The Million Book Project, an international venture led by Carnegie Mellon University in the United States, Zhejiang University in China, the Indian Institute of Science in India and the Library at Alexandria in Egypt, has just completed the digitization of more than 1.5 million books, which are now available online, as a press release communicated on November 27.

The project was initiated in 2002, and now anyone who can get on the Internet now has access to a collection of books the size of a large university library. The Million Book Project represents the world’s largest, university-based digital library of freely accessible books. At least half of its books are out of copyright, or were digitized with the permission of the copyright holders, so the complete texts are or eventually will be available free. As per the countries engaged in the project, most of the books are in English or in Chinese. However, more than 20 languages are represented among the 1.5 million books, a little more than 1 percent of all of the world’s books.

Though the long-term goal of the Universal Library is to make books, artwork and other published works available online for free, about half of the current collection remains under copyright. Until the permission of the copyright holders can be documented, or copyright laws are amended, only 10 percent or less of those books can be accessed at no cost.

“Knowledge is structured in consciousness”, says an old Eastern wisdom saying. Digitalising is an important step of making books virtually accessible to all, but only what you have integrated into your live becomes part of your living – no matter how many books are the outflow of the mental activity of mankind over the centuries.

A bookshop in Berne. In a virtual library you can’t just take a book into your hands and start turning the pages.

Last Wednesday I had a “business-lunch” with some executives of the IT-agency, which is realising the new intranet of my office and where I’m the project manager. During the talk one of the members told me that two years ago, from 05 to 06, he had been on a one year’s journey via land to India. I was astonished: In my youth some of my friends had been hitch-hiking to Goa, India, but I had thought that because of the geo-political situation it wasn’t anymore possible or at least dangerous to go via land. The IT-engineer said, that they had a very smooth journey, without any disturbances.

They had gone via Italy, Greece, Turkey, Iran, Pakistan to India and Nepal. They never had any problems at the frontiers, and also during the journey there weren’t any burglaries or accidents. He told me that the most cordial and hospitable people he met in Iran. He was impressed that even on the country people were very open-minded, very hospitable and well-cultured. At home, the women weren’t wearing the chador and joined talks. People felt quite distant to the official rulers and openly spoke about it. It reminded me of my talks with an Iranian colleague, with whom I had published a series of documents about Iranian and Muslim culture, for Swiss social workers working with Iranian refugees.

The IT-manager said the only uncomfortable situation was during their passage through Balochistan, where they joined with other travellers to go through undisturbed. He further spoke about his experiences in India and Nepal. There, even during turbulences with the Maoist opposition which blocked them for a while, they hadn’t experienced any adverseness. I asked him how they could manage to drive through the partly chaotic traffic in India: They just took it slowly and went with the general flow. Only in the villages they had sometimes to stop and somebody had to climb on the top of their car to lift up the electric wires…

When I asked him how he could manage to be away from office for such a long time, he said that the management of their agency, of which he is a member, started with the agency during their studies, and since they didn’t have much free time the first years, now one after the other takes a longer time of vacation to go around the world – to see other cultures and to experience very different ways of living.

A jeep at the coast of Senegal, photo of a friend.

The third evening of our series of evening themes on Meditation – Experiment and Experience yesterday evening happened to be around Sagittarius full moon time. Two newcomers popped in, some returned from the previous meetings and then there were members of our local group – all together we were 13 persons. The atmosphere was very different to the last time, a Scorpio new moon. There was a good presence and resonance in the audience, and I felt a continuous flow of thoughts around the topic popping in. Before I felt like being empty, but after the alignment in meditation before the meeting I felt like being “plugged in. During the talk I was more calm and settled than the first time, and more energetic than last time. It was a good experience.

After a short repetition of the last meetings I started with the powerpoint slides of this evening, mentioning some fundamental things about spiritual practice: “Make haste slowly”, as the saying goes. There is no need of wanting to get enlightenment the other day. It is a long journey. Then we touched the topic of food and drink and the importance of service for a spiritual evolution and came to the main topic of this evening, the Path of Yoga. I spoke about the subtle bodies of man, the etheric existence and the bridge between the lower and the higher mind, between soul and personality. We had a look at the subtle energy centre, called chakras or lotuses and the kundalini.

The people were very open, and the meditation, starting with the singing of 21 times OM quickly established an energy field which most of them experienced as a deep inner silence. A newcomer said that she never had such an experience before. It was inspiring to see some seeds of inner growth sprouting.

Energy field – a statue by Swiss artist Maya Thommen

Some time ago we heard that in our settlement all flats will be given notice within the next two years, so that the apartments can be renovated and rented at a higher price. So we started looking for a new flat.

Two and a half weeks ago we saw an old, but charming flat in a neighbour village, where the price wasn’t that much exorbitant like the normal level here in the area. The building manager showed it to us, it seemed that we had good chances to get the apartment, and so we applied for renting it. Some friends with a “penchant” to clairvoyance confirmed: “Yes, you will get the apartment, I’m sure about it.”

Our imagination started organising the rooms and the removal. Inwardly there was already a feeling of saying good-bye to the old flat – until yesterday morning: A letter returned our application saying that they had given preference to someone else… So the bubble burst.

Again it was astonishing for us how a desire can create an illusionary feeling of a mock-reality. We said, o.k., something else and even better might come. And will there also be some other flat-bubbles?

My wife added: “I had talks with a friend who was very much convinced that then man she met was her future new husband. I asked her how they deal with resolving problems, and she answered, that it is going very good – until half a year later the relation bubble burst: She somehow had totally suppressed the difficulties in the relation and tried to live on the easy side.” Life, however, easily gets us back out of the rosy clouds, down to earth again.

Someone remarked in a talk some time ago: “I don’t need to study anything about meditation or spirituality to get knowledge. That’s only mental. We have everything inside, and whatever I need to know will come to me by way of intuition.”

I thought, well, if a child thinks, “I have everything inside, I don’t need a teacher”… Or a pianist: “All comes to me by way of intuition, I don’t have to practice, I don’t need a teacher”… you can imagine the output. It is my experience that if you don’t have a right and profound understanding of what you are doing with meditation or on your spiritual path, you’ll quickly land in a deadlock or in the wilderness. A right understanding and a wise teacher help clearing the obstacles on the way to experience.

Today a Spanish e-mail which landed in the spam-folder from one of the newsletter-subscribers contained a link to a film about “Shocking New Fur Investigation“, by the Swiss Animal Protection / East International, showing how in fur farms the fur is cut off from living animals. There was a link leading to a site called “Fur is Dead“, for actions against cruelties in the name of fashion. (You might consider not looking the video, for it is atrocious.)

I had written before about “Trash? or How to Deal with Atrocities” and other blogposts about man’s cruelty against his fellow-creatures. It seems as if people cut off part of their being to ignore what they are doing, to suppress their consciousness. Such cruelties not only happen against animals, but also against fellow men. It is difficult not to close one’s eyes and at the same time not to be drawn into a voyeurism of media stimulation. May people realize that what they are doing now is the seed of their future destiny coming back to them. And may they develop feelings of friendship and friendliness towards all sentient beings.

Temple elephant in India

A friend sent me some days ago a powerpoint presentation about a huge beautiful temple in India, near Delhi, which has been constructed from 2000-2005. I forwarded it to another friend in the States remarking that it is better to construct temples of the heart than of stone.

He replied that he had seen the temple last year and that the presentation does not do full justice to the scope and grandeur of the “Swaminarayan Akshardham”, called a spectacular, thematic symbol of eternal life. He added a saying of H.P Blavatsky, from one of her Aquarian axioms, “You cannot build a Temple of Truth by hammering dead stones. Its foundations must precipitate themselves like crystals from the solution of Life.”

Another giant temple called “Sripuram“(: see pictures) and made of 1.5 tons of pure gold has been constructed near Vellore and inaugurated in August, 07. It is now the biggest structure made of gold. You find a description with some photos here. It reminds me of the megalomania of the Basilica of Our Lady of Peace of Yamoussoukro, the biggest church of the world at Ivory Coast.

The urge of man to idolize God to aggrandize himself and his own belief-system is much more powerful than the urge to work for silent self-transformation and selfless service for the needy.

For copyright reasons there is no picture of the temples, the picture here is from a friend, of a palace in Northern India.

Karma is the impact of your actions. “Carma” is the name of a website dedicated to “Carbon Monitoring for Action” with a giant interactive database showing who in the world causes most carbon emissions.

The site has just been launched on November 15th. They have collected information of over 50,000 power plants and 4’000 power companies worldwide. Power generation accounts for 40% or all carbon emission in the US and about a quarter of global emissions. The USA is at the top, nearly 2.8 billion tons of CO2 are emitted by power plants, followed by China with 2.5 billion, and China also has the power plant with the highest output.

So have a look on the global “Carma” to see who causes most global karma (: and we get our’s through the power outlet…):

Today I came across the website of a film called “Mystic India – an incredible journey of inspiration“. The description says:

“Mystic India rediscovers India, a land of many mysteries and fascinations, the one land that all desire to see. Home of the Himalayas, the tallest mountains, India is our world’s largest and oldest democracy, and contains an amazing wealth of wisdom, culture and spirituality. And within this earliest civilization known to mankind, lie hidden mystical secrets. It lies hidden in India’s silent spirituality, making her a mystic land of meditation, contemplation and enlightenment.

From 1792 to 1799, Neelkanth walked alone, barefoot and barebody, 8000 miles for 7 years through the length and breadth of India. Carrying no maps, no food and no clothing, how he crossed the roaring rivers, faced ferocious animals and survived the freezing winter of the Himalayas, is still a mystery. It is a story of struggle, of kindness and of courage even when face to face with a man-eating lion….

Neelkanth became one of the greatest spiritual leaders of India. His lessons continue to inspire millions. His vision, work, and wisdom echoes the essence of Indian culture – its unity in diversity. This is the greatest gift India can offer the world.
Mystic India is an epic journey into the land and soul of India…”

You can see a trailer or hear soundtracks from the film.

Photos: (c) Mystic India

Thursday night the first new snow fell in the city, and the following morning the roads were very slippery, when I went to work with my moped. The day before I had a flat tyre-tube which I luckily got quickly repaired, plus a new tyre. I jokingly had told the mechanic: Now I have a winter tyre for the snow – and it came faster than I thought.

First new snow: View from the rest-room at the upper floor of our office building in Berne

This Scorpio-time is a time of letting-go, of working on old burdens: The heritage my father had left over he had distributed quite uneven, and the part assigned to me was quite a lot below the legal share. I had spoken with the notary, who told me that he had been unable to convince my father that what he was going to decide was not along the rules. He nevertheless did the final version of his testament according to his own convictions and without the notary’s assistance.

A second notary involved in family affairs told me the same, with more details. Speaking with my brother and sisters showed me that they weren’t happy with the situation, either. But since the affairs are more complicated and I didn’t want to get into a legal procedure with the family, with costly expert opinions etc., I informed them about what the notaries had said and that I don’t want to insist on the legal minimum.

There had been quite some reflections about the backgrounds of the situation, of what is the right way of proceeding without emotional entanglements, and also with balancing other expectations around. A lot of pictures came along, with thoughts of past situations, about the relation with my old family, of discussions with my father, of karmic inheritances. Clearing the wastes of the past and laying sound foundations for steps of future growth helps letting-go the shackles of unresolved emotional ties.

Similar Scorpionic situations came along with a friend who went through a crisis of inner birth: long-frozen emotions came into a flow after a talk with my wife. It was like a baby being born within, which quickly started growing. Throwing loving light into abysses of the past, while keeping close contact with the light of the soul, helps triggering transformation processes. Scorpio really is the month of the phoenix, going from death to a new life.