Three weeks ago the first of three seminars with Sri Kumar in Europe started in Kandersteg, Switzerland, on 17 June. Together with a friend I had been involved in the preparations. When we went to the seminar hotel one day before the seminar to set up the stage setting the weather became worse. Torrential rains were pouring down when I drove back to Berne late in the night. Next morning, however, the sun was shining and the way up to Kandersteg promised a beautiful welcome to the seminar participants. About 90 members arrived, from different countries of Europe and even from the States.

Many of them helped with the final preparations, and when Sri Kumar arrived for the evening prayer, there was again the thrill of the magnetic ambience. After the prayer he started the seminar on “Occultism”, hinting at the sunshine:

“We should be able to gain the energies of Gemini full moon and also of the solstice in a very subtle atmosphere emanating from the pure and clean mountains of Switzerland, the Alps. It has all been given a very warm welcome and the Sun. Sun is always there, it only is sometimes visible and sometimes not. The purpose of occultism is to find what is sometimes visible and sometimes not visible. But at all times it IS. Secret Doctrine tells us, what is IS always. Sometime it is visible and sometimes not. When it is not visible it is only apparently not visible and vice versa. This dimension has to be considered at all times, not only when we are in a class of wisdom, or with a book or when we are in some contemplation, What IS is always there, what is not, is just not there. You cannot name anything which is not in existence. Unless it IS it cannot be in existence. The Sun could be apparently absent form tomorrow but the Sun is there. To find what is in occultism, this is the theme of our seminar.

As we landed in Zurich this morning, there was very cool temperature. Then slowly the Sun said, I am also there. I AM is the other name for Sun. I AM always there, sometimes it is with THAT, and sometimes it is I AM. Even if it joins with THAT, it still is. The unity of existence is eternal. There are successive manifestations from it and successive demanifestations. When something disappears in a way it is there in another way. All is there and is not there. But we are always there during the whole creation. Through occultism we try to see how it is and how it is becoming. If you relate to what is becoming we cannot see what IS. The process can be seen when we are not part of the process. When we are with the process, the process overtakes. It puts us into somersaults, roller-coaster, ups and downs. In all this, I AM is like the Sun. The ever shining Sun is there when there is cold or heat. To be with the ever shining Sun is to be with IT. THAT I AM is the Truth. I AM is a partial truth, it is a fleeting truth, it is there and not there. But if I AM is eternally with THAT, THAT I AM, then it is always there.”

At the beginnings of the seminars I often think, oh, I know the topic already. But slowly new dimensions come in and the picture becomes varied and multi-faceted. Very profound aspects were explained opening new vistas of understanding.

Special highlights for me were exchanges with Dr. Kumar in the Executive Board and Board of Advisors meetings. There the idea of future joint European festivals of May Call and of Summer Solstice to be organised rotating between the different countries. And Sri Kumar further explained about Lord Dattatreya, the Cosmic Lord of Yoga:

“We will be including into the World Teacher Trust website the information relating to Dattatreya and his incarnation as Sripada Srivallabha. He is in tune with the energies of the World Teacher Trust, in the sense it is the chief energy of the World Teacher Trust. Lord Dattatreya is the Lord of Sirius, and the energies we are working with came from Sirius through Master CVV who is from the ashram of Jupiter. Essentially the energies are the energies of Sirius, and Lord Dattatreya is the Cosmic Lord of Yoga. The cosmic yoga principle is presided over by Dattatreya who is an embodiment of the Trinity. His is the Cosmic Lord for Yoga. The three Logos as one is Dattatreya. He is the teacher for the entire cosmos, the entire universe.

It came to the World Teacher Trust that many members received the impulse to relate to him, and the energy of Dattatreya is moving in the groups in a very effective manner. I personally received it from 1976 at Sagittarius full moon. Sagittarius full moon is seen as the birthday of Dattatreya. That day I got the link. Now the Lord decided to introduce himself to the groups in Spain, in Germany, and elsewhere coming through those who are relating to him. Through our teachings I also introduced the basic understanding of Dattatreya through a small book, Dattatreya.

We include now this dimension of hierarchical teachings. He is the Christ to Christ, and we include him in our website. It is a great blessing for us. He is taking us to a different dimension of our understanding and our expansion of consciousness. This information is being shared with the General Body that the World Teacher Trust website will contain significantly the information about Dattatreya and that will enable the members to relate to the teachings of Dattatreya and all the information relating to Dattatreya as it is available to us.”

Here are a few impressions of the group living. Enjoy!

Cancer represents the descent of the soul into matter and the relation of mother and child. At birth the soul ‘falls’ from the spiritual world into matter, imprisoned in the dense sheath of physical incarnation. The mother nourishes the child and gives her affection. Mother Nature protects the child until it awakens to the soul and consciously ascends from matter back to the spirit.

Meditating on the symbolism of Cancer I caught a glimpse of a converging spiral. In the spiral I perceived the different steps of the descent of the soul into matter, and this linked to the mother protecting the growing child. Their interaction reminded me of the glyph of Cancer, ♋.

However, it took some time of searching until I found access to the actual composition of the painting. As a point of departure, I chose a Shalagrama stone, an ammonite, whose spirals are regarded in the East as a symbol of the universal principle or God. I transformed light reflections from butter-lamps in an Indian temple to represent the stages of the descent of the soul, superimposing them on the spiral in different colour shades. For the mother and child I used elements of two Italian Renaissance painters: the mother from a painting of Fra Filippo Lippi (1406-1469) and the child from a painting of Fra Angelico (1395-1455). The spiral ends and also begins in the heart of the child, being near the heart of the mother – Cancer rules over the heart centre. The looks of Mother Nature come out of a veil of light; the face of the child radiates strength and purity. The surrounding greenish blue hints at the higher ruler of Cancer, Neptune.

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.

06 March 2016, pencils and photo work

Last Wednesday I went to the French Vosges to prepare the third May Call Celebration in France together with some friends. The preparation team first met in the house of a group member and later we went to the holiday resort “Villages de France” in Bitche to have a look at the hall for the group living. Thursday morning we came to the seminar place with all the materials – and in a joyful ambiance the preparations were quickly arranged.

The site was a very beautiful place at a lake surrounded by forests on all sides. Around noon time the first participants arrived. I sat at the reception distributing the rooms – a good occasion for a first “hello” to the new arrivals. In France there were strikes going on blocking the petrol stations in parts of the country. One member from Brittany couldn’t get enough petrol to come – and it was too late to take a train… But 34 persons made it, and four came a little later. In all, we were 38 members from 5 countries – Austria, Belgium, France, Germany and Switzerland.

The group living started with the evening prayer. After dinner some of us had a walk around the lake. The surface was very calm and the trees reflected like in a mirror – a fascinating sight.

For the next 4 days, we had set up a program with a variety of contributions by different members. The whole group living was bilingual, in French and German. Besides meditations and texts about the deeper significance of the May Call – the day of group initiation – outside morning exercises made us “fit for the day”; sacral dance and Qigong movements kept the body energies flowing. There were fascinating discourses on “Healthy through medicinal plants – it also goes without chemicals”, with some samples of herbal preparations; on “Astrology – the great picture” with examples of research on the inter-connectedness of all life;  on “The Energies of Time – a look at France and Europe”; and a spontaneous talk about the adventures around the German translation of the biography of Sripada. We saw the first part of the video Music of the Soul, on the life of Master CVV and the video “The Aquarian Zodiac” which was released on the occasion of this May Call.  And a beautiful slide-show took us on a journey to Mount Kailash. Saturday we did a Water Ritual and Sunday, the May Call Day, a Fire Ritual, a Light and Cake Ritual. In the afternoon there was a profound and humorous exchange about the ways how the participants came into contact with Master CVV and the energies of synthesis – fascinating stories.

Monday morning 27 of the group members went to the European Parliament in Strasbourg, where we spoke the Global Prayer for Peace, an invocation for European unity and sang the song of Lord Maitreya. Since it was raining, all tourists stayed under the arcades and we had the place around the central globe for us.

A walk through along the river Aar and lunch in a typical Alsacian restaurant concluded the five days of this May Call group living.

The clip “The Aquarian Zodiac” was realised by Sebastián Rey Aristomuño (Lipikas Production) from Buenos Aires, in cooperation with me, on the basis of the “Images of Synthesis“. It is released now on the occasion of the celebration of the Master May Call (29 May) a video-clip is released in homage to Master CVV.
Thank you Seba for the good cooperation!

While proof-reading and working on the German translation of the Sripada Srivallabha Charitamrutam – the biography about the life of Sripada Srivallabha (1320-1350), the first Avatar of Lord Dattatreya in Kali Yuga (I told you about it before), I work on an index of persons. The book contains numerous incredible events and there are also hints about future events and incarnations of people. Many of them already happened by now in previous centuries. When searching them on the web, especially in Wikipedia, I came across some extraordinary stories; two of them I would like to share here.

In the book there is a story of Madhava, a person who had died and was brought back after some time to life by a yogi, Palaniswami, through whom Sripada was working. Together with Palaniswami and the author of the book, Madhava goes into a deep meditation. In his subtle body, he meets Sripada who sends him to the nether worlds. There he encounters many Kala Nagas doing intense meditations and he speaks with two of them. (Kala Nagas are holy serpents living in subtle form in the nether worlds, Patala Loka.)

When Madhava later comes back to Sripada, the latter tells him: “One of the serpents that spoke with you will take birth as Jyoti Ramalinga Swami in the ensuing centuries. It will disappear also in the shape of radiant light. The other serpent that spoke to you will be born on the earth in the centuries to follow with the name of Sada Siva Brahmendra and demonstrate many miracles.”

When I searched Wikipedia I found that Ramalinga Swamigal, also called Vallalar, lived in the 19th century (5 October 1823 – disappeared on 30 January 1874). He was one of the most famous Tamil saints and also one of the greatest Tamil poets of the 19th century. There are interesting points about his life. Among them: “In 1867 he established a center for feeding the poor people. On the inaugural day he lit the fire of the stone stove, with a declaration that the fire be ever alive and the needy shall be fed forever… The oil lamp lit by him is kept perpetually burning.”
And further: “Perhaps one of the most notable factors of this sage is the claim that he supposedly attained a divinization of the physical body. He attained a total of 3 transformations. His first transformation was the transformation of his normal human body into the Perfect Body, between the supposed attributes of this body are total invulnerability to everything thus rendering him effectively immortal and impervious to any kind of damage as well as having the attributes of being omnipotent, omnipresent and omniscient this body is apparently made of Divine Light. …
Ramalingar raised the flag of Brotherhood on his one-room residence Siddhi Valakam in Mettukuppam on October 22, 1873. He gave his last and most famous lecture, entreating his audience to undertake a spiritual quest and look into the “nature of the powers that lie beyond us and move us,” and asking them to meditate on the lighted lamp from his room, which he placed outside. …
On January 30, 1874, (he) entered the room and locked himself and told his followers not to open it. He said that even if they did open it they would find nothing… His seclusion spurred many rumors, and the Government finally forced the doors open in May. The room was empty, with no clues. The Madras District Gazetteer published by the South Arcot District in 1906 records his disappearance.”

The other Kala Naga serpent, Sada Siva Brahmendra, had an even more astonishing life. He lived in the 17th to 18th century and was a great saint, a composer of Carnatic music and an Advaita philosopher who lived near Kumbakonam, Tamil Nadu. Read the article in Wikipedia. Here are 2 short events:

“While meditating on the banks of the Cauvery river, he was carried away by a sudden flood. Weeks later, when some villagers were digging near a mound of earth, their shovels struck his body. He woke up and walked away.”

“Once the naked sannyasi was seen walking right through a Muslim harem of a Nawab. As a brahma-jnani who sees nothing but brahman everywhere, he would not distinguish between the different human figures which cross his path nor would he be distracted by the sights or noises that his environment may present to him. It was in this state of trance that he was walking along. He, the naked sannyasi, walked straight into the harem, entering it at one end and walking out at the other all the while walking through a maze of inmates of the Nawab’s harem. The news reached the nawab, he had his men chase him, they cut off both his hands as he was walking along, the hands fell off and … still he was walking along silently as if nothing had happened. The Nawab got scared, picked up the hands that had been severed, ran to the Sage and offered them in total remorse. The sage stopped his walking, the severed hands were restored to their place, the hands became normal and the sage walked away! There was no conversation.”

Meditation creates an energy field around us. When done in a group it is much more effective. By uttering OM as a group it builds a huge funnel into the sky and brings in sublime energies. It has to be a prolonged intonation with full intent. In silence we can receive the energies descending from above. In this, the individual consciousness might experience group consciousness or even universal consciousness.

To depict this process, I used a photo of a group living which I fused with layers of blue. In the foreground I created a field of various light balls with the help of photos of oil lamps, city lights and flames. It symbolises the process of merging of the individual souls into group consciousness. The individual units ascend through a funnel to a point of light from where radiant white and blue rays emerge. Thus, the group is receiving the downpour of light and is uplifted.

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.

8 May is celebrated as the White Lotus Day, the day of the passing of Mme Helena Petrovna Blavatsky (1831-1891). A day to remember this great messenger of Light who opened the doors of the Aquarian age – I blogged about it the years before. Please find here some words about her from the book “The Theosophical Movement“, by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar.
And below there is a well-known photo of the Lady in “Maycot”, London 1887. Have a good White Lotus Day

“Periodically man gets an opportunity to move into the Divine Wisdom and thereby to realize his own identity. The identity of every being is that he is a Son of God. Through cycles of time man forgets that he is a Son of God and again through cycles of time he is recollected that he is a Son of God. Time cyclically brings to us the wisdom. One such cycle of time which we know is the Theosophical Movement, brought to us by Madam H.P. Blavatsky, and hence we shall have to be grateful to her. She has brought light once again to humanity, from certain sublime centres of humanity. The wisdom did not flow from H.P. Blavatsky, but it flew through her. It could flow through her because she became a good channel to the wisdom. Without her becoming a channel or without her getting magnetized, she could not have given the wisdom to the world…

There was an opportune time around the end of the 19th century where wisdom decided to dawn itself. Then they found a vehicle pure enough, transparent enough, brilliant enough to reflect the wisdom, that is the vehicle whom we call Madam H.P. Blavatsky. She is the one through whom the wisdom could reach humanity from the Masters of Wisdom. Remember that even the Masters of Wisdom are not the givers. They act according to the purpose coming from the Higher Centres. It is the understanding of time that they carry and accordingly when it is dawn for humanity the light is transmitted…

In the words of the Masters, Madam Blavatsky was the purest vehicle available to them on the planet to transmit wisdom. The purity of her vehicle can be seen through the eyes which she carries, transparent and brilliant. She could control articles, persons with her eyes; that is the power she carried in her eyes. Where from has it come? It has come over a period of years of hard work. She always preferred to remain incognito and work. It is not necessary that she should be known to us. The Initiates don’t have the glamour that they should be known. She has been a colleague of Mary for 5000 years. She has chosen herself to be known only now, and even now very little is known about her. While the first disciple to Master Djwhal Khul is Mary, the second disciple to Master Djwhal Khul is H.P. Blavatsky. They have been accepted almost in the same year. Madam Blavatsky is as ancient as Mary and as pure as Mary. She was chosen to spread the New Age Wisdom upon the planet. The preparatory work she went through, nobody knew. Also we do not know how much Mary worked to be so pure. To give birth to a Saviour requires purity of a very high degree. Not all people can give birth to high souls. For the high souls to descend, pure vehicles are required. Vehicles have to be prepared for the descent of the Higher Ones. Even in our own case the three vehicles have to be kept pure for the birth of the soul, which is like the birth of the Saviour. Such is the vehicle Madam H.P. Blavatsky carried. It became possible to move the Divine Wisdom (Theo-Sophia) once again on the planet, due to the transparency of the threefold vehicle of H.P. Blavatsky.”

Helena P. Blavatsky in “Maycot”, London 1887

To be able to perceive the energy structures in the subtle spheres you need to develop the inner sense organs and purify your system through right living and spiritual practices. There are several energy centres in the body. In the process of unfoldment, a bridge is built between the pineal and the pituitary linking the related subtle centres. When this bridge of brilliant light is built, the centre of the third eye opens and allows subtle perception. When the consciousness is further raised, a connection to the centre at the top of the head gets established.

The centre of the third eye is related to Taurus; it is called the “eye of the bull” and it governs the power of clairvoyance. In the cosmos, it corresponds to the star Aldebaran.

To visualise these subtle realities I made a “selfie” of the upper part of my head. I superimposed a picture of Aldebaran with the surrounding stars of Taurus and constructed the bridge of light and the third eye with the help of other stars. I depicted the head centre by transforming the picture of a flower changing the shape of the petals to a mountain scenery. Then I worked on the colours and the radiance.

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.

Two weeks ago I received an e-mail of a person describing himself as partly living as a hermit and partly helping in a parish in Fribourg, Switzerland. He had found my paintings of the “Way of the Cross” series on the web. He wanted to use them to illustrate a brochure for a Way of the Cross walk on Good Friday of the parish St. Johann in Fribourg. A hermit with a website.

I was pleased – it was the first time someone showed interest in these paintings I had done  beginning of 1983, 33 years ago, at the conclusion of a profound crisis which had shifted my life into an entirely new direction. And so I told him that of course he can use the images but that I had “dissolved” nearly all my early paintings in 1997. The images on the web are reconstructed from photos. So I don’t have high resolution images.

Nevertheless, he wanted to use the paintings and he digitally worked them over to fit for print. He sent me some images of his hermitage – it reminded me of places in Siberia but not in Switzerland…

2 days ago he also sent me the brochure he distributed yesterday, on Good Friday, in the Parish, at the walk of the Way of the Cross. Thoughts of my youth came up – for some years I was an altar boy and grew up in a very catholic family environment  – a long way till now, over many stages of inner unfolding.

The topic of overcoming death and transformation is a profound theme on the path. It has often made me ponder upon – also when composing texts (also here) on the basis of the wisdom teachings of my spiritual teachers. And the symbolism of Good Friday and Pass-Over to the higher spheres is of most sublime significance.

“Resurrection”, 26 January 1983

For the 7th time, a group inspired by the yoga of Synthesis of Master CVV gathered for a weekend: “Experiment, Experience, Expression” is the motto of these group livings of meditation and sharing. (I blogged also about the last 3 meetings.) This time we met around spring equinox in a seminar centre on the countryside between Hamburg, Hannover and Berlin. The seminar house Drawehn in Kassau is a beautiful old farm with a round hall on a meadow called “Mandala” – an ideal setting for the CVV Sharing 2016. 18 persons came from Denmark, Germany and Switzerland, and even from Delphi, Greece.

The 7 members of the preparatory committee had proposed to focus again this year on meditation with a rhythm of alignments/prayers all 3 hours and exchange – no discourses, only short inputs/thematical introductions. The prayer times were longer to enable deeper experience. Additionally, there were pranayama sessions. The days concluded with the prayer of Mystic Mantrams “Dip deep…”.

As an introduction, all members were asked to bring something to create our own “mandala” in the space, be it an object, a text, a symbol… There were group sessions, based on practical and own experiences, on “What is my heart burning/yearning for?” or “What is meditation to me?” or a playful exchange about the 40 Criteria for Yoga given by Sri Kumar August 2014. In other sessions we discussed “What moves us/ what is happening and moving us inside?” or exchanged in “Open Space” meetings about topics based on practical spiritualism raised by the participants.

Saturday evening there was a sharing of inspirational inputs – a video clip on “The Aquarian Zodiac”, an inspiring text by Master EK, a little guitar concert… We also read and spoke about the words of Master KPK on the quality of the new annual cycle. Sunday morning we met at 5:15 am to celebrate the entry into Aries with some thoughts about the energy of the present time and a meditation. After the morning prayer there was a fire ritual in the courtyard of the farmhouse.
Towards the end of the seminar, we had an intense exchange about the future development of the CVV Sharing meetings. All participants felt deeply inspired and uplifted by the group living. And when we left, the fire of inspiration was shining in all eyes and hearts.