Last week I came to know about a very innovative and inspiring initiative, “Fairtrade Language School”, Glovico.org, developed by some Germans. On their site it says:

“During a research trip to Eritrea focussing on social entrepreneurship the founder of Glovico – Tobias Lorenz – realized that after decades of traditional development cooperation we should look for more technology-based and innovative ways to allow developing countries to prosper. Looking for entrepreneurial solutions to tackle worldwide poverty the idea was born to initiate intercultural dialogue and generate income at the same time. Tobias started to wonder: Who could teach languages better than native speakers? In this way Glovico tries to realize a vision that combines entrepreneurship with social change.”

Glovico offers “Study with native speakers from Latin America and Africa via Skype and do good at the same time. You get affordable, convenient language lessons and provide additional income for some, who really need it: that’s Fairtrade 2.0!”

On Glovico you can learn Spanish or French or become a language teacher. If you are not satisfied with a lesson, your money will be reimbursed…

Glovico is a Social Business, i.e. the main mission is to offer entrepreneurs from Latin America and Africa the opportunity to earn additional income through teaching their mother tongues. At the same time Glovico promotes inter-cultural dialogue. It is important for them to remain independent from governmental money and to finance themselves. Learn more about it through the following video or on their site.

A little anecdote from the seminar with Sri Kumar in Einsiedeln two weeks ago:

The Master had given a talk for over 4 hours the story of Parikshit from the scripture Bhagavatam and the beginning of Kali Yuga, the dark age (on request I can send you my notes). We were all thrilled and totally out of time, the story was so captivating.

Afterwards Ramana, who was doing the video recording and transmission, told me he was astonished that the battery of the audio recorder hold out the whole time, it normally only keeps up for 2.5 hours.

Next day at breakfast Ramana and I were sitting next to the master. Ramana mentioned to him the point with the batteries. Sri Kumar smilingly remarked: “In other spiritual groups they would have made a miracle out of it, like with all the stories in Yogananda’s Autobiography of a Yogi. I could tell 10 times more stories like these.”

In the evening the master proposed to us to see the DVD of the movie Angels and Demons, with Tom Hanks and playing in the Vatican. He said that in the film you find a lot of symbolism which H. P. Blavatsky also speaks about, and you can see parts of the Vatican where normally ordinary people don’t have access.

We sat in a leisurely round and from time to time Sri Kumar stopped the film to give some comments. He knows quite a lot of movies, and also at seminars in India we enjoyed seeing movies with him.

Sri Kumar, cheerful in front of a sweets shot in Brussels, last weekend, photo of a friend

During the journey to the seminar in Germany last week we were hearing the whole time an audio book a friend gave us for the trip: The Kite Runner, by Khaled Hosseini. I hadn’t heard of the book before, but when listening to it we all were thrilled. At first I felt skeptical because the topic promised to be heavy stuff, and thus it was, but very fascinating.

Since we couldn’t finish the last of the 9 CDs during the journey, yesterday afternoon my wife and I went with our car to a beautiful place in a nearby forest. And while the sun was dancing on the foliage and the cobwebs, we dived into the novel. The story is playing in the Afghanistan of the 70 until 2001. It is about causing and bearing one’s guilt.

I don’t want to re-tell here the captivating story, but it stirred a number of situations in my own life related with it: In 1994, while I was teaching German in a refugee integration center I met a young man, an Iraqi  Jew who was “killed” and buried alive in the 80ies by soldiers of Saddam Hussein, who wiped out the whole village. It was just incredibly good luck that he escaped, flew via Iran and Pakistan until he was admitted as refugee to Switzerland. He was eager to learn violin. I organised for him an instrument which years later he brought back, when he had bought a very good one of his own. Then there was the Syrian  collaborator in my team, from the Iraqi border, while I was head of an inter-cultural counseling centre in the 90ies. He was a refugee himself and a great story teller, and together with him I wrote some of his stories in German. And then there was the Iranian colleague in the same team who had been an archaeologist and had done field work in Afghanistan in the 60ies and early 70ies. Together with him I published a series of writings about the cultural backgrounds of Muslim refugees from the Middle East. He also could tell stories of the great past of this part of the world for hours. And there are our neighbours from Afghanistan with whom we have good relations. The husband was a minister in the Afghan government supported by the Russians in the 80ies – and living since many years in Switzerland as a refugee without finding any employment. The past is quite lively with them…

But most of all the story stirred events from my own life, especially the final part of the novel, where Amir, the first person narrator, was struggling hard to re-gain the confidence of the young Sohrab, his seriously traumatized nephew. His struggle seems to be in vain, and even in the end it remains open whether he could build it up again or not. It reminded me of an encounter I had in the last months where I also tried to re-gain the confidence of a person, not successful up to now, and the final outcome remains open. My wife told me that the situation reminds her of The Horse Whisperer and of a frightened horse. So when I’m thinking of the person I’m calling her the timid foal.

The Kite Runner story contains very deep lessons on karma and it reminds me of the story of Angulimala which I told my children with a comic strip when they were small. Many don’t want to face the dark sides of their lives and try to bury them inside, avoiding any contact. It might take a long time before your are ready for entering into it. And the roots might even go back before the limits of the present incarnation. But when you go through the fire of rectification and have learned your lesson, you feel deeply relieved. This I experienced the last weeks, and also Amir felt greatly relieved in the end.

The cornfields are ready for harvest.

Last weekend we were at the Summer Solstice seminar of the WTT in Königswinter, Germany. About 100 group members from Germany and some other European countries had come together for this beautiful celebration with Sri Parvathi Kumar. Here is a short extract from my notes.

“Passion towards the other sex, towards beautiful things in form, looking for precious stones, for better clothing, always there is a better than the best, it is ruling the humanity. For nothing they keep changing. When you have a watch and it is functional, you don’t have to buy another watch, its function is to show you the time. You keep changing watches, keep changing pens and changing the jewelery, changing shoes. When the present ones are good why should you change them? Just for change. People also change their profession very frequently. Any profession’s ultimate purpose is serving society. You think the other job is more lucrative, therefore you change. The profession you have you don’t have to change. It is nothing but the mutability of the mind. Change of the sake of changing has no meaning it would build a lot of instability.

Ultimately people also keep changing their spouses. When we are changing, why can’t we change our spouses? If you have a moving chair, can you sit in it properly? Objective life you cannot go on changing. One spouse for one life is enough, one profession for one life is more than enough. One good pen is more than enough for one life, it carries your energy. Accumulating things is not recommended, is to be avoided. Symbolically, not physically every large belly, because the navel its tension is lost. You just let yourself into objectivity and become a slave of objectivity. Slavery to objectivity is eternal, unless you develop taste for the subjective mind. Impose discipline upon yourself. Self-imposition, for other people you don’t have to impose, self-governance. One should feel that it is not right to receive advises. The children do what they like. Self-.governing is possible when we develop the will. How do you develop will? It is a subjective faculty. You should be given, supplied with the subjective will.

The will can be developed through certain techniques. To utter forth the sound OM develops will. …

The birth of the soul is in Cancer, it is the birth into the body of flesh and blood and then there is again through the discipline we spoke about the birth into golden light which is the body, it happens to the body which is called the second body. Then he is called the twice born one, he is born again. He is born into golden light which emerges from the body of flesh and blood only through a discipline he follows, the discipleship where he would have fairly organised the outer activity and engages himself into the subjective activity. More and more he becomes active in the subjective world. He once again gets into the subjective world and when he learns the related matters of subjectivity there are two lives in one life. The life in objectivity is one life, the life in subjectivity is another.

The life in subjectivity is not mixed with the other life, it is like the butter forming within the milk. Milk put to a certain discipline and the related discipline gives birth to butter. The butter is gathered and kept. Before it was integrated into milk, now it remains in the milk but with its own identity. A ball of butter floats in the milk, it does not at any moment mix up with the milk. Earlier it was completely integrated, but through the processes it is now separated, consequently milk is milk and butter is butter, and just as butter floats in milk the soul with the golden body of light floats within the body of flesh and blood. Initially it moves out and learns. Later in meditation our soul moves out and learns. The teachers who are ahead of evolution assist those forms in whom the golden body is formed.”

During the seminar there were two fire rituals, which create a thrilling atmosphere of strong spiritual vibrations. Here is an impression from the one on solstice day, last Monday.

The last three days we had a beautiful seminar with Dr. Kumar in a small circle at the WTT-office in Einsiedeln, Switzerland, about the scripture of Bhagavatam, the story of a world disciple. Here is a short extract from my notes of yesterday’s lecture, which was very thrilling:

“Spiritual aspiration happens to every human in one incarnation or the other. The various beings come down into incarnation into various kingdoms only to experience, be it in the mineral, plant or animal or human or even angels. They get incarnated in the mundane and even super-mundane planes to relate to the creation and to experience. As much as one experiences so much one experiences various aspects of life. There are thousands of aspects of life, it is not just one or two. Man experiences many things and yet in the energy of life there are many other things unfulfilled. Therefore he comes back to fulfil the unfulfilled.

On the physical plane there are many things to experience, on the emotional plane there are many things to experience through the 5 senses, and on the mental plane there are many, many more things to experience. The moment one takes to human birth he not only experiences the physical, emotional and mental plane activity but also has the potential of the subtle plane which is called supramental or super-mundane.

If you see the humans on the planet, there are millions and millions, experiencing different things in different ways. It is only one agenda, that agenda is to progress. Every day you see so many vehicles in the early morning moving out, and many animals. What fore are they moving? To fulfil their desires, their emotions and their thoughts. When there is no such desire nobody moves. The movement is due to the inner impulse to know and to experience, to do and to experience. In doing so when the related experience comes, if it is a good experience he repeats the experience all the time, if it is an unpleasant experience he tries to avoid. By nature nobody wants an unpleasant experience. Unless one is a sick person he does not invite any unpleasant experience. But unpleasant experiences do come, due to lack of knowledge how to do. Due to lack of knowledge about what to do and where to do. We cannot do everywhere what we like, according to place and time it changes. What to do, where to do, when to do. If these 3 things are in tune the experiences are pleasant, if not they are otherwise.

So through unpleasant experiences we learn what not to do, where not to do and how not to do. He will learn that he cannot do certain things in certain places. If he does so he will have unpleasant experiences. Likewise he also learns that when he does certain things when the experience is unpleasant he slowly learns what not to do. Even if he knows where and what to do, it is to learn how to do so that the experience is favourable. The scriptures and the teachings of the initiates lay down certain parameters for the humans, but unless man experiences some things he would not follow the scriptures or the teachings of the initiates. The best teacher is life itself.”

Einsiedeln this morning

Tuesday afternoon we visited the Paracelsus centre near Einsiedeln, where at the place of the birth house of the great initiate Paracelsus the WTT has a little centre in memory of Paracelsus. And we are also publishing a monthly magazine Paracelsus – Health and Healing.

A commemoration stone with a picture of Paracelsus

A Paracelsus medal inside the centre

This weekend we were at a seminar with Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar in the little village of Altheim, Germany, on “The Path to the Soul Through Healing”. There were mainly members from the local WTT-group of Lake Constance. Again it was a deep and fascinating meeting. Sri Kumar spoke about life energy, dealing with obstacles and how to remove them with the age-old path of yoga. Here is a short extract of my notes, from yesterday’s end of the seminar.

“Once we have become the soul which we are then we say, I AM the soul. I don’t have the soul. I have the soul is like having a shoe sole. Never say, I have a soul: I AM the soul. The truth is, I am the soul. It is so true when you go through the related modifications through the practice of yoga. That is why when you see the writings of initiates they say healing is the functioning of the soul.

The discipline for healing and the discipline of yoga are the same as I explained yesterday in the morning. When you are in the realms of yoga you are already a healer. But when you realise the soul as yourself then healing happens, teachings happen, direction happens. The required guidance happens. A true healer is not only a healer. He is as much a teacher and as much a guide to guide the beings to the soul. This is how there is a journey to the soul through healing, and on the journey of yoga healing is a present.

All yogis are healers of high standard. In the meanwhile we need not get discouraged of our intention to heal. But the optimum healing can happen when you realise yourself as a soul. And also if not you have not yet reached the optimum level of healing. It is of a lesser quality. Initially without going through the modifications, when you think of healing it just remains a feeling. There is more feeling about healing when we are not adapted to the process. When you adapt to the process you slowly understand what healing is. Then healing is an effortless functioning when the soul functions.

In the presence of those who function as souls healing continues to happen and many times the fruits are not immediately realised, only in the review it is seen. A transformation has happens when they have met such a person. They change for the better. What is good, what is better? The more and more you feel peaceful and tranquil and less and less in agitation. It is a state of betterment. This kind of work we all have to do when we think of healing.

The ability firstly to gain a stable mind, which is called Dharana, and setting that stable mind upon the light to grow near to the light which is called Dhyana, and then becoming one with the light which is called Samadhi. Once this step is achieved, through all the channels of the body the soul energy flows, even through the senses the soul energy flows. When the soul energy flows through the senses it is a total accomplishment of healing.

It is in that state when you touch a person, he is healed. When you look at persons there is transmission of healing energies with the sight. And when you speak healing energies are transmitted. Through touch, sight, speech and generally through your hands, the energy passes. Then you are called a free flowing soul energy.

We have initially compared him to an ever flowing river. Your connection is with the universal soul, the flow is eternal. There is no such thing as draining of energy. You don’t get weakened through the healing. As much as you let out the energy so much you get filled again. That should be the goal set for healing. That is also the goal of yoga that you remain a free flowing energy without any blocking, any congestions, and you do not suffer the constricts of concepts. You are not stuck by concepts. At the same time you do not destroy other existing concepts. You flow over them. That is how the work happens in a very smooth manner.
The flow is unconditional. Wherever it is smooth, there the healing and the enlightenment happens. That is how we have to understand the field of work relating to the noble action of healing. What I explained, the 3 steps of contemplation, meditation and at-onement, these are the 3 steps worked out in him. The step before is pranayama. It is a process of stepping within. From without to within. And the step before that, relating to yama and niyama and asana, it presents the regulations to objective world. Three are regulations that help you to move in, the fourth is the process of moving in, the fifth is engaging within, the sixth, sevenths and eights are the occult practices. When they are accomplished there is a free flow within and outside.

To move out and move in is easy. Nothing hinders to move in and to move out. Then the life flows as a river without hindrances and it joins the ocean. These are the few thoughts I expressed in these seminars. It is a presentation of the path in a nut shell, it is the path to the soul. Thank you very much.”

Crystals on the stage

Here are some photo impressions from the May Call seminar in Núria, Spanish Pyrenees. It was a great group living and Nature showed a full array of different kinds of weather: We had thunderstorms, beautiful sun, a strong storm where we had to leave the assembly tent, and just wind with sand – we felt really close to Nature and filled with strong spiritual energies.

The little lake of Núria and the meadow, where our tent for 350 people was located.

Below the lake – an old bridge over the mountain river

Magic of a moon-set in the early morning over the tent

Mystic dawn on May Call Day morning

A blue sky is welcoming us, after two days of rain and clouds, with temperatures below zero. Like always on May Calls the devas cooperate with fine weather.

May Call sunrise, full of radiant energy

Fire Ritual

Sri Kumar before giving a talk to the group

A big “family reunion”

Over the mountain top a group of eagles is circulating. Sri Kumar once said that often Masters take to the form of animals like eagles to bestow blessings. A marvellous scene

A curious picture with a blue object on the top of the tent, taken at 23’00 h by a participant who was walking down from the youth hostel. It looks like an antenna or a big blue radar.

Mountain scenery near the hotel

This morning we were at the promotion function of the Officer’s School in the city of Berne, where our eldest son became a Lieutenant. It was military-ceremoniously, with brass music, flags, berets and military people and a politician giving addresses.

The left one with the blue beret is our son…

One military in his talk showed a mustard tube and humorously explained how you can bring the tube to squirt: with a hammer, by driving over it with a bicycle, or with strongly squeezing it. If you don’t want to have too much mustard on your sausage, you need a soft pressure. Without it nothing comes out. Then he addressed the newly backed lieutenants as “dear mustard tubes” and said that they had been pressed quite a lot so that something comes out which otherwise would remain inside. He reminded them that when they are pressing others they should always use the right dose, but not too much, in order not to hurt and spoil the others so that it doesn’t squirt…

Now they are tonight on the Officers’ Ball…

Yesterday a friend sent me the link to a 5-part Russian documentary film on Helena P. Blavatsky, the great messenger of light, with English comments. See also the booklet on HPB – Trailblazer for the Aquarian Age.

Today, 29th May, is May Call, the festival of group initiation, which Master CVV initiated in 1910. Since then it is celebrated every year. This year’s celebration of the World Teacher Trust is in Núria, in the Spanish Pyrenees, where we have assembled with about 350 group members from all over the world for a week of group living. These annual meetings are always very inspiring (see my post from last year).

The last days we had a lot of rain and heavy clouds. This morning, like in other May Call days, the sky is blue without any clouds, and it is very cold.

On the occasion of this celebration I would like to humbly publish the second cycle of the “Images of Synthesis“, which have been done between February and May 2010. You can download the whole series with music as a powerpoint or see them in an online slideshow.

Messengers of Synthesis: Master CVV and Master EK.