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

I just got the following story from a Canadian friend. I knew the anecdote, in a slightly different form, but having had very turbulent weeks at my office (with 2 big projects in their “hot” phases, resignations of colleagues in my team and the related recruitment interviews….) I found it a timely reminder – though the work-life-balance is still fine …

“A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him. When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls. He then asked the students if the jar was full. They agreed that it was.

The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly. The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls. He then asked the students again if the jar was full. They agreed it was.

The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar. Of course, the sand filled up everything else. He asked once more if the jar was full. The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’

The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar, effectively filling the empty space between the sand. The students laughed.

‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life. The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full. The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car. The sand is everything else—the small stuff.’

‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or golf balls. The same goes for life. If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you. Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness. Spend time with your children. Spend time with your parents. Visit with grandparents. Take time to get medical checkups. Take your spouse out to dinner. There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal. Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter. Set your priorities….. The rest is just sand.’

One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the beer represented. The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked. The beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of beers with a friend.’

Stones at the nearby river Aare

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

Here are three beautiful videos by Terje Sorgjerd. The first is a sublime film done of a sandstorm at El Teide, Spain´s highest mountain (3718m), where he wanted to capture the beautiful Milky Way galaxy, but a large sandstorm from Sahara Desert came over, and the result were incredible photos of night sky.
 

The second is a fantastic film of the Aurora Borealis shot in Alaska at Kirkenes and Pas National Park bordering Russia, temperatures around -25 Celsius. By the way, here is a short extract from H. P. Balvastky’s Secret Doctrine about the Aurora Borealis:
“Sound is the characteristic of Akasa (Ether): it generates air, the property of which is Touch; which (by friction) becomes productive of Colour and Light.” . . . . . . (Vishnu Purana.) Perhaps the above will be regarded as archaic nonsense, but it will be better comprehended, if the reader remembers the Aurora Borealis and Australis, both of which take place at the very centres of terrestrial electric and magnetic forces. The two poles are said to be the store-houses, the receptacles and liberators, at the same time, of Cosmic and terrestrial Vitality (Electricity); from the surplus of which the Earth, had it not been for these two natural “safety-valves,” would have been rent to pieces long ago.

The third is a video of a market in Thailand, where the Maeklong Railway line passes through – 8 times a day. A beautiful flow, also with boats of market people.

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.

A very impressive rap video-clip (in German), by “Thomas D.”: “Gebet an den Planeten 11.0 – Lektionen in Demut” (Prayer to the Planet 11.0 – Lessons in Humbleness). Even if you don’t understand German, there are fantastic scenes with animals and nature. The album was published yesterday.

A very beautiful YouTube video story about a beggar and an unconventional help with the power of words.

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

I came across a very impressive video created by the Japanese artist Isao Hashimoto, which has gained a special importance through the reactor accident in Fukushima, Japan.

Hashimoto has done a time-lapse map of the 2053 nuclear explosions which have taken place between 1945 and 1998, beginning with the Manhattan Project’s “Trinity” test near Los Alamos and concluding with Pakistan’s nuclear tests in May of 1998. This leaves out North Korea’s two alleged nuclear tests in this past decade (the legitimacy of both of which is not 100% clear).

The film is based mainly on the data of “Nuclear Explosions 1945 – 1998″ co-published by the Swedish Defence Reserach Establishment (FOI) and the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI) in 2000.

Each nation gets a blip and a flashing dot on the map whenever they detonate a nuclear weapon, with a running tally kept on the top and bottom bars of the screen. Hashimoto began the project in 2003; he created it with the goal of showing”the fear and folly of nuclear weapons.” It starts really slow — if you want to see real action, skip ahead to 1962 or so — but the buildup becomes overwhelming.

Hashimoto says about his map:

“This piece of work is a bird’s eye view of the history by scaling down a month length of time into one second.  No letter is used for equal messaging to all viewers without language barrier.  The blinking light, sound and the numbers on the world map show when, where and how many experiments each country have conducted.  I created this work for the means of an interface to the people who are yet to know of the extremely grave, but present problem of the world.”

And this problem increases with the nuclear reactor accidents…

Hashimoto is currently working for Lalique Museum, Hakone, Japan as a curator.