Last Tuesday I had the good chance to meet Sri Kumar for some hours in Hergiswil, where he stayed a few days on his way from Spain back to India. He was relaxing a bit after an extensive tour to groups in Europe. For an hour we watched a video of a new film together and afterwards he took time to talk with me. I told him about the turbulent weeks and months I had gone through and he gave me valuable hints and suggestions for the time ahead.

He explained to me that when you speak to people they take it with their personalities. This automatically gives a twist to the situation. Though you might speak with innocence and without ulterior motives, but the world isn’t like that: The other persons normally don’t take things as such, but colour them with their own motives and tendencies. In their critical attitude they interpret what they hear according to their understanding. They judge about the situation and talk about it to others. Gossiping thus creates rumours.

He pointed out that especially in the groups there is a lot of gossip about others going on. He said that he is continuously confronted with this gossip, which he neutralises by taking it in and not letting it out. He absorbs it and doesn’t let it stick to him: “Even in my family I do like this, so in our relations we don’t go into these matters. Keeping silent is the best.”

He recommended me to keep away from a certain situation and to learn to look for the motives of people: “Things normally aren’t the way people present them to you, for they have their motives. You have to learn to see behind and to understand the motives, but not act on what the people present.”

He said, “Many come and look what the WTT does and then go away again. Others come, look and spit at it and go away. Neither way affects me. Without any doing from my side, when somebody spits, it comes back to him. Nature does it. The WTT is open for all to come and to go when people like. The doors are open. Did you ever notice that I insisted on anything for you?” I replied, “No, and I highly cherished this freedom when I first heard about these open doors.” – “I’m like a reflector, I reflect the way people approach to me. If they come with a critical attitude to the WTT, they will encounter critical points, devotional people meet devotion, others make experiences according to their disposition. So some are disappointed when their expectations aren’t met.”

I told him that I regularly practice in the morning visualising the double pyramid he recommends for protection, especially during the times of attacks. “You can visualise the double pyramid surrounded by flames of fire, this will strengthen the protection”, he suggested. In these periods it is particularly important to stay aligned inwardly.

When speaking about my professional situation he proposed not to rush but to wait and to let things come. He explained that in his life he observes rhythms of 7 years and he gave me some examples. He explained the importance of observing the movements of Saturn, Jupiter and the north and south node: “Whenever aspects are touched by the nodes there is an obscuration. The effect of the south node is like Saturn, the effect of the north node like a double Mars.” And he gave some hints as per my present situation: “When Saturn returns to the birth position, a big cycle closes and new opportunities open up.”

(These notes are made from memory and aren’t literal statements.)

The outside as a reflection on the mirror of our consciousness

A friend sent yesterday the following story:

Once a disciple went to his teacher for a consultation. The teacher warned him – ‘I just answer three questions, my friend. So think carefully before you ask them.’

After a moment of reflection, the disciple asked: ‘What is the deeper truth?’

The teacher said: ‘A tree in the garden.’

Then the disciple asked: ‘What is enlightenment?’

The master replied: ‘A tree in the garden.’

Shocked the disciple asked: ‘What is wisdom?’

The teacher replied: ‘A tree in the garden.’

Wisdom can be everything, yet is invisible to the mere conceptualization of our brain. Teachers avoid getting caught by the questions of their disciples, because if they respond in a conceptual way they won’t achieve that the disciples abandon the confinement in their little minds.

The reflection of the sun confined to a small puddle

Thursday evening my wife and I went to a public lecture of Clemens Kuby, a German film maker, author and founder of the German Academy for Self Healing Processes. He has done a number of films on interesting topics such as Living Buddha (rebirth of the Karmapa), the Todas in the Nilagiris, South India, The Old Ladakh, Tibet – Resistance of the Spirit, On the Way into the Next Dimension and now he is giving talks on self healing – being himself a living example: In 1981 he fell out of a window from 15 m height and was diagnosed paraplegic. For a year he was in a hospital and couldn’t move – he calls it a state of “forced meditation”.

In his talk he very humorously explained how he insulated himself from the diagnosis of the doctors who called it a refusal of accepting the reality – lifelong living with a wheelchair. He went through a deep inner transformation, he decided to totally change his life and cut nearly all links to his old life.  Through his inner work a so-called spontaneous healing thought impossible by the doctors happened – nerves which were cut grew and he could start walking again. For this an inner vision developed of a place which he did not know but which turned out to be Ladakh. So he started a new life guided by the soul.

He spoke very well (in German) and I made some notes which I would like to share:

“We are mostly working with the left brain, the whole education is left-sided. Or do you know of a professorship for intuition? We think the intuitive half of the brain is of no use. Intuition is a private matter.

If I have pain I’m not on the way to God. People think that disease is the will of God, a punishment by God. I would change this God. If I want to become happy  I have to take my disease seriously. If I’m not doing well I have to learn something. Suffering is easier than learning. If I don’t want to learn the pain becomes stronger.

You have to regulate your life backwards but also develop a perspective. Life after a disease has to be different from the life before the disease. There must be a cause for the disease in the biography. If you want to return to your old life there is no learning. A disease, an accident doesn’t happen accidentally. I have the disease in order to gain a new knowledge to find my happiness.

We have intuition to find the inner compass. The most important instrument for intuition is musing. Without an idea nothing happens. Everything that materialises needs an idea. In the beginning there is spirit, not matter. There is no phenomenon without an idea. The idea of pain was a bad idea.

On the intuitive plane everything is NOW, so I also can change it NOW. People come to the cinema to experience something, that is NOW. I experience it even if it is not true. We are not here to perceive the reality but to create the reality. A documentary film is a creation of reality. I can imagine the reality, it is always a subjective view. So we can re-shape our experiences. Only when I had found a real perspective in hospital why I had become sick I had an idea what-for I want to become healthy again. Existential fear screws up every vision. The shamans create a new truth for their patients and thus heal them. We imagine the new reality in the presence.

We cannot argue away the symptoms, but if I describe the content I can reshape it and create new images. The subjective reality counts. So you can describe cancer as cells which have dropped out of Love. We have fallen out of the love.

We can write down what good luck has happened to us in a situation instead of focussing on something bad. I can retroactively re-write my biography. How I think so I am. Every thought has an effect. I am the only responsible for my thoughts. So I can break the chain and re-write the scenes I have gone through. This way I don’t pass on the old concept to my children.

The one who has gone through a severe illness has become greater. We can retrospectively re-create facts. In this we have to be careful to whom we lend our ears. If we talk to a doctor we must know that he sees things from a physiological perspective, he won’t accompany us on the way of our soul. The scientists have even erased the word soul from their world view. We cannot expect apples from a pear tree.

The spirit is the boss, I can re-create a healthy childhood. I can explain it to every cell of my body and communicate with the organs, so that they are healthy.”

You find more about this way of thinking on his website (in German). At the end of the lecture we all stood up and sang a song to impregnate healthy living to all of the cells (: a link to the texts of songs “Sing and Dance): “Every cell of my body is happy, every cell feels well. Every cell at every place is in good form.”

Clemens Kuby, photo from Wikipedia

“Living Buddha” – Very rare and old documentary about the life in Tibet and Nepal from 1994, by Clemens Kuby

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X4XwRzdqQ64

Unterwegs in die nächste Dimension (On the Way into the Next Dimension – Portraits of Shamans all over the world, by Clemens Kuby.

Normally shadow is seen as the absence of light, having a negative connotation. In the fascinating works of the Japanese artist Kumi Yamashita he is sculpturing shadows to create “objects” through a single source of light. The objects just exist through the arrangement of other objects creating the form seen through the interaction with light. On his website you find a number of objects where the form he created is the shadow.

Here you see shadow persons talking:

In a Japanese video of a show you see some of his installations, fascinating:

You find more on YouTube.

In spirituality the shadow is the symbol of the personality and the soul of the inner Light. The self-conscious personality is but a reflection of the universal soul. Sri Kumar says in “The Aquarian Cross“: If we are after our shadow, we cannot reach the light. The shadow is nothing but our own personality. In so far as we continue to fulfil our personality needs, we are only running after our shadow. “When we are running after our own shadow we have no direction”, says Pythagoras.

So shadows is a topic for this time of Cancer, where the Sun starts its seeming southwards journey again and the shadows start getting longer.

Morning light shining on the Krishna statue in my work room

This night at 01:09 CET the sun enters into Cancer and we celebrate Summer Solstice in the northern hemisphere. It is good to attune to the energies of this time. The wisdom teachings say that it is important to be vigilant during the first 20 days of Cancer, otherwise you will get slowly more imprisoned in the outside during the months to come. If we have a good inner alignment we get a reinforcement of the energies to be functioning more inside, not to go into over-actions in the outside.

Here are some thoughts from a lecture of Sri Kumar at Summer Solstice 2010 in Königswinter, Germany:

The first 20 days of Cancer are said to be the great serpent, the dragon called Aslesha. It is the great dragon or great serpent. If you miss to align you fall directly into the mouth of the great serpent and get out only through the tail. At the end of Scorpio and the beginning of Sagittarius there is the eagle, the mula, you are released out of the deadlock of the year. This solstice not only gives a possibility of the purposes of the day, but also the purposes of life. When we have to follow into unknown ways, it is better to follow someone who knows the way. Finding it oneself can be a waste of life, energy. That is why there is the help of the teacher.”

The wisdom teachings say that the solar God of fire comes to the lunar mansion of the Goddess in Cancer. Cancer is the cardinal sign relating to the Mother, where there is the reception of the Father into the Mother’s house. Cancer is also known as the sun sign related to the birth of the souls into the bodies. This I tried to illustrate in the picture on Cancer: The Moon is the reflective principle receiving and transmitting energies from higher circles. The lunar energies help with the descent of the souls and building the layers of the embryo in the mother’s womb. The earth is the mother which nourished us – we must take care not to spoil the basis of our life. You find more pictures on the symbolism of the zodiacal signs in the series Images of Synthesis.

Cancer – The Mother and the Birth of the Soul into the Body

Here is a beautiful Shanti (Peace) Mantram the meaning of which is:

Auspiciousness be unto all; peace be unto all;
fullness be unto all; prosperity be unto all.
May all be happy!
May all be free from disabilities!
May all look to the good of others!
May none suffer from sorrow!

A beautiful video with music of Kitaro and images of National Geographic and BBC:

And here a visual music clip, Homage to the artist and Sufi master Klaus Wiese *1942 – †2009, an excerpt from the 53 minute one-track album el-Hadra, www.AquariusMusic.eu

And here another video with music by Klaus Wiese: Tibetan Singing Bowls

in memoriam Klaus Wiese

A friend sent me today the following list of 100 benefits of meditation – provided you really work with it for a long time. Transformation is no instant magic. I’m sure there are many more benefits than cited in this list.

Physiological benefits:
1. It lowers oxygen consumption.
2. It decreases respiratory rate.
3. It increases blood flow and slows the heart rate.
4. Increases exercise tolerance.
5. Leads to a deeper level of physical relaxation.
6. Good for people with high blood pressure.
7. Reduces anxiety attacks by lowering the levels of blood lactate.
8. Decreases muscle tension
9. Helps in chronic diseases like allergies, arthritis etc.
10. Reduces Pre-menstrual Syndrome symptoms.
11. Helps in post-operative healing.
12. Enhances the immune system.
13. Reduces activity of viruses and emotional distress
14. Enhances energy, strength and vigour.
15. Helps with weight loss
16. Reduction of free radicals, less tissue damage
17. Higher skin resistance
18. Drop in cholesterol levels, lowers risk of cardiovascular disease.
19. Improved flow of air to the lungs resulting in easier breathing.
20. Decreases the aging process.
21. Higher levels of DHEAS (Dehydroepiandrosterone)
22. Prevented, slowed or controlled pain of chronic diseases
23. Makes you sweat less
24. Cure headaches & migraines
25. Greater Orderliness of Brain Functioning
26. Reduced Need for Medical Care
27. Less energy wasted
28. More inclined to sports, activities
29. Significant relief from asthma
30. Improved performance in athletic events
31. Normalizes to your ideal weight
32. Harmonizes our endocrine system
33. Relaxes our nervous system
34. Produce lasting beneficial changes in brain electrical activity
35. Helps cure infertility (the stresses of infertility can interfere with the release of hormones that regulate ovulation).

Psychological benefits:
36. Builds self-confidence.
37. Increases serotonin level, influences mood and behaviour.
38. Resolve phobias & fears
39. Helps control own thoughts
40. Helps with focus & concentration
41. Increase creativity
42. Increased brain wave coherence.
43. Improved learning ability and memory.
44. Increased feelings of vitality and rejuvenation.
45. Increased emotional stability.
46. Improved relationships
47. Mind ages at slower rate
48. Easier to remove bad habits
49. Develops intuition
50. Increased Productivity
51. Improved relations at home & at work
52. Able to see the larger picture in a given situation
53. Helps ignore petty issues
54. Increased ability to solve complex problems
55. Purifies your character
56. Develop will power
57. Greater communication between the two brain hemispheres
58. Respond more quickly and more effectively to a stressful event.
59. Increases ones perceptual ability and motor performance
60. Higher intelligence growth rate
61. Increased job satisfaction
62. Increase in the capacity for intimate contact with loved ones
63. Decrease in potential mental illness
64. Better, more sociable behaviour
65. Less aggressiveness
66. Helps in quitting smoking, alcohol addiction
67. Reduces need and dependency on drugs, pills & pharmaceuticals
68. Need less sleep to recover from sleep deprivation
69. Require less time to fall asleep, helps cure insomnia
70. Increases sense of responsibility
71. Reduces road rage
72. Decrease in restless thinking
73. Decreased tendency to worry
74. Increases listening skills and empathy
75. Helps make more accurate judgements
76. Greater tolerance
77. Gives composure to act in considered & constructive ways
78. Grows a stable, more balanced personality
79. Develops emotional maturity

Spiritual benefits:
80. Helps keep things in perspective
81. Provides peace of mind, happiness
82. Helps you discover your purpose in life
83. Increased self-actualization.
84. Increased compassion
85. Growing wisdom
86. Deeper understanding of yourself and others
87. Brings body, mind, and spirit in harmony
88. Deeper Level of spiritual relaxation
89. Increased acceptance of one self
90. Helps learn forgiveness
91. Changes attitude toward life
92. Creates a deeper relationship with your God
93. Increases the synchronicity in your life
94. Greater inner-directedness
95. Helps living in the present moment
96. Creates a widening, deepening capacity for love
97. Discovery of the power and consciousness beyond the ego
98. Experience an inner sense of Assurance or Knowingness
99. Experience a sense of Oneness
100. Leads to enlightenment

Head of a Buddha statue in Bali – photo of a friend

A fascinating video about the secret of numbers discovered by Fibonacci (c. 1170 – c. 1250), an Italian mathematician, considered by some “the most talented western mathematician of the Middle Ages.” Fibonacci introduced the sequence of numbers which can be seen in many forms of nature to Western European mathematics in 1202, although the sequence had been described earlier in Indian mathematics.

I came across the beautiful video “Mount Kailash” from the CD “Begin Within” of a group called “Flying Mystics“. It says: “Flying Mystics creates music that takes one on a journey that is at once esoteric and visionary while remaining sensually intense and spiritually powerful. The group is composed of Zepi Morelli on the guitar, Flournoy Holmes playing flutes and percussion and Todd Roderick on drums and percussion. Wether playing temples, festivals or yoga studios Flying Mystics appeal to the spiritual roots of the world, creating music that reminds us of our mystical origins.”

Next to this film there was the following ashonishing video of a real flying mystic: Magician Dan White meets up with a Buddhist monk, in Nepal, who has the power of levitation. For years in the 70ies I had been with the Maharishi who claimed to teach levitation – I had seen thousands of people trying, but none really doing it. Though it is reported from many saints and sages, this is the first video document I see about it. – I know that levitation is a side-issue on the spiritual path, but nevertheless a clear demonstration of spirit ruling over matter.