During our talk yesterday with our spiritual teacher, Dr. K. P. Kumar, we touched the point of two persons living from teaching spirituality and/or astrology. He was laughing when I mentioned a friend just told me that one of the persons is even offering to give initiations: “He has a strong Mercury, so he has a good sense of business…”

I know from Sri Kumar’s teachings and from previous talks with him that he strongly advises not to live on teaching wisdom, but to have a normal job in society. He says: “The Masters of Wisdom give the wisdom for free, they do not claim it for themselves, because it belongs to all. It is very grave if you earn money with conveying wisdom.” (See: Good Will in Action 11, Giving and Taking) Today people everywhere only think of earning money, and even in esoteric circles they take the knowledge given by the Masters, add their own language, and give it as their own thing.

This is the case of the other person. Sri Kumar remarked: “Teaching is somehow a life-insurance for her. What would happen to her if the people run away…” So she is clinging to them, not letting them free. It is a subtle way of controlling the people.

Of course people have their own logic legitimizing what they are doing: “It is my profession, I have to live from something, it is a job like any other… I need all my time to do good work, so this is my job…” But logic doesn’t change the spiritual principles. It is interesting to observe that by trying to do so they create subtle clouds of confusion and barriers for their progress. Sooner or later they will have to clear them away.

My wife said: “When there is a commercial motive involved, I feel myself regarded as a customer bringing money, but not as a soul, as I AM. I become a supplier of work or attention, a follower, being used for someone’s purposes.” It is a purpose foreign to me. In spirituality we want to experience the soul and be touched as souls and not as something else. Normally we come to know this difference only when we have experienced someone, who sees us as a soul and behaves with us as a soul, a genuine teacher This is touching you deep from within.

Madonnas in Montserrat: Commercialized spirituality

Yesterday afternoon we went to Einsiedeln. Our spiritual teacher, Dr. K. P. Kumar, who just returned from a 6 weeks’ tour to Spain and the Caribbean, had invited my wife and me to come over for an evening. We had a long talk, going from the present political situation between the super-powers, Burma and India, to a number of private questions and general points of spirituality. As usual, it was very uplifting.

We discussed the plan of our local group to organise a few meetings about meditation and everyday life. He suggested that we also explain to the people the meaning of the circle with the cross (which you see at the top of our blog):

It is one of the ancient-most signs representing the totality of life. The 4 arms of the cross are symbolic for the four stages of expression of life: as existence, awareness, thought and action. We know the dimension of action very well. All the day we are acting. And we fairly well know the dimension of thoughts, for they are guiding our actions. As per the other two dimensions we normally don’t know, but we get into them through meditation. The experience of pure existence is called Samadhi in the East. Normally we experience existence without awareness: When we awake in the morning we know that we have existed during the night, but without conscious experience. Pure awareness is also normally not known to us, because one thought after the other passes through our mind.

I asked him why it is so difficult for people here in the West to approach spiritual concepts, it sometimes gives me a feeling of a burden of heaviness. He said, that here in the West the focus is on the material side and that it is much easier in the East to get into the spiritual dimension: “But the West is needed as well. It is part of the whole.”

We have here a very dense atmosphere, which is difficult to pierce through. But with the help from higher circles we can magnetize it slowly. “The internet is a great facility to connect the searchers dispersed all over the globe.” He then explained how the work with colours – from violet flame to rose, to green, orange, and we can slowly get into more subtle planes. Orange colour helps to clean the mental. Then from colour to sound: “OM is creating a funnel through which subtle energies can manifest.” It needs stable channels for the energies to manifest. For this we work.

After the evening meditation and dinner we went back home. He, his wife and an Indian friend who had accompanied them left today, back to India.

Piercing through the clouds: Durga-Mountains, Nilagiris, India

Some days ago a web-acquaintance wrote to me asking about a website on “The Real Jesus”. The link he sent brought a site of a domain grabber, but with Google I later found the “real” site. My friend wrote: “The channelled stuff from Jesus and other ‘ascended masters’ is quite fascinating. If you have the time, please browse their pages. I would like to know your opinion on this.”

I answered him that without looking into the site, the hints he had written gave me the impression of another illusionary cloud: “A person boasting to channel ‘the real Jesus’… Channeling by itself demands a high purity. Many claim high contacts, and you aren’t able to check the claim. Look at the good work to humanity, not any lofty words and see the fruits in transformation of character, and then judge by the fruits of the work / transformation and not the words. This might give you a guideline when you come across glittering gold, to distinguish it from genuine gold. Normally when you look at the seed, you will know how the tree will unfold. And there is the original sun, reflecting on the moon, which again is reflecting on the water and that light then on the eye, giving us the impression of direct spiritual light when not knowing that it is a reflection’s reflection’s reflection…”

My friend answered: “My point is: the moment one partakes in a movement which is guided ‘behind the curtains’ by Masters -ascended or not- which are not part of the everyday world, a lot of contrary information springs forth. One can see it with the masters made popular by the theosophists, one can see this phenomenon with Babaji… (He gave a few encounters with people of different movements) They all believe their ‘truths’ on the authority of someone else. And that ‘someone else’ is a special messenger/disciple from one of the masters or from the Christ himself. For me, all this is fascinating and I appreciate very much the wisdom coming from your tradition and masters. But for my peace of mind, I could never wholeheartedly follow such a system. Doubts would always be there…”

I replied to him: “There are of course many ways, and people may enjoy what they like to enjoy and to belief being right. Creation is manifold, and also the ways. There is no need that you follow my way, if you don’t feel well with it.”

When I later had a glance through the “Jesus”-site, I found there many teachings on different topics, but nothing about the importance of service and good will activities for practical spirituality (see our Good Will in Action on The Value of Service). There were more questions remaining besides a feeling of vagueness.

In earlier discussions my friend had written that he doesn’t want to limit himself to a teaching but to stay open to all kinds of teachings. I had answered him that in order to go into a greater depth that according to my experience it is necessary to develop discrimination and an understanding of guiding principles. A mixture is not synthesis, and openness doesn’t come into the way of clearing one’s understanding. It is not a matter of just following a tradition of teachings or Masters, for this will keep you as blind as before, if you don’t develop discrimination and deepen your understanding by putting something you have understood into practice.

Mask with gold ornaments, Museum of Delphi, Greece

We yesterday had a visit of a friend. Part of our talk was about the way to deal with rules and rigidity on the spiritual path.

For years my wife and I had been involved with a group where we followed quite strict rules. There was the feeling that if you don’t stick to them you will lose the path to the light and get lost in the wilderness. This was coupled with a feeling of fear and guilt – and some more subtle psychological catches. We finally revolted against it, left the group, transformed concepts – and felt well. We got guidance in this, which helped us a lot.

My friend, too, had observed these mechanisms with different friends and groups where she had been involved in. It seems that these patterns are quite common:
You are striving to lead a good live, and you develop concepts about what this is all about. Others also tell you what should be done and you adopt to what you hear, especially from people of whom you think that they are wiser than you are. And you adopt things which you take over without discrimination, or what is worse, with a logic explaining why you should follow this way.
You think, this will lead you to enlightenment, to salvation or whatever you think being the goal of your journey. And you follow – follow like a sheep, not knowing or seeing better.

There will be no harm if the one whom you follow is a real guide, knowing the path and its whereabouts – but mostly he, and you, just imagine it. You get caught in a loop. A prison of your own concepts and convictions.
My wife compared it with Luther revolting against the Catholic church, which was deciding about sin , forgiveness and salvation, this resulting in the reformation. The wisdom teachings say, there is no sin, just ignorance and the results of your acts out of not knowing better.

People can be very “piously” follow their concepts to the point of torturing themselves. There are parallels to anorexia, where individuals afflicted by it think of polluting themselves by eating. The self-destructive tendencies become obsessions very difficult to overcome. These grips you find in many contexts of convictions, especially with religion and spirituality, but also in politics: You think you are following “the right way” – and rigidity is the shadow of your conviction. It has to do with the “Power of Habit“, and here you can read a bit more about it.

Reflections of reality – a Norwegian fjord

Last weekend my wife and I made a short trip to Spain. At Montserrat, a famous monastery located about 50 km from Barcelona, our spiritual teacher, Dr. K. P. Kumar, was giving a seminar on “Service – The Path to Wisdom”. A friend from the Spanish WTT-group picked us up at the airport and drove us all the way up the mounting with its peculiar rock formations. The monastery is a magnetic spot, many visitors – pilgrims and tourists – flock to it to see the Black Madonna with the child. We also paid them a visit before the start of the seminar.

Friday evening the seminar started with the evening meditation followed by an introductory talk by Sri Kumar. Saturday and Sunday morning there were further talks, and Saturday and Sunday afternoon presentations of service activities of the groups. In between we had exchanges with friends and a little excursion on top of the Montserrat mountains. A highlight was the Sunday morning fire ritual. Here are some thoughts from the lectures:

“It is impossible to escape from service. You find it even with minerals, plants or animals, and also with the higher deva kingdoms. When the service is done with goodwill, it helps cleaning the mind and purifying the heart. So the intention to dedicate one’s activities to the well-being of the surrounding life is the basis for all growth. There is no end to service, the will to serve is therefore most important, so that service becomes a ways of life. In this we should not look for recognition and recompense, but to see how we can serve better in a humble way.

You can do service on many different levels, not only physical, emotional or mental, but also from higher planes. In the process of serving you come to forget your own needs, and nature starts taking care of you. Service gives a value to life, otherwise it has no value. Selfish service can be disguised as selfless service, if the motive is wrong. If you give preference to service economics also grow with the time.

Many have not time for service, because their daily life is full of non-essentials. They think they are already doing much, but it is wasting time. We have to distinguish between essential and non-essential activities. Don’t engage in activities which are not useful for others.

Many think they are doing the activities like business for themselves, but the truth is, they are doing it for others. They have to satisfy customers, employees, pay taxes, insurance, machines, materials, the cost for the rooms, electricity. From the remains of the money you pay for clothes, shoes, food. Even the food is not for us: The tongue takes it and gives it to the stomach, from there it goes to the intestines. It has to be passed on. If you see it or not, all is for others. What remains for us is the experience. If you don’t have the sickness of looking for you, you are healthy. When you think only of yourself and hot of others, you get bound by your actions, but even then you are doing it for others.When you reorient to service, you will get fulfilled.

Don’t see service only as small acts we do. A good idea helps many people, it can be all kinds of activities, making music, writing, working. All is service when you think of the people who benefit through your work.”

Saturday after the morning meditation Sri Kumar invited me to come with him for a little walk. He spoke a bit about the lectures he had given in Toledo and Madrid. Then he made some proposals for our local group of the Circle of Good Will, that it would be good starting to go out and to speak to interested people about the teachings, about meditation or other topics which the people might be interested in. We haven’t done so until now: If we done this before. He gave several inspiring suggestions, and now we are thinking of how to put them into practice.

You might like to read the Good Will in Action on “The Value of Service“.

Two pictures from last Saturday’s morning walk with Sri Kumar at Montserrat

In the last blog on Mood Infections I wrote about some experiences with clouds of moods coming, where you might be receptive to an energy wave, which isn’t originating from you. A friend sent us the following reply:

“I was amazed to read about both your experiences, because I had a similar one this past weekend! On Tuesday last week, my aunt left her physical vehicle for this time, and I was trying to cope with my feelings of guilt for not being around my family during times that I know for them to be difficult. It took me a couple of days to find my inner balance again, yet even after being back to a more grounded state I was still quite open and vulnerable. More so than I was aware of:

On Sunday, I met with my ex-boyfriend for supper and a chat. Because of past experiences, I usually meet him with my guards up so not to be affected by his energies. The meeting was fairly pleasant, except for a few comments he made.

When I came home, I had a heavy headache and my sinuses were stuffed as if I’d developed a full-blown sinus infection within the past three hours. On Monday morning, I could barely get out of bed because my lower back was aching so much. On Tuesday, I still wasn’t my full self. I was lacking in energy and felt overall very weak. However, by then I had realized what had happened. My ex-friend had intuitively picked up on my openness, and clawed his hooks into me just like he had done for many years during our relationship. And just like back then, he was sucking energy from me again. The moment I realized it, I cut the energetic connection off and I felt better immediately. But when I started to develop a pain in my left shoulder that sent shooting nerve pains into my jaw, I knew I needed outside help because that was his symptoms. For years and years, he’s been having those problems with muscle tensions in his left shoulder that affected the nerves that run up to the jaw line.
he has a constant toothache in his left back teeth. Now I had that too!

I called a friend of mine, who is a wonderful Reiki master and massage therapist with a lot of experience in energy work. She worked my back for over an hour. It took some work and meditating together until I was in tune again and felt like myself again. I guess I could have accomplished that myself, but I had only half a day until the semester started and I really wanted to be on top of things for that. I recall that Torkom Saraydarian calls this negative psychic energy that builds up through negative thought forms and actions, Imperil.”

In the book on “Agni Yoga” (§ 15) you read about imperil:
“Imperil, which attracts danger, is the poison resulting from irritability. This poison, a quite substantial one, is deposited against the walls of the nerve channels and then spreads through the entire organism.
If modern science would try to examine objectively the nerve channels, giving heed to the astral currents, it would encounter a strange decomposition of the astral substance during the passage of that substance through the nerve channels—this is a reaction to imperil. Only rest can help the nervous system to overcome the dangerous enemy that can call forth the most diverse irritations and painful contractions of the organism.
He who is afflicted with imperil must repeat, “How beautiful everything is!” And he will be right; because the flow of evolution follows immutable law, it is beautiful. The more refined the nervous system, the more painful is the deposit of imperil. This same poison, by the addition of one ingredient, may contribute to the decomposition of matter.”

Water and lightfall in the Himalayas, photo of a friend

Normally during the day many different strings of themes and activities are inter-weaving. Some are more on the side of the ongoing activities, others touch deeper chords of relations, still others go to still deeper areas of attitudes, ideas, existential questions. Most of them come and go in a certain movement, a rhythm – daily exchanges, incoming mails, household, children, etc. Some are coming in a subtle, nearly imperceptible way, but nevertheless give a change to the tinge of the flow. It needs attention to recognise from which sources the streams are coming, and this is sometimes not easy.

My wife and I have observed the last days several situations where there were clouds of moods coming in, which weren’t originating from ourselves, but from other people. Here I can give only a rough outline of the stories.

I had a phone-call with a person, where afterwards I felt somehow depressive, questioning myself. On the surface the phone-call had not at all been moody. But the life situation of the person isn’t easy, and I suppose there were deeper undercurrents of irritation, which had come to me via the phone without my realising.

My wife just told me that she yesterday was for some time in a room, where some hours before a friend had been working, who has gone through a deep crisis and is still not well settled. Without realising, my wife had picked up the mood cloud and somehow felt very tired, exhausted, when she came home. It took a night with some strange dreams to digest. This morning after meditation and some yoga exercises she felt being herself again and the weariness was gone. She realised that some “mood infection” had gripped her, and that it took some time to dissolve the clouds again.

The wisdom teachings say that psychic energies get stored on articles or in rooms through the thoughts and the quality of character of a person. Also places get impregnated through the thoughts that are being cultivated regularly there – think of banks, supermarkets, psychiatric hospitals, meeting places of druggies…

You create an aura which is impregnating the surrounding. And when you are in a passive, receptive attitude, you more easily get influenced by others. When you are active or focused on something higher, there you are immune to lower influences. It is recommended to take a shower or at least wash your hands when you have come into contact with energies which dragged you down. It is also good to wash the food you buy in a supermarket to clean it from etheric impregnations. You find some hints about it in the Lunar Messenger on Symbolism and Use of the Hands.

A subtle net of influences

The last weeks my wife and I met several situations with people where in some way or another sexuality was playing a decisive role: young couples searching their common ground and way, partners working on their relation, persons having divorced looking back at the “lessons learnt” and the way they now are going their path alone. One lady, in the later part of her life, was thinking about the different little affairs she has had besides her marriage. It was a matter of keeping up a façade of normalcy, of what to share and what to hide.

Hiding is often closely related to sexuality, especially with amorous adventures, but it seems that when you hide parts of your life’s biography, the tendency of hiding spreads to other parts of your behaviour. The “breaks” in the biography give rise to inconsistencies, and your personality tends to develop in roundabout ways.

When you are trying to take to the spiritual path, inner transparency becomes of increasing importance. If you are transgressing the natural regulations – the “laws of dharma”, as they are called in the east – the flow of your energy gets impeded and causes disturbances in your character – and this normally without your noticing it. This has nothing to do with moral conventions, but is a matter of cause and effect.

Today you can observe much ignorance in society as per these rules and regulations.Talking about it in a natural way is very much loaded with a variety of barriers. Nevertheless it is obvious that the way you deal with partner relations and sex has a deep influence on how your life evolves.

In the book “Mithila. A New Age School Syllabus” there is an interesting caption on dealing with sexuality in the chapter on Money and Sex, which is of relevance for the spiritual path. You might also like to read the Good Will in Action-newsletter on Dealing with Sexuality.

Entrance of an erotic shop in Zurich. This kind of dealing with sexuality creates an obscuration towards the higher realms of life.

Yesterday I received a parcel from Bulgarian friends: They sent me copies of the Bulgarian version of “Spiritual Astrology” by Master EK (Ekkirala Krishnamacharya). They had translated the book and published it by themselves. It is the first Bulgarian edition of the WTT wisdom books, and though I won’t be able to read it in this language, it was a joy to see the book:

My friends had visited us June last year, and I had given them an English copy. They were so fascinated by it that they started translating and publishing – and this without much financial resources. They also had to overcome other difficulties, but the enthusiasm carried them on.

It was for me a good example that when there is a will and the skill to do something, you can get it done.

The book is very profound and has nothing to do with what you normally get to read or hear about astrology. It deals with the spiritual evolution of man and provides some keys for a deeper understanding of the zodiac and the planets from an inner view. You might like to read an extract on the correspondences between micro and macro-cosmos – or read some of our Letters on Spiritual Astrology.

A friend wrote me some days ago that she sometimes feels depressed and disappointed and that she has troubles in getting the equilibrium. She had read that this is related with the solar plexus centre: “Although I know it represents the balance between the soul and the body, I don’t know yet how to manage my emotions.”

A short time ago when she was feeling quite bad, she went to a doctor. The lab analysis said that she is physically healthy, and the doctor told her that she has a depression. She should see a psychiatrist or a psychologist. She didn’t want to go to any of them, but decided to go through the process alone with meditation and studying. She also was planning to do some work for needy people to overcome loneliness.

I encouraged her plan to do some volunteer activity, for helping others is a good antidote against solitude and feeling depressed. I have observed that these feelings come when you are not in the flow of life. Life wants to flow like a river, being active for others is like flowing water, being blocked within your own circle like stagnated waters. Meditation and studying alone don’t help in getting into a flow, but activity for others does. For a good flow in life the wisdom teachings recommend the triangle of meditation-study-service, and in this a meaningful activity is very important and must not be neglected.

A rhythmic routine does wonder in stabilising. Having ups and downs is very normal, like high tide and low tide. Especially on the spiritual path these fluctuations can be quite intense for some time. It isn’t a disease, but an integration process. During these processes an academic psychologist might not be the best help.

I told my friend that for stabilising emotional ups and downs the wisdom teachings recommend the use of silver. It is related to the Moon, to psyche, and to the zodiacal sign of Cancer governing the circulatory processes in the body. Silver affects sensitivity, psychic susceptibility and behaviour. It is related to the solar plexus centre and the reactive faculty of the mind. Silver in homoeopathic form (Argentum nitricum) is a remedy suited for calming the solar plexus. You also can fill water into a silver cup in the morning, keep it in a room with a current of air and drink it in the evening. Then you refill the cup, put it to the air and drink the water on an empty stomach in the morning. The water gets impregnated by the quality of the silver.

My friend answered: “l tell you that just today I’ve begun drinking the water which was during the night in a silver jug, and I feel happy, really believe me, I’m feeling well, it’s true. And besides now, nice days are coming and that makes me feel well, too. The sun is so important to me that I can’t explain you the good it makes me.”