Last Saturday morning after meditation and breakfast we went by bus to Simhachalam, the little village about 30 km from the retreat centre in Visakhapatnam, where the preparations for the Guru Puja celebrations were going on, a huge festival in honour of Spiritual Hierarchy. The next three days some thousands of group members will assemble here for the group living with rituals, lectures and presentations, to be in the presence of the vibrant spiritual energies.

At the foot of the mountain we changed the bus to go up to the temple compound on top of the hill. A lot of pilgrims were streaming up the stairs to the temple, through rows of beggars and colourful shops filled with devotional articles. Flowers, coconuts and peacock feathers were offered for sale to the passers-by, with cries repeated like mantrams. We rushed through the fenced stairways into the inner of the temple, being pressed by Indian pilgrims.

The Man-Lion opening the heart-centre. The inner court of the old Simhachalam temple

We only had a very short stop near the innermost of the temple with the huge lingam: We had not paid the entrance fee allowing us full access… But we had a better chance: Master Kumar and Kumari Garu had joined us in the temple and now told us to assemble in the adjacent hall with old lion-shaped stone pillars. There we gathered around him and he gave us a lecture about the symbolism and importance of the Simhachalam temple. Simha means lion, and Simhachalam is related to the opening of the heart centre, depicted in the story of the avatara (divine incarnation) of the Man-Lion, Narasimha. In front of the temple there is a pillar of brass representing the vertebral column, through which the kundalini energy is being lifted up, liberating the soul captured in matter…

Sitting inside the hall with the lion-pillars, listening to Sri Kumar’s explanations

One of the brass columns symbolizing the vertebral column

The temple gate of Simhachalam

With Master Kumar in front of the temple entrance

After the short lecture part of the group took the bus back to Simhachalam downhill, the other part went down the stairways leading into the valley. It was such a beautiful way, through a little forest, with beggars and pilgrims along the way.

A statue of Ganesha under a tree, alongside the stairways to the valley

After lunch on the assembly compound we passed a silent, relaxing afternoon in the nearby palm forest, where the songs of the passing crows only were interrupted by the mooing of some cows accompanied by the music coming over the fields from the Guru Puja hall.

At 6 o’clock pm we assembled in the hall for evening prayer. After a simple, but tasty dinner we assembled again at 9 p.m. in the hall for full moon meditation, while the mild light of Capricorn full moon spread over the country. We were filled with joy and very tired, when the bus drove us back to the retreat centre for a short sleep.

Last Tuesday four o’clock in the morning my wife and I set off for our journey to Visakhapatnam, India, to participate in the seminar of the World Teacher Trust, with our teacher Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar. The taxi drove us through the sleepy city, just a fox and a few cars crossed our ways to the station, where we took the first morning train to Zurich Airport. It was quite cold, 6 degrees Centigrade minus. But when we landed at our first stop, in Frankfort, the temperature dropped still further, 15 degrees minus. Doesn’t matter, I thought, the next stop will bring more warmth.

A radiant sunrise over icy Frankfort

And so it was. In Chennai (Madras) it was 22 degrees, when we landed at midnight, and rain was poring down over a sultry city. It smelled very Indian, when we drove with the taxi to the hotel through side-roads full of mud. Quite a contrast.

The contrast was even stronger when we finally landed in Visakhapatnam, at the Gulf of Bengal, the temperature was over 30 degrees. Murthi, the good caretaker of the World Teacher Trust Retreat Centre was giving us a worm welcome and told us we would wait for another group coming from Hyderabad with the next plane. So we waited for an hour in a hot taxi, where an old video about some Krishna devotee, giving us a taste of spiritual India. New impressions started to fill our minds.

At the retreat centre more and more people started coming. A group had been on a pilgrimage tour to Bangalore, Kumbhakonam  – the city where Master CVV had lived, the Blue Mountains, the holy pilgrimage centre of Sri Sailam, where I had been 2 years ago. A big family reunion, with hearty welcome hugs. The retreat centre is very full, with about 60 people from Spain and Germany, from Belgium and Switzerland.

This morning Master Kumar gave us a very warm welcome:

“Welcome to India, welcome to the group life. We have more or less a very relaxed group life, meaning there are not too many teachings. I have reduced the hours of teachings, so that we have more hours for living. So that we don’t get stuck too much in the concepts, live the concepts. Presence is more in living. The concept of presence is more when not leaving the bus. Maybe too many years of teachings have spoiled some of  the members. And then listening to the teachings also becomes a vice, and we forget to live and live more in the world of illusion and not in the life that is all around – no flower, no lover, no child, no good food. Many times there is a danger that we walk away from life, when there is too much teachings. So less teachings more living. All teaching is about living, but the people live more in teachings than living. Then sometimes break it…

Thank you for coming in spite of difficulties. Economic difficulties –  the economics is shrinking globally, but we don’t have to shrink along with it, because we did not grow when the global economics grew. So why should we shrink, when it shrinks? It is an aspect of discipleship that we are not affected by the impact of the world, to be in the world, but not to be of the world. You don’t have to get affected. Many more events will happen in the next three years, because some accounts will have to be settled. Some old accounts will have to be squared up. There will be many more happenings. When there is no release, there can be no change. Change is already on the way. There has to be a great change, but a new balance. These are years of change, and it continues to change in 2020. Some of us may still live in this time. Let us live in that part of life which does not change. We only think of the unchangeable, but let us live in it. …”

Master Kumar: A warm welcome to the group

A view from our room over the street: Indian-style construction in going on, with a lot of noise. The white house in the background is the backyard of Sri Kumar’s house, which soon will be hidden from view.

The WTT Retreat Centre. Our room is in the fourth floor, with the plate in front of the balcony.

I first wanted to upload some more pictures, but the Wlan connection is quite slow…

From another friend in California I got the link to a website called Architects of a New Dawn. It is a new social networking site by the musician Carlos Santana that is devoted to positive and transformative music and media.

On the site it says:

“Architects of A New Dawn is a project, born from the dream and vision of Carlos Santana, to create a new global network, driven by extraordinary music and powerful media content. It is designed to engage people of all walks of life to work together to create positive change in the global community where love can replace fear and where peace can replace conflict.”

Carlos Santana writes: “One of the things that has become very clear to me in recent months is that after carrying an idea in my mind and soul for decades that the time had come to bring my vision of Architects Of A New Dawn into reality. The world today is as deeply challenged as it is inspired. Never has there been a more profound time to harness the possibilities for positive change, especially in this era of mass communication. This is my invitation to you to join us in this transformational work.”

On the site you find a number of beautiful videos, and music videos, like “Sacred” (with scenes of Buddhist monks in the old Ankor Wat temple, Cambodia)

The site “is an invitation to join and connect with other Architects literally from every part of the globe to find ways to effect change and transform our world together.”

A friend from California sent me as a New Year’s greetings a link to a very inspiring video posted on the NASA-website (astronomy picture of the day). However, this one wasn’t about spacecrafts or galaxies, but of a man by name Matt Harding traveling around the planet and dancing. And animating people everywhere to dance with him.

The video is also on YouTube, and elsewhere. He has a website: Where the Hell is Matt?, where you can read more about him.

Matt got his journey around the world financed by a chewing gum producer, on the site of which you can also download the video in hi-res and different formats. Through his dances he is spreading joy and inspiration.

My friend sent the link with the words: “The video reminds us of the Tibetan’s quote ‘May the Love of the divine Self be shed abroad in our hearts, through our Group and throughout the World. And may the power of the spirit of Man triumph.’ And so it is…”

The recent bi-weekly newsletter of The Soul Journey (I have written a post about it before) on “Being Authentic and Telling the Truth” has very interesting thoughts on the ways how people present what they consider to be the truth – giving a specific spin to their presentation and leaving parts away when they don’t fit into the picture to be presented. This is a very common feature especially of marketing and of PR-campaigns, no matter from which field. It remembered me of the campaigns Swiss banks, especially UBS, are doing at the moment to regain the trust of the customers. An extract of the newsletter:

“We live in a world of communications – media of all sorts that reach around the world, into our work places and into our living rooms and bedrooms. People with agendas to serve, often self-serving, use these media to try to convince as many people as possible to believe the ‘truth’ they are presenting.

In recent times there have been elections in which candidates for high offices have held debates. The greatest influence of these debates has not been directly to people’s minds, because people don’t pay enough attention or use their own sense to understand sufficiently to make up their minds about what they hear. That is part of the problem. The other part is that politicians, like other people, do not always tell the truth, or they distort the truth, and most people do not know what the facts are. The result of all this is that people wait to make up their minds from what the media presents. The media tells them who won the debate, who was better, etc.

There are two things we need to be aware of when listening to others telling what they consider to be the truth:

1. The spin. Facts are taken and presented with a specific spin, a specific interpretation, to suit the one presenting them. The spin is determined by the agendas, the motives, and the goals of those presenting them. So the objective facts are seldom revealed as such.

2. Perception Management. This is similar but more insidious than spin. It is not just a manipulating of the facts, but a complete ignoring of the facts. Perception management, for example, presents greed masquerading as compassion and generosity; air pollution, water pollution and other forms of corruption are packaged attractively as social benefits; making war in order to establish peace, making up euphemisms like soft targets and collateral damage to hide the hideousness of immoral behaviour involving killing innocent people. Perception management involves falsehood and deception, the purpose of which is to get others to believe what one wishes them to believe, whatever the truth may be. It is no wonder that it has been described as ‘information warfare’ since the term was first used by the U.S. military. It is now widely used by whomever has motivation to influence many and the means of doing so, particularly through the media.

Always be wary of the propaganda you are exposed to regardless of where it is coming from. Always see through it to the motivations and heart of those presenting it. If there is power or money at stake behind the messages, you can be sure you are being exposed to spin and/or perception management. Once you recognize this, and understand what is going on, you can dismiss it and, if possible, identify the truth that is being distorted or hidden.

At the very least trust your heart, your soul, to know when someone is trying to manipulate the truth. And then stand for the truth as you know it. Be courageous and be authentic!

Exercises:
Make it a practice to examine at least one message a day that comes to you from others directly or through the media. Ask yourself to sense what the motivations are of the presenter, and what truth or facts are involved. Ask yourself to what extent the truth is being distorted or completely hidden. Then decide what you want to do – accept, reject, or stand for something else.

Go beyond just understanding and attain more perspectives, experiences and integration to enable you to heal the past and create the future.”

St. Michael fighting the dragon on top of the townhall of Brussels, with an airplane passing by like a comet

The last days I had been near Brussels in Belgium visiting members of the local WTT group. They had met over 25 years ago and formed as a group when Master EK came to Belgium giving lectures in the early 80ies. With his inspiration they had build some houses in a little forest about 30 km outside Brussels, to be able to live in nature and lead a life oriented along the spiritual lines outlined by the Master.

Each family has a house of its own, but they frequently meet for meditation and exchange. It was impressive to feel the deep roots formed through the common practice of living spirituality in daily life. Everyone has his own house / sphere, but significantly without fences in between, and this also spreading to the neighbours. In one of the houses there is a meditation room with a 12-pointed star on the floor, surrounding a 6-pointed star, in the middle of which there is a candle and little statue of the Buddha and pictures of the masters, as symbol of contemplation.

The ceiling is a white cupola with structures of energy lines meeting:

There is a beautiful white crystal singing bowl resounding in the space. And when you intonate the OM, it echoes from the wall and the whole space starts resounding.

On the beautiful old stove in the room there is the sculpture of a squirrel, reminding me of the story in the old Indian epic Ramayana, where a squirrel is blessed by Rama, because it is running to and fro on the beach throwing grains of sand into the ocean to help him building a bridge to Lanka to destroy the demon who has stolen his wife: A symbol of selfless service regardless of the eventual outcome.

The house with the meditation room at the first floor

Last week I visited my “old family” in Germany. It was the first time since the passing of my father 1.5 years ago, and things had changed quite a lot: My brother and one of my sisters had inherited the house of my parents and done quite some renovation work in the meantime.

I knew of these changes, but hadn’t seen it. It was a strange experience, being in a very familiar surrounding, where I had grown up, but which was no longer the same surrounding: The inner memory pictures and the outer didn’t match. Partly the scenery was the same, partly it had changed a lot: walls had disappeared, new colours, doors and furniture had appeared. Also it now was the house of my brother and sister. Pictures and feelings were overlapping, causing irritations and new experiences. Also the relations to the relatives were being partly re-defined.

My brother and sister who had mainly initiated or done the changes himself had lived the transition. For me it was a sudden change. It reminded me of the many situations where you live for a while with a concept in mind, which once was formed with an actual perception, but which hadn’t been updated since. When there is a new snapshot of reality, there is the chance of adapting the concepts. How many concepts in us need an update or don’t fit with reality? The new year gives a good chance of updating one’s  view of the world or at least of one’s major viewpoints.

Transition – sunset behind bushes, last Saturday

Last week I read an interview with the Swiss professor of art history, Johannes Stückelberger, about the relation between art and religion. He is teaching at two universities in Switzerland and will start teaching at the National Taiwan University in Taipeh (see link). In the interview he remarked that in the last years famous artists have started decorating churches with glass windows or art expositions are being held in churches in a way which was impossible some decades ago: Artists would have ruined their reputation: Religion was considered to be something private, and the churches were turned more to the inside. Now they go out again into visibility and understand their buildings as public places.

This thought is very fascinating: In other cultures religion or spirituality are much more part of public life. When traveling through India you see signs of the religious attitude of the people everywhere along the roads or in cars, at home or elsewhere in public. I have seen offices with pictures of gods and gurus in a way you would never show here in the west. Though at my office several collegues have little pictures of either a spiritual teacher or a representation of the Divine –  a little statue, a flower – it is quite uncommon at other places. The Christmas displays are more of a decoration value then of a declaration of one’s beliefs. The head-scarf, however, has here quite clearly a religious connotation, coming from a cultural background which didn’t go through the process of secularization.

I myself feel it is more natural today to speak about spiritual activities than it  it was some years or a decade ago. There seems to be a change towards a greater openness, and artists seem to experience this opening towards subtler spheres of perception, in their search for new ways of interpreting the reality. A sign for the growth of the Aquarian age?

An angel in front of a café / bar in Engelberg.

Christmas is the time for business partners to exchange standardized, automatic greetings, often void of any deeper sense. A few of these also arrived in my office. Some want to impress (or bribe?) partners by the value of their gifts, while others give their gift to a social institution. One card I got was of a different kind saying that instead of Christmas present they prefer giving the money to micro-credit institutions financing grass-root economics in developing countries.

Another agency sends every year very interesting small Christmas greetings. This year it was a little self-made booklet entitled “Money – Magic, Mathematics, Soap Bubble?”, together with a bill of “One Talent“, an alternative currency of the Initiative for a Natural Economic Order INWO in Switzerland, inspired by Silvio Gesell.

Besides some short sketches of fairy-tales involving remuneration like that of Mother Hulda or The Star Money, the role of money in different religions and the development of money and digital money, the booklet containes a very interesting visualisation  of the momentary financial crisis:

To save the UBS-bank, Swiss government has given 66 billion Swiss francs. As a pile of hundred Swiss Francs bills, this is a pile of 79.2 kilometers height. For fighting the crisis in the States, the government has promised 8 trillion US$. This is an 8 with 12 zeros, or a pile of hundred dollar notes towering to 9.600 kilometers height (or about 6.000 miles). This sum is without the recent money promised to the automobile industry… An incredible financial Tower of Babel.

Quite impressive, but not the height of the towers of money – the TV-tower in Barcelona, Spain.

This morning while doing some shoppings in the city of Berne I discovered some nice shop window scenes. I love these “kitsch as kitsch can”-sceneries. The Indian Gods on tour in Swiss shop window decorations – what a colourful meeting.

Reflections of reflections – passers-by and display dummies

Non-attachment in the shop display: The Buddha meditating

The child Krishna playing, accompanied with some Sarasvathis, and Durga listening in the back, on a tiger

Hanuman between some vases – ready to serve

Shiva and Parvathi with Ganesha between the storage racks

Shiva sitting on a lotus, with his drum and kamandulu (bowl), surrounded by serpents (symbols of time), blessing the photographer.

Krishna playing flute, with Nandi at his feet.

Rama, Sita, Lakshmana and Hanuman in a boat, surrounded by white horses

Sarasvathi, the Goddess of the Word and of Wisdom, sitting on the white swan (symbol of respiration), playing veena (instrument with 7 strings, symbolising the 7 planes, the music of creation).

Another statue of Hanuman, in deep devotion

Enchanting Krishna, playing the music of the soul

Riding through the ocean of shopping illusions

Melancholic angel: When shall I be redeemed from this boring shop existence?

Harlekin pondering on the mysteries of commercialism