kind of awareness. “They have realised that unity and oneness of all life on earth, of consciousness and awareness.”

Have a look at other very good videos on KarmaTube, like “Where is away?” about throwing away of single-use plastic articles, by “Surfing for Change“, a fascinating project of professional surfers.

While thinking, we are continuously creating images in our mind. Modern neurologists even think that thinking is the ability to display images internally and to order those images (this is what António Damásio thinks – a professor of neuroscience at the University of Southern California, in: Descartes Error. Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain, 1994, p 89 – what might be his images with this thought?). These images are linked to emotions, which can be deeply stored in our subconscious mind and triggered through situations we encounter.

Marketing (and not only marketing) makes use of this phenomenon by evoking images intended to move the observer into a specific direction. And what happens with these ad-images in us? …

A master of evoking images is Carl Warner, an English photographer who became famous with his “Foodscapes” – impressive landscapes created by food arrangement (I blogged about it in 2008). You find many videos about his foodscapes on the web. Of course, these images attracted the advertising industry and they used them in campaigns for various food based products and brands.

Some days ago I got an e-mail from an Indian friend with photos of the new series of Carl – fascinating “Bodyscapes” created by arranging (living) human bodies to landscapes. When you look at them, feel the images these bodyscapes create in you – is it warm human togetherness or more a feeling of inside a sardine can? Nevertheless – impressive impressions.

Thank you Carl for the publication permission. He is also on Facebook.

Shin-Knee Valley

Valley of the reclining woman

The wisdom teachings describe dawn and dusk as very favourable times to practice meditation and to work with sound. There are Indian Ragas (melodies) specially composed to be played at dawn or dusk.
The French call the time of dusk “l’heure bleu”, the blue hour, since there is a particular quality of the light around sunset. In our latitudes this time is much longer than in the tropics, where darkness sets in quite fast.

Yesterday evening I was at a live performance by Mich Gerber on the River Aare, in our village. For three evenings he was giving free concerts on a little ferryboat of the Bodenacher-Fähre. He is playing electric double-bass, generating the background music with his own tunes repeated by a computer program.

When I arrived at the river around a quarter past 8 pm there were already many people sitting on both sides of the river. A few minutes later the ferryboat set out to the middle of the river and Mich started playing. The background was a tampura-sound, and he played a melody like an Indian raga.

The atmosphere was full of magic – the light of the setting sun in the background, the sound of the flowing water and the amplified vibrations of the strings of the double-bass. Other songs followed, reminding of Arabian tunes, classical songs from Europe or Jazz improvisations.

People around me took out their mobiles and started making videos. I, too, tried to do a little video with my camera, but it wasn’t good. However, the camera generated a magic picture of the “blue hour”:

While it was getting dark it started raining, adding to the mystical ambiance with the lampions on the boat and along the board of the river, made by simply putting candles into white paper bags.

People were moving to the sounds – a young father besides me was rocking his baby-son. Mich played for an hour, and I felt very happy that I had decided on a short notice to see this beautiful concert.

On his website he says about these concerts:

“Mich Gerber celebrates ‘L’heure bleue’, the blue hour. Concerts on magic locations during the blue hour, when the sky turns blue after sunset.

The blue hour comes from the French expression ‘l’heure bleue’, which refers to the period of twilight each morning and evening where there is neither full daylight nor complete darkness. The time is considered special because of the quality of the light at this time of day.

The blue hour is the gift of the day to the night. Different cultures celebrate the blue hour in their own special way. For many of us, it’s the most beautiful hour of the day as it slowly draws its curtain and the evening begins.

It is the hour of transition when the indirect light of the evening colours the night sky. Nature’s wonderful play of light is displayed. Every evening anew.

This is the spectacle that Mich Gerber interprets during his series of L’heure bleue’ concerts. They have been taking place since a few years on special places on the water in summer time.”

Here are some videos of previous concerts on the River Aare  (YouTube-videos): A Waltz,  A silent tune, A tune with an English text, Music and Swiss German interviews, another song. And below there is a video uploaded in his name.

A little P.S.: This is the 1111th post in this blog.

10 days ago we had a visit of Argentinian friends. We took them to a mountain hike at the Schynige Platte. In the valley it was hot – 36 degrees C, on the mountain the sun was also blazing but the scenery was gorgeous. There is a beautiful garden with alpine flowers which now were in full bloom. In this grand natural scenery you feel very close to the subtle spheres. Here are some impressions.

View from the Alpine garden

The Lauterbrunnen Valley with Wengen

Jungfrau and Mönch. In between the mountains you see the Jungfraujoch, “Top of Europe”

Identifying the mountains

A mountain thistle

Bavarian gentian

Alpine roses

The panoramic path

View down to Interlaken

The lake of Brienz in turquoise colours

Little stone towers – souvenirs of hikers

The rock in the centre of the panoramic path

Some rare photos of the earth seen from Saturn circulate the media – taken on 19 July 2013 by NASA’s Cassini spacecraft – showing ed Saturn’s rings and our planet Earth as a small dot in dark space. And there is another pic with the raw material of the photo taken at the same day, just showing the raw photo of the earth and the moon seen from 1,44 billion kilometers away. This is only the third time ever that Earth has been imaged from the outer solar system.

The imaging team writes: “The July 19 Earth-imaging event marked the first time Earthlings had advance notice that their portrait was being taken from interplanetary distances. It was the also the first time Cassini’s highest resolution camera captured the Earth and its moon as two distinct objects… We may not be able to see individual continents or people in this portrait of Earth, but this pale blue dot is a succinct summary of who we were on July 19 … Cassini’s picture reminds us how tiny our home planet is in the vastness of space, but also testifies to the ingenuity of the citizens of this tiny planet to be able to send a robotic spacecraft so far away from home to take a picture of Earth and study a distant world like Saturn…

Pictures of Earth from the outer solar system are rare because, from that distance, Earth is very close to the bright sun. Just as a human being can damage his or her retina by looking directly at the sun, a camera’s sensitive detectors can be damaged by looking directly at the sun. Cassini was able to take these images because the sun had moved behind the planet Saturn from the spacecraft’s point of view, blocking out most of the light.”

Enjoy the awe-inspiring perspective from out of the vastness of space.

You can see here more about where Cassini is just now.

The earth seen from below Saturn’s rings. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

The earth and moon seen from Saturn. Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute

A friend forwarded me an e-mail with the following text. It somehow touched me, and it is full of wisdom of life.

“As I’ve aged, I’ve become kinder to, and less critical of, myself. I’ve become my own friend.

I have seen too many dear friends leave this world, too soon; before they understood the great freedom that comes with aging.

Whose business is it, if I choose to read, or play on the computer, until 4 AM, or sleep until noon? I will dance with myself to those wonderful tunes of the 50s, 60s & 70s, and if I, at the same time, wish to weep over a lost love, I will.

I will walk the beach, in a swim suit that is stretched over a bulging body, and will dive into the waves, with abandon, if I choose to, despite the pitying glances from the jet set. They, too, will get old.

I know I am sometimes forgetful. But there again, some of life is just as well forgotten. And, eventually, I remember the important things.

Sure, over the years, my heart has been broken. How can your heart not break, when you lose a loved one, or when a child suffers, or even when somebody’s beloved pet gets hit by a car? But broken hearts are what give us strength, and understanding, and compassion. A heart never broken, is pristine, and sterile, and will never know the joy of being imperfect.

I am so blessed to have lived long enough to have my hair turning grey, and to have my youthful laughs be forever etched into deep grooves on my face. So many have never laughed, and so many have died before their hair could turn silver.

As you get older, it is easier to be positive. You care less about what other people think. I don’t question myself anymore. I’ve even earned the right to be wrong.

So, to answer your question, I like being old. It has set me free. I like the person I have become. I am not going to live forever, but while I am still here, I will not waste time lamenting what could have been, or worrying about what will be. And I shall eat dessert every single day (if I feel like it).

May our friendship never come apart, especially when it’s straight from the heart!”

A cloud over a meadow near my native town.

Beginning of July, 2013, a new tiny moon of Neptune has been discovered. It is a fast little space traveller of 18 km in diameter surrounding Neptune in less than one day, and he has the non-poetic name of S/2004 N 1 but he brings Neptune’s retinue of known moons to fourteen. He took a good time for his discovery – there is just a precise great trine between Neptune, Saturn and Jupiter in the watery signs of Pisces, Scorpio and Cancer.

By the way, spiritual astrology hints at the link between Neptune and the music of the soul: In a seminar on Cancer Sri Kumar explained:

“The whole creation is the music of the soul, and the soul naturally responds to high quality of music. Our solar system itself responds to the music of Neptune. Neptunian music will put you out of your mind instantly. People are taken beyond their mental and buddhic planes directly into the soul plane to receive the related bliss.” So tune in to the subtle tunes of the sublime spheres.

(c) Wikipedia

Neptune (c) NASA

A friend sent me the link to a nice video of Sri Ganapathi Sachchidananda Swamiji feeding the birds of his birds’ park Shuka Vana in his ashram in Mysore. I had a short visit to his beautiful ashram last January.The music is from his creation “Birds’ Zodiac”, and is about the sign of Leo (Simha). Enjoy.