A friend from Spain sent today the following wisdom thoughts in Spanish, which my automatic translation program got over into English, with a little manual polishing:

Although you don’t write books, you are the writer of your life.
Although you are not an artist, you can make of your life a work of art.
Although you don’t understand anything of cinema, your existence can become a successful and extraordinary film.
Although you sing out of tune, your existence can be a beautiful song.
Although you don’t understand music, your life can be a magnificent symphony.
Although you have not studied in a school of communications, your life can become a model report.
Although you don’t have great culture, you can end up being a great sage.
Although your work is humble, you can transform your day into a master teacher.
Although you have 40, 50 or 60 years, you can be as young as you want.
Although the wrinkles already mark your face, you can have an extraordinary interior beauty.
Although your feet bleed in the obstacles and stones of the road, your face can smile.
Although your hands conserve the scars of the problems and of incomprehensions, your lips can be grateful.

An old Mongolian man in his tent drinking tea. Photo of a friend, 2006

In Hamburg, Germany, there was just the 14th German Trend Day. The topic was: “Social Wealth. Share and win”. On the invitation it says:

” ‘Yes we can’ is a motto that heralds a new beginning – and not only in the USA: the “we” stands for hope right across the globe. The ego’s claim to sole power imploded along with the financial markets. The self-destructive desire for self-celebration has been paid for with the loss of personal, commercial and social equilibrium. And it isn’t only consumers and investors who are changing the way they think – companies and states are doing so as well. As the successful chapter of “I” and “my” draws to a close, the search for the “we” is on.’ ”

This sounds very much what the wisdom teachings say, that satisfaction comes through sharing, not through egoistic dominance. A summary (in German) on Heise.de gives some thoughts of the talks: “You are what you share”, said Charles Leadbeater, “Social wealth comes from common interests, common communication, common action and common innovation,” Peter Wippermann explained. And David Bosshart of the Gottlieb-Duttweiler-Institut said that one way out of the lifestyle-crisis of the 20th century requires less consumption: “1. Eat less. 2. Consume less. 3. Throw less away.” And on the Social Wealth website the trend is summarized with the words of Keynote speaker  Lawrence Lessig who believes that, in future, the efficient handling of consumers’ creativity will be key to value creation. Lawrence Lessig is the inventor of the Creative Commons licence, a professor at Stanford Law School and founder of the Center for Internet and Society.

The future will need new forms of consumption, cooperation and living together. Have a look at “Good Will in Action“, No. 12 on Cooperation.

Living together is not just like sheep on a meadow, but focusing on the common ground.

Yesterday my wife and I were in Engelberg for preparatory works for the seminar and celebrations on the 100th May Call, which will start in 10 days. We met there with 3 friends of the WTT, who were already busy in the huge curling hall in the sporting centre to transform it into a seminar hall.

Over 450 people from all over the world will come to the meeting with our spiritual teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar. Since several months there is quite some preparatory work going on, and many details have to be arranged. Most of the work is done by 3 persons, and not much of it seen from the outside.

We had quite a good time preparing the hall. There is a pleasant anticipation around thrilling all involved.

In the mirror at the end of the curling hall.

Cows right in front of the hall enjoying the sunshine in the meadow. The sound of cow-bells was ringing through the air.

Two days ago I was at the University of St. Gallen for the final presentations of the term papers of a seminar on Web 2.0 communication strategies. A project team had elaborated an issue coverage with communication and fundraising proposals for my office. I had several preliminary talks with the professor, coming from Berlin, and the team and was now curious about their proposals.

Two students of the team picked me up at the station and accompanied me to the campus. In the seminar room a young person said hello, presenting himself. I first thought he was a student, but he was the professor from Berlin. 4 teams were presenting their issue coverages for 4 different NGOs. The presentation of my team was the first.

They had analysed that we are only partially using the possibilities of the new social media instruments and that networking between different platforms like blogs, Wikipedia, Facebook and YouTube would enhance the effectiveness of communication activities, making proposals for the next steps.

The students did a good job, in view of the fact that they still have little experience of the professional world and its mechanism. There was quiet an optimism about the possibilities these social media offer. In my office there is more scepticism around, as per the real use for our purposes, though the intererest is rising in the management. A collegue and I are working on doing experiments with social media platforms. Maybe together with the inputs of the students and some more discussions the management will decide about a “go”.

The way to the university

I today got the link to the short YouTube-video “Bodhisattva in Metro“. It is a fantistic film without words, showing the contagious influence of a radiant good mood. Enjoy!

From the video

Some time ago I had the experience of a deep, sublime encounter with someone, where I felt a profound touch with my soul. It was a very uplifting time of a flow of exchange.

Through some strange incidences the exchange was suddenly interrupted, leaving back a strong irritation, overshadowing the fine thread of the soul like with a dark cloud.

Last weekend my wife expressed in a drawing what seemed to have happened: She drew two butterflies, expressing the lightful, uplifting experience, and two angels, symbols of the souls. The sublime seemed to have evoked the uprise of a dark layer in us, with a conglomerate of fear, hurt and deception. My wife visualised it with two phantoms, overshadowing the previous experience in a way that even the reality of it seemed to be annihilated and the memory reversed into a poisoned contrary. The souvenir of it became fearful and full of suspicion.

My wife explained how she, in a similar experience, consciously built up again the contact with the quality the first experience had given, in all purity, and at the same time realising the dark side as the phantom without blocking it out.

This explanation helped me a lot. The knowledge of the mechanism of the phantoms gave a visual understanding of the overshadowing experience. It enabled me to come again into contact with the pristine quality of the sublime experience in me, which the first encounter had conveyed. The experience of the presence of the quality is not a souvenir of the past, but a quality present in me I can restore anytime. I enjoy the subtlety of experience, which is independent of the person and even of the first butterfly experience.

Thus the clouded veil got lifted up and the butterfly is flying again.

A butterfly and its shadow, Planetary Healing Centre, Visakhapatnam, India, 2008

Today, like in the previous years, I would like to remind of the great spiritual messenger, Helena Petrovna Blavatsky, whose day of passing-over is celebrated as the White Lotus Day, the white lotus being a symbol of highest spiritual striving. The White Lotus Day coincides today with the Vaisakh Full Moon, which is commemorated as the day of birth and of enlightenment of Buddha. It is a good time to commemorate both of them in meditative alignment to the great Messengers of Light. So here are two poems, the first I got today from a friend, the English version of Rainer Maria Rilke‘s “Buddha in Glory”, and the second H.P. Blavatsky’s “Golden Stairs”.

Buddha in Glory

Center of all centers, core of cores,
almond self-enclosed, and growing sweet–
all this universe, to the furthest stars
all beyond them, is your flesh, your fruit.

Now you feel how nothing clings to you;
your vast shell reaches into endless space,
and there the rich, thick fluids rise and flow.
Illuminated in your infinite peace,

a billion stars go spinning through the night,
blazing high above your head.
But in you is the presence that
will be, when all the stars are dead.

Buddha statue in the Planetary Healing Centre, Visakhapatnam, India, 2003

And these are the verses by H. P. Blavatsky

Golden Stairs

A clean life, an open mind,
A pure heart, an eager intellect,
An unveiled spiritual perception,
A brotherliness for all,

A readiness to give and receive advice and instruction,
A loyal sense of duty to the Teacher,
A willing obedience to the behests of TRUTH,
Once we have placed our confidence in,
And believe that Teacher to be in possession of it;

A courageous endurance of personal injustice,
A brave declaration of principles,
A valiant defense of those who are unjustly attacked,
And a constant eye to the ideal of human progression
And perfection which the secret science depicts-

These are the golden stairs
Up the steps of which the learner may climb
To the Temple of Divine Wisdom.

H. P. Blavatsky (1831 – 1891)

Here are some photos with spring impressions from our last Sunday afternoon walks in the nearby surroundings. Enjoy the beauty of spring.

The last weeks, even months, had been a time of deep inner and outer processes, where not much time was left for reflection in the blog. The work in my office brought some transitions: Last Tuesday I presented to the management board the final report of the introduction of the new intranet, after over two years of work, and at the same time the proposal for the next big step, a pilot project for the new document management system. There were some intense discussions in the board – but in the end I was given discharge for the first project and green light (and money) for the new pilot project…

There had been a lot of work beforehand, not only in preparing the papers for the presentation, but also setting things in a good way: Though the launch of the intranet had been already in December 08, there had been a number of technical troubles in March and April, and though there is quite a progress with the new Sharepoint-based system, some adaptation works are still causing some problems. When two weeks ago I had been talking things out with the head of the agency who had done the implementation of the system, I came to know: on that very day they had fired their project manager with whom I had had problems from the very beginning… Their new project manager is a very competent person from their management board. Two days ago I cleared all the open points with him to set a good basis for the future collaboration.

A second agency is involved, who are delivering a software for the document management system. In my office I had a number of talks to explain the questions facing us at to set up the new team. It is quite a complex matter and not so easy to “translate” the different aspects into a form which can be understood by the persons concerned.

In a way it is a very spiritual process: Weaving together all the different aspects of a complex matter, which will deeply affect the way of working of all collaborators in the house, is a very fascinating process. Many things are still hazy, but planning, meditating, asking questions, putting together the information from different sources and trying to construct the “final view” is building a way into the future. Never before I was left so much left to my own pre-decisions and laying down the structures, taking responsibility for the process. Others, the “decision makers” followed the prepared path, supporting the indicated direction. At the same time I feel that it is not “me” doing this weaving, but that there is an underlying “process intelligence” which has to be discovered and brought to manifestation. So from my viewpoing things sometimes take a sudden turn, but seen from the thread going through the “tissues”, a deeper sense is unveiling.

I today got an e-mail from Spain with a link to a YouTube video about a lecture given by Hira Ratan Manek at Sant Vicens de Montalt in Spain (English with Spanish translation). Hira Ratan Manek (HRM) was born on 12th of September 1937 in Bodhavad, India, and since June 18th, 1995, HRM has and continues to live only on sun energy and water. He has been examined by medical teams in India and the States for very long periods. He explains that more than 3000 people world are subsisting on light. A friend of mine tried it for a while, but stopped again. I doubt whether I will go into that kind of a diet, but it is fascinating to see this demonstration of living with the energy of prana by sun gazing, leaving the materialistic scientists perplexed.

Sunrise, photo of a friend