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.

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 friend sent the link to the very impressive video “Home” by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand. The comment for the environmentally conscious documentary says:

“Shot in 54 countries and 120 locations over 217 days, Home presents the many wonders of planet Earth from an entirely aerial perspective. As such, we are afforded the unique opportunity to witness our changing environment from an entirely new vantage point. In our 200,000 years on Earth, humanity has hopelessly upset Mother Nature’s delicate balance. Some experts claim that we have less than ten years to change our patterns of consumption and reverse the trend before the damage is irreversible.
Produced to inspire action and encourage thoughtful debate, Home poses the prospect that unless we act quickly, we risk losing the only home we may ever have.”

I have earlier posted an article about photos of Yann Arthus-Bertrand: The Earth Seen from Above.

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