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Anti Swine Flu Properties of Tulsi, the “Holy Basil”

September 8th, 2009

A Canadian friend sent me an interesting link about the healing effects of Tulsi (or Tulasi, Ocimum tenuiflorum), a herb used in Ayurveda, in relation to preventing and treating Swine flu. The article by Dr. Mercola says:

“One of the Key Herbs that Prevents and Treats Swine Flu”

“Ayurveda, India’s traditional ‘science of life,’ has the remedy for swine flu in the form of the basil leaves commonly known as Tulsi. Tulsi is well known in India for its remarkable healing properties. But the anti-flu property of Tulsi has been discovered by medical experts across the world quite recently. Tulsi improves your body’s overall defense mechanism, including its ability to fight viral diseases. Apart from acting as a preventive medicine, Tulsi can also help a patient recover faster.”

Tulsi, which is Sanskrit for “the incomparable one”, is called “Holy Basil”. It is worshiped throughout India. Tulsi has been used for thousands of years in Ayurveda for its diverse healing properties. It is mentioned by Charaka in the Charaka Samhita, an ancient Ayurvedic text. Read more about the holy herb in Wikipedia.

tulsi
Photo from Wikipedia (public domain)

Information for a Holistic Understanding

September 6th, 2009

A friend send me the link to an interesting website (German/English), the Gaia Media Foundation, a non-profit organization in Basel, Switzerland:

“We communicate information for a holistic and up to date understanding of our existence, and the potential of human consciousness. We equally respect the knowledge and the experience of ancient cultures, spiritual traditions, and of modern science, without committing ourself to a particular view or direction. We advocate the firm belief that the ability and desire to achieve transcendence is inherent in man, and that expanded states of consciousness shed light upon the knowledge of the laws of life, of nature, and the universe. An awareness corresponding to universal laws not only guarantees humanity the surviving, but also allows us a symbiotic and hedonistic existence on Gaia, our home planet.” (from the website)

siehlsee
Sunrise this morning at Lake Sihl, Einsiedeln, Switzerland

Rapids of Consciousness

August 29th, 2009

The last times were full of intense processes, which I tried to reflect in the form of poems I wrote on my observations. I try to translate two of them:

Unsettled thoughts,
kept back and unrecognized
in their haze of interwovenness,
block like stones
the stream of life
pressing forward
and form dangerous rapids,
which threaten to carry away
the swimmer of consciousness
and to drag him under the waters.
The passage between
Skylla and Charybdis
is difficult
and every word surfaces
like a whirl in the current
to be steered around
so that the boat of the freeing idea
doesn’t get dashed
against a rock
and emotionally charged spindrift
doesn’t obstruct the view.
During such transits
utmost vigilance is needed and
a calm eye of the steersman,
who sees the shallow depths and,
navigating with a firm hand,
brings the boat
nearer to the next harbor,
knowing about the distant goal.

Iguazu1
Iguaçu, Argentina 2008

Towers crumble,
when the time-ground
lets its eroding movements
work slowly.
Even the plates of the continents
dance on the fragile ground
of the rhythmical movements
of the Great Mother.
It is the love towards new life,
which makes the old one
collapse
to give way to
virginal striving.
However, change gives pain,
if we hold on to stones falling down
or
seek stability
on the wavering ship
at times of tempest.
But where shall I
cast my anchor?
How can I
offer you a supporting hand,
when the dark clouds
seem to hide for you
the rays of the sun?
Dancing with firm steps
the rhythm of unbridled change
gives joy,
when the hold
in the salvaging silence
is the anchorage
and gives protection
in the deep ground.

Iguazu
Iguaçu, Brasil 2008

“We are all one”

August 9th, 2009

A friend just sent me the link to the following video narrated by two male North-American aboriginal leaders, with beautiful pictures. There is a website for supporting this initiative. Enjoy the video.

Diving back into the Outer World

August 8th, 2009

The last day in Munich, the next to last day of our journey, was a dive back into the “outer world”, in different regards: After 12 stages of the journey and 20 visits at houses of friends from our spiritual movement, we stayed for the 21st visit with friends of the family of my wife. They were warm-hearted doctors, but living in a quite different world. So we didn’t speak about our background or our journey, but about different general topics. We slept and meditated in the basement, surrounded by used books, toy railways and other artefacts of memories, in a stagnant energy. It reminded me of the souls stuck in matter, suffocating and somehow crying for the light of the spirit. At the second day I also had a lively talk with the daughter of our friends, who is working at a video art installation place in an underpass in the center of Munich.

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Toy train in a show case

During the day we enjoyed strolling through the center of Munich, where we were astonished about the many Muslim women walking around through the hot summer streets in black robes, with covered heads, wearing gold chains and rings. Later our friends told us that each year in August there is an “invasion” of people from the Arab world coming for shopping and holidays to Munich, enjoying the leisurely and safe atmosphere of the city.

We, too, enjoyed it, looking into some shops, having lunch and tea time there and doing a bit of sightseeing.

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A fountain at the Marienplatz in the center of Munich: Fighting with serpents and dragons – or integrating the dark with the lightful side of life.

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Aquarian plays: children enjoying a fountain in the center of Munich

On our way back to Switzerland we reflected on our tour: It has been the most intense summer holidays we ever had, filled with so many impressions and exchanges, observations and insights. We meditated together with many different groups, where all were following the same spiritual line as we do, but where the individual expressions were quiet varied. We had exchanged about the lightful and the darker sides of life, about crises and transformations, about aspiration and commitment to the path. We experienced many individual worlds from close in a very short time. We were richly showered with presents of warmth and openness and felt very grateful for this.

Piercing through Veils

August 6th, 2009

The next stage of our journey,  which at first was not planned, but then arranged itself surprisingly, brought us to a new friend near the Chiemsee, east of Munich. Another friend from northern Bavaria had undertaken a long journey to join us.

The whole time it was heavily raining, so that we stayed inside and had again some deep encounters. It was like piercing veil after veil of outer layers of superficial decorations of words and of stories before arriving at the core, after having had our evening and morning meditation together.

Our friend told us about her inner and outer path and how the outer link with our spiritual movement of the WTT had been established about 8 months ago. She spoke about her spiritual work of healing and of helping certain people to gain insights into previous lives. In general I’m very skeptical about such claims and don’t go into any so-called esoteric but mostly illusionary adventures. However, I took advantage of the situation to ask her about the background of an event in my life which had caused some irritation.

By means of a certain help and inner linking to the Master she started telling me events of a previous life, which deeply touched me in a way that it very well explained some attitudes and encounters of my present life. Some ties were resolved and I felt a deep relief, like an old burden falling off. Together with my wife we also had a look into our common past, which again provided some clues to a deeper understanding.

In the afternoon we continued our journey to Munich.

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Hourglass in the studio of our artist friend in Munich we visited a day laster

Inter-Penetrating Experiences

August 5th, 2009

The next stage of our journey brought us last Saturday from Berlin to Kassel, where our friends, a couple we know since years, are working as nathuropaths. He is also a skilled craftsman and has realised a number of beautiful sculptures, some pictures of them you find below.

Again we had intense exchanges about our spiritual paths. It is a fascinating experience of our journey  that we dive into different atmospheres and environments, where each time we leave back our own world and get imbued with the other realms. We follow the rhythm of meditations and rituals with our friends, dive into their ways of life, and then come back into the “uterus” of our car when traveling to the next place, where another very familiar but nevertheless different world opens up. It is a great experience of an extreme richness of impressions, opening many new vistas and giving us clues to understand better our own world and the interconnectedness with others.

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Sculptures of our friend, extract

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Sculpture of the 12-petaled lotus of the soul

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In the practice of our friends, a model of the inside of a head: The outside of the inside

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At the “Hercules” statue, a land-art park of the 18th/19th century overlooking Kassel

Insight-Seeing

August 1st, 2009

Traveling around from group to group of our spiritual movement of the WTT for now two weeks turns out for me to be much more an insight-seeing than a sightseeing tour. Traveling and living in the houses of friends / group members for some days each time opens up new and deeper views into their way of living and the way they are walking the spiritual path.

Besides the many intense talks we have each time I enter into an inner dialog with the thoughts and impressions I encounter. I feel that this is working on me, making me reflect on my images and judgments, the way I perceive others. When living at home I much more stay in my own perspective. Now the perspective changes very much, not only from day to day, but through the whole environment of thoughts, feelings, ways of understanding, besides the changing rooms and cities.It opens up my viewpoints, it is like the inner core widening and spreading into the surrounding.

This process makes me to adjust, to reverse subtle prejudices, to open up to the different viewpoints and attitudes, especially when perceiving the living energies of groups and their qualities. At the same time I try to keep up with my rhythm of meditation, the e-mailing and other work coming via the web, blogging, and my daily writing of a poem in thee early morning hours, which I started about 6 weeks ago.

This subtle work with language, where perceptions and impressions find an expression in a condensing word-flow is somehow sharpening my perceptions and the awareness of what is going on in and around. Of course the exchanges with my wife help a lot in structuring the experiences. So the journey is an intense process and at the same time a most interesting study.

Two days ago we saw the new Harry Potter film. I like the sensitivity with which the characters were portrayed and the intense images of the story – being a HP-fan since the beginning, following the adventures in reading, hearing and seeing. A really good story touching many subtle dimensions.

Today we are leaving Berlin for Kassel.

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Crystal rosette in the house of a friend in Berlin

Baltic Sea Ambience

July 29th, 2009

Yesterday we passed a beautiful day at the Baltic Sea near Schloss Schwansee (Chateau Swansea), a former holiday residence for party cadre of the German Demacratic Republic. now transformed into a hotel. A beautiful little park with sculptures of African artists added to the charm of the scenery.

At the beach the air was filled with the fresh breeze of the sea, very relaxing. We had a beautiful swim and enjoyed sitting some time in the sun.

In the evening a friend of our friend came for a visit, and we had a lively conversation on subtle energies, healing work and integrating spirituality into daily living. Here are some impressions of nature and art in nature.

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A beautiful limetree alley near Chateau Schwansee, leading to the Baltic Sea20a
Walking towards the sea

20b
Beach at the Baltic Sea in Mecklenburg

20c
Ladybird on the beach

20d
A fountain in front of the Chateau Schwansee

20e
Sculpture “Family” by an African artist in the park of the Chateau

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Morning light over a barn

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Morning greetings from a horse

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Crystal in the window

Video Links

July 28th, 2009

Some time agou I posted a blognote on the Playing for Change series. A Belgian friend now sent me the link to another song of this inspiring session. And she added a link to an interesting video on the functioning of the right and left hemisphere of the brain, by Jill Bolte Taylor.

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Sculpture of an angel by an African artist in the park of a castle near the Baltic Sea.