I today got an e-mail from an Argentinean friend informing about a fantastic project of the UNESCO, the World Digital Library, which has been inaugurated in Paris on April 21st, 09.

It is an on-line library that will have as its content the knowledge of the cultural patrimony of all the countries added to the initiative. The World Digital Library (WDL) makes available, free of charge and in multilingual format, significant primary materials from countries and cultures around the world. These cultural treasures include, but are not limited to, manuscripts, maps, rare books, musical scores, recordings, films, prints, photographs, and architectural drawings.

The navigation and content descriptions are in Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Many more languages are represented in the actual books, manuscripts, maps, photographs, and other primary materials, which are provided in their original languages.

The portal has been created with famous institutions from all over the world such as The Bibliotheca Alexandrina of Egypt, the Library of the Congress of the United States and the national libraries and some cultural and educational institutions of more than ten different countries. Have a look at the description on Wikipedia.

The Ch’onha chido (Atlas of the world), the traditional Korean atlas produced in the early Ch’oson dynasty (1392-1910), derived from a map produced during the Chinese Ming Empire (1368-1644). From WDL.

A friend sent me some days ago an impressive video about a chameleon changing colours, which I also found on YouTube, tought the music there is not my style… I then came across the following passage of my spiritual teacher, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar from a seminar last year in Iguazú, giving us a lesson of the chameleon:

“You may play the role of a human, but you are consciousness. Our real identity is that we are units of consciousness. Each one is a column of consciousness playing different roles. So many different roles, so many false identities. Your original identity is lost. We generally believe what we are not by repeated information and repeated action. That is identifying with an objective situation and becoming that, like a chameleon. Depending on the colours if the surrounding, it loses its colours. You have lost the original identity through the many modifications…. . The purpose of yoga is to gain original identity. That is what is called self-realisation. That is the purpose, and then there is a process of transformation from the present state. We have to transform many states to regain our original state of consciousness.”

Photo from the video (c)

I today got an inspiring text about a legendary 97 years old Japanese doctor, Shigeaki Hinohara, who is working since 1941 till today at a hospital in Tokyo and who since his 65th year of age works full-time as a volunteer. Very impressive ! The article is published in The Japan Times Online.

Homoeo-medicine in an Indian homoeopathic dispensary

I today got this link to a video about a presentation of an astonishing new development of the application of computer technology to virtualisation, another step of entering into the realm of etheric manifestation through technology.

Photo of a computer installation in Zurich main station, May 08

This impressive photo from July 1918 shows 18,000 soldiers in uniform forming the Statue of Liberty. They were preparing for war in a training camp at Camp Dodge, in Iowa. It is an authentic photo, and one of a series of group photographs taken by the photographers during and immediately after World War I at U.S. military training camps. Each took up to a week to compose and shoot. The purpose was to unite the people for America’s involvement in the war.

The involvement was meant to fight for liberty. Whatever the kind of liberty was they were aspiring for, it is a manifestation of a common thought. Working for a common goal in spiritual matters is of great power and inspiration.

Photo by Arthur S. Mole & John D. Thomas (1918). Source of scanned image unknown.

A friend just sent me this remarkable article about the touching speech of a father who lost a daughter at the Columbine High School massacre, the 10th anniversary of which will be on April 20th:

Guess our national leaders didn’t expect this, hmm? On Thursday, Darrell Scott, the father of Rachel Scott, a victim of the Columbine High School shootings in Littleton, Colorado, was invited to address the House Judiciary Committee’s subcommittee. What he said to our national leaders during this special session of Congress was painfully truthful.

“Since the dawn of creation there has been both good & evil in the hearts of men and women.. We all contain the seeds of kindness or the seeds of violence. The death of my wonderful daughter, Rachel Joy Scott, and the deaths of that heroic teacher, and the other eleven children who died must not be in vain. Their blood cries out for answers.

“The first recorded act of violence was when Cain slew his brother Abel out in the field. The villain was not the club he used. Neither was it the NCA, the National Club Association. The true killer was Cain, and the reason for the murder could only be found in Cain’s heart.

“In the days that followed the Columbine tragedy, I was amazed at how quickly fingers began to be pointed at groups such as the NRA. I am not a member of the NRA. I am not a hunter. I do not even own a gun. I am not here to represent or defend the NRA – because I don’t believe that they are responsible for my daughter’s death. Therefore I do not believe that they need to be defended. If I believed they had anything to do with Rachel’s murder I would be their strongest opponent.

I am here today to declare that Columbine was not just a tragedy — it was a spiritual event that should be forcing us to look at where the real blame lies! Much of the blame lies here in this room. Much of the blame lies behind the pointing fingers of the accusers themselves. I wrote a poem just four nights ago that expresses my feelings best.

Your laws ignore our deepest needs,
Your words are empty air.
You’ve stripped away our heritage,
You’ve outlawed simple prayer.
Now gunshots fill our classrooms,
And precious children die.
You seek for answers everywhere,
And ask the question “Why?”
You regulate restrictive laws,
Through legislative creed.
And yet you fail to understand,
That God is what we need!

“Men and women are three-part beings. We all consist of body, mind, and spirit. When we refuse to acknowledge a third part of our make-up, we create a void that allows evil, prejudice, and hatred to rush in and wreak havoc. Spiritual presences were present within our educational systems for most of our nation’s history. Many of our major colleges began as theological seminaries. This is a historical fact. What has happened to us as a nation? We have refused to honor God, and in so doing, we open the doors to hatred and violence. And when something as terrible as Columbine’s tragedy occurs — politicians immediately look for a scapegoat such as the NRA. They immediately seek to pass more restrictive laws that contribute to erode away our personal and private liberties. We do not need more restrictive laws. Eric and Dylan would not have been stopped by metal detectors. No amount of gun laws can stop someone who spends months planning this type of massacre. The real villain lies within our own hearts.

“As my son Craig lay under that table in the school library and saw his two friends murdered before his very eyes, he did not hesitate to pray in school. I defy any law or politician to deny him that right! I challenge every young person in America , and around the world, to realize that on April 20, 1999, at Columbine High School prayer was brought back to our schools. Do not let the many prayers offered by those students be in vain. Dare to move into the new millennium with a sacred disregard for legislation that violates your God-given right to communicate with Him. To those of you who would point your finger at the NRA — I give to you a sincere challenge. Dare to examine your own heart before casting the first stone!

My daughter’s death will not be in vain! The young people of this country will not allow that to happen!”

Old daggers. Photo of an exposition by my son.

An Indian friend sent me a very beautiful and touching powerpoint about an old Chinese story called “The Cracked Pot“. It is about the value of the cracks and flaws we each have that make our lives together so very interesting and rewarding. Enjoy!

A cracked pot, from an art exposition, photo of my son.

A friend living in the States sent me the link to the presentation of a film called “Playing for Change: Peace Through Music“, described as “a pan-global survey — and marriage — of varying styles of world music…” On the site there is an inspiring video with the soundtrack “Stand me by”:

“Starting on the pedestrian mall in Santa Monica, Calif., helmers Mark Johnson (who narrates) and Jonathan Walls made a recording of street singer Roger Ridley performing “Stand by Me” then took that tape all over the world. They added singers in New Orleans and Amsterdam, a guitarist in France, a Congolese drummer, some Zuni drummers in New Mexico, making musical collaborators out of people who’d never met.”

(c) from the website Playing for Change
“Long-range partnerships of singers all around the world are being formed: A singer sings in Buenos Aires, and his female backup trio, the Oneness Choir, is in India… A lot of the musicians are not seen playing in their own homelands — sometimes by choice, sometimes by the choices of others.”

(c) from the video

My friend also sent me another link, to the blog of Gita Saraydarian, with a beautiful recent post “Ode to Joy. The Power of Music”. Gita Saraydarian is the Founder and President of TSG Foundation, an organization dedicated to the Ageless Wisdom Teachings. Year ago I read some books of her late father, Torkom Saraydarian, to whom the organization is dedicated.

An Indian friend sent me a powerpoint with the following beautiful story, which you also find on the web. It is about wrongly directed good will causing harm and the value of obstacles and troubles.

”One day, a small oppening appeared on a cocoon; a man sat and watched for the butterfly for several hours as it struggled to force its body through that little hole. Then, it seems to stop making any  progress. It appeared as if it had gotten as far as it could and  it could not go any further. So the man decided to help the butterfly: he took a pair of scissors and opened the cocoon. The butterfly then emerged easily. But it had a withered body, it was tiny and shrivelled wings.
The man continued to watch because he expected that, at any moment, the wings would open, enlarge and expand, to be able to support the butterfly’s body, and become firm.

What the man, in his kindness and his goodwill did not understand was that the restricting cocoon and the struggle required for the butterfly to get through the tiny opening, were God’s way of forcing fluid from the body of the butterfly into its wings, so that it would be ready for flight once it achieved its freedom from the cocoon. Sometimes, struggles are exactly what we need in our life. If God allowed us to go through our life  without any obstacles, it would  cripple us. We would not be as strong as we could have been. Never been able to fly.

I asked for Strength…
And God gave me  difficulties to make me strong.
I asked for Wisdom…
And God gave me Problems to solve.
I asked for prosperity…
And God gave me a Brain and Brawn to work.
I asked for Courage…..
And God gave me obstacles to overcome.
I asked for Love…
And God gave me Troubled  people to help.
I asked for Favors…
And God gave me  Opportunities.
“I received nothing I wanted…
But I received everything I needed.”

Live life without fear, confront all obstacles and evince that you can overcome them.

Butterfly, silk painting, 1984

By the way, today is the 3rd birthday of the blog, which started on March 31st, 2006.

A friend, president of Houston Theosophical Society, sent me the link to a beautiful slide show on world religions represented in Houston, he received from a friend:  “It is a wonderful picture log of world religions.  For those of you who are not from ‘around these parts,’ it lets you know that Houston has become quite an international city and more than the ‘brass buckle on the Bible Belt’.” He added: “Glad that Houston is home to so many faiths practiced in peace and tolerance mainly. Rightly missing was Theosophy because it is the primordial esoteric spiritual tradition underlying other religions, without being one, like colorless white light hides seven colors within it.”

The slide show is introduced with the words: “Your neighbor is a what!?! What is that? Yes, there are Zoroastrians, Wiccans and Jains in Houston. And people of lots of other faiths too.”

Source of Light, Dec. 1981