Another project focusing on promoting the awareness of unity is “run4unity“, an initiative of the catholic Focolare youth movement present in 182 countries. The initiative calls itself “youth for unity”. “Run4unity” is a worldwide relay race as a sports event to promote and build peace together: On 10th of May 2008 they make the run at places all around the globe from 4pm to 5pm in the respective time zones.

They start at the time zone of the Pacific island of Fiji. At 5pm, by means of an internet link, they will pass the “baton” on to the next time zone. Over the course of the next 24 hours, the baton will pass through locations of every latitude and in each location personalities from the world of sport, culture, as well as civic and religious leaders will participate.

The sports activities will take place in locations symbolic of peace, or near areas of conflict and war, or in places of strong tension. The activities are linked together through the website “teens4unity“. May the awareness of unity find deeper roots than just an emotional feeling of a joint action for a short time.

They write: “We are Christians but also belong to other religions and cultures that do not profess a religious creed. We are united by one goal: to make universal brotherhood a reality by involving many other teenagers in the world in this project.”

They had done a peace race in 2005 with the participation of over 100.000 teenagers in 340 cities of 89 nations.

A flower arrangement at a fair in Berne, last Sunday

There are quite a number of initiatives all around the globe, which stand up to foster the awareness of unity. Yesterday I came to know about two interesting activities. I’ll present them in three blogposts

The “ONE WORLD AWARD – the Prize for ‘One World’ ” was launched recently by a German health food company Rapunzel. Its founders Jennifer Vermeulen and Joseph Wilhelm have sponsored the 25.000 Euro cash prize to honour the visions and achievements of individual persons. Their contributions and projects that have the goal to make the world a better place. People who give examples of positive globalization using innovative ideas and dedication, people who make the future worth living. The prize is awarded every two years. The jury is formed by Tewolde B. G. Eghziaber, Director General of the Ethiopian Environmental Protection authority, Vandana Shiva from India and member of the Club of Rome, and Alberto Lernoud, a journalist, poet, activist, trader and true pioneer of the organic movement in Argentina.

A very encouraging prize initiative

A flower globe at a fair in Berne, last Sunday

Last week I saw an article in the latest number of a German web-marketing journal about measuring user engagement on websites. The question which occupies the marketeers is: How to get people into an engagement, for example on a website, and start to do something.

The marketing specialist agree that it is most important to incite engagement, but it seems to be quite difficult to measure it: If you can quantify engagement, then you can put a price tag on it and benchmark the reactions you get, invest in raising the level of engagement and the like.

A comment in a blogpost by “Scobleizer” (Robert Scoble, the ex-Microsoft “evangelist”) from 2006 entitled: New audience metrics needed: Engagement, lists, what engagement is about and what might be measured:

1. Reactions (they heard you)
2. Learning (they understood and retained)
3. Transfer (they took in the information and can apply)
4. Results (they use the learning to achieve a goal)

There is a lot of discussion about this topic on the web, but these simple lines very well hit the point of engagement, also in the context of wisdom teachings – though measuring is more than strange in this context: Many people hear something about the inner path (point 1), some get interested and start reading about it (point 2), and this for a longer time.

A few of these transfer it into a practice (point 3) and start training themselves. Of these few again a small group really commits itself to continuous engagement, taking up a regular schedule, combined with some kind of service activities and diving into a deeper understanding of the teachings with studies.

Many quit their initial engagement half way through or get lost in some side-track or the other. In the Eastern scriptures it says, out of 1000 one person changes from one level to the other – from hearing to getting interested, to starting practice, to getting into engagement. So it is 1000 x 1000 x 1000.

The percentage of those who set upon a focused spiritual journey along the guiding lines seems to be very low (marketeers would be very much frustrated…), and hopefully it scores a bit higher. But it also says that the goal of a spiritual teacher is reached, when he finds a fistful who really apply and reach the goal and take up the torch of teaching themselves.

Have a look at “Basics of Spiritual Life” on “The Teacher-Student Principle“.

Which way to take with engagement – turn to commitment, or pass on, or stay undetermined?

I read today an article about a meeting of German newspaper publishers on April 16, where they spoke about the interaction between print and web. Norbert Bolz, professor of the TU Berlin said to the publishers that the battle going on in the internet is the battle of reputation: People are confronted with a tremendous amount of information which they cannot assimilate, and the newspapers help them to orient: “They decide what is important and unimportant. Nothing is more important in the 21st century than discrimination.”

What gives the guideline of discrimination? Who decides about what is important and what can be left away?

The situation is the same on the spiritual path: there is so much information around, that people get irritated by this and easily get lost in sideways. Some therefore prefer staying in belief systems they somehow have outgrown, like those of the mainstream churches.

Orientation by reputation might be helpful, if the authorities are farsighted and knowledgeable. Otherwise it is dangerous – the blind following the blind man.

Who are the authorities, what determines the right kind of reputation and who is creating it? In the case of orientation on the path into the subtle worlds the mainstream is of no avail, for they blind out the inner dimension of reality. The media as such seem to be ignorant of the signposts to the path of light. The same is true with the academic persons. They cultivate the intellect, but not the heart, the doorway to the higher worlds.

Discrimination is a quality of the soul, of the Buddhic plane of light. He who is centred in the soul knows how to discriminate, and more so if you have learned it from an enlightened teacher. In India there is a saying that the one who has found a wise teacher who has realised what he is teaching is really blessed.

You might want to have a look at our powerpoint presentation The Importance of a Teacher on the Path, from the series on Meditation – Experiment and Experience. It is also available as a PDF file, though not animated. There is also the number from Basics of Spiritual Life on “The Teacher-Student Principle“.

Picture of a Buddha statue at sunset. I took it last year in the garden of the friend.

Yesterday we had another public evening theme, this time about “Silence, Speech and Sound”. Sacred sounds and certain kinds of music are very effective means of inner transformation and also for energizing the space around us. Speech and sound can have an uplifting effect, but can also be destructive and painful. It depends on the way we use them.

We were a small group only, but there was an inspiring atmosphere. First I presented a powerpoint show with many photos related to sound (in German, it will be translated in the next weeks), also available as a PDF-file. After a pause my wife guided a meditation with an introduction into the Gayatri Mantram (an ancient sound formula, “The Light of the Thee Worlds”) and experiencing silence. The rhythm of mantric singing enlivens the experience of silence afterwards. It is somehow refreshing and makes us come again more in line with our higher self.

You might read the blopost on “The Power of Sacred Sounds” or the or the Basics of Spiritual Life on “Working with Sound“.

A hermit in the Himalayas, photo of a friend

Today I got a link to the YouTube video series (10 videos) of “The 2012 Enigma” by David Wilcock with a talk from the 2008 Conscious Life Expo 2008, LA, February 8 – 11.

David Wilcock is described as “a professional lecturer, filmmaker and researcher of ancient civilizations, consciousness science, and new paradigms of matter and energy. David is also the subject and co-author of the bestseller, The Reincarnation of Edgar Cayce?, which explores the remarkable similarities between David and Edgar.” It is a fascinating talk with interesting slides, though some things sound a bit fantastic. Have a look at it.

A statue of a pine cone in the Vatican, symbol of the pineal gland, found in many ancient cultures, from the video of David Wilcock (c)

An acquaintance and esotericist from another country contacts me from time to time asking my opinion concerning one subject or the other. At the moment he is following a project to set up a curriculum for a study of esotericism encompassing a course of 12 years.

He just sent me the scheme of his future manual. I had a quick glance through it: Though it contains a great number of esoteric disciplines – including very exotic ones -, I saw at the first sight that the most important was missing – maybe because it is too “esoteric” for most esotericists: It is “service“, one corner of the triangle of all spiritual work: Meditation – Study – Service. As long as any spiritual disciple isn’t firmly grounded in service and an attitude to help his fellow men, all the esoteric lore is of no value, yes even dangerous: It keeps him away from his real purpose: becoming a helper of mankind and, maybe finally, a co-worker of the Great Ones, which inspired him.

You can easily get lost on the way in the many subjects of esotericism, but missing the essence.

Last Friday I got the notice from the Swiss Federal Office of Migration that I was granted Swiss citizenship. I had applied for it last September, when I read that Germany now allows double citizenship with members from EU countries and Switzerland. Since my wife is Swiss, I didn’t have to go through all the paraphernalia of the normal process.

Somehow this system of national states and their identities impregnating the way of thinking and feeling always remains something mysterious for me, and it was so already when during my studies I was going through political philosophy.

On the rational side I understand these mechanism of creating and protecting a national individuality, with its multiple regulation systems of in- and exclusion.

On the side of feeling I find it strange how borders circumscribe parts and parcels of the earth, defining mine, thine, ours, yours, on the micro and macro level. And then all this game of natives and foreigners, friends and foes, influencing others territories by way of manipulation (via economical, religious or power pressure).

Of course when passing a border you often sense that there is another flavour, another tone or way of interchanging. And this gets even much more accentuated with another language, another writing system …

On the plane of the soul you get away from all these definitions and limitations, like “I am a Swiss / A German / a European / American”, or “I am a teacher / a student”, “I am a husband / wife”, even “I am a man / a woman”. The soul knows no such delimitations, it is “I am”, or even “THAT” – “That I am” – existence expressing itself as consciousness, with a mind, wrapping up into a body.

And so all this cascade of localizations and limitations goes on. Keeping the limitless background of existence in your awareness through a meditative re-connection helps staying aloof and not getting stuck in some ideological imprisonment.

You might like to read the Lunar Messenger on “Free Will and Freedom“.

A path to the blue yonder

I today had a phone call with a French speaking person who said that we mentioned something about the Avatar of Synthesis on our website (see here, here or here). He then pointed out that since some time he is in contact with the Avatar of Synthesis and a channel of him, and that through this work Jupiter is just being transformed into a sun. He asked, if I were interested to know more about it. I answered, not really – the best would be that he follows the unfoldment of his inspiration and I’ll follow mine.

It’s a funny game of spiritual boasting, which wasn’t the first encounter of that kind. From time to time I come across people who like delving into lofty spheres, claiming to have a special mission. It seems that special missions give you the feeling of being someone special, a spiritual VIP. To me however, this seems to be like junk food – looking nice but not really nourishing the soul. It isn’t authentic, just another kind of glamour.

A golden ball in a nearby garden, like an easter egg. Photo from this afternoon’s walk

We today got a (quite long) letter from a person living in the USA, who is the founder of the Living Love Fellowship and Soulprogress.com, two sites dedicated to spiritual upliftment:

“Our mission is to encourage all men and women to live spiritual life as a WHOLE, leaving out no part of their everyday lives. Only a whole spiritual life, lived in loving relationship with God and our fellow human beings, satisfies the hearts of God’s children. And, only a whole spiritual life really WORKS.”

In his letter he writes towards the end:

“When human beingness is rightly understood, the qualities above the solid red line on the enclosed diagram will be recognized as good, useful, and even Divine; and only what is below it – delusion, selfishness, and all that is of ego will be anathematized. Then, we can preserve our beautiful humanity and use it to everyone’s mutual benefit, even while we reject ego.

Our individual well-being and the collective destiny of our race depend on the living expression of all of our truly human characteristics. As truly human humans, we would certainly heal ourselves, each other, and the world! But until and unless human nature is resurrected from the trash bin in its entire and real. goodness and Godness, we will remain ineffective in love, and in creating a world of peace and happiness.

The world needs love more than anything else – desperately needs it. And, all truth seekers sorely need to love, both universally and personally. To empower human beings to love, please join us in teaching the world that:

1. True humanity and the truly human practice of relationship are beautiful – as God would have it be.
2. As children of God, it is natural for us to love both universally and personally.
3. We cannot love each other truly if, in our mystic search for God, we turn our backs on true humanity (in ourselves, and in others).

The change in thinking that’s needed is really big – and really important. Anything you’re already doing, or are willing to do, to help this human plight would be so appreciated, and tremendously helpful.”

They are running a project called “1,000 I LOVE YOUs – Dedicated to the upliftment and healing of humanity”, where they have movie samples of different persons saying into the camera (and to you): “I love you”. It somehow touches you seeing into the eyes of these persons, expressing their love towards you.

You might also want to read the text from Basics of Spiritual Life on “Love and Loving“.