Here is part 2 of my correspondence (extracts) with the young Indian seeker. And again you find some illustrations from an excursion to the Lake Neuchâtel and the Creux du Van near Neuchâtel – not related to the content.

She wrote: “Our paths have so many similarities; I am really glad I found somebody who understands my ‘problem’. It is amazing how parents expect all these things from us forgetting the fact that we have existed for millions of years before taking birth through them. We have our own destiny with which others should not meddle. 

Our conversation about fire makes me want to read the book of Master KPK on Agni. I will start it after finishing the transcription (she is helping with transcribing a video). I hope I am not taking too long to do it. If so please tell me and I will hurry up. I really like this task and I want to do more of this with time but I am in the process of building self-discipline from scratch and I am trying not to overwhelm myself.”

I replied: “Interesting about the similarities – who knows what’s behind the curtain… Yes, for years, there were conflicts with the expectations of my parents as well…
The book on Agni is certainly good to gain a deeper understanding of the work with fire. …
Good to know about the progress of the transcript – go by your speed, not by expectations. If you keep the focus, it is the right speed. I would only ask if you would get stuck in it.
Yes, the transcriptions are part of your building of self discipline, and rhythm, and a great instrument – taking up some such activity kindles the inner fire and gets you into contact with the energy of the Master. Indeed, don’t overwhelm yourself, be friendly with yourself.

One thing came into my mind – if you don’t yet do so, you might think of keeping a spiritual diary / notebook for your experiences / impressions. / thoughts.
See here the extract about “Practical Instructions” from Master EK, “Spiritual Psychology” – go by what is practical for you. As per the recommendations there, take them also in a friendly way, not with any moral pressure.
Here are also remarks of Master KPK about the practice, chapter 7 – you can scroll through and just read the 5 instructions of Master CVV.

Reply: “My university reopened on Monday this week and I started attending online classes. I also enrolled myself in a gym. I am starting to feel positive about life again and it’s a great feeling…
I won’t even attempt reading hardcore Theosophy before listening to Master Kumar’s explanations. In my experience all the theosophical books I came across are very hard to read and to understand. I think a change began with Master EK whose works give a great volume of information and also captivate readers. Master Kumar uses simple language and does an amazing job in tuning our minds to the wavelength of Theosophy. Reading Jupiter really shaped my way of thinking and I am very grateful to him for bringing out this book.
I thought about keeping a spiritual diary but never got myself to actually do it. Thanks a lot for sharing these extracts from Spiritual Psychology and The Theosophical Movement. The fact that your last mail arrived exactly at 01:11 makes me think it is a hint from the Masters…
I would also like to share my work on “Planets” with you. At the beginning I thought of writing it as a long essay with many paragraphs but later it turned into a blog with several posts and now looking at the way it is unfolding itself, I think it will become an ebook. I am not in a hurry to make it public though. I want to take time to write it well and cover all the important points.
So please feel free to point out my mistakes and to give me a sincere opinion (which I know you always do). I shared it with some of my friends who are my age and who have never read anything related to spirituality before. They looked like they understood; they even went on to discuss these things with me.

My answer: “Yes, Master EK and more so Master KPK gave out the wisdom in a much easier style – HPB remains great, the books of the Tibetan are quite a challenge, I read a lot and forgot most of it, after having studied 18 years, nearly all books, before getting into WTT ….
For a while, I was very intensely taking notes in the diary over years, now it is more sporadic but I keep thoughts / impressions coming directly either on a piece of paper at hand or in the booklet – otherwise, they quickly vanish again, even if they seem to be very clear for a moment.
I read your text on “Planets” – chapeau! Very well digested thoughts from Spiritual Astrology / the teachings, and in fluid style. As per the content I didn’t find anything incorrect or unclear… Go ahead – it strongly seems that you are not doing such writing as a fresher but with a rucksack.

In yesterday’s meditation some thoughts came, I write them as per me – not as per you, because I can’t look inside you 😉
When working with the teachings of the Master, giving them in my words, for a very, very long time I tried to keep as close as possible to their line of thoughts not to get into the clouds of my brain and intellect. I felt “i” have nothing to say and don’t feel ripe for the sublime planes from where the brilliant thoughts of the Master(s) come. And though slowly, I got a bit more “fluent”, I feel like wanting to keep as close on their track as possible, though becoming more versatile over the years. I very deeply know that what “i” write then is not “from me” but just using my personality mask to express the thoughts they handed down from Eternal Wisdom. Then it flows fine. Otherwise, very quickly the intellect’s incapacity of dealing with supra-mental stuff comes to the fore.
It is very encouraging that you bring over the wisdom to some of your friends – may the soul seeds sprout well.”

Four weeks ago, I wrote a blog-post about the correspondence with a young Indian friend. The intense exchange on various topics of spiritual and everyday life went on, and she encouraged me to share about it in the blog: “You send me a lot of amazing information each time and I am starting to think that making our correspondences available on your blog could help other seekers. Please share your view on this. I know we both are overburdened with work at the moment ….” indeed, and so I could not immediately pick up the idea.
But I now grouped the topics of our exchange and will share parts of it now and in some future posts. The illustrations I use are from an excursion to the Lake Neuchâtel and (later) the Creux du Van near Neuchâtel – not related to the content.

As per the blog-post she replied:

“Thanks for making our exchange into a blog post. I see that a lot of youngsters these days are going through such crises and this post could help someone feel normal. I really like the part where you say it is personality integration and not spiritual progress. While I don’t entirely understand what a personality integration means, I have seen a handful of people misunderstanding this state as Vairagya or enlightenment or something else that sounds fancier. It never made sense to me because how can I think I am enlightened when I am unhappy and anxious? Losing interest in worldly things is probably just the beginning.”

My answer: “Personality integration sounds like a technical term but it is maybe the most important thing on the spiritual path, at least until higher initiations. It means orienting / transforming one’s life to be an expression of one’s soul, or better oneSelf, and not of one’s personality, the lower self. Please see here.
It very much has to do with finding a stable orientation in life, arranging one’s rhythms, activities – the everyday life, at home, in study/profession, in social relations…. in a way that the orientation to the soul becomes prime priority without neglecting the other needs. It should be so normal and decent that others might not perceive at all anything of your orientation, except maybe the very close ones. Master CVV calls it as ‘normal temperament’, being normal and not abnormal like most people who follow other things that the inner self, the inner Master.
In a way this means vairagya, orienting away from false values to the values of the soul. It needs no propagating as being spiritual or searching for anything.
Very rightly you wrote: ‘It never made sense to me because how can I think I am enlightened when I am unhappy and anxious? Losing interest in worldly things is probably just the beginning.’
This losing interest has to do, not with losing but with slowly finding the contact with the inner self. Master CVV speaks of giving 200 percent life, inside and outside, enjoying both, not one on the cost of the other, but living in a moderate way.”

Reply: “I understand personality integration better now and yes, this is exactly what I am going through. Being born into a Telugu Brahmin family I grew up with a lot of conditioning and suffered a lot because of the friction between my true self and my upbringing. At the beginning of my crisis my entire “value system”, which made me feel bad about myself fell apart and it was hard to accept who I really am without all these labels.
I started trying to get into a rhythm and like you said there were many challenges coming my way. First two days I managed to stick to my plans. Then I got a flu and was not able to work. There were many irritations and psychological disturbances each time….”

My answer: “Indeed, what you are experiencing is exactly what personality integration means – a lot of friction (this level is also called “fire by friction” in the books of the Tibetan Master & Master KPK’s teachings). You experience the same as I went through, having grown up in a very religious catholic family, where my parents wanted me to become a priest… – but that was not my plan, the plan of my soul. So I revolted against – and went through years of turbulences / intense search. It need not be like this but what you are experiencing is the work of the Master’s energy.
Master CVV was very unorthodox in his way of life and is in his means of training – it comes from inside, so your experiences are fine.
And it’s the best to ‘make friends with the personality’, as Master KPK says – not trying to change anything by pressure but with humour, continuous orientation to the soul and when something did not work, just see what is possible next time.
Yes, flu etc. are also means to ‘keep you cooking’…

I would like to share with you some extracts from a correspondence with a young seeker, a little adapted for publishing. There have been various e-mails before.
Answering to a remark that she had gone through a severe crisis on her path I wrote that I also went through longer crises deeply shaking me.

She answered, “It’s hard for me to imagine that you went through such a turbulence because now you look like the most serene person I’ve ever seen. … It gives me hope for my future.”

I told her a bit about some turbulences at the beginning of my meditation time, linking to a blog-post about how I started meditating.

She: “Your blog is really cool. I want to share it with my friends because you give an interesting perspective on TM and the hippie movement. The post you shared just shows how important it is to find a Sadhguru who has only our best interests in mind. …”

Me: “Although it seems that ‘we find’ with good luck an accomplished teacher, it is always the teacher who, for a long time, over several lives, observes a student and then slowly guides him to come closer – first to other students of the “ashram” (group of disciples, not a physical structure) and, when someone might start to be useful in the work, also a physical contact. It says that the student cannot recognise the teacher, only slowly coming to understand – it is the teacher who sees the student.
Hierarchy decided a century ago to do group teachings now because many – though it might seem to be few – approach discipleship and are no more dealt with on a personal, one-to-on basis. It is learning, practising and working together in groups, as a group. So it is up to us to prepare ourselves. You will face challenges…”

She: “You are right about my struggle to put things in order. I have absolutely no energy to do anything other than meditating or writing since January this year. I don’t even have the interest to do other things for now. My parents find this very strange and pressurize me sometimes to be ‘normal’. May be I will get better after going to university.”

Me: “I very well understand your having absolutely no energy to do anything other than meditating or writing… I experienced the same in the 70s / early 80s. No real interest in study or profession… It seems to be a kind of crisis of soul orientation. It is not a sign of spiritual progress but of personality integration. Your parents pressurizing you to be ‘normal’ is also no solution in this. When my parents told me this way, it never was of help, just causing me sometimes to feel bad.
Going to university is also not as per such a real solution – when you are yearning for the soul, it is the thirst of your soul – and this cannot be suppressed by directing it elsewhere. But study might help because, what we need to acquire on the spiritual path is a stable stand in the triangle of meditation – study – service. Meditation: going inward, Study: not an outer filling of the mind with information stuff but understanding the subtle realities, therefore reading spiritual teachings. Service: being of help for the surrounding life, not living for oneself.
This means: You need skills to survive in life and to be useful for service. If you do not acquire, you get stuck on your spiritual path. Saturn will block you as long as you haven’t got this lesson.”

She: “I know you advised me not to teach or promote anything till I became very stable in Master’s yoga and I agree with you but in June this year, I felt a very strong urge to write a simplified essay on planets incorporating teachings of Master EK and Master KPK. The intention was to help millenials with a short attention span understand these concepts.”

Me: “If you feel inwardly that you would like to share the text with friends, you have the OK from your soul, your inner Master. It is good to help millenials with teaching – be prepared that when you start you will need to continue, through years, maybe life-long. Don’t take it up just for writing a momentary article and then put off again – this is just a fancy. If you are ready to keep up – no need to know for how long but willing to do one step after the other, then do it.”

Were it strange coincidences that I came across the topic of raising awareness for wisdom issues in the younger generation in apparently unrelated situations during the last week?

The topic is already longer in my mind since long but mostly in a dormant state. In a talk with Sri Kumar four weeks ago he gave some proposals concerning youth involvement which I carry in me in a germinal state since then.

Ten days ago, a group of younger people contacted me. They are developing a communication project to reach people who are not in new age groups and they wanted to share their plans with me, and so we had a Zoom meeting last Wednesday. I felt thrilled by their enthusiasm and I decided to accompany them in their project.

Last Friday, I was informed that the website of the youth forum Mithila will be closed on Saturday – inspired by a proposal of Sri Kumar it started 16 years ago and was first intended for a Jupiter cycle of 12 years. And so, it yesterday came to a close.

“Mithila” is the name of the ancientmost school of Wisdom and of wisdom education for the young generation. There are various groups giving Mithila classes and even Mithila schools in India for children from slum areas.

And there is a group in Venezuela especially dedicated to Mithila education who had a comprehensive website on wisdom teachings which, in a series of great challenges, had to be closed some years ago, and I supported an initiative to bring it back to life. Some days ago, I received a call for help due to another new difficult situation, and so I tried to initiate a group of members to support. The project is very dear to me, and there is much goodwill of the members behind.

I thought, one impulse dissolving, another coming up, others continuing and transforming.

About 15-18 years ago, we had a small Mithila group in our town. I was teaching the two boys of a friend and also our two boys basics of living ethics. My wife gave yoga classes to youngsters and we tried to lay a foundation for right living in a time with lot of counter-currents.

Over the years, I had tried to accompany a few young friends through the times of growing up and early adulthood. I felt they are carrying seeds for the future – but it needs much time and crises for growth. Flowers need time to develop.

Also my youngsters have become adults going their ways into life. The contents of what we tried to teach them has transformed into character and attitudes but not the contents – it is part of the transformation of life.

Four years ago, I read an article about Hilma Af Klint (1862-1944) in a Swiss magazine by the Swiss director of Serpentine Galleries, London. It was written on the occasion of an exposition (see here a video about it: “Hilma af Klint: Painting the Unseen – Serpentine Galleries“).

At that time, I felt touched by her images inspired by occult experiences, and so I did some research on Hilma on the web. I was moved by her experience of the non-recognition and the non-reception by her contemporaries of her grand contribution to beauty and to unveiling doors into the subtle world. Together with some friends, she experienced inner guidance and followed it. She was inspired by H.P. Blavatsky and Rudolph Steiner. She met him, but he too, did not recognize the sublime depth and greatness of her work; he could not interpret her paintings (here a video of a theosophical researcher).

Others also did not see her qualities and contributions to modern art and to life. Hilma created a grand work of about 1300 paintings, partly of very great size, and many drawings – it was never shown during her lifetime. She felt that the time was not yet ripe, and thus, in her will she decided that her work shall not be shown until at least twenty years after her death. Patience beyond the physical.

Some weeks ago, a friend from Munich told me about Hilma and asked me if I knew her – and so memories came back. My friend had just seen a German TV report about a new book and three times seen a movie on Hilma in a cinema in Munich.

It took 40 more years before the international recognition of her work started with a travelling exposition starting in Los Angeles in 1985. Many more expositions in famous museums followed. In 2019 there was even an exposition in the Guggenheim Museum, New York.

You now find a lot about her life and work on the web. You can see many of her pictures, in Wikimedia or Wikiart on Pinterest and elsewhere. You can discover about her on the website of the Swedish Hilma af Klint Foundation. Now, she has been discovered and her relevance for modern art researched and the difficult role of women in art reflected.

Still today, time might not yet be ripe to discover the relevance of present day contributions of esoteric and occult dimensions to beauty, beyond the fanfares of the art business.

This is the 1500th blog-post. I started blogging on 31 March 2006. I called the blog “Flowers on the Wayside”, along the roads of Good Will.

This post is about incense. Recently in an online-meeting with friends someone said, “But please don’t bring these black heavy ones…” They preferred light, Japanese incense. I also like but I silently thought of “these black heavy ones” which had become my trusted companions since many years. And I thought to write some words about them.

Of course, there’s no arguing about taste, and we can also add, no arguing about smell. Smell has a profound influence and you can remember it over many years. I know of a sandalwood fragrance which was used at a meditation seminar in summer 1975. I got one package, and it was so delicious… I never found that species again.

Many others followed. In a way, it became a dear meditation habit to light an incense. And when once one of my sisters told me that it was a dangerous habit, that the smoke is harmful to the lungs, that in India, living with open windows, it might be OK but here it is not – I thought, then may it be my little addiction… I especially like some of the kinds manufactured in the Sri Aurobindo ashram – they are striving for perfection.

I came to know the “black heavy ones” when I first came to the WTT group lives end of the 90s. They were not my favourites in the beginning. But I heard that they are made according to a recipe given by Master EK. I had felt a long, long calling by Master EK, over nearly 2 decades, before I approached and joined the path. And the incense became something linking me to this. And they became dear to me.

I heard from others saying, “I do not like them” – but I started liking. Maybe it was similar like with coffee, tea or smoking; it often does not taste well in the beginning but you can get accustomed. There are different flavours, and each time I am in India I get a good amount of them – for myself and also as a gift to friends. There is also one kind called “Sandal” – it does not smell much like sandal; however, I also like.

Incense supports alignment of the mind in meditation, to get the divine presence. In a group life in Argentina 2015 Sri Kumar said : “As far as incense is used it is to help you to get the presence. Once you are so well established in your prayers that you can relate to the presence even without incense, the incense shall not bother you.” Master CVV recommended incense, saying incense is important because the Master energy works through air, it is the permeating principle of the air. Therefore, having a good odour in the ambience is important.

Among all perfumes, sandalwood is considered to be the most sacred, because it supports the will in an excellent way, and it opens doors into super mundane much more effectively than any other perfume, than any other incense. There should be no artificial perfumes, only natural ones. Also before going to sleep you should light an incense and then go asleep, having conducted a prayer. Lighting a candle and an incense would dispel negative elements from the room. Sandalwood is also helpful for an easy departure and entry into the subtle planes at the moment of death.

Whenever we read a scripture about subtle topics, we should have incense and a candle. It is helpful to pray for the cooperation of the author of the scripture, as his presence is with the scripture. It is like a big light that can show us the intricacies of the text.

At winter solstice, the sun begins its northward journey. It marks a significant change of energies, and therefore it is celebrated as an annual ritual. Winter solstice is a symbol of spirit rising again from dense matter. Inwardly, you can experience this in form of inner light shining through, and therefore this is the actual time of esoteric Christmas.

Like the last years, we celebrated on 22 December the winter solstice with a small group at the Paracelsus-Center of the WTT in Einsiedeln. The weather was cold, rainy and on the mountain ridge of the Etzel Pass it was very stormy. In the afternoon, we wanted to make a walk but after some minutes we had to return – indeed a time of turning inward.

Here are some impressions of the group life.

When seeing the lights of the Christmas illuminations during the last weeks, a painting done nearly 23 years ago came back to my mind – “Light over the City.” It was done in February 1987, dissolved in 1997, and digitally restored from a photo in 2013.

I was trying to portray the “light”, which here comes from above and shines all over and through the city – a vision of an enlightened society, but at the same time full of apocalyptic inklings, which are shaking in the underground.

I was fascinated of the inter-penetration of spiritual energies and everyday life. The scenery contains elements from the old town of Münster, Germany, where I lived for years; and the figure of the Eiffel tower together with the Arc de Triomphe in Paris.

A sentence for this came to me yesterday during the morning walk – “May the light in space guide us safely over the bridge crossing the madness of our time!” The light in space is the manifestation of the subtle world touching us when we open ourselves.

A very blessed Christmas and much momentum for 2020!

For 19 years, 1990 – 2009, I didn’t paint anything. I felt I would never paint again. The creative streak was frozen, hidden under a veil deep within.

In November 2009, during a deep and long crisis, I experienced two intense night inner openings. Suddenly there was an urge to express these experiences on paper, and so the series “Images of Synthesis” started.

On Friday the 27th of November 2009, I bought paper, colours, and paint-brushes. The next day I started the first painting, not knowing that it was a new beginning. I started painting on a photo which I had shot some days before. After painting, I scanned the picture, printed it, worked on it with pencils, scanned it again and then worked again on it on the screen, increasing the brightness of the colours: My new technique was born. I use it to this day, refining the procedure with every work done.

More and more, I realised that the images were not from me but through me. Often I was much surprised about what came out. Doing these paintings is an activity full of unforeseen, done besides many other activities.

Upto now, there are 151 images. They are available for free download on the website with the paintings (I had done about 80 prints on aluminium dibond and framed hi-res prints – resting in the basement – I stopped doing so; there was not much interest in them).

Since April 2010, I have been working on the “Spiritual Astrology Paintings”. I recently finished the 10th annual cycle, with 12 paintings each – 120 paintings – as part of the Images of Synthesis series. I did a photo-book with the last three annual cycles, until Pisces 2020 – so it will have to wait for some more months.

The “Images of Synthesis” are also published on the Good-Will website, with short extracts of the wisdom teachings of the World Teacher Trust, giving the inspiring idea. You find them also on Facebook and on Flickr.

Will the work continue? I do not know. It is not my planning but depends on the inner impulse. But upto know there is a “green light” to continue.

Here you can see the first five images of the series – and you find explanations on the ludgerphilips.org website (series “Subtle Worlds”).

The last months, many roads and footpaths in our community were digged up. Also the pavement in front of our house was opened for a while: A fiber optic cable network is being installed successively in all quarters: ‘fiber to home’ – also to our home.

The marketing slogans highlight: “With fiber optics you surf faster and more stable; you can consume data over several devices at the same time – watch movies, play games or book holidays…”

Consuming data – until indigestion? Yes; I will also profit from it. And I observed what was going on – with the streets and with me.

The roads were opened, work was going on, the cables installed,the roads were closed again. And you could see some traces on the roads.

A little later, the roads and pavements were tarred and the wounds of the surface disappeared again. The cables were inside, ‘implanted’.

It made me think of the nadi system, the subtle energy network in our body which is not visible to the physical eye but which you can trace in meditation. Medical science considers them as inexistent but yoga science explains their details – if you try to dissect a magnet, you won’t find the magnetic field nor see any electron-magnetic waves but you can discover their functioning.

Of course, the fiber optic cables are more dense than the nadis, you will find them in the streets. But just like the subtle lines of force the cables are part of a great network of intelligence steering our consciousness.

The flood of stimulations is increasing. Information and the stories of the next generation multi-channel entertainment will do their best to keep us attracted – whereto?

It is difficult to withdraw the attention, to find the way through the hyper-active vibrations inside and outside. To discover the inner light and life.

But that is what is nourishing, not the maelstrom of busy-busy-busy. We need to learn swimming against the stream which is powerfully rushing from all sides. To turn inward, again and again, regularly and persistently .

A kind of wilful stimulation fasting helps keeping away from unnecessary pace-makers. You will be rewarded with experiencing your Self and the greater whole of life.