The formula “E Pluribus Unum” (from many, one) is the traditional motto of the United States used on seals and coins. Its meaning, however, is much more profound than just uniting different ex-colonies to one nation. It is even deeper than what the ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus gives as “The one is made up of all things, and all things issue from the one”. The eternal wisdom teachings explain that focussing on diversity, as we do with our analytical minds, makes us lose the sense of oneness. All multiplicity is coming from one source, is being held in existence by the unfathomable background of all and is merging again into the inconceivable oneness – from many to one.

Chris Jordan, a photographer and artist, has created a mandala named “E Pluribus Unum”. In the video project realised in 2010, he visualises the many different “organisations around the world that are devoted to peace, environmental stewardship, social justice and the preservation of diverse and indigenous culture” (from the video) by zooming from a detail structure to a great globe of interconnected lines expressing the beauty created by all the goodwill work done on the globe.
The video contains a million names of such organisations – Chris explains that it would need to include more than twice the number of names to cover all activities.
All these projects seem to be different activities but together they form one unified effort to promote the well-being of earth and of the beings living on it – a great visualisation of oneness done through Chris’ video.
The mandala is constructed around a circle containing 108 equally-spaced points. In Eastern wisdom, the number 108 is explained as containing profound keys to understand time cycles, like 4 x 108 = 432.

In many of his artworks Chris visualises complex realities in photos or movies. See also my 2007 blogpost about his activities or about the trailer to his impressive video “Midway” about plastics polluting the Pacific Ocean.
His works are intended to raise our awareness to understand complicated relationships by visualising with his “environmental art” the effects of pollution, mass consumption or destructive behaviours.

See more on his website or his videos on Vimeo.

Picture (c) Chris Jordan, from the video

Recently, I came across a fantastic time lapse video with sequences of the Sun’s atmosphere observed by the Solar Dynamics Observatory spacecraft between 2011 and 2015. The music “Una” by Murcof (from the Album Utopía, 2004) fits very well with the scenes of solar eruptions.

From viewpoint of the Wisdom Teachings, the essence of the Sun and of ourselves is but one and the same. We are no different from our Sun.

There is a beautiful prayer in the Isavasya Upanishad. Here, the disciple who can withdraw at will from the activity of externalisation through the senses is compared to the Sun that withdraws his rays. When the rays of the Sun are withdrawn the Sun globe is visible. Likewise, when the externalisation from the senses is withdrawn, the Soul is visible. Sun is the Soul. The Sun globe appears like a golden disc when the rays are withdrawn. Likewise, the disciple also experiences his golden form when he suspends the activity of senses. This golden form is the subtle body which is immortal and divine. (from Agni. The Symbolism and the Ritual of Fire, by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar; see also his book on “Sun – That I Am“)

PÛSHAN EKARSHYE
YAMASÛRYA PRÂJÂPATYA VYÛHA RASMÎN
SAMÛHA TEJAHA.
YATTE RÛPAM KALYÂNATAMAM.
TATTE PASYÂMI YO
SAVASOW PURUSHAHA.
SOHAM ASMI.

Meaning:

“Oh! Solar God,
You are the son of Prajapathi.
You are lone ranger of the sky.
You are all nourishing and all regulating.
Please withdraw your rays and brilliance.
By your grace I would then be able to see
Your beautiful golden disc.”

Isavasya Upanishad, 16th Mantram
Here you can listen to the prayer or download the text.

Image from the video, courtesy of: NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center, Scientific Visualization Studio

You haven’t seen the moon rotating. Given modern digital technology, however, combined with many detailed images returned by the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO), a high resolution virtual Moon rotation movie has now been composed.

Picture capture from the video, (c) Video Credit: LRO, Arizona State U., NASA

Who would not like to fly over the mountains like an eagle, looking around over icy peaks? The following video has been done with a 360° camera mounted on the back of an eagle flying over the Dolomites. Awe-inspiring perspectives – and you can zoom around, in all directions. (You don’t need to log in with Facebook, just click on “Not now”.)
It is not by chance that the eagle is a symbol of our consciousness lifted up to the peaks of awareness, rising from the Ajna centre into the vastness of space, beyond the bodily limitations.

Click on the picture to see the video

Picture capture from the video (c)

A friend just sent me the link to a beautiful video by Conservation International (CI). On their website they explain that for more than 30 years, CI is working to build a healthier, more prosperous and more productive planet. They want to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity.

In their camplaign “Nature Is Speaking” they aim at raising awareness that people need nature in order to survive: “Our goal is simple: It’s time to change the conversation about nature to focus on what we all have in common: Our shared humanity.” The voice of Nature is Julia Roberts.

The video contains sublime images and a touching message.

Picture from the video “Nature is Speaking” (c) Conservation International

Scorpio is a time of letting go, of death and profound transformations. We yesterday were at a funeral in a small town in the Bernese Alps. Dori, a dear friend of the family of my wife, had passed over a week ago at the age of 84. I knew her from a distance and there wasn’t much contact during the last decades but both of us held Dori dear. My wife had visited her last summer and there, they also had spoken about passing-over. Dori said that she didn’t fear and was ready to go – although she wasn’t frail. She was a warm-hearted person who welcomed life with open arms and took a lively interest in other people.

It was a cold and windy day when at noon time the family members and friends assembled at funeral hall. It was fascinating to see and feel these mountain people. Many had come to say good-bye to Dori whose presence we could clearly feel like an umbrella under which we were uniting there.

An elderly family member approached us: she had recognised my wife although over 40 years had passed by since they had met for the last time. My wife explained to me “who is who” as far as she knew. Then the protestant pastor made us stand around the urn; he spoke some words about Dori and explained the sequence of the ceremony. You could feel that it was not his first funeral service but he did it with an inner participation.

Later, when we stood on the burial ground, I let me eyes go round to absorb the ambiance – there was a solemn presence, where you could feel the visible and invisible meet. I took some photos without wanting to be remarked but the alert eyes of a granddaughter caught me. The urn was sunk into the ground, then roses were put on the grave. Although it was a deeply unique moment, the acts were of an archetypal nature.

We later assembled in the beautiful old church for the farewell ceremony. Besides some church songs which reminded me of times long gone by two of Dori’s sons spoke about her life in a warm and partly humorous way. Also the friendship link to the family of my wife was mentioned, it dated back to the 50s.
It was impressive to hear that only 3 weeks before the pass-over Dori had realised he wish to cross Paris by foot for the second time, the first time had been years back. So she made a 27 km walk from north to south, accompanied by family members. Later, at a train station in Paris, a grandson discovered a piano where he played her a song – and the same song he now played in the church – an incredible moment of completion of a life cycle. Three other grandchildren, teens and twens, came to the front and spoke about what her “grosi” (grandma) meant for them – they had wanted to speak and express their thanks, and they did it in a touching way. Some more words, songs and music concluded the ceremony.

We participants were invited into a nearby restaurant, where we had time to exchange with several family members and friends of Dori. Normally, I feel a bit lost at such gatherings. But here it was different. We were surprised to hear and feel how Dori had woven a great network between different people with her interest in their lives. It is something unique, and with this impression and a feeling of gratefulness we started the journey home.

A friend today sent me the link to a fascinating  video about “The World’s Biggest Eye Contact Experiment“.

The initiative is organised by a group of young people from various backgrounds who call themselves “The Liberators International“. The idea came “after noticing a common thread of isolation in today’s society.” So they organise events where people share 1 minutes eye contact with a stranger in the heart of cities and towns worldwide. “Holding eye contact with another person can evoke many feelings which can be scary, especially when in today’s society we tend to repress our deepest emotions.” More…

The next global experiment with events in many countries around the world will be on 23rd of September 2017, during the UN International Week of Peace.

Have a look at the video from last year’s Eye Contact Experiment, where 124 cities cooperated.

Read more about their inspiring mission: “”We are a whole movement of people passionate about sharing acts of love and kindness in public.”
“We are here to lead by example to allow the people of planet Earth to see that we are brothers and sisters of the same human race, travelling together on this Earthship we collectively call home. We are a global family of people ready to actively be a part of the change we’d like to see in this world. We use our skills, intelligence, gifts and abilities to create positive experiences for the world to actively participate in making today and tomorrow’s future more sustainable and harmonious. We create large scale global events that create an experience of unity for the Earth, we also create festival experiences of unity that uplift crowds of people by combining ice breaking games with a banging DJ set. … We do not force, we simply give rise to a new opportunity.”
“Our Vision for the Future: We aim to coordinate, record and distribute monthly global acts of freedom, which reconnect humanity with their innate, interconnected power.”

You also find the Liberators on Facebook.

Image (c) from the gallery of Eyecontactexperiment.com

Video: The World’s Biggest Eye Contact Experiment 2016

I recently came across a website about façade greening in Sao Paulo, Movimiento 90°, and then found another very fascinating website of Patrick Blanc, a botanist and the inventor of the Vertical Garden. Partly, it is a special form of green walls, which I had already encountered with ivy-clad walls, also at the walls of may father’s office building. However, the Vertical Gardens Patrick Blanc has realised are much more sophisticated, hanging florist artworks.

The site about Movimiento 90° speaks about the advantages of such vertigal gardens:

“The plants improve air quality by filtering CO2, can help with heating and cooling in the buildings they are attached to, reduce acoustic problems and, during periods of drought, increase the relative humidity in the air. But to add an extra creative spin, Guils’ studio Movimento 90º invited artists to design the gardens they were creating, and encouraged them to treat the buildings’ walls as blank canvasses.”

May this creative way of using façades grow and bring a better quality of life into the stone, glass and concrete deserts of our cities.

Image: Wikipedia / Jean-Pierre Dalbéra from Paris, France: Le mur végétal (Musée du quai Branly)

Image: Wikipedia / Cillas: A wall of living plants designed by Patrick Blanc at Caixa Forum near Atocha station, Madrid

Image: Wikipedia / Thelmadatter: Green wall at the Universidad del Claustro de Sor Juana in the historic center of Mexico City

Last Monday, my wife and I made an excursion to Mount Chäserrugg. It is a flat mountain of about 2260 meters in the East of Switzerland. It was at a  Sai Baba seminar in 1984, which took place at the foot of this mountain, where the matchmaking started (without my knowing) which led to our marriage in February 1988. (Read in this blogpost the matchmaking story and the later continuation.) So my wife proposed this trip to the Chäserrugg to celebrate our 29th wedding anniversary.

The weather report two days before announced nice weather – but the weather conditions can quickly change in the mountains. When we went up, first with a cliff railway and then with a rope-way, the hilltop was sunk in clouds chased by ice-cold winds. The promo said you can have a panoramic view over 6 countries but we hardly could see a few meters.

We decided to first eat lunch in the newly erected summit restaurant. It was designed by the famous architects Herzog & de Meuron and has a fantastic wooden structure integrating the station into the mountain landscape. For short moments gorgeous mountain views showed up between the clouds, and when we left the restaurant the view was much better. We wanted to do a promenade along a maintained ridge-way. A breathtaking view with changing cloud formations. In the valleys, you could see the Rhine River and the Walensee were the coming spring had melted all the snow while here at the mountain top strong winds blew snow-clouds over the ways. And on the steep pistes skiers were rushing downhill.

Later, we went to the intermediate station at about 1330 meters and did a promenade there. Although there was still a lot of snow around it was much warmer and no wind. We walked a while on the “Klangweg” (Way of Sounds) with some installations for making sounds – with tubes or with cow bells.

Back in the valley, we tried to find the place in Wildhaus where the seminar had taken place (I had been there at a later seminar in 1985) but could not clearly identify it. But on the highway on the way back home we exchanged about the events which still have an impact on our present lives.

Yesterday evening I went out for a short walk. It was quite windy and raining a bit. A swarm of maple keys was approaching, some touching me, whirling high up, going even over the roofs of the neighbour houses. Then came another swarm, like swarms of locusts. We have a maple tree standing directly in front of our balcony. The leaves have gone and now it is time for the little “helicopters” to fly. I always thought that the maple keys on our balcony came from this tree but I now saw that the swarms flew a long distance, came from other trees at least some 50 meters away. I was astonished about this great Deva intelligence preparing first the leaves of the maples to fall and then, later, with the autumn storms, the maple keys are swarming out.

Maple keys in front of our house

Maple key on the balcony table

These little flying seeds made me think of my old French Larousse dictionary which I had used during my study times at the university. On the first page there was a publisher’s mark saying, “Je sème à tout vent”  – I sow with every wind.

It fascinated me very much and it became a motto in my life – to freely distribute, be it what I learnt as wisdom teachings, be it the paintings coming to me or books. Karma cares for what comes back. Nature does not care or charge for “seed copyright protection” to finance the development costs or the shareholder’s purse, it freely distributes. Of course, artists or computer programmers want to survive and our society is not based on free giving. And what comes as free mostly is not free but carries a more or less hidden catch. However, giving money for something you get is an exchange of energy and can be done with an awareness of being free; you need not understand it as paying. Also the maple keys want fertile ground to grow after landing.

I yesterday read that in Switzerland more than 30 per cent of the people, especially the young ones, only consume “free media”, be it in print, be it online. Paying for quality content production seems to be out. The recent election whirlwind brought plenty of fake news with blunt lies. And there are many websites now producing twisted news – the more viral, the more effective and powerful. I recently read from Macedonian “fake news producers” which gain quite a lot of money with sowing these poisonous seeds infecting many ignorant people with their viruses. Not only elections become infections when bad seeds sprout to governments, to laws and to international relations. Other kinds of seeds are needed for a healthy harvest.

It demands a high degree of discrimination to observe, to discover the seeds of motives and not to get deluded in one’s ensuing decisions concerning what to do in these times of the Dark Age.

Good seeds often take a long time to sprout and to grow. Weeds grow much faster. The huge redwood trees grow over centuries. In my life I observed that it took several decades for the deeper seeds of wisdom to sprout and grow – and they had been sown not just in this life. The seeds are coming freely, the good ones and the others. It needs a good gardener’s work to take out the weeds and water the good seeds.