A friend who started meditating some time ago and is now discovering this new dimension for herself just wrote me: “You know, my husband says to me, ‘I don’t understand what you speak about a light and about spirituality. Are you already a special person?’ But nevertheless he is interested in knowing about it.”

I answered her that in general men have more difficulties approaching spirituality than women, and that this is quite normal. Women are often more receptive and susceptible to the psychic world or to subtle dimensions than men, who are more oriented towards the outside, and often more intellectualizing and sceptic. It is my experience that in spiritual groups there are generally much more women than men. I have come across several couples where conflicts arose when the wife started discovering the subtle dimensions and where the husband didn’t understand what was going on and he felt irritated and went into opposition. I know some couples who thus divorced due to their differences in views and attitudes or where there is a certain constant tension.

Even if a husband doesn’t have access to the spiritual dimension or to a meditation practice , when he is open-minded and accepts that his wife is engaged in spiritual matters, it works. If both practice together, it’s fine – though no guarantee for no crises -, if not, there has to be on both sides a certain open-mindedness to accept the different ways and paces of development.
You might like to read the Lunar Messenger about Woman and Man.

Dollhouse Café Scene

Some days ago I got an e-mail from a friend living in another part of the globe. She wrote me that since she began meditating regularly a few months ago some strange things started happening in her house which were irritating her a bit: water taps started running, her daughter started hearing some strange voices via the mobile and a few other phenomena happened, which were disturbing her. She asked if she is doing something wrong and ended by writing that people in her country say: “These things exist…”

I answered her that there are beings living on the lower planes of the subtle worlds, which might feel stimulated when somebody is approaching their realms. Normally the inner light emerging in meditation, especially through the intonation of mantric sounds creates an energy field which makes these beings depart. It is good not to counteract any such experiences, but just to notice them and stay neutral. These beings can be found more often at places where something not very good had happened in the past. It isn’t necessary to know about it. It is enough to light a light in order to make the shadows go away.

She replied that she thinks the same way and feels encouraged that she isn’t doing something wrong because of these things happening. It might be souls from the so-called purgatory which come for a visit. Her daughters, however, have fear to go to sleep and think that something could happen to them. She asked if there was something more she could read about.

I answered her she could tell her children that these things are o.k., there is no need of having fear. It is probable that what they are experiencing are “wandering souls”, which haven’t detached themselves enough from the material world. They could say “hello” to them, with a positive feeling, to help them find their way to more luminous planes. But we shouldn’t pay too much attention to these phenomena, because this might be distracting for us and for them. It is good to know about these things, but not to go into details with reading more about it, and better do something else. If her daughters experience fear before sleep, they could speak some prayer to the inner Master, to Christ or to some other great being, this would help creating a protective field.

We had been in touch the last weeks with a situation a bit similar, where according to medical people it was a case of a mental disease. As per the phenomena it could be very well understood as an intrusion from the dense layers of the subtle world through an unduely open channel in the inner system of the person. Stabilising one’s life through a righteous, pure way of living and work for the general welfare creates a protection towards these and other shady influences.

“Wandering Souls” – people walking along a lake in Senegal

A friend of mine sent me yesterday some lines describing an experience with the healing power of OM and mantrams:

“One Sunday early morning in May this year, my wife experienced the power of the Word or Song. OM and the Gayatri song didn’t appeal to her the first time I played them. She woke up complaining about a terrible bellyache. She could not move easily, so she stayed up in bed groaning. While getting ready to go the hospital, something happened.

It dawned on me to play the Om and Gayatri song from the CD I got from you while preparing a glass of water for her to drink. Meanwhile I told her to close her eyes and listen to the lyrics and the utterance of sacred sound. Almost 45 minutes or more later she fell asleep and when she woke up the pain had gone. Then she was able to do some chores at home: cleaning, washing up.

She recognised that the sounds she listened to have some power in them. Even my sister-in-law who knows nothing about Sanskrit can’t sometimes refrain from chanting OM, Guru, Shanti… as if it was automatic. Both my wife and sister-in-law said these words have found their way into their memories.
Very often at home I let the music on with OM sound pervading our household and the surrounding.

It is not in my habit of speaking of my experiences, but I deemed it fit to tell you just this. It ain’t no jest!”

You might be interested in reading more about the power of sound in the book on “Mantrams” by Sri K. Parvathi Kumar or Basics of Spiritual Life on “Working with Sound“.

In India, in the Planetary Healing Centre near Visakhapatnam, there is a constant reverberation of OM to purify the entire surrounding.

Last weeks the children have developed a skill to “slip away” from their responsibilities in the household. They tend to leave their schoolbags, skateboards or instruments on the floor right at the entrance. Used plates stay on the table, packing garbage doesn’t find its way into the bin. When asked to clear their mess away, they tend to say, “Yes, I’ll do it in a minute” – and nothing happens. Computer games are much more fascinating than homework, and the latter are started late in the night.

Two days ago my wife felt tired of the Don Quichottean fight, the feeling of running against rubber walls. So she decided to go on strike as per the service in the “Hotel Mom”. She packed the dirty clothes of the children into their room and told them to do their laundry themselves. And she stopped preparing food for them. So yesterday we had breakfast, lunch and a cake – but not for the children. They stayed at first “cool” and were out most of the day.

In the evening the younger one (14) made a “charm offensive” and said, o.k., he’ll clean up his mess and help preparing the dinner. We had a dinner with three – the elder one didn’t yet come back. But my wife didn’t react on the younger one’s demands for preparing some extra wishes. The youngest found this “antisocial”, but tried not to come into the front line. And he did the clean-up of the kitchen.

The other one (16) is living at “minimum effort level” in highschool and at home. He yesterday said he would come home at 8.30 pm, however, it turned out to be 2 hours later, totally wet from rain. At the moment he is still blocking and somehow organising his meals. If “mom on strike” is stronger or his “strategy of freedom” – the outcome is still open…

A friend sent me the following comment: “There were some articles recently in Swedish newspapers on teenagers and empathy. Twelve year olds have great empathy. Then it disappears totally, and re-appears around 18-20. So there is some light in the end of the tunnel :-)”

In puberty the inner roads sometimes seem to be blocked because of reconstruction work.

A thought from Tuesday’s talk with Sri Kumar came to my mind. He mentioned in our conversation that the Indian minds are generally more lithesome than the minds of Westerners. They don’t hold to an idea like we tend to do here. This makes it more difficult for them to plan and organise, but they don’t get stuck so much in concepts. Their mind is closer to the abstract realms, to the planes of energy or Buddhi. In the West the concrete mind is strongly developed, focused on efficiency and achievement.

For an Indian mind it is easy to look to a theme from many sides, again and again. I am fascinated how Sri Kumar in his lectures elaborates themes of the wisdom teachings from many angles, illustrating them with a variety of lively stories. I myself would think that all has already been said by mentioning a few aspects of a topic, but when you go deeper into it and ponder on different layers and facets, a movement of thoughts gives rise to a flow, which is nourished by the radiance of a subtle energy or light.

Eastern and western approaches… Some Indian chilis

Having yesterday came back from an intense one week seminar on Yoga and Transcendence with Sri K. Parvathi Kumar in Kandersteg, which was fascinating, but not so suited for blogging… It was much focused on experiencing inner dimensions and gaining the related understanding. Meditating and focusing on subtle topics with about 200 people creates a field of vibrating energy which for me is very thrilling.The seminar was also inspiring because of meeting a lot of friends from different countries and continents and have exchanges with them.

When this evening I went through the pictures I took one jumped into my eyes, though seemingly uninteresting. I had been taking several pics of the Blümlisalp-Mountain from out of the hotel window at different times of the day. On one I had taken last Wednesday at about 5 o’clock in the morning, there were all over the photo balls of different size. You can recognize them in the sky:

Click on the photo to see it enlarged (also the other picture).

It is the only photo of all the pictures with these circles. But they reminded me of a series of photos a friend from Spain had taken in the Ajanta caves in India, where exactly the same balls had appeared, and this in the holy atmosphere of the temple caves. He told me that these were energy patterns of subtle beings, devas, and that also other people had made such photos. Here is one pic of this series:

It is easy and common to intellectualize these phenomena away, while others might be getting enthusiastic about such things manifesting, like for example Crop Circles (here a recent Lotus manifestation). For me they don’t have a value in themselves but are messengers, symbols or ciphers of the subtle worlds, pointing to that which is beyond.

For a deeper understanding of these energies you might like to read the Lunar Messenger on Cooperation with the Devas.

Yesterday a friend came for a night’s stay. He is an astrologer from the French Pyrenees whom I came to know via the good-will website and who is going with us to the seminar of the World Teacher Trust, with Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, which is starting today. He is a full-time astrologer and has a very deep focus on Spiritual Astrology. We had a very lively exchange on various topics and his explanation of charts opened some new vistas of understanding for me. He sees himself in the ancient tradition of French occult astrologers and is expanding this through his understanding of Eastern wisdom.

Though misused a lot, and for a good deal a subtle science of intuition, you can gain through this wisdom key insights on themes of your live, helping to direct you on the steps ahead on your path.

My African friend from Congo (see the previous blogpost on Finding our Common Origin – Sanskrit and Kikongo Wisdom Teachings) just sent me a page with reflections about the veiled significance of eating: “Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who your are“. A few extracts:

In the Kongo tradition, there is an expression related to both material and spiritual nutriment. Besides, the Kingdom of Kongo is picturesquely seasoned with cooking implements, hence the frequently used expression “MAKUKU MATATU MALAMBA KONGO” (Three fireplaces serving to cook Kongo) putting forward the tasty side of full existence as concocted by Nabi Kongo (Kongo Great Initiates).

On the other hand, the following formula comes as buzz words: ” Muana Ngo Tu Dia” = We are going to eat the leopard cub”. As regards the importance attached to this animal in most African societies (representing inter alia a symbol of royalty), the above-mentioned expression evokes a situation in which an emergency solution is a must on a given fact or problem undermining life in the village; otherwise, no one is entitled to escape from the case.

From the spiritual standpoint, words generally assuming double sense in Kikongo (a matter-of-fact sense and a lofty one), this means attaining self-realisation; The Multiple must merge into the One, to reach the Buddhist nirvana, moksha, Unio Mystica or triumph over the wheel of incarnations, uplifting towards celestial spheres.”

Enjoy reading.

Buddha statue in the house of a friend

During yesterday’s study group, while reading a transcription of a seminar by Sri K. P. Kumar on the Secret Doctrine, we came across a caption that there were failures on the subtle planes with the creation of the earth by the creative intelligences (devas), just as there are failures with what human beings are doing. We shouldn’t understand the devas as infallible. And just like people with power try to hide their mistakes or even justify them by making or manipulating laws in their favour, the same can be observed with these intelligences. However, in the long run they are getting into other cycles of adjusting and learning.

I like this idea. It is so very human and common in day-to-day life. You can also observe it in your own behaviour. I’m talented in creating excuses, also before myself, and observe the same with others:

Yesterday, a “low energy day”, I grew angry with my wife that the children hadn’t cleared their mess in the kitchen. With this simmering anger I got them do the washup.

For me, I was sure my growing angry was because of the mess of the children and that they had preferred gaming to cleaning up. Only later I came to see that already before that I felt a bit imbalanced. Out of this, my dealing with the kitchen situation came much more from my predisposition than from the actual situation.

Today, 8th May, is not only the annual World Red Cross Red Crescent Day (the birthday of Henry Dunant, the founder of the Red Cross, this year’s motto: “Together for Humanity”), but also a more silent commemoration day, the White Lotus Day, the day of the passing of Helena P. Blavatsky (HPB) on May 8, 1891.

One year ago, I wrote already a blogpost about it, mentioning the little booklet I published two years ago: “H.P.B. – Trailblazer for the Aquarian Age” (free download). There is also an inspiring talk by K. Parvathi Kumar on The White Lotus.

The Lotus symbolises the life of man and also that of the Kosmos. The symbol stands for the principle of unfoldment and it is recommended for meditation. If you follow the right steps, the inner energy centres called chakras (: wheels) transform into lotuses. You might read more about it in the Lunar Messenger on Chakras and Lotuses.

Cover of the book The White Lotus, by K. Parvathi Kumar

HPB has let quite an impact in my life. In the 80ies I was fascinated over several years by the title of her opus magnus, The Secret Doctrine, without buying it. When I finally got it (5 volumes, nothing for casual reading), I had a dive through it, without understanding much. In the 90ies I studied the volumes for a second, and in the last years for the third time. (now in English). I like reading a little passage every morning after meditation, its great panorama of life opens up the view, before entering into the daily hustle and bustle. One sentence from this morning’s reading, Vol. I, Cosmogenesis, p. 56:

“No man is conscious of more than that portion of his knowledge that happens to have been recalled to his mind at any particular time, yet such is the poverty of languages that we have no term to distinguish the knowledge not actively thought of, from knowledge we are unable to recall to memory. To forget is synonymous with not to remember. How much greater must be the difficulty of finding terms to describe, and to distinguish between, abstract metaphysical facts or differences?”

Helena P. Blavastky (1831.1891)