The present US finance crisis also spills over into e-mail requests to sign petitions like that of AVAAZ making a call to act now.  A friend asked me what I think of such initiatives.

AVAAZ says: “The global financial crisis is spilling over into our lives, threatening jobs, savings, pensions and public services everywhere — worldwide recession could be next, while the public bears the cost. It’s time for citizens around the world to raise our voices and demand that the fundamental causes of this crisis are addressed — we need tough rules to stop the financiers’ folly, and a new framework that better serves the public interest.”
They address European, US and world leaders: “We urge you to take a lead in fixing the fundamental flaws and loopholes which made the global financial crisis possible, including basic problems of debt and risk, incentives and transparency.” – and then they ask you to sign the petition with a click.

I’m not judging about the necessity of measures counter-acting excessive greed and its consequences… But  I normally keep a distance to these click-collection campaigns. I had participated once in one of the AVAAZ campaigns, for Tibet. and there I saw that you are per default registered into their mailing list (from which you later can resign), so they are a bit enforcing participation.

For me these click-collections are kind of a show. The idea is fascinating – a click from the desktop, like in a computer-game – and then you feel that you have done something against global crises. But changing the world cannot be done with a quick click.

Of course coordinated actions are powerfull, courageous commitment for the well-being of ones fellow-humans or nature is of a great value. And also an englightened public opinion.

Action is generally understood as a means for change. Much less, however, the value of a silent, inner work of transformation. It is much more effective to change oneself first and thus create a change in the world. This inner work is not showy, it demands patience and endurance. It is not a quick-click activity or an online-game.

The global crises are the results of collective past actions, called Karma. When people are ensuring a high standard of living on the basis of bank-depts, and the banks speculating with hot air, it is no wonder that the card-house of illusionary values collapses. It looks like magic to witness hundred billions of dollars just disappearing into the void. Was there any real value before? What is a value and the quality of money? You might like to read the Good Will in Action on “Money and Good Will“.

We are in the month of Libra, and in the East they are worshiping now the Goddess Durga, who is creating the illusions of matter and its impenetrability. She is depicted as sitting on a lion or a tiger, symbolizing the wild, untamed personality instincts. The gambling of the banks reminds of such a “ride on a tiger” – but of people with blind-folded eyes.

Durga-statue in the house of a friend.

Yesterday I got an e-mail from an Argentinean friend living in Southern Spain. He announced that he had just started a bi-lingual blog called “The Universal Nation – La Nación Universal“. His keynote starts with the words:

“The abolition of the system of nations as independent sovereign states is the present’s paradigm, and the greatest global need, and the solution to many of the major problems of modern humankind, all at once….
Today’s paradigm –21(st) century’s paradigm– is not nationalism, nor regionalism, nor continental integrations but, directly Universalization: a so-called Universal Nation – or the social habitat of World Citizens.”

It is a topic he has been pondering upon since long. In a chat with me last Sunday he wrote that the thoughts he intends to express through the blog are the synthesis of his experiences in this life, to be a good service to some extent…

Though he isn’t talking in the blog about personal experiences, just expressing his thoughts about the basic need of overcoming the separation of national borders and barriers, it is still a topic of a very intense nature concerning his life: Some years ago I had a talk with him while he was still living in Germany and trying to get a permission to stay. The authorities gave him a hard time and in the end he left Germany – an end of a cycle, as he said. He is an artist, a dancer and philosopher. I appreciate very much his energetic, kind and open-minded nature. (You might read here a blog-note about his father.)

The problem of nationality and borders is limiting the free movements more and more. The fear of strangers taking away jobs and over-flooding the cultural settings of a country is very strong – and the walls are getting tighter. The national personalities are developing…

Master Morya says: “I wish to see you moving over the face of the world when all national boundaries, because of their multitude, will be erased. How can we fly when pinned by a small nail! Reflect upon the need of travel for humanity.” (Agni Yoga – Community in the New Age § 93)

Separativity will break the unity of the world into many pieces. A very symbolic sculpture in front of the UN-building in New York.

World Union – overcoming division and seeing the inter-connectedness of all life. A statue in Berne erected on the occasion of the founding of the World Postal Union

An Indian friend forwarded me today the following text with an interesting story about decision making. How would you decide?

“A group of children were playing near two railway tracks, one still in use while the other disused. Only one child played on the disused track, the  rest on the operational track.

The train is coming, and you are just beside the track interchange. You can make the train change its course to the disused track and save most of the kids. However, that would also mean the lone child playing by the disused track would be sacrificed. Or would you rather let the train go its way?

Let’s take a pause to think what kind of decision we could make…

Most people might choose to divert the course of the train, and sacrifice only one child. You might think the same way, I guess. Exactly, to save most of the children at the expense of only one child was rational decision most people would make, morally and emotionally. But, have you ever thought that the child choosing to play on the disused track had in fact made the right decision to play at a safe place?

Nevertheless, he had to be sacrificed because of his ignorant friends who chose to play where the danger was. This kind of dilemma happens around us everyday. In the office, community, in politics and especially in a democratic society, the minority is often sacrificed for the interest of the majority, no matter how foolish or ignorant the majority are, and how farsighted and knowledgeable the minority are. The child who chose not to play with the rest on the operational track was sidelined. And in the case he was sacrificed, no one would shed a tear for him.

The great critic Leo Velski Julian who told the story said he would not try to change the course of the train because he believed that the kids playing on the operational track should have known very well that track was still in use, and that they should have run away if they heard the train’s sirens.. If the train was diverted, that lone child would definitely die because he never thought the train could come over to that track! Moreover, that track was not in use probably because it was not safe. If the train was diverted to the track, we could put the lives of all passengers on board at stake! And in your attempt to save a few kids by sacrificing one child, you might end up sacrificing hundreds of people to save these few kids.

While we are all aware that life is full of tough decisions that need to be   made, we may not realize that hasty decisions may not always be the right one.

Remember that what’s right isn’t always popular… and what’s popular isn’t always right.
Everybody makes mistakes; that’s why they put erasers on pencils. “

Today a friend sent me the link to a YouTube-video of Osho (Bhagwan Sri Rajneesh) talking about “After Friedrich Nietzsche declared that “God is Dead” – the word F*CK has become the most important word in the English language…” Really funny and philosophical

Photo from the video (c)

After a final sprint during the last days, we finally managed to install the relaunch of the good-will website. It has just been opened. My son (16) has helped me a lot with the technical side, and now it’s nearly done…. We have integrated the blog into the site design, and the technical basis is quite better than before. Enjoy!

Today I finished the sites for the relaunch of the good-will website. It has been totally revised. During installation some problems showed up, which my son will take care of. So the good-will site will be closed for the next few days. In the meanwhile have a look at the blog-posts.

Some days ago I got an e-mail from a friend in Venezuela who wrote (lightly adapted):

“I assisted to a conference with the Tao people in Caracas, and they talked about how the human beings, when they die and disincarnate, there are different way  they do this work.
They said, if it is done by the  ajna center (in the middle above the eyes) they will have some special work to do, but if the soul is going out by the eyes, in their  next incarnation they will come as a bird, by the nose they will be an insect, by the ears a mammal,  by the mouth a fish, and by your navel you are again coming as a human being….
This part in the conference was a shock to me because I do not know anything about it, only with our teacher we really are doing a work in order to establish a different style of life with the work to do, in this incarnation, and  looking to continue an ascent to live with the soul and liberate the personality in order to use only our soul and participate with it in the social life, …”

I anwered her:

“Many people talk many silly things in spirituality. This with the bird, insect etc. is absolute nonsense. The Masters of Wisdom teach that you should go out through the higher centres, from heart onward, and the higher the better. I try to go by what I know from their teachings. You quickly get confused with people talking about spirituality and the like… Don’t let yourself get confused and try to help people to get out of the clouds of spiritual confusion, this is a big maya.”

She answered: “Those people of the Tao look so nice, but I really was shocked with the information they talked about….”

I replied: “Yes, there are many nice people in spiritual groups, but this doesn’t guard them from getting lost into wrong concepts.” It is a great test on the path to work out a right understanding and not to let yourself get confused by the many irritating concepts.  The mind is often compared with a mirror full of deformations and dirt. It is important to clean it and restore its original purity. This is a scientific process, and the age-old science is called the path of yoga or union. For this path a wise teacher is very helpful.

The mirroring globe in the Cité des sciences de de l’industrie in Paris. Photo of a friend

Last week in a yoga group of my wife a friend, a muslim woman, said it is now Ramadan, but that she doesn’t follow the fasting. She feels too weak and gets dizzy when trying to fast. My wife said to her, “You certainly also get into Paradise without fasting.” The friend answered, she isn’t sure about that. A feeling of inadequacy caused by non-compliance to religious rules…

There are many such strong thought forms, not only created in the name of God and right behaviour. Mostly we adopt them unconsciously and let ourselves get conditioned by them. Trying to break out of the boundaries of tradition or concepts just creates new mental cages. Thoughts so easily get crystallised.

Yesterday evening in a meditation & study group we read the following passage of the book on Saraswathi by Dr. K. P. Kumar, which very aptly describes the situation:

“Normally we are caught in our own idea of work. Repeated functioning causes certain crystallization. We lose flexibility. We become rigid. Any changed situation is painful because it is not in tune with our crystallised pattern. We try to advocate only the pattern we know and insist on it. We resist other patterns and reject them. This is arising out of our habit-forming nature. We form a habit and we cannot come out of it….

This is the major problem of the modern man, we crystallize our patterns, insist on them, reject and even ridicule other patterns. In effect we are slaves of patterns developed by us. These patterns condition us, while they also enable us to anchor well, but we should not anchor knee deep or neck deep so that we cannot come out of it.

Our habit with the heating system in winter, cooling system in summer, make us weak inherently. Our habit of sitting in chairs disable us to squat. Eating with spoon and forks disable us to eat with hands.
Likewise, our habit binds us to a name and a form of God and also a mode of worship. We deny other names, other modes, other disciplines. Is this not the limitation that is sweeping humanity, causing bloodshed, discord, hate, and sustained enmity?

It is good to develop a rhythm and the related habit. But it is also equally recommended that we retain the ability to adopt to changing situations. Retain this freedom. Keep some space. Do not suffocate.”

The Acropolis in Athens – a thought form crystallised to a temple, kept alive by restauration

An Indian friend sent me today a beautiful powerpoint presentation (here as a PDF) about faith, from a text of Loren Cunningham. It is about a French acrobat , Charles Blondin (1824-1897), who crossed the Niagara Falls several times on a tightrope, with a wheelbarrow, blindfold, in a sack etc. Fascinating pictures of the Niagara Falls. The presentations compared the feat of Blondin with the firm faith in God, not faltering at any step. A good parable.

Charles Blondin, carrying his manager over the Niagara Falls (copyright expired)

Two weeks ago we were in Engelberg at a seminar. The meaning of Engelberg is Mountain of Angels, and throughout the village you could see angel sculptures like an invasion of beings from another sphere. The sculptures of the exposition were basically the same polyacrylic forms decorated in different ways – and thus reflecting different attitudes towards the sublime:

Some of the figures were ridiculising the idea of angels, some were playfully using them as decorations, some reflected a spark of the underlying mystery. A friend of mine sent me a photo CD with some of these angels – a good study, not so much about angels but more about man or the artist’s attitude. The angels are for sale… The titles under the pictures are given by me:

The Shopping-Angel with a sad look, his head being a black gift box – symbolic of man lost in commercialism.

The Fashion Angel, disguised in decoration, his light being the false light of a lamp and not from above.

What do you find inside the drawers? Spiritual inspiration or emptiness?

The Angel of a “beautiful apartment / nice dress dream” – instead of striving to the lofty spheres

The Angel of Time – reminding us of the good use of every moment for upliftment. It is also Chronos-Saturn, the Lord or Time, in green, related to the 3rd ray of Active Intelligence.

The Angel of Broken Mirrors – symbolic of broken dreams or of the many reflections of the One light in the dense spheres of the gross material world.

The Tourism Angel, inside three branches of a dead tree – looking for “higher experiences” in the mountains

The Angel of the integration of heart and hand, of loving action

The Angel of the Warm Heart, radiating silently his light at the corner of a shop, inspiring hope and strength