I today came over a nice website called “The World Garden“. There are photos from gardens from many countries, you can send them a picture of your garden to be added to the site. On the page there is an nice intro by Barbara Wolf:

“Long ago Mother Earth was a perfect garden. There was a perfect blueprint for her. Then, fragmentation began and today the garden is far from perfect. Let us turn the imperfect to the perfect.
We begin small; each of us making one piece of a world garden of perfection. We overlay our efforts, our tapestry, on the energies of imperfect Mother Earth. That is how we change the imperfect to the perfect.”

The site made me think of the book “Leaves of Morya’s Garden” from 1924. Here is an extract from the aphorism No 229:

Yes, yes, yes, each word of unity is as the seed of
some fair flower.
To cultivate a garden of beauty is permitted to all.
But where are the gardeners who can judge which seed is best?
We shall teach them to gather the fertile stalks.
We shall pluck out the blighting weeds.
And the ground where God has manifested Himself
We shall adorn with flowers.
But where the flowers of unity are—guard their petals.
Yes, yes, yes!

View from out of our living room

Though the precise moment of the Wesak (or Vaisakh) Festival is over since 2 hours I would like to post a Spanish video from YouTube showing scenes of the festival in a valley near Mount Kailash. For long times this festival related to Taurus full moon and the reception of sublime spiritual energies had been regarded as a mythological event reported about only by clairvoyants, but here you see Tibetan people celebrating it very much like described by Leadbeater or Master DK.

A friend also sent me the link to a film, “Journey to the Wesak Valley in Tibet“; the author who made the video describes his journey to the Vaisakh Festival, there are nice pictures on the site. Here are extracts on YouTube.

I only came to know later that at Vaisakh full moon this year there was the celebration of 2600 years of the Buddha’s enlightenment, with world-wide festivities.

Painting after a drawing in a book of Charles Leadbeater:

Vaisakh Full Moon at about 5 am seen from the veranda

8th May is celebrated as White Lotus Day, the day Madam Blavatsky (or HPB, as her friends called her), the great messenger of Light, passed over. Though disputed by academicians, she had a tremendous influence on the development of spiritual awareness all over the globe. We published a little booklet about her life in 2005 (free download). There is also a little booklet by Sri Kumar, The White Lotus, with a lecture on the symbolism of the lotus, in honour of HPB.

A friend send the following nice anecdote about HPB:

“Madam Blavatsky travelled all over the world; she only could not visit her place of birth in Russia. But always she was carrying two bags with her filled with seeds of fair and beautiful flowers. While travelling in the train she was constantly throwing seeds out of the window. Of course the people thought she was crazy and someone asked her, „Why are you doing that? Perhaps you will never take this route again.”
She answered: “This doesn’t matter! It might be that I will never pass by here again! Maybe I will not come another time but anyone passing by will see the beautiful flowers.”

Statue with Helena Blavatsky and Olcott, founders of the Theosophical Society, at the Headquarters of the society in Adyar, India, January 2011

I just came to know that Satya Sai Baba departed this morning, at the age of 84 (born 23rd November 1926).

I heard about him in the beginning of the 80ies. October 1982 I went to Puttaparthi for the first time. I met there an old man, Ninu (Narayana) Kasturi, who in the morning told stories about Sai Babas life; when Kasturi died some time later, he was said to be the future mother of Sai Baba, for his next incarnation as Prema Sai. Here are some sayings of Sai Baba about his misssion.

For some time I was very much impressed by Sai Baba, and I translated some books, two of them were published (Satya Sai Speaks Vol. 9, and a collection of extracts from his books on “Meditation”). You find a number of his books online, also the biography of Kasturi.

I several times went to India to see Sai Baba, the last time April 88 on our wedding journey. In Whitefield, Bangalore, Sai Baba even called my wife and me to an interview. Together with some other people we sat in his room, where I saw him materialising a ring from a very short distance. First it was copper, then he transformed it to gold. He took my hand and played with my wedding ring. I thought, What will he do with it? – For a long time I had desired to get a ring from him, but later I saw a very large ring he materialised for the ex-husband of my sister with a large kitschy Jesus picture, and my ex-brother in law threw it into the ocean. – But Sai Baba just played with my ring, turned it around on my finger and said: “Many misunderstandings”. It was an emblematical expression: I was involved into a very strange story where I was for some time quite irritated by him – the blog isn’t the right place to tell. But also in our marriage we had to learn to overcome misunderstandings, so this situation with the interview came to my mind from time to time.

After the interview in Whitefield we followed Sai Baba on his way to the Nilagiris, where he visited a school in Ooty. On the way we saw a medaillon in a little temple with a picture of Sai Baba, and there was a constant flow of amritha coming out of it. They gave me the medaillon to hold, and later I got a little bottle with this amritha, a sweet liquid from which I still have some at home.

Also in our first longer talk with Sri Kumar in Zurich 2000, he told me a story of an encounter he had with Sai Baba, and he showed me the ring on his hand which Baba had materialised for him.

End of 1988 my wife and I left the Sai Baba movement after having heard some irritating stories. I felt my path in life would take another turn, and so it did. Nevertheless, I hold him in high regard, having played an important part in a phase of my life.

Three month ago I wrote in the blog that I had re-found the friend after 23 years who worked as a matchmaker with my wife and me 26 years ago.

Last weekend we went to visit him, together with a young friend who staid with us for a week. The “matchmaker”, Dion, now over 80, is living in the vicinity of the Lake of Constance. Another couple, friends of us from World Teacher Trust, who are living in the area, invited us to stay with them. For me it was a very special weekend.

In bed with the long-haired visitor

Saturday morning I went alone to pick up the “matchmaker” in his little apartment. It was a touching moment when we met again. Though time had left traces in his face, he was lively as before, and quickly we entered into a lively conversation. He is a specialist in dowsing, and my wife wanted to learn it from him, to get confirmation of her own experiments through an experienced person. He also had developed over many years of research a seemingly simple construction for increasing the amount of negative ions in the surrounding. Since the latest of his developments was at the house of another friend, I took him there by car. A surprise.

We came to a house with a huge garden near surrounded by fields and forests, where this friend lived with his wife, an artist. And he was a specialist in geomancy. He showed me the garden with an open air pavilion made by willow branches, where they do concerts and open air expositions, a spiral-shaped lodge which architecture students from Stuttgart had built and a stone circle with a geomantic structure where he made me feel the energies. They had identified certain spots on the ground corresponding to chakras and other energy spots. It was interesting to close the eyes and feel the different energies present.

The garden; the man said a deva is hovering over the lake.

The garden with a geomantic structure.

The “open air” concert / exposition hall, made by willows

Outside the hall

The spiral-shaped pavillion constructed by students of architecture from Stuttgart

An ammonite on the floor of the pavillion

Looking through the roof window

And to the sides

Later we drove to the house of our friends/couple where we had lunch together with an interesting exchange about oscillating and dowsing. In the afternoon my wife went with our old friend into a nearby forest to look for some dowsing rods to do some experiments, while I went with my other friends to a nearby village, where they had a meeting of their local training in a Camphill teacher training house.

The group of about 20 persons is focusing on healing. After a group meditation the lady of the couple spoke about healing through music. She is doing a formation as music therapist and made us experience and describe the qualities of different pieces of music. She explained how music is used in therapy and in which contexts the use of music can foster the healing process. It was a very lively and interesting exchange.

Candle in the centre of the group

During the pause I had an interesting exchange with a naturopath about a seemingly fantastic healing method of Grigory Grabovoi, with numbers. I had read about him before. The naturopath told me she has observed astonishing results with some of her patients.

Next morning after breakfast I went once more to visit Dion, together with our young friend. I hadn’t planned to do so, but he phoned and proposed to show me a healing method he practised years ago while living in Vancouver and where he had very good results: Vivaxis. I found a link to a site which describes the method. With 2 special pendulums he diagnosed 2 colours for me and my young friend. He described how we can use it and we practised a related exercise on a meadow in front of the house.

Back at the house of our friends, other interesting discussions and inputs followed –  an extremely intense and inspiring weekend.

Under the bench

Last weekend we went together with a friend to Ticino in the Southern part of Switzerland to visit another friend whom I had come to know via the web. The lady has been one of the first persons from the West to go to India in the early 1980ies to meet Master EK. She is now working with horses as a therapy of integration – besides her professional activity: “Ipsi-E, Centre for human-horse relationship and self-empowerment through the horse”.

She has three horses from the Pyrenees which never were used for riding, but for expressing their equine energies in the dialogue with humans. Thus they didn’t develop fear, but trust, curiosity and an intense presence. It was fascinating to touch and feel them, sensing their different qualities and observing their reactions. Saturday I only had little time with them, but Sunday morning I just stood for quite a while with two of them in silence, and there was an intense inner communication.

Later our friend took us to Ascona to the Monte Verità, the Mount of Truth, a very beautiful power spot above the Lago Maggiore, where in the early 20th century there was a “new age” community experimenting with new forms of life. Many artists, philosophers and theosophists had been attracted there. Our friend, who had lived nearby for many years and very often been at Monte Verità told us that also Blavatsky, Steiner and Hermann Hesse had lived there for a while and that a mayor with a theosophical background had attracted many spiritually oriented people.

We went through the Japanese tea garden to the Tower of Utopia, then followed the lines of a Feng Shui serpent leading to a colourful mandala, which Tibetan Buddhists had installed after a ceremony.

The Japanese garden

A little shrine

Stairways to the Tower of Utopia – leading into the light of life

Feng Shui serpent

The Mandala at the end of the serpent

Artwork in the garden

Beautiful Magnolia trees in full bloom

A house on the compound

Everywhere bushes with Camellia flowers

After dinner in the historic hotel / seminar centre our friend brought us to an old-fashioned b&b house, a villa in Art Deco style surrounded by a little park overlooking Locarno. The landlord gave us a warm welcome. and showed us the house with historical chandeliers and painted walls.

Sunday morning there was a splendid sunrise over the mountains and the lake. While I was meditating I couldn’t but open my eyes here and then to take a shot of the rising sun. Very special sounds of a nearby old pilgrimage church reverberated through the air.

A pine and a huge magnolia tree

Golden dawn

The old church looking through the palm trees

After breakfast I walked up the road along villas with their gardens, traversed by little stairways.

The road went along a little forest where a brook came down the hill with some waterfalls

I breathed in the fresh spring air – it was a great surprise to be at that place with so much natural beauty. We only had arranged to be there 24 hours ago…

Later we met again with our friend and the horses before, after lunch, we set out to our way back through the Gotthard tunnel and some pass roads back home.

Camillas in front of the house of our friends

A Canadian friend sent me the following text about Don Miguel Ruiz and the extract of The Four Agreements.A Toltec Wisdom Book (and there is also now a 5th Agreement). Have a look at his inspiring website. Here it goes:

“Don Miguel Ruiz was born into a family of healers, and raised in rural Mexico by a curandera (healer) mother and a nagual (shaman) grandfather. The family anticipated that Miguel would embrace their centuries-old legacy of healing and teaching, and carry forward the esoteric Toltec knowledge. Instead, distracted by modern life, Miguel chose to attend medical school and become a surgeon.

A near-death experience changed his life. Late one night in the early 1970s, he awoke suddenly, having fallen asleep at the wheel of his car. At that instant the car careened into a wall of concrete. Don Miguel remembers that he was not in his physical body as he watched himself pull his two friends to safety.

Stunned by this experience, he began an intensive practice of self-inquiry. He devoted himself to the mastery of the ancient ancestral wisdom, studying earnestly with his mother, and completing an apprenticeship with a powerful shaman in the Mexican desert.His grandfather, who had since passed on, continued to teach him in his dreams.

In the tradition of the Toltec, a nagual guides an individual to personal freedom. Don Miguel Ruiz, a nagual from the Eagle Knight lineage, has dedicated his life to sharing the wisdom of the ancient Toltec.

1) Be impeccable with your word: Speak with integrity. Say only what you mean. Avoid using the word to speak against yourself or to gossip about others.Use the power of your word in the direction of truth and love.

2) Don’t take anything personally: Nothing others do is because of you. What others say and do is a projection of their own reality, their own dream. When you are immune to the opinions and actions of others, you won’t be the victim of needless suffering.

3) Don’t make assumptions: Find the courage to ask questions and to express what you really want. Communicate with others as clearly as you can to avoid misunderstandings, sadness, and drama.With just this one agreement, you can completely transform your life.

4) Always do your best: Your best is going tochange from moment to moment; it will be different when you are healthy as opposed to sick. Under any circumstance, simply do your best, and you will avoid self-judgement, self-abuse, and regret.

On his website Don Miguel Ruiz says:

“Love coming out of you makes you happy. The whole world can love you, but that love will not make you happy. What will make you happy is to share all the love you have inside you. That is the love that will make a difference.”

Cover of the book

A friend sent me the link to an online presentation with sublime pictures of Ireland, subtle music and “An Irish Blessing: This Blessing Is For You“. You can download the music by Roma Downey with the text by Phil Coulter as an MP3-file from the following website.
And you find the text of the beautiful blessing also below – I googled and found it. In Ireland there is the St. Patricks Festival celebrated from 16 – 20 March (it’s on 17 March).

An Irish Blessing

May the blessing of light be upon you,
Light on the outside, Light on the inside.
With God’s sunlight shining on you,
May your heart glow with warmth,
Like a turf fire that welcomes friends and strangers alike.
May the light of the Lord shine from your eyes,
Like a candle in the window,
Welcoming the weary traveller.

May the blessing of God’s soft rain be on you,
Falling gently on your head, refreshing your soul
With the sweetness of litte flowers newly blooming.
May the strength of the winds of Heaven bless you,
Carrying the rain to wash your spirit clean
Sparkling after in the sunlight.
May the blessing of God’s earth be on you,
And as you walk the roads,
May you always have a kind word for those you meet.

May you understand the strength and power of God.
In a thunderstorm in Winter, And the quiet beauty of creation,
In the calm of a Summer sunset, And may you come to realize,
that, insignificant as you may seem in this great Universe,
You are an important part of God’s plan.

May “HE” watch over you and keep you safe from harm.

From the intro of the presentation by Andie on Andies Isles.

I tonight chatted with a friend from Austria living in Benghazi, Libya. She wrote that no one would have imagined that so many people would be ready to stand with their lives for their country, the people and freedom. It is is the most spiritual time she ever experienced and an overwhelming experience to be in midst of this upheaval. Many governments in the West would have preferred that everything goes on like ever before and to call out a bit here and there against Gaddafi, but continue to collaborate. What happened in Libya people experience like a wonder which could not at all be foreseen and what gives an impression of what is going to happen in 2012.

I sent her some lines of what Sri Kumar said at New Year’s day about the present year:

“A lot is being talked about the unity and peace of humanity but very less effort is being put forth in that direction. Every human being thinks that he should be happy and all his friends and relatives should be happy but when it comes to action, very little is being done for the welfare of fellow beings. There are many spiritual and service organizations all over the globe talking of welfare and peace but not much action is being done in that direction. Everyone should put effort and contribute their part for the welfare of humanity.
In the present situation, we cannot say that this year would be highly prosperous for us as we can see that there in crisis around. The political scenario in India is highly alarming. Even the most powerful and developed nations in the world are in a state of turmoil, economically and politically. Even though India is economically developing, its political issues stand as hindrances to economic development. So this is our present state. This state may continue for the next 5 years. In such a state, just by thinking that everything should be fine is not enough. A strong effort should be put in that direction.
We cannot do anything individually to change the scenario. The only thing we can do is to pray. This is because no one will change their ideas and accept others ideas. Everyone believes his own truth. There is one truth which is the combination of all these truths. To know that truth we should dissolve all our ideas and pray to the Lord. We should pray for the welfare of humanity, our country and also pray that the political leaders of our country should transform into better ones or they may be replaced with better leaders. Just praying for our own welfare or our family’s is no spirituality.
Also we should pray for the welfare of the ones serving the society and the country. In any organization or society or country, there are 20% such sincere workers. It is through them that the Lord works actively. Our prayer should add strength to such ones as we all benefit by the work of such ones.”

She said that it is exactly the same in Libya and maybe that the radical changes will be an example for other countries as well. It is so inspiring to see that the “spoiled kids” went out into the streets and have risked their lives and in many cases lost their lives for the common weal. They are praying a lot that no more blood is spilled and that this striving for peace and joy might be a model for the world and might become a wildfire of freedom. And at the same time continue to strive and to keep in contact with the inner centre in midst of all turbulences.

Reflection of light in a silver plate after a water ritual

A friend sent the following joke:

Conversation with God

Man: God?
God: Yes?
Man: Can I ask you something?
God: Of course!
Man: What’s a million years for you?
God: A second.
Man: And a million dollars?
God: A penny.
Man: God, Could I have a penny?
God: Wait for a second.

Man phoning with God at the Wailing Wall, Jerusalem. Photo: Wikipedia