A friend sent me the following photo, which was commented: “This table was for sale on eBay. How can you tell it is being sold by a man? Can you solve this little riddle? First look and guess. You will find the answer below, but don’t cheat!”

Don’t just laugh, when you solve the riddle. The comment said: “Look at the picture in the mirror. And remember, if you are posting a picture on the world-wide web, wear clothes when taking the picture.”

From a spiritual viewpoint the situation is very symbolic: As souls we are naked, the pure higher self. We reflect ourselves in the mirror called mind and “look” through the camera of the senses. Observing the outer we get identified with it and forget ourselves, forget about the reflection. When we realise again who and where we are – the I am clad for a while in a body – we might smile about our funny personality.

You can read more about reflections of existence in the Lunar Messenger on “The Play of Illusions“.

Yesterday a friend sent me the Open Letter of the vice president of the European Vegetarian Union, Renato Pichler, to Mr. Barroso, president of the European Commission in the context of the ongoing destruction of our world. He invited him to initiate an objective and open investigation about vegetarianism as a compassionate lifestyle and about the benefits it delivers in view of fighting against the global climate change.

The letter cited the statement of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that global climate change is “very likely” to have a human cause, and the FAO-warning that “livestock sector generates more greenhouse gas emissions as measured in CO2 equivalent – 18 percent – than transport. It is also a major source of land and water degradation.” The European Parliament even alerted on 31 January 2007 that `Fighting climate change is about “saving civilization”‘.

In this it has to be considered that vegetarians do not have any share in the raising and killing of many billions of sentient animals. A vegetarian diet has to do with Good Will, for with a meatless diet we contribute to avoid not only violence against animals but also a better use of the agricultural resources.

You might like to download our free brochure: “Ideas and Recipes for a Lacto-Vegetarian Diet.“

Last week a friend sent me pictures of amazingly grown trees. I found out that they were originally grown by Axel Erlandson (1884-1964), the son of Swedish immigrants in Central California. He shaped his trees for over 40 years and created the worlds most outstanding examples of Arborsculpture. He would create designs on paper first and then plant in the specified patterns; pruning, grafting and bending them. When Erlandson was asked how he got his trees to grow like this, he would reply, “I talk to them.”

Later the trees were put into a park to attract people to the Tree Circus.

What we call our character can be cultivated in a similar way. We can transform our nature through loving attention and long-lasting focus. This process of cultivation of character through right thinking and living has been beautifully described by Thackerey in his words:

“Sow a thought and reap an action; sow an action and reap a habit; sow a habit and reap character; sow character and reap destiny.”

The effort to control one’s lower impulses needs repetition, until it becomes a habit, a second nature. When a new habit is established, the repetition needs no effort after a certain time. The habit will be engrafted, like the grafting of a tree. When you keep a branch of a tree under soil for some time, the branch begins to send roots into the soil, making it an independent tree, so that you can cut off the branch from the parent tree to make it an independent plant. So a new habit should become independent of the old, unprogressive habit, and cutt off from the old one.

This is the purpose of repetition in learning new things and especially in spiritual training. See also the Lunar Messenger on “The Power of Habit”.

Last week an article in the Swiss newspaper Der Bund about “What managers can learn together in a zoo” presented the trainer Lorenz Nufer who uses animals as metaphers and mirrors for managers. In the zoo they study different forms of behaviour and organisation: Wolves have extreme forms of hierarchy and baboons have a lot of conflicts, where you can study how they solve them. Enterprises are not just like zoos, but the way man and gorilla hordes are showing off resembles a lot. Watching animals helps to get a distanced view on one’s own behaviour. Discussing about behaviour forms of animals helps getting blocked forms of communication go again. Behaviour-oriented learning can leave deep traces, but you have to deal with it in the right way and not just like a funny experience. A transfer has to be done in order to get to a deeper understanding. The event of an excursion into a zoo is only an instrument and not a solution by itself.

Many executives react on increased challenges according to the motto “try harder”, and they make increased efforts, which are neither useful for the individual nor for the organisation. Bot the persons concerned don’t get out of that pattern. With an exercise which they cannot solve alone they can be empowered to realise that they have to look for help and not to go on trying by themselves. Those who have really experienced the need for help are likely not to repeat the old patterns.

In spirituality animals are also often used as examples to illustrate the behaviour of man or his different faculties. So the mind is normally compared to a monkey jumping around and very difficult to be controlled. In the Book of Rituals Dr. Krishnamacharya writes: “Since man has crossed the consciousness of all the living beings on this earth during his course of evolution his consciousness contains the association (Vasanas) of all the animals in his behaviour. This is the only possible explanation of the animal behaviour of man.”

Apes playing in an Indian temple.

Two days ago I got a Powerpoint-presentation entitled “Does Evil Exist?” (1.7 MB), with beautiful photos. The story is supposed to be an incident from the life of Albert Einstein, but a look into Google quickly showed that it was an urban legend, using Einstein and the atheist professor as stereotypes. Nevertheless it is a nice story, and legends are also illustrating the search for truth. Here it goes:

The university professor challenged his students with this question. Did God create everything that exists? A student bravely replied, “Yes, he did!” “God created everything? The professor asked. “Yes sir”, the student replied. The professor answered, “If God created everything, then God created evil since evil exists, and according to the principal that our works define who we are then God is evil”. The student became quiet before such an answer.

The professor was quite pleased with himself and boasted to the students that he had proven once more that the Christian faith was a myth. Another student raised his hand and said, “Can I ask you a question professor?” “Of course”, replied the professor.
The student stood up and asked, “Professor, does cold exist?” “What kind of question is this? Of course it exists. Have you never been cold?” The students snickered at the young man’s question. The young man replied, “In fact sir, cold does not exist. According to the laws of physics, what we consider cold is in reality the absence of heat. Every body or object is susceptible to study when it has or transmits energy, and heat is what makes a body or matter have or transmit energy. Absolute zero is the total absence of heat; all matter becomes inert and incapable of reaction at that temperature. Cold does not exist. We have created this word to describe how we feel if we have no heat.”

The student continued, “Professor, does darkness exist?” The professor responded, “Of course it does.” The student replied, “Once again you are wrong sir, darkness does not exist either. Darkness is in reality the absence of light. Light we can study, but not darkness. In fact we can use Newton’s prism to break white light into many colors and study the various wavelengths of each color. You cannot measure darkness. A simple ray of light can break into a world of darkness and illuminate it. How can you know how dark a certain space is? You measure the amount of light present. Isn’t this correct? Darkness is a term used by man to describe what happens when there is no light present.”

Finally the young man asked the professor, “Sir, does evil exist?” Now uncertain, the professor responded, “Of course as I have already said. We see it every day. It is in the daily example of man’s inhumanity to man! It is in the multitude of crime and violence everywhere in the world. These manifestations are nothing else but evil.”

To this the student replied, “Evil does not exist sir, or at least it does not exist unto itself. Evil is simply the absence of God. It is just like darkness and cold, a word that man has created to describe the absence of God. God did not create evil. Evil is not like faith, or love that exist just as does light and heat. Evil is the result of what happens when man does not have God’s love present in his heart. It’s like the cold that comes when there is no heat or the darkness that comes when there is no light.”
The professor sat down.

The young man’s name – Albert Einstein.

Today is winter equinox day in the northern hemisphere, where the sun starts its northern journey again and the days will become longer. I just came today across an interesting educational website of NASA about Sun-Earth connection, where you find a beautiful Sun-Earth viewer, with visualisations.

On the site there is an area about Ancient Observatories – Timeless Knowledge, with image galleries to places of sun-worship, where you can zoom through the “House of the Magician” in Yukatan or see pictures of pyramids, Easter islands or Machu Picchu, Peru.

In spirituality the sun is seen as the central giver of Life and Light, but is only working like a mirror reflecting the energies of the central spiritual sun – like the physical body of man is the outer vehicle of the soul and the spirit. The month of Capricorn in the year is particularly suited for spiritual practice. It is the annual time of the dawn. See also the Lunar Messenger on “The Secret of the Dawn“(PDF) or send an e-card with the beautiful picture of a dawn in Mongolia (Click on the picture to send it as an e-card:

For yesterday’s birthday my team gave me as a gift the new book in German language about “Jakob Kellenberger – Diplomat and ICRC-President“, by Hansjörg Erni. It is written in interview form and gives an insight into the life and work of this outstanding personality in the service of humanitarian work at the International Committee of the Red Cross.When I opened the book this morning just casually, a sentence jumped into my eyes, about why he had studied literature: “A study of literature also teaches to take words very serious, because you gain insight into the portentious significance of words and into the associations they awaken. You learn to be very careful when dealing with language. This was later also of benefit for me in negotiations. Many conflicts and much suffering could be avoided if people whould take more serious the language, which influences also our perception and our feelings.”

On the path of spirituality, this power of the word is something you have to learn.

I yesterday read an inspiring article in a magazine called Natürlich (Natural) about the “laughter-revolution” and the foolosopher Roland Schutzbach. His website: Hahahahaha.org, of the European Laughter Society. The goals are to bring back joy of life, love and optimism into daily life. He says, the energy of laughter is the direct way to englightenment, the joy-energy gives the experience of the present moment. After having been a teacher and philosopher for many a year (with a PhD), he decided to leave the “mainstream mill” and inspire people together with his wife. “HappyTopia” is their a project to realise the insights and ideas of the happy and foolish philosophy in a concrete community.

Some sentences from their site, to give you a taste: “To laugh about yourself – that’s something to laugh about!” – “Most people are born as originals and die as copies.” – “He who lives without foolishness is not as wise as he thinks!” – Andy Warhol: “Everybody has problems. So don’t make a problem with your problem.”
Another humanitarian clown mentioned in the article is Patch Adams, who is taking clowns to hospitals, prisons, even refugee camps and war zones to bring food, medicine and hope. By the way, the Swiss Red Cross is doing an Aids sensibilisation project with clowns in Swaziland.

Humour is a necessary ingredient on the spiritual path. In healthy spirituality there is an undercurrent of humour springing from the inner. It expresses in the more subtle form of smiling. In an e-mail I received yesterday a friend mentioned a quote of my spiritual teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, saying: “Learn to smile. Smile lifts you up to Light. Work in that Light .”

And there is a site calling people for an International Day of Smiles, to be celebrated on December 9th, 2006 🙂 .

I yesterday came across the extrordinary biography of John Francis, a black American who lives car-free and silent for 17 years, who is walking and sailing around the world to heighten environmental awareness (see the site Planetwalk.org). He stopped speaking until 1990 because he was arguing all the time why he refused to use cars. Through the long years of silence he has developed and enormous power of listening. He even made a PhD during his time of silence and later was recruited by the U.S. Coast Guard to write oil-spill regulations and by the United Nations Environment Program to serve as a goodwill ambassador. He also has published a book called Planetwalker: How to Change Your World One Step at a Time.
You find here an interesting interview with him.

For its 50th birthday, the science magazine New Scientist has asked over 70 of the world’s most brilliant scientists for their ideas what will be the biggest breakthrough of the next 50 years. As to be expected, the answers show the specialities and disciplines of the scientists -and are often marked by the materialistic paradigm of today.

The oceanologist Daniel Pauly, gave an interesting reply reflecting a thought from the wisdom teachings which say that humanity will become more and more sensitive of all forms of life:

“In light of the time span considered here, I think the most important development for the oceans would be a device that could detect, amplify and transmit to us the emotions and fleeting, inarticulate “thoughts” of animals in such a form as to evoke analogous emotions and thoughts in human brains. This would first work with primates, then mammals in general, then the other vertebrates including fish. This would cause, obviously, a global revulsion at eating flesh of all kinds, and we would all become vegetarians.”

A vegetarian diet has to do with good will, for this way we contribute to reduce violence towards the animal kingdom. You might want to read our booklet “Ideas and Recipes for a Lacto-Vegetarian Diet“.