During my morning walks I come along a construction site. Over the last months, I observed how two old houses were demolished, then the foundation pit excavated, walls coming up. First, I just observed; later, I started pondering on what was happening.

Many people are cooperating, material is arranged in a certain way. Slowly a house takes form. Or is part of it a garage? Why are things done in this way? I did not know. But it was obvious that all this was done with a purpose – there was a plan behind.

Later, a picture was hung up on the fence of how the house should look like, with information about the enterprises involved. And still later, there were panels with information about sale contacts. I didn’t want to buy an apartment, I just was an uninvolved observer – or was I not? Observing the whole process gave rise to thoughts about what observing this process did with me.

I started pondering again on what is the plan, the plan of my life, the bigger plan. What is the purpose? Or is there no purpose? Obviously, there is. But then what do I recognise and how do the details of my life, of the bigger life, fit into the purpose? Are the activities in tune with the plan? How am I planning and how am I supervising the progress of construction, in my life, in the activities involved? Where am I craftsman, collaborator? Where am I architect? Am I an executor and what is the direction of executing, what I am doing? What do I perceive of a bigger plan and how do my elaborations fit into it? Personality plans, plans without personal perspective, or with a bigger or lesser…

Like with the house construction I am observing things develop without my knowing the bigger purpose, but certain patterns give hints to understand the bigger plan. I remarked how I have been doing plans which ended up in “ruins of goodwill”. Or were they not ruins but stepping-stones for further working out? There is a masonic story that all bricks are needed for the construction of the temple…

I pondered on how I do my plan of the year – by noting everything in a calendar with ephemerides (positions of planets) at the beginning of a year, to mark things which need attention, and things which rhythmically repeat, like solstice and equinox meetings, journeys intended, ongoing meetings, important constellations. And then, in the course of the year, it is worked out.

It takes time to prepare the year but this helps to be in tune with many details, to notice them in advance. There is communication planning, keeping contact with people by contacting them at their birthdays, a part of networking activities. I noticed that many details get elaborated when you repeat and revise. And this way, subtle aspects of the plan reveal which were unknown or unnoticed before. And especially the monitoring and developing of relationships, team building, transforming conflicts into steps of learning.

There is a planning of the day, with what are the tiny activities which first one might not realise as important but which turn out to be so. The cornerstones of the day, like the cornerstones of the building. And thus, the construction of the days, the weeks, the months, the years slowly take shape, a shape which might be useful for the bigger plan, into which my activities might increasingly fit.

Such planning helps to be in tune with what I perceive as the purpose of my life, of life.

About hornets, spammers and subtle attacks…

When the summer was rising I noticed an increased activity of “flight operations” in front of my balcony windows: Big insects arrived with some speed, landed on the roller shutter and seemed to do an inspection there.

They were too big for wasps – hornets! They had invaded the roller shutter box and disappeared through some holes. I googled, found out that they were less aggressive than wasps – which had visited us on the other balcony in the past years – and that they were protected animals.

Fine, I thought – but each time I tried to air the room they managed to come inside and were vagabonding around. In the morning and evening I could easily guide them to the toilet by switching on the lamps there, opening the window and closing the door – gone. During the day it took more time to get them out again.

It was getting hot – something had to be done. One by one I stuffed the chinks along the roller shutter with plastic bags – they could get in through tiny holes. When they noticed my activities, they increased their efforts. They could not really remove the plastic though they tried to gnaw it away. However, they managed to dig a little hole into the wall.

A group of hornets stayed together in one corner while the others brought food – a bigger hornet – the queen was sitting in the centre. I didn’t dare to go too close with my camera.

I observed it for about two weeks and tried to deter them with clove oil – no effect. When some days it was raining, there seemed to be less hornets – and I found dead ones on the balcony. Then – three hornets, two, sometimes just one, the lonely queen. Sometimes I thought they were gone again but then several hornets flew an attack against the window, clashing against the glass. But window and door were closed.

Then about a week ago finally they had disappeared – though not totally. I sometimes still see them flying around but they must have found another save haven. I pondered on the meaning of this experience… They reminded me of my vagabonding thoughts in a turbulent meditation – how to keep the windows closed? Wakefulness, discrimination, “non-refoulement”…

Two weeks ago, there was another kind of attack:

My provider informed me that my “spam@” e-mail had been hacked; lots of e-mails had been sent from the account so that the provider had to shut it. At the same time I was flooded by return e-mails blocked by other providers. I quickly changed the password – my provider told me that after a few days the flood might go down again.

It did not but increased: The “spammer friends” used my e-mail address without sending from my account to distribute their e-mails where lonely ladies were longing for lusty lovers… Each day 1-2 thousand return mails from other providers – from east, west, north, south, in varous languages ….

My provider installed some filters on my server but it only had a small effect for two-three days, then again over thousand return mails popped in. My provider told me that the only thing I could do is to put filters in my webmail. And so I defined a number of filters deleting the return mails. I suppose that the mail flood abusing my e-mail address is still going high but there is again silence in the spam inbox.
And again, I pondered on the meaning of the experience – shut out any unwanted “over-activity” of outer impulses trying to drag us away from ourselves.

A third kind of experience:

A few days ago, the daughter of a friend skyped me and explained about some strange experiences in her neighbourhood – I don’t go into details but she described how she received subtle attacks draining her energy. I rate her as an alert and quite down-to-earth person not prone to fantasies. She knew already a number of things of how to protect herself from attacks but wanted to know more about it. (I had blogged already about protection from energy vampirism before, see also here.) We spoke about mantrams and exercises like the double pyramid to insulate oneself of destructive intrusions.

Like with the other attacks, of hornets or spam mails, you need to keep your protective shields strong and your thoughts pure. You find interesting hints in the books of Agni Yoga, esp. “Supermundane“:

“People protect themselves from poisonous gases by wearing gas masks. But they should provide themselves with one more mask — the protective mask of pure thought — for only thought can shield one from the poisonous breath. People should admit that there is such poison, and remember that thought has the power to resist the most harmful vibrations. ” (Supermundane 291)

“You may also ask how to counter unwelcome visitors — only through the valor of the spirit, not permitting them to contact your essence. Urusvati knows how these unwelcome guests have recoiled; it was not even necessary to drive them away, for they could not penetrate the protective net. Such natural protection is always the best, but for this, training of the spirit is required. Depression is the most gloomy magnet, and irritation also entices these ugly guests.” (Supermundane 430)

P.S.: A friend from Miami wrote me as a feedback about “Attack and Defence”:
“I also have been reflecting, sadly, because the opening of schools in Miami Dade has had the emphasis in surviving attacks. I understand that preparedness is important, but it is sad anyways.”
Indeed, a sad thing – training children in schools to survive shooting violence a horrible consequence of the craze for weapons…
 

I yesterday witnessed a strange and moving story of light and darkness:

In a previous blogpost, I mentioned a friend from Germany originally from Belarus. Two days ago, she told me that a friend of hers had contacted her “with the wish and courage to translate the English text of the biography of Sripada Srivallabha into Russian. She is a nun, and the Avatar Dattatreya is the main deity in her ministry… She is a pure soul and also speaks both languages well in the spiritual direction…”

I was thrilled that another step in the direction of the prophecy in the book that some hundred years after it was written it would be translated into many languages and go over the world.

When I read that this Russian lady is a nun related to Dattatreya, immediately images of Russian websites came to my mind where some years ago – it was in August 2016 – I had seen pictures of a beautiful ashram east of Moscow with a big golden statue of Dattatreya and other saints. (If you have the Google Chrome, go to the following pages -Russian- with automatic translation – I only use this browser for such cases…. you can download it here). I am not putting the images in this blogpost but please do see them.

They had done 108 sculptures of mahasiddhas and gods, they wanted to create a mandala of one hundred eight temples of unity of all religions. For this, they had created already a beautiful Avadhutta Dattatreya Temple, a Rishi Vasishtha Temple, a Temple of Seven Rishis and planned to do a Temple of Refuge. See here about their spiritual head, Swami Vishnudevananda Giri.

And here is another website about this Center of Vedic Culture ‘Divya Loka’ as a community of Russian-speaking followers of Hinduism (Sanatana Dharma).

When I told my friend of my findings, she sent me a picture of the destruction of the ashram by Russian autorities… I googled for images of the ashram – and found a Russian TV report of NTV.ru entitled, in English translation, “The temple of Nizhny Novgorod sectarians razed to the ground”. And: “The bailiffs decided to demolish three so-called churches at once in an abandoned village in the Nizhny Novgorod region, where members of a strange religious community have recently settled. Services were held there by the newly-minted and self-proclaimed guru. He is known in the world as a former political officer of the Ukrainian army. Regular trances, hypnosis, and cruel punishments for the smallest offenses drove adherents crazy.” See here the printscreen of the Russian original website and here with English translation. You can read more background information on the original site. See also the page about a series of suicides related to this place in 2014.

Fact or fabricated story? I had to think of persecutions in the name of state and religion in present and past and of spiritual aberrations. In the Indian scriptures, there are many stories about how the king of the devas (the beings of light, of spirit) became proud (behaved wrongly) and so the asuras (the forces of matter) attacked and destroyed the world of the devas. Only after turning to Narayana (the highest God or the pure existence) for help, they found the way back to the rightful path…

My friend wrote me, “Nothing new for Russia. The Roerich Museum was also closed.” (I had blogged about the museum before, see here and here.)

Thoughts came to me what Sri Kumar had repeatedly told us, that outer forms can be destroyed but the inner truth will manifest where time and space demand. That we do not build much outer structures to remain “light” and that we should try to live “normal temperament”, not creating special attention: “Much working can be done in silence provided there is ‘Normal Temperament’.”

I had a little exchange with the Russian lady. She is at the moment living in Nepal. She started reading the biography of Sripada Srivallabha and is willing to translate it. May the endeavour be blessed.

P.S. from February 2020: The lady told me in December that the book is already translated (wow!!!) and they are about to print it.

10 days ago, I was invited to a summer party of the WTT group of Lake Constance. It promised to be a warm but not hot weekend. I took the highway via Konstanz (Constance) to cross the lake via ferryboat to Meersburg – a little holiday feeling.

A quarter of an hour later, around noon, I arrived at the home of my friends in Heiligenberg (‘Mountain of Saints’), with a castle overlooking the vailley. Manfred had to do some errands in preparation of the garden party and he invited me to lunch in an anthroposophic restaurant in Überlingen.

When we returned to their home, Sabine, his wife also had just arrived from school – she is a language teacher. Manfred is a retired industrial engineer and now an enthusiatic herbalist and wisdom teacher. (We had recently met at the May Call seminar in Mount Shasta.) He is focused on promoting knowledge about the healing power of plants. He has developed a huge network and is organising workshops on making herbal products for home use. And since both are also profoundly related to the wisdom teachings, another network of meditation and study developed. Over the years, I had participated in some of their group meetings. It is very inspiring to see how such a “flower-garden of seekers” can grow when it is well and regularly nurtured in a spirit of openness and synthesis. As an outer reflection Manfred has developed a beautiful lush garden with many different types of plants, especially with many different species of fragrant roses. He told me that he is inwardly relating to the plants and they grow there in all glory.

Friday evening around sunset time Sabine and I went swimming in a nearby beautiful bathing lake – summer fulness. The couple had already done quite a lot of preparations and I helped with some final arrangements. Saturday around 3 pm the group arrived, around 20 persons. We started with a meditation and some exchange and then the group went into the garden.

There were sprightly conversations – you could feel that the group connections had grown over the years. I enjoyed talking to various friends and especially exchanging with a new person and her daughter originally from Belarus but now living since many years in Germany – they had visited me the weekend before at our home in Switzerland. They told me about many Russian speaking people they know who are deeply interested in the wisdom teachings of WTT and we discussed of how this could be further developed.

Sabine had prepared a little slide show about the Mount Shasta and the May Call there and she asked me to give a short talk about it. Time quickly ran by, and when the guest had left we tried to clear up the garden as much as possible – an intense thunderstorm came during the night bringing lots of water.

In the morning, there were clouds hanging over the nearby hill and the flowers were still decorated with raindrops. We finished the clean-up work and had some conversations. Such group exchanges are always a good networking time, and so we discussed some ideas. When I set out for the journey back to Switzerland, the temperature had risen high again but I felt fulfilled with the impressions of the beautiful weekend.

Regular readers of the blog have already heard a number of times about Sripada Srivallabha, his biography and my journeys to the places of his birth and his stay.

It was a long adventure how the revised English edition of the “Sripada Srivallabha Charitamrutam” developed together with the German translation (published in 2016). I don’t want to go into it now; I just was very happy that during the recent international May Call celebration at Mount Shasta, California, Sri Kumar released the book. (Read more about the release during May Call here.)

And since today, the English book is available in the USA from Amazon.com and in India from Dhanishta Editions (you might not yet find in on their site, write to info@dhanishta.org). In Europe, you can order it from Kulapati.de; however, the parcel with the books is still on the way from India. It will also be soon available at the distributor Syntropia.de, who also sells the German version. More about book distribution see here.

You can also download the book for free (20 MB); however, it is good to have the book in paper form.
The Spanish and the French translations, on the basis of this English version, have been finished and are in process of proof-reading. See also the website www.sripada-srivallabha.org.

In the biography, Sripada said about the book: “I will remain in a subtle form in every place where My biography is devotedly read.” “Don’t think that Sri Charitamrutam book is a mere book. It is a live stream of a glorious consciousness.”

January 2015, at the beginning of my contact with the Charitamrutam, Sri Kumar told me: “Don’t think that it is a book; it is pure fire.” And indeed, it caused a lot of transformation with me.

The 8th May is celebrated as ‘White Lotus Day’, in remembrance of Helena P. Blavatsky, who passed over on this day in the year 1891.

In the book “The Golden Stairs” Master Kumar speaks about the beauty of her being which is compared to a white lotus:

“Madam Helena Petrovna Blavatsky is as tender as a freshly unfolded white lotus. The tenderness of her being cannot be expressed in any language. In her case incompatibles have become compatibles. She is as fiery as she is tender. Her being is essentially and naturally tender and extremely motherly. But at work she is an embodiment of fiery Will. She was the chosen darling of the Hierarchy to inaugurate an era of enlightenment. She did her job ruthlessly, dedicating her life to the noble work of the Hierarchy. She has broken many distorted and crystallized concepts of TRUTH. She synthesized the universal wisdom; she presented afresh Cosmogenesis and Anthropogenesis, which are the world scriptures for posterity. She explained dexterously the story of man on earth. Through the key of Manvantara cycles and races she reintroduced the most ancient wisdom relating to globe chains, the seven rays and their universal application. She skilfully utilised the keys of astrology, etymology and cycles of time to unlock wisdom from the most ancient manuscripts of cave temples that exist in the Himalayas. She was as much in the subtle as she was on the physical and was therefore able to grasp the truth in its variety of dimensions. She was a fully inspired lady who inspired many through looks, through speeches and through mere presence. She was even seen as a reincarnation of Buddha in places like Sri Lanka.
She is regarded as the white lotus that unfolds afresh the beauty and fragrance of new age wisdom. She is respected as Upasika, the one who is in connection with the ruling light of the planet, which is said to be mysteriously posited in the subterranean regions of Gobi desert of Mongolia.
Inspired by her teachings ever since, thousands of groups sprang up in all the four corners of the globe, trying to find the way afresh with the help of knowledge that she unfolded for the forward march of the present humanity. Any praise or appreciation of her work would be inadequate. This teaching is offered at the lotus feet of Madam Blavatsky, who continues to be an inspiration in the heart of numerous beings all over the planet. The Madam stood by the Golden Stairs and her life is a demonstration of the Golden Stairs.”

May the remembrance of her life and work help us to integrate her teachings into our lives and to gradually transform ourselves.

“H.P.B. – Trailblazer for the Aquarian Age” (Booklet)

Have a good White Lotus Day!

To get into the mood on Friday afternoon, everyone had brought something and put it on the altar: some books, pictures, small statues of Ganesha or turtles… In the evening we talked about the message of Sri Kumar on the energy qualities of the new year (contained in the Vaisakh Newsletter Aries): the name of the year, Vikari, indicates that there will be significant changes in all areas this year.

When the new cycle of the year begins on the vernal equinox and nature awakens again everywhere, a new beginning lies in the air. The CVV Sharings use this very special energy and the meetings for meditation and exchange in the spirit of synthesis are very intense and inspiring. This year the 10th CVV-Sharing took place, and for the fifth time we gathered at the seminar centre “Lichtblick” at Hude near Oldenburg, surrounded by meadows and forests.

For this year’s CVV Sharing Sri Kumar gave a message of Master CVV about inner observation; it began with the words: “In this yoga ‘thought power’ is essential and inner observation is most essential. Without these two, no one can get any salvation…” This year, too, the focus of the Sharing was increasingly on meditation: every three hours we made a meditative alignment, with longer meditations at 6 o’clock in the morning and evening as well as at lunchtime.

On Saturday morning a small talk introduced us to the myth of Chiron and we explored the associated qualities with an inner journey and group exchange. Later, triangular work led to reflections on topics of disconnectedness and valuations in us.

In the afternoon there was an introduction to the art of archery; then we practiced our first steps outside with bows and arrows. Afterwards we talked about the experience of illness and healing. And in the evening musical performances on the guitar lifted us up into subtle planes.

Sunday began with a fire ritual after the morning meditation. It was a magical atmosphere as the flames rose up and everyone put a piece of wood into the fire. And as we gathered for the group photo, the morning sun slowly rose above the dew-fresh meadow.

Later we shared about what makes us open our hearts and when and where we meet the light in others. We did a visualization exercise where we moved up and met on a platform in the subtle world. There we also want to meet for the full moons throughout the year.

Afterwards we took a group walk to a small lake in a nearby forest to say the World Peace Prayer. In the final round you could feel joy about the Sharing meeting; through the intensity of deep encounters the group grew together further.

The CVV-Sharing 2020 cannot take place at the seminar centre “Lichtblick”; the meeting will again be, like in 2016, at the “Seminarhof Drawehn” in Wendland, from 20 to 22 March 2020 – please make a note!

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Nearly six months ago, I received a parcel sent by friends from an island in Thailand. It contained a small wooden box with 91 rudraksha beads and a rudraksha necklace, beautifully decorated with a piece of tree bark from a fallen branch of a rudraksha tree, a red tissue and a thread.

Two years ago they found a first rudraksha in a waterfall area on Koh Phangan island and then started exploring the beauty and depth of rudrakshas in different parts of Thailand. They are publishing information about rudrakshas and other trees and plants and are exploring their sacred vibration and beauty. They are also giving courses on how to use rudrakshas. On the website inaturalist.org, they are maintaining a section “Rudraksha Planet” about observations concerning this holy tree. Originally from Russia, they are working in Thailand with a NGO based in Scotland, Kalos Fund. It is a very inspiring mission.

In a talk in Miami February 2018, Master Kumar spoke on using rudrakshas in the course of a question-answer session, see below. And he has published a booklet on Rudra (more; see here the PDF) explaining more about this lord of Will and of Fire, causing the vibration in the ether

“Question: I have been asked by several people about what you have mentioned that we should soak the rudraksha and change the water daily. The question is: should we drink or not drink that water?

Answer: Drink the water. A rudraksha carries vibrations. Rudra stands for vibration. The vibrations will rearrange the energies in you. That is the beauty of Rudra. There is a book on Rudra so you can look through. The Rudras, they destroy the darkness and build a field of light through their vibrations. A Rudraksha has the impact of these vibrations. That is why a lot of people wear these rudrakshas in the East. A tacha rudraksha daily is very very beneficial. Many people hold it like a chain with the rudrakshas touching their vibrating center at the heart. You daily touch a rudraksha and offer water to it, because it is a very vibrating energy, it is kept cool, kept in poise with water; and water is also electrical. The higher dimension of water is that it is electrical. That is how we originally produced hydro electricity because in the water there is electricity. So, it is electrical and if it is kept cool though you are very vibrant you remain cool. This is the idea of holding a rudraksha. So, daily relating to rudraksha will enable you to gain the vibrations. So, it is the matter of respect that every day you change the water for it.

In the morning you can set it in water and utter forth the mantra for Rudra, OM NAMO BHAGAVATE RUDRAYA. That is the mantra. A much more powerful mantra for relating to Rudra is, YO RUDRO AGNO YO APSUYA OSADISU, YO RUDRO VISWA BHUVAN AVIVESA TASMAI RUDRA YA NAMO ASTU. Like this, there is a mantra, which I also gave here before. In there it says 3 times to utter the mantra Rudra. Do it saying it 3 times, or 5 times or 7 times, maximum 11 times. Eleven are the Rudras. If you can do it, you do it. Otherwise you hold the rudraksha daily, change the water and the vibrations will be there at home.

Everything should be optional; nothing should be compulsory in spiritual practice. But once we accepted to do it, then you have to follow a rhythm. It is like a marriage. Once you are married you are committed. Isn’t it? You can’t change it. Like that, with any practice you can keep it at a optional level or at a level of consecration and commitment.”

Pisces symbolizes the eternal flow of energies. It is a cyclical movement in which the energies come down into the objective manifestation of creation; they develop and finally dissolve again to give way for new manifestations. This is called the movement of the waters of life. We can visualize it as a circular flow of water. It is also regarded as the wheel of creation, the descent and ascent of manifestation. This subtlest form of water is called spiritual waters or electric fire.

During some weeks of November and December 2018 I was in a rehabilitation centre in the Bernese Alps to recover from a cerebral bleeding. From my room there, I was looking over the Lake Thun to the Mount Niesen. The air was full of vibrant vital energy. The mount with its prominent pyramidal shape seemed to be an epitome of matter rising towards the spirit and spirit descending towards dense manifestation. The meeting of spirit/space and matter culminates in the nightly light on the top of the mountain. The lake and the lights of the town of Spiez at its foot receive the vastness of space and reflect the cosmic fire.

At the top of the image I put the arc of a nightly rainbow as a portal towards space. I increased the light spot on the mountain top and surrounded it by a sphere of light penetrating matter. I duplicated the reflections of the city lights to form an embrace. Then I covered the whole picture with a photo of a downpour of water from an old fountain.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Pisces paintings.

The video:

Last week there was an international May Call celebration in the Bildungshaus Neckarelz, in South Germany – a beautiful place near the river Neckar. It was conducted under the auspices of WTT Germany and organised by the WTT group of Lake Constance. The group life started on Sunday but we, a small group, came already on Saturday for preparation. The May Call Day meetings are always very inspiring; last year we had met in the Vosges, France.

The team of the Bildungshaus (education center) of the Catholic church was very welcoming and we enjoyed the preparation work very much. Elli and Peter had brought about 60 little audumbara trees – sacred trees related to the energy of Lord Dattatreya – which Elli had nursed from the seeds I had received at the birth place of Sripada last year.

Little audumbara trees on the windowsill

Sunday afternoon all 60 group members had arrived – from Austria, Belgium, France, Switzerland and from various parts of Germany. Manfred and Sabine had organised the group life and the program had many facets – besides the morning and evening meditations there were a water and a fire ritual, yoga and qigong exercises, talks about various topics: a short introduction to NLP, Sacred Geometry and the mystics behind numbers, Blavatsky’s influence on the art of the 20th century, an innovative project of community living and about Master CVV, the comet tail and the energy of synthesis.

May Call Day itself, Tuesday, 29 May, started with meditation followed by a fire ritual in the amphitheatre at the Temple House church. With the singing of mantrams, Agni, the deva of fire, was invoked and all of us offered a stick of wood into the fire.

Later, I could give an introduction to the significance of the May Call, and this was followed by the cake ritual and distribution of presents – the audumbara trees, natural ointments prepared by the Lake Constance group, honey, bookmarks and crystals. Since we could not do a candle ritual inside, the group formed the symbol of perfection, the symbol of WTT, with white roses.

In the evening, after some musical presentations and reading of poems by Tamara we gathered outside with candles in a big circle and sung some songs – a magical moment, with Venus shining above the dark trees.

Wednesday morning I spoke about “The Unusual Ones – Jewels of the Divine”. I had prepared a presentation with 10 short sketches of extraordinary Indian saints and yogis but time allowed only 6 ones. With a review and an outlook on how to continue with the May Call celebration this very uplifting meeting ended.
The same small group which had arrived one day before the group life stayed one more night to slowly conclude and reflect on the events. A touching time.