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Archive for the ‘Spiritual Life’ Category

Playing for Change – Ode to Joy: The Power of Music

Saturday, April 4th, 2009

A friend living in the States sent me the link to the presentation of a film called “Playing for Change: Peace Through Music“, described as “a pan-global survey — and marriage — of varying styles of world music…” On the site there is an inspiring video with the soundtrack “Stand me by”:

“Starting on the pedestrian mall in Santa Monica, Calif., helmers Mark Johnson (who narrates) and Jonathan Walls made a recording of street singer Roger Ridley performing “Stand by Me” then took that tape all over the world. They added singers in New Orleans and Amsterdam, a guitarist in France, a Congolese drummer, some Zuni drummers in New Mexico, making musical collaborators out of people who’d never met.”

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(c) from the website Playing for Change
“Long-range partnerships of singers all around the world are being formed: A singer sings in Buenos Aires, and his female backup trio, the Oneness Choir, is in India… A lot of the musicians are not seen playing in their own homelands — sometimes by choice, sometimes by the choices of others.”

playingforchange
(c) from the video

My friend also sent me another link, to the blog of Gita Saraydarian, with a beautiful recent post “Ode to Joy. The Power of Music”. Gita Saraydarian is the Founder and President of TSG Foundation, an organization dedicated to the Ageless Wisdom Teachings. Year ago I read some books of her late father, Torkom Saraydarian, to whom the organization is dedicated.

A Butterfly’s Lesson

Tuesday, March 31st, 2009

An Indian friend sent me a powerpoint with the following beautiful story, which you also find on the web. It is about wrongly directed good will causing harm and the value of obstacles and troubles.

”One day, a small oppening appeared on a cocoon; a man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then, it seems to stop making any  progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and  it could not go any further. So the man decided to help the butterfly: he took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a withered body, it was tiny and shrivelled wings.
The man continued to watch because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand, to be able to support the butterfly’s body, and become firm.

What the man, in his kindness and his goodwill did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening, were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life  without any obstacles, it would  cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. Never been able to fly.

I asked for Strength…
And God gave me  difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for Wisdom…
And God gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for prosperity…
And God gave me a Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage…..
And God gave me obstacles to overcome.
I asked for Love…
And God gave me Troubled  people to help.
I asked for Favors…
And God gave me  Opportunities.
“I received nothing I wanted…
But I received everything I needed.”

Live life without fear, confront all obstacles and evince that you can overcome them.

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Butterfly, silk painting, 1984

By the way, today is the 3rd birthday of the blog, which started on March 31st, 2006.

Slide Show of World Religions

Saturday, March 28th, 2009

A friend, president of Houston Theosophical Society, sent me the link to a beautiful slide show on world religions represented in Houston, he received from a friend:  “It is a wonderful picture log of world religions.  For those of you who are not from ‘around these parts,’ it lets you know that Houston has become quite an international city and more than the ‘brass buckle on the Bible Belt’.” He added: “Glad that Houston is home to so many faiths practiced in peace and tolerance mainly. Rightly missing was Theosophy because it is the primordial esoteric spiritual tradition underlying other religions, without being one, like colorless white light hides seven colors within it.”

The slide show is introduced with the words: “Your neighbor is a what!?! What is that? Yes, there are Zoroastrians, Wiccans and Jains in Houston. And people of lots of other faiths too.”

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Source of Light, Dec. 1981

Inner Processes

Friday, March 20th, 2009

On a friend‘s suggestion I wrote down these experiences; she said, others might learn from them. So I give them free by way of publishing, since these seem to me to be archetypal and not “personal” experiences.

In the depth of the personality are hidden wounds, causing pain and fear. In the process I went through during the last weeks I encountered deep hurts which had accumulated over many years, going back to the foundations of my material existence. These fears had been there lying dormant, well hidden below mental barriers clothed in concepts and self-justifications. The barriers had caused strong walls, protecting from the abyss of fears, but at the same time blocking me from the influx of light and fresh air of the subtle realms.

In needed a fiery crisis for breaking up some of the walls, and beforehand a deep, long-lasting process of grinding in my relationships. The grinding had caused some kind of suppuration process, but not the purifying outbreak. Unconsciously for me, it was also supported by a long homoeopathic treatment I am undergoing. At our last meeting the homeopath told me that the signature of the remedy he gave me was marked by sudden outbreaks.

The fiery crisis came in the aftermath of witnessing and accompanying another person’s crisis. It had a catalyst function, which was in the beginning not easy for me to understand and to separate my part from the seemingly “other” part, subtly, however, linked by karmic ties.

With the help of my wife and another woman, not physically, but only present in the subtle, giving support and creating a space, where the inner events could happen, I entered into a series of long visualization journeys into the depth of layers of consciousness, each journey lasting for about one hour. During the entire process I was describing my experiences in all details to my wife, who listened to them, thus following and observing the development. My wife had proposed to go into the depths of psychic pain. We had been talking several times about past wounds, where I had caused and experienced hurts that are partly very long times back, partly, however, of a very recent date. The deep plutonic subject of culprit and victim, the yin and yang poles.

In the beginning I was a bit sceptical about these journeys. I always had thought that the inner blockages, which over a long time I even did not realize, could be overcome best by meditation and prayer, which I’ve been doing regularly for several decades, but not by going consciously into re-experiencing the blockages and the related feelings. I doubted about the healing impact of this kind of work. However, it seemed that by meditation alone I could not get into the core of the wounds and release the related pain.

I am not a “psychic”, but have a “down to earth” approach to spirituality and inner experiences. However, since the psychic pains of the crisis continued without losing their strength, I was ready to go on this “inner journey work”.

During the weeks of the climax of the crisis there was a constant pressure and tension around the area of the solar plexus, like a heavy block of concrete.
Before or journeys, we invoked the presence of the Master and a stabilizing triangular structure of blue light, linking the hearts and minds of the persons involved, visualizing the energy of the Master above the triangle, which thus became a triangular pyramid, holding stable the energy. From that part of the visualization I went down into the area of the solar plexus, entering into the sensations of violent pains and tensions.

We did this for 8 days, each time before or after evening prayer/meditation. Every journey was distinctly different from the experiences of the other journeys, taking surprising turns, bringing other pictures and energy qualities – but all of the sessions ended in giving relief to a certain layer of fear and pain.
In these experiences the knowledge I have from the wisdom teachings was of utmost importance for orientation and for the progress of the process, particularly the book “Music of the Soul” by Master EK (Dr. Ekkirala Krishnamacharya) (the “Lokayata-experience”) and the book “Hercules. The Man and the Symbol”, by Master KPK (Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar) (particularly the works of Hercules in Virgo, Scorpio and Aquarius).

On the first two journeys I encountered layers of great suffocating darkness in the centre of which there was something like an onyx-coloured, egg-shaped black stone formed by impenetrable fear, around which there were layers of black turbulences, through which I went on the way to the stone. When reaching the stone, I could not dissolve it visually, but buried it into the ground, the earth, for “maturation”. The next day it dissolved into powder dissipating into space. At the end of the journey I experienced a lift-up through the spine by a light, upward-drifting air into the area of the head. It was a very soothing experience of lightness and purification.

The next two, three journeys I encountered oceans of black, stinking waters in a Hades-like surrounding, at the areas of the solar plexus and the spleen centre (Manipuraka and Swadhishtana chakra). They seemed to drown me, they were nourishing a root-meshwork in the solar plexus, living from fear and pain. It was an experience which was so intense that partly I could nearly not continue the visualization journey, for intense tears were coming up, but with the help of my wife and the stabilizing energy of the light structure I continued, and then the waters seemed to be suck away, absorbed into space. It reminded me of the Puranic story of Rishi Agastya drinking an ocean of poison.

In the next journey I encountered a violent ravaging fire in the area of the solar plexus, burning my inside and giving physical pain at the outer sides of the diaphragm. It was like fire having leaked out of the tube of the spine, and in the following visualization the fire was gathered repeatedly with a bluish, conically formed matter, to bring the fire back into the vertebral column, from where it had leaked, and the spine was being isolated and fixed by a dark-bluish mantle. Not all of the fire could be extinguished, the experience ended with perceiving a burned field like after a huge forest fire.

I went down below the field of burned ashes, back into the hall (space) where the black waters had been– it was all empty and burned. Again I went deeper down, to the area at the end of the spine, where again a space opened up with a field of a lava-like ground. From there the ashes seemed to dissolve, but not totally. I felt a certain relief. I went up to the area of the heart centre, stayed there for a while, connecting with the structure of light, thanking the persons who had helped facilitating the experience and came out.

I felt fatigued and asked myself how long this work would continue, for it was very intense and emotionally exhausting. During the eight days I went through the experiences I was continuing my normal daily routine with work at the office etc, though feeling shaky.

The next day, last Saturday, we began again visualizing the triangular structure, the persons involved and the presence of the master, supporting and enabling the process. I went inside, into the space around the solar plexus. There was a feeling of a void, after the ravaging fire of the last day. It was cold, everything extinguished, like in an extinguished crater. No life, no sign of fresh sprouting, but also no more pain or wounds. Deeper and deeper I went until I touched the ground in the great hall at the level of the base centre. There too, it seemed to be all cold, dark and without any sign of life. Remembering the scene of Lokayata with Krishna in the hall at the base centre, in the book “Music of the Soul”, I thought of Krishna, whose name also means black, but as the background of existence. Doing so I suddenly experienced a tremendous widening into space, leaving me with no orientation of up and down, no notion of any limitations, but of a vast, living expanse of space I called “universe”. It was a silent, very blissful experience, where I stayed for a while, full of gratitude.

All my hurts and wounds, all my feelings of emptiness and limitations were gone. Thinking of the body, the personality, gave me a picture of something like an illusion of negative, limited space, real and not real at the same time. The body was near and at the same time not linked to me. Nevertheless I went back into that field being “my body”, localized me consciously there, expressed my deep thanks and came out after a while. I felt like being newly born, integrated again into the flow of life. This experience is now a week back. There was no more “backlash” of the “dark side of the moon”, as I called it. I was “back to normal”, but relieved of a heavy load of the past.

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Silk painting, October 1984

Narrow Trails

Friday, March 13th, 2009

When you are seriously walking the spiritual path you sometimes come across dark depths and dangerous situations, where courage and right decision are very much needed. You might have to decide very quickly about what to do, what to say and which direction to take. So the path is compared with a narrow trail.

There are such trails in the outer, too, where you are reminded of these inner trails. I got a powerpoint containing pictures of the “Deadly Huashan Hiking Trail“, and on the site there were links to other dangerous paths, like the Bolivian Highway of Death, the Guoliang Tunnel or the Russian Highway from Hell (driving on a marshy road). Enjoy the pictures.

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Even a seemingly straight road might contain sudden surprises. Path in the surroundings of Berne

This too shall pass…

Sunday, March 8th, 2009

Two days ago I got the following story from an Indian friend. It quotes a sentence which my spiritual teacher often mentions:

A King in Distress

“Once a king called upon all of his wise men and asked them, ” Is there a mantra or suggestion which works in every situation, in every circumstances, in every place and in every time. In every joy, every sorrow, every defeat and every victory? One answer for all questions? Something which can help me when none of you is available to advise me? Tell me is there any mantra?”

All the wise men were puzzled by the King’s question. They thought and thought. After a lengthy discussion, an old man suggested something which appealed to all of them. They went to the king and gave him something written on paper, with a condition that the king was not to see it out of curiosity. Only in extreme danger, if the King finds himself alone and there seems to be no way, only then he can see it. The King put the small piece of paper under his diamond ring.

Some time later, the neighbours attacked the Kingdom. King and his army fought bravely but lost the battle. The King had to flee on his horse. The enemies were following him, getting closer and closer. Suddenly the King found himself standing at the end of the road – that road was not going anywhere. Underneath there was a rocky valley thousand feet deep. If he jumped into it, he would be finished… and he could not return because it was a small road… The sound of enemy’s horses was approaching fast. The King became restless. There seemed to be no way.

Then suddenly he saw the diamond in his ring shining in the sun, and he remembered the message hidden in the ring. He removed the paper and read the message. The message was – ” THIS TOO SHALL PASS”

The King read it . Again read it. Suddenly something struck him- Yes! This too will pass. Only a few days ago, I was enjoying my kingdom. I was the mightiest of all the Kings. Yet today, the kingdom and all his pleasure have gone. I am here trying to escape from enemies. Like those days of luxuries have gone, this day of danger too will pass. A calm came on his face. He kept standing there. The place where he was standing was full of natural beauty. He had never known that such a beautiful place was also a part of his kingdom. The revelation of the message had a great effect on him. He relaxed and forgot about those following him. After a few minutes he realized that the noise of the horses and the enemy coming was receding. The King was very brave. He reorganized his army and fought again. He defeated the enemy and regained his empire. When he returned to his empire after victory, he was received with much fanfare. The whole capital was rejoicing in the victory. Everyone was in a festive mood. Flowers were being showered on King from every house, from every corner. People were dancing and singing. For a moment King said to himself,” I am one of the bravest and greatest Kings. It is not easy to defeat me. With all the reception and celebration he saw ego emerging in him.

Suddenly the diamond of his ring flashed in the sunlight and reminded him of the message. He open it and read it again: “THIS TOO SHALL PASS”. He became silent. His face went through a total change – from the egoist he moved to a state of utter humbleness. If this too is going to pass, it is not yours. The defeat was not yours, the victory is not yours. You are just a watcher. Everything passes by. We are witnesses of all this. We are the perceivers. Life comes and goes. Happiness comes and goes. Sorrow comes and goes.

Now as you have read this story, just sit silently and evaluate your own life. This too will pass. Think of the moments of joy and victory in your life. Think of the moment of sorrow and defeat. Are they permanent ? They all come and pass away. Life just passes away. There is nothing permanent in this world. Every thing changes except the law of change. Think over it from your own perspective. You have seen all the changes. You have survived all setback , all defeats and all Sorrows. All have passed away.The problems in the present, they too will pass away. Because nothing remains forever. Joy and sorrow are the two faces of the same coin. They both will pass away.

You are just a witness of change. Experience it, understand it, and enjoy the present moment – this too shall pass!

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A duck in the nearby river

The Interview with God

Sunday, March 1st, 2009

I just got a link to a beautiful online presentation called “The Interview with God“. The text is simple and deep:

The Interview With God Poem

I dreamed I had an interview with God.

“So you would like to interview me?” God asked.

“If you have the time” I said.

God smiled. “My time is eternity.”
“What questions do you have in mind for me?”

“What surprises you most about humankind?”

God answered…
“That they get bored with childhood,
they rush to grow up, and then
long to be children again.”

“That they lose their health to make money…
and then lose their money to restore their health.”

“That by thinking anxiously about the future,
they forget the present,
such that they live in neither
the present nor the future.”

“That they live as if they will never die,
and die as though they had never lived.”

God’s hand took mine
and we were silent for a while.

And then I asked…
“As a parent, what are some of life’s lessons
you want your children to learn?”

“To learn they cannot make anyone
love them. All they can do
is let themselves be loved.”

“To learn that it is not good
to compare themselves to others.”

“To learn to forgive
by practicing forgiveness.”

“To learn that it only takes a few seconds
to open profound wounds in those they love,
and it can take many years to heal them.”

“To learn that a rich person
is not one who has the most,
but is one who needs the least.”

“To learn that there are people
who love them dearly,
but simply have not yet learned
how to express or show their feelings.”

“To learn that two people can
look at the same thing
and see it differently.”

“To learn that it is not enough that they
forgive one another, but they must also forgive themselves.”

“Thank you for your time,” I said humbly.

“Is there anything else
you would like your children to know?”

God smiled and said,
“Just know that I am here… always.”

-author unknown

spring
Spring awakening

Loving Attention in Group Work

Thursday, February 19th, 2009

Two weeks ago we had been visiting friends in Germany, north of the Lake of Constance. The couple had moved there some years ago. He, profiting from an early retirement, has focused since his attention on networking – on the one hand for building up with other qualified senior professionals a consultancy support cluster with reasonable prices for small and medium businesses, on the other – partly overlapping with this network – an open spiritual network on the basis of the principles of our common spiritual background, the World Teacher Trust. His wife is a strong support in this work, which has beautifully developed.

For the second time my wife and I had been able to participate in a group meeting with about 20 persons. Since our last visit 15 months ago the group has made great progress in terms of interrelatedness, expressing in the quality of exchange and cordiality. The topic of the meeting was – besides an introduction / recapitulation on meditational work, and a group meditation – “spiritual healing”. They were reading and vividly discussing a chapter from “On Healing” by Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar.

From out of this larger group other initiatives have sprung, devoted to healing or other voluntary activities. My friend was not “directing” the group, but working as a “focalizer”, keeping the group dynamics in a field of attention.

Afterwards he told me that also – besides these 3-weekly group meetings – he is focussing a lot on the development of this network. The loving attention enables a growth of an Aquarian network: de-centralized, but connected with the inner centre. This way the different individuals – and there were very (head-) strong ones – can be integrated into a group work, where they can unfold, not for themselves, but for a work dedicated to the well-being of the surrounding.

At the meeting the group expressed plans for their future activities. They agreed on an extra-topic for the next meeting: How to inwardly and outwardly deal wil the global crisis, so as to stand through it and be of help for others? The group does its work in an unpretentious way, no fuss about publicizing nor money making. A very inspiring initiative.

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Buddha’s Thoughts Dancing… Picture of a statue in the house of our friends

Unfolding the Lotus

Tuesday, February 17th, 2009

Over the last six months deep inner and outer processes had been going on, the content side of which are not “bloggable”. On the energetic side it was a time of a multi-dimensional crisis, where the central theme was encountering experiences of refusing and being refused. During the process, while trying to observe and understand it, I came into contact with analogous situations in other persons, where pain was linked with inner blockages through experiences of refusal or non-acceptance. It seems that the experience of refusal creates inner dams, wounds, that normally you don’t dare to touch. You do inner “workarounds”, expressing in subtle fears and, on the outer side, behavioural imbalances.

The relations to other people reflect the imbalances, and it seems you attract “karmic pattern states” by way of resonance. The strange thing I observed is that this is mostly accompanied by veils in the mind, unclarities and blind spots. You try not to see the wounds inside, not to touch the “dark side of the moon”. But you put up defence walls and argumentative justifications, stings which hurt others. You have been harmed, and now you harm others with your harsh words and reactions – often below conscious perception of what kind of harm you are causing.

In the process of opening to the pain I had a “catalyst” experience of love triggered by encounters, breaking up the shells of rejection. The related pain structures were shaking to the core of individual existence, reflecting on the outer in witnessing turbulences.

An image – not a symbol, but an energetic experience – of an unfolding lotus accompanied me: The wisdom teachings describe the 12-petaled egoic lotus, the energetic structure of our “I Am”.  The lotus consists of 4 layers of 3 petals each, at the centre of which there is a radiant spot of light, the core of our “I Am”. The petals are veiling the core, as long as the unfoldment hasn’t yet taken place. Like with the flowering of a lotus, the outer petals open first, and later the inner ones. The more the petals are closed, the more the energy flowing in through the “I Am”-core is being blocked by subtle dams, being coloured and deformed. Most people are not aware that these “block structures” are the causes of behavioural imbalances and instabilities on the more outer sides.

It seems the petals get opened when love breaks a way through the dams of the inner blockages. By consciously going into the experience of the deep pain without trying to  make anything seem better than it is or hiding so-called “negative” emotions, you get in touch with the hidden sides, and you can integrate them consciously. The awareness touches and releases them.

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Photo of a friend

In a seminar on “Agni” (1991) our spiritual teacher Dr. Parvathi Kumar described this egoic lotus with the following words (unpublished, extracts):

“You have for instance this light here. It also has five petals representing the mind. Suppose, we have these five petals made up of iron. And they close further. Even if there is light inside, there is no chance of feeling the light. Suppose, we have these petals made up of transparent glass, then the light shines forth better through the petals. So, with what material these petals are made decides what kind of illumination we carry. The illumination or lack of illumination depends upon the encasing, but not upon the light within. If the encasing is transparent, the light shines forth. And if the encasing is very gross and very thick with material, the light remains very much in the same vibration, but is not useful for being spread. But nevertheless, the light remains. …

Now let us understand how these nine petals gradually unfold. You must have all seen the beautiful twelve petaled-lotus which is propagated by the Arcane School. If we have a poster like that, it is useful to explain instead of my drawing a lotus of nine petals, because it is a beautiful representation.

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Extract of the poster of the Arcane School (c)

Understand that the nine petals are the three triangles. Three petals make one layer. You can visualize the lotus as it is distributed by Arcane School. You would see three most exterior petals, and then, there is another triangle of three petals interior to the first one. The first triangle has three petals, over which the second triangle of three petals is imposed. Over that, there is another triangle of three petals. These are the nine petals of the three triangles. Over that, there is the fourth triangle of three petals. And in the centre of it, there is the bud. It is a small ball-like appearance. So, each triangular layer of petals carries energies relating to each kingdom.

Let us take one triangle for example. One petal is called the petal of love, and the 2nd petal is the petal of sacrifice and the third petal is the petal of knowledge. Like this, there are three triangles superimposed one over the other. Those are the nine petals of the Egoic Lotus, and each triangle has its own understanding of love, sacrifice and knowledge….

Where from the light is emitting? From the centre of the egoic lotus, and that is what the Master calls ‘the jewel of the lotus’. It is called ‘the gem of the lotus’ which shines forth. We have to know that the gem is not a physical gem over there. It is a gem-like formation of the waves of light. That means the light waves in a gem-like form, and hence it can pierce through any matter. And then the formation through light waves of the gem has its own source again. Who has kept it there? Who has prepared this light inside? Did you ever imagine that it is given by some other functioning? If we say that in the egoic lotus, in the centre of the lotus, there is a brilliant gem, we take it for granted. But who has prepared it and how it has come to stay in the centre of the lotus? It is not like the light in this lotus-like lamp. It is objectively kept here. The light in the heart lotus is different. It stamps from a root. It is a glow which is within the stalk of this form. Suppose, we keep a very powerful tube-light inside this tube, and the tube is not projecting beyond this stalk. It goes only up to this point, but it is brilliantly glowing inside. Then, if you see in the centre of the lotus, you find that there is some brilliant light in the hole. It is not some kind of settlement of light on the periphery of the hole, it is very useful that we have this instrument here to explain.

Like that, from a source, there is the focusing of light through the centre of the egoic lotus. That is what is appearing as the triangular flame through the three petals. So, that is what is described in the scriptures as ‘the electrical blue light’. (Now follow some Sanskrit words.) It says: “In the centre of the flame, there is a rice-grain-like formation of electric blue light. And on the top of the rice grain, there is such minutest spot-light which is so brilliant that, if we see, our eyes will grow blind. And it is that which is called ‘the three-fold fire’, which manifests as fire by friction, solar fire and as the electric fire.”

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Photo of the sculpture of a friend showing the egoic lotus, in the house of Sri Kumar

The Greeter

Friday, January 30th, 2009

At Frankfurt airport last Monday, while waiting for my wife to return from the lavatory, I observed a man standing at the entrance of a duty free shop. He was in the 50ies or 60ies, grey-haired, wearing a livery suit and a bow tie. He was just welcoming customers saying “Good morning”.

He was saying it with full attention to the persons, who often reacted a bit irritated: They felt drawn out of their unconscious walk into the shop. Some smiled and greeted back. Here and there a person came with a question, not necessarily related to the business. He was greeting in a cordial, but distanced way. I wondered what he was paid for – he did not make any attempt to persuade people coming in or do anything related to motivating them to buy. He was not at all a salesperson, just a greeter, spreading a warm welcome full of attention.

It made me think of how we meet and greet – mostly in a superficial way. Especially in electronic contacts via e-mail the wording of greetings is often just a clichéd expression without any attention or deeper meaning. Particularly when I get e-mails from the States I feel the “Hi” or addressing just with the name without any greeting like opening the door into another one’s room without any knocking, very casual. The mainstream way of interacting is fearing any expression from the heart. In the word “Dear…” there is at least a reerberation of a heartfelt attention, like the greeter’s attention at the entrance of the shop. The attention creates a subtle bond, from human to human, from being to being, an expression of unity: “welcome brother”, “welcome sister”, “Welcome, soul”.

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The greeter

P.S.: A Mexican friend sent me the following comment to this blog-post:

“As people mostly interact in fear, they don’t smile when they encounter other people’s eyes, or greet them in a friendly and cordial  way, even if not in words,  but with a nod of the head.  When my daughter studied in Bremen, she told me that she perceived Germans  as if they were angry, because they did’nt answer her smile.  In Mexico when we walk and find somebody, it is our habit, to search for their eyes, and greet him-her with some words or with the nod of the head, even if  they are not acquaintances.  I don’t remember a moment when I had’nt  received a smile together with the greeting.  Sometime ago, something happened in Germany to Gabriel,  my son.  He always walks with an ample and kind smile, and in a street, suddenly  a lady came and congratulated him for his smile, and gave him a beautiful present, a painting,  telling him to give another present, when he found someone that had that generous smile in his-her face. He and her wife laughed a lot about this incident. They are very friendly and have as you do, many friends from all over the world, from different colors, races, religions, nations.