Some days ago I got an e-mail from an Indian friend searching books of Pythagoras for an acquaintance. I didn’t know much about any books of this great initiate in English, I just have read the excellent book of Master EK (Ekkirala Krishnamacharya), “The Wisdom of Pythagoras“, which for the time being is out of print in English and only available in German and Spanish.

Wikipedia said that no texts by Pythagoras survived, but some relevant source texts from Antiquity deal with his life and teachings and that of his followers. There is even an on-line book, The Complete Pythagoras, containing all survived biographies and Pythagorean fragments. Since my Indian friend has built up a beautiful little Spiritual Book Centre in Hyderabad, which I had visited last January, I tried to find out a bit more about books on the esoteric teachings of Pythagoras and asked an American friend with a profound spiritual background, but he referred me also to Wikipedia and the Encyclopædia Britannica, with paid content.

May last year we had been for a seminar on Pythagoras with our spiritual teacher, Sri K. Parvathi Kumar, in Samos, where the great spiritual master was born. He later had to leave his native island to escape the tyrannical government of Polycrates. We had seen the caves where he had lived and I remember a beautiful evening meditation in the harbour of Pythagoreion at the feet of the Pythagoras statue.

Statue of Pythagoras at Pythagoreion, with cosmological and mathematical symbols related to his teachings

View from the cave, where Pythagoras meditated

The cave is situated in a rock face at the north coast of the island.

View from out of the cave

Pythagoras – meeting of cosmic and human wisdom

The last days there had been several encounters and exchanges – at the office, via e-mail, at home – where the topic was something about the spiritual path and spirituality in life. Reflecting on them gave an image how varied the individuals shape their paths.

Some gave the feeling of groping their way through a foggy cloud of aspirations, being attracted by various themes and teachings, but only hazily committing themselves to a routine and a task. There is something like a diffuse light, which has not yet taken shape.

Others seemed to be focused on a path – it was practising and teaching yoga exercises – but somehow with a mental conception learnt from a teacher and a tradition. There seemed to be a rigidity – trying to maintain a purity, which at the same time seemed to lack suppleness and inner connectedness. Their light was like being crystallized.

Again others were taking to commitment and an active search to shape their path. Though still not all-round chiselled, contours could be seen and an inner fire felt. Their path seemed to be in a process of clearing and the inner light to be ready to shine forth with the development ahead.

My wife said that the last days she often had the image of a circle with a point before her inner eye, when she was dealing with people. The point – the inner core, the I Am, or the soul – is like the focus of a lens. It has to become centred in order to gain strength. The fire has to be kindled. This can be done with the help of different means like dedication to a task, the support from a spiritual teacher, a meditational discipline … – or a combination of these.

The purpose remains the same – strengthening the fire, the radiance, the magnetism. In the image of the circle with the point, you go from the circumference to the centre, and then again from centre to circumference.

Photo of a sunspot seen from the side, from the Japanese satellite Hinode, by Nasa Astronomy Picture of the Day, April 2nd, 2007

A friend yesterday sent me a link to the Maitreya Project. I had heard before about the initiative to build a 500 ft / 152m bronze statue at Kushinagar, Uttar Pradesh in northern India. Kushinagar is the place, where Lord Buddha passed away, and it is one of the most sacred Buddhist pilgrimage sites in India.

The idea of a huge Maitreya statue for the project is from Lama Thubten Yeshe (1935-84) and its realisation is under the guidance of Lama Thubten Zopa Rinpoche.

According to Buddhist scriptures, Maitreya is considered to be the next Buddha who will teach the path of loving-kindness to the world. “The very name ‘Maitreya’ means loving-kindness – in today’s world, we really need loving-kindness,” says the Dalai Lama.

About the purpose and vision behind the project they say:

“For thousands of years the world’s enduring monuments have provided powerful symbols, reminders of society’s most treasured values. During the 20th century most of the world’s great buildings and public development projects have been ‘monuments’ to commercial interests: high-rise business buildings, airports, shopping malls, theatres and theme parks. The Maitreya Buddha statue will provide the world with a much-needed and enduring monument to spiritual values, a reminder of the benefits of creating peace at every level through practicing loving-kindness.”

The Maitreya Buddha statue and its throne-building will provide the public with temples, exhibition halls, a museum, library, audio-visual theatre and hospitality services. All will be set in beautifully landscaped parks with meditation pavilions, beautiful water fountains and tranquil pools. The buildings and grounds of the Project will contain a remarkable and inspiring collection of sacred art.
Thus the vision of the Maitreya Project combines charitable, educational and medical facilities along with the enduring spiritual focus of the Maitreya Buddha statue, to directly and indirectly foster whole-community economic and civic development,
both now and for generations to come.

The statue is designed to stand for at least 1,000 years, supporting the Project’s spiritual and social work for at least a millennium. So may the people be guided from seeing a huge beautiful outer statue to experience inner beauty, beyond decaying forms.

(c) Maitreya Project

You might like to read about Lord Maitreya as seen from the wisdom teachings coming from the Puranic tradition, in a booklet from Sri K. Parvathi Kumar. See also the beautiful Maitreya-statue at the Planetary Healing Centre near Visakhapatnam, India

Some days ago I read in the Neue Zürcher Zeitung about new directives the Chinese government just has released to “administer the reincarnations of living Buddhas in Tibetan Buddhism”: The Buddhist monks have no longer the right to search for reincarnations by themselves. The Party decides who is a living Buddha. Ignoring the rules leads to punishments, and the reincarnation is illegal. So after their birth control politics the communist� rulers also have rebirth control mechanisms in their empire.

It’s such a silly thing, and wouldn’t it be another political power play to subordinate people and infringe free will, I would have laughed. The decision is a means to break the age-old reincarnation lines of insubordinate monasteries. Now 4 authorities have to agree, if a Buddha is a genuine incarnation, the monastery, the local government, the administration for religious affairs and the Chinese State Council. It is unclear if living Buddhas also have to register retrospectively. However, the newspaper reported, that not all living Buddhas are devout people. So-called reincarnations are working as businessmen and executive consultants in Chinese cities…

Maybe the whole rebirth control politics serves a good purpose in the end: The purely materialistic government might control social and religious structures, but not the reincarnation process of souls. Spirit will turn out to be stronger in the long run, even in our dark age, and the real reincarnations of highly-developed souls will find their ways to fulfil their purpose.

Our spiritual teacher, Sri K. Parvathi Kumar, once remarked, that in the Americas many native Americans who had been killed by the European colonists have come back in the bodies of white Americans and are now much involved in activities furthering a respect of nature and environment. Maybe a similar destiny happens to the souls of the suppressed Tibetan Buddhist exponents. Though old traditional forms will necessarily break this way, the essence will keep on living and enlivening the search of man along the eternal path.

Buddha-statue in Lhasa, photo of a friend

Some days ago a person from another part of the world wrote to me and asked for a very effective mantram. It should help him to make his mind open, so that he can become more intelligent, get a better memory and can more quickly reflect and reason, since he is feeling a bit tired in his studies.

I explained him a bit about working with sound and the significance of mantrams, so that he might find a way. Many people think they can use mantrams to develop special skills or even powers. It is quite a delusion, leading you onto a deceptive path towards disappointment. Master EK gave a good explanation in one of his lectures, explaining the purpose of yoga (: spiritual practices):

“Don’t deceive yourself by believing that by practising yoga or spiritualism, you will get some benefits. The very benefit is the ease and happiness you experience. And the path itself is the goal. And if you believe that there is something beneficial out of it, better stop it, because you will be utterly disappointed after sometime. For example, some people begin to practise yoga for what they call ‘powers’. They are deceiving themselves, because God is not a fool to confer powers for certain practices… If people believe that their luck will increase with the practice of yoga, it is false, because the very idea of luck is foolish and everything depends upon how we do things and how we think and our motives in doing.”

Not a bridge to walk – picture of a Swedish friend

Friends of mine from Spain had been in Mongolia, for the second time, in search of places of power. Some days ago they sent me a powerpoint-presentation with pictures showing scenes with motives of the paintings of the famous Russian painter Nicholas Roerich (1874-1947), whom I admire since long. He had been on an expedition to the Himalayas, Tibet and Mongolia in the 20ies of last century and brought back a rich treasure of most beautiful paintings. They can be found in several famous museums, such as the Roerich Museum in New York.

Here are some of the photos of my friends (thank you, Rosa and Miquel!) alternating with pictures from Nicholas Roerich (Courtesy Roerich Museum), showing similar motives.

Arriving at Eeijkairkhan (the Goddess Mother), silhouette of the Sacred Mountain

The Song of Shambhala

Eeijkairkhan (the Goddess Mother), silhouette of the Sacred Mountain

Star of the Hero, Cave-Temple

Cave-temple

Ascension to the rainbow

Inside the Roerich-Museum, New York, April 2000

The “Song of Shambhala” at home in the bookshelf

Shambhala, the mystic place now on the etheric planes, is also called the “White Island”. You can read more about it in the extract of book presentation of “Wisdom Buds” by K. Parvathi Kumar. And you find some of Roerich’s photos as e-cards on the Good-Will website.

When looking back to the experiences of the last weeks, with the passing of my father and the changes going on in my family of origin, my wife and I were reflecting on what keeps people together and what makes them separate.

It seems that there is always a “third thing” or a “third force” holding together: At work, you collaborate with people to accomplish some job, or with clients, patients etc., who contact you because of some service. In a family you are together because of the relations in the family structure, and if the relation structure changes and there is no more common ground, the family falls apart. If there isn’t a third force, but only an emotional congruence, the relation won’t last. This might be the reason why many marriages fail.

“Birds of the same feather flock together” goes the saying, and this is true for religious people, bankers, disco-goers. People come to the yoga class of my wife not just because of her, but because of the yoga exercises. In our spiritual group people are attracted by the teachings and by the magnetism of the teacher. In my life, I have several times changed the the movement and teachings, and with it there has always been a change of the whole circle of acquaintances. So the relations weren’t on a person-to-person basis, as I had felt, but to a “third thing”, a common interest.

I met people complaining that others didn’t take real interest in them – was it because they didn’t take a real interest in the “third thing”? Some “third things” are of a fleeting character – you have an encounter just for a short time, maybe just once. Others are deep and long lasting. What “third thing” interests are there, going to the deepest core? Where you are meeting the inner centre, in yourself and in the others.

Watching a dawn together at Gemini Full Moon, Mount Rigi, Switzerland, May 99

For the funeral of my father about 150 people gathered in the church, where nearly 2 years ago the funeral ceremony for my mother had taken place. It was somehow familiar and at the same time strange to be among friends and relatives of the family which partly I hadn’t seen for many years and probably won’t see again. I felt outgrown of this world, a heavy feeling of past times, but nevertheless still related with me.

At the beginning of the mass, after an address of the priest, I made a short speech about the life and the guiding ideals of my father, focusing on the transformations which had taken place in his life. The words were meant to invoke the presence of the energies of light to pierce through the dense, heavy atmosphere prevailing at the funeral, and it was for me a very special experience.

The entire setting of the mass and the funeral was very traditional. After the coffin was lowered into the ground of the cemetery, many people came putting some earth and flowers on it and expressing their condolences to my sisters, brother and me. For many it seemed that my father was in the grave, though it was only the corpse. The ideas expressed about the “thereafter” by the clergyman or the people in their letters of condolence were so nebulous and vague as I had known from previous situations in the past. When will they come to realise that there is more to know and to experience about the immortality of the soul?

Later, when reflecting the day, it was like a tidal wave settling down, an energy field taking to another shape. Both parents having gone, the relations will change, giving rise to new constellations. What these new forms will be is still a seed sprouting in the future.

Reflections in a globe at the little pond in the family garden

On driving through the City of Münster, Germany, we saw a red stop sign at a crossroad, and on the bottom of the road sign somebody had written in white letters: Voldemort – “Stop Voldemort”. We had to laugh: The world of Harry Potter was invading the outer Muggle world.

News about the publication in “Der Bund”.

The morning of the publication of the 7th and last volume “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, I had bought two copies, in order to avoid family conflicts. It was a great dive through the book, I was fascinated not only by the dense, brilliant story, but also by the deep occult knowledge interwoven and hidden: The voluntary “death” of Harry and the description of the out-of-body experiences, the offering of his life to save his friends and the community, his dealing with enemies and friends will impregnate the minds of the readers with deep spiritual truths of a preparation for the inward path. Whether the author, Joanne K. Rowling, did it consciously or whether the series of 7 volumes was received by unconscious impression permeating her imaginative creativity doesn’t matter in this. There is a huge impact on the minds world-wide.

In his “Book of Rituals” – written 1967, published 1990 – Master EK (E. Krishnamacharya) wrote: “For this purpose (: a slow and proper understanding of the nature of the mysteries by greater masses of people) some novels will be written by certain induced minds of a Master or a disciple himself directly. Readers of the most materialistic levels will be allured and attracted by the sense of mystery and wonder that surround such plots. They read these books only as imaginary stories, positively disbelieving the truth of the existence of such a line. The impressions that are made upon their mind will work through their subconscious nature and bring the recollection of the past associations of these souls (many of them are necessarily Atlanteans) and prepare the path either in this life or the next. Thus there is a conscious well planned scheme on the line of literature and fine arts.”

A friend wrote me some days ago that he went through harsh moments, when he experienced strange things in his being. He had done intense spiritual practices and breathing exercises for long hours, experiencing an indescribable serenity, immense joy, and a long mental silence. It was as if he was united with the Supreme Consciousness. But then he had a boiling and pricking sensation in his body and a feeling of an unregulated upsurge of “something” like a swarm of impressions along his spinal column. The more he practised meditation the worse the situation was getting, up to the point where he rushed to a hospital. The treatment prescribed, however, did not relieve him conveniently.

I told him that he might have got an “overdose” of vital energy and that it is important to integrate the exercises one does into a continuous routine and normally not do them over too long a period. Otherwise it is like playing with a fire that can cause serious damages to one’s subtle bodies for a long time. H.P. Blavatsky compared it with jumping into a pond full of crocodiles. I gave him some hints how the fire might come down and the energy re-establish a normal, natural flow.

He then answered that actually he overdid things and that now the “hurricane” has gone over, he feels as comfortable as before. He described the practices he had been doing and said he has now followed my advices, cut down some of his practices and took a lot of fresh water. It was not his first experience in which he tried to catapult himself towards a higher plane, in his eagerness to consciously align with his Higher Self to be a good channel for the Divine.

His eagerness of striving for inner experiences, to align with the higher self, is very understandable. However, on a sound spiritual path it is absolutely necessary to establish a regulated, normal routine of life and not to try to “shoot up” into the higher worlds, to unite with the Divine – at all costs. The orientation should be to train oneself to acquire skills and competences in order to be of good use for a work of service and good will. Personal experiences are regarded as “secondary by-products”, but not as the primary focus. Therefore it is of great importance to balance one’s life and also one’s practices, to have a stable stand in the world and reach out for others. The thing is, you realise the side-effects of unhealthy practices often only years later, when they have done damages. In the positive or less positive way meditation exercises are powerful tools for transformation.

My wife says, the fiery striving is like a big summer fire, which has to be reduced and put into a small oven to be of use for cooking. The big fire would only burn oneself and the others. Spiritual progress is not done by “fireworks” of catapulting oneself towards higher planes, but a work of slow and steady integrating the different fields of life.

Picture of a fire ritual