When looking back to the experiences of the last weeks, with the passing of my father and the changes going on in my family of origin, my wife and I were reflecting on what keeps people together and what makes them separate.

It seems that there is always a “third thing” or a “third force” holding together: At work, you collaborate with people to accomplish some job, or with clients, patients etc., who contact you because of some service. In a family you are together because of the relations in the family structure, and if the relation structure changes and there is no more common ground, the family falls apart. If there isn’t a third force, but only an emotional congruence, the relation won’t last. This might be the reason why many marriages fail.

“Birds of the same feather flock together” goes the saying, and this is true for religious people, bankers, disco-goers. People come to the yoga class of my wife not just because of her, but because of the yoga exercises. In our spiritual group people are attracted by the teachings and by the magnetism of the teacher. In my life, I have several times changed the the movement and teachings, and with it there has always been a change of the whole circle of acquaintances. So the relations weren’t on a person-to-person basis, as I had felt, but to a “third thing”, a common interest.

I met people complaining that others didn’t take real interest in them – was it because they didn’t take a real interest in the “third thing”? Some “third things” are of a fleeting character – you have an encounter just for a short time, maybe just once. Others are deep and long lasting. What “third thing” interests are there, going to the deepest core? Where you are meeting the inner centre, in yourself and in the others.

Watching a dawn together at Gemini Full Moon, Mount Rigi, Switzerland, May 99

For the funeral of my father about 150 people gathered in the church, where nearly 2 years ago the funeral ceremony for my mother had taken place. It was somehow familiar and at the same time strange to be among friends and relatives of the family which partly I hadn’t seen for many years and probably won’t see again. I felt outgrown of this world, a heavy feeling of past times, but nevertheless still related with me.

At the beginning of the mass, after an address of the priest, I made a short speech about the life and the guiding ideals of my father, focusing on the transformations which had taken place in his life. The words were meant to invoke the presence of the energies of light to pierce through the dense, heavy atmosphere prevailing at the funeral, and it was for me a very special experience.

The entire setting of the mass and the funeral was very traditional. After the coffin was lowered into the ground of the cemetery, many people came putting some earth and flowers on it and expressing their condolences to my sisters, brother and me. For many it seemed that my father was in the grave, though it was only the corpse. The ideas expressed about the “thereafter” by the clergyman or the people in their letters of condolence were so nebulous and vague as I had known from previous situations in the past. When will they come to realise that there is more to know and to experience about the immortality of the soul?

Later, when reflecting the day, it was like a tidal wave settling down, an energy field taking to another shape. Both parents having gone, the relations will change, giving rise to new constellations. What these new forms will be is still a seed sprouting in the future.

Reflections in a globe at the little pond in the family garden

It was only after the death of my father that I dared selling my coin collection which had been in my father’s safe for over 30 years. Selling it would have been a sacrilege to my father, and I only had sold three valuable coins about 12 years ago to help a friend, and my father hadn’t noticed it.

Though I knew that most of the coins were of not much value for collectors, though there were some old ones in the collection, I thought that a number of them – special editions of 5 and 10 Deutsche Mark – would be interesting to sell. We went to a coin dealer in the city of Münster. They told us that years ago it would have been worth selling them, but now they had no more value except the nominal DM-value which we could change at the Bundesbank to Euros. For the big folder with all the other coins they gave me 30 Euros, and at the building of the Bundesbank, in a high-level security room, the DM-coins melted to some Euro banknotes.

When we left, I felt happy and free: a tie that had bound me for a long time had fallen off, and the energy blocked in the coin collection had finally been released.
You might like to read the text on “Money and Good Will” from the Good Will in Action-series.

On driving through the City of Münster, Germany, we saw a red stop sign at a crossroad, and on the bottom of the road sign somebody had written in white letters: Voldemort – “Stop Voldemort”. We had to laugh: The world of Harry Potter was invading the outer Muggle world.

News about the publication in “Der Bund”.

The morning of the publication of the 7th and last volume “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows”, I had bought two copies, in order to avoid family conflicts. It was a great dive through the book, I was fascinated not only by the dense, brilliant story, but also by the deep occult knowledge interwoven and hidden: The voluntary “death” of Harry and the description of the out-of-body experiences, the offering of his life to save his friends and the community, his dealing with enemies and friends will impregnate the minds of the readers with deep spiritual truths of a preparation for the inward path. Whether the author, Joanne K. Rowling, did it consciously or whether the series of 7 volumes was received by unconscious impression permeating her imaginative creativity doesn’t matter in this. There is a huge impact on the minds world-wide.

In his “Book of Rituals” – written 1967, published 1990 – Master EK (E. Krishnamacharya) wrote: “For this purpose (: a slow and proper understanding of the nature of the mysteries by greater masses of people) some novels will be written by certain induced minds of a Master or a disciple himself directly. Readers of the most materialistic levels will be allured and attracted by the sense of mystery and wonder that surround such plots. They read these books only as imaginary stories, positively disbelieving the truth of the existence of such a line. The impressions that are made upon their mind will work through their subconscious nature and bring the recollection of the past associations of these souls (many of them are necessarily Atlanteans) and prepare the path either in this life or the next. Thus there is a conscious well planned scheme on the line of literature and fine arts.”

Sometimes you want to sail south, but the winds are blowing you towards north. We had planned for two weeks of holidays on the Mediterranean island of Corsica. In the afternoon of the first day on the campsite, a note reached us saying that my father just had a stroke in the public swimming pool, fell into koma and my sister was asking if we would come. It was like a veering of the wind, changing the whole situation.

Next morning, when we were ready to set off, the mobile rang and my sister told us that my father just had died. Through the hot summer day there came a breeze of good-bye, of breaking away of old grounds. Inner and outer scenes flew along during the three days of driving: first at low speed along the serpentine roads through rugged Corsican mountains, then a night on the ferryboat with a beautiful sunrise meditation, the Italian highways and the crossing of the Alps via the pass of the Great St. Bernhard to our home near Berne, where we stayed overnight and reloaded.

Dawn on board of the Corsica Ferry

Next morning further north through Germany, until in the evening we stood in front of the dead body of my father in the mortuary.

There was the apprehension of a matter of fact: His soul had released itself from the body and moved on. The corpse, that wasn’t my father, it was just the case, the cover, not the content. The soul’s continuum of existence became so evident. Death is an illusion, as Eastern wisdom tells us, there is only a change of form, of spheres, not of essence.

Buddha Statue in the family garden

Next day the impact of all the changes of my father’s passing made itself felt. Things became clearer to the feeling which had been clear to the mind. On one inner level, there was the mourning, on another the experience of the fundament of existence on which life was now arranging new patterns. While sitting in the beautiful garden of my family of origin I said good-bye not only to the home where I had grown up, but to a period of my life. Of course there was the feeling of sadness stirred by the passing of my father, but it was about myself, and the present situation was just creating the field of experience.

Seagull

A friend wrote me some days ago that he went through harsh moments, when he experienced strange things in his being. He had done intense spiritual practices and breathing exercises for long hours, experiencing an indescribable serenity, immense joy, and a long mental silence. It was as if he was united with the Supreme Consciousness. But then he had a boiling and pricking sensation in his body and a feeling of an unregulated upsurge of “something” like a swarm of impressions along his spinal column. The more he practised meditation the worse the situation was getting, up to the point where he rushed to a hospital. The treatment prescribed, however, did not relieve him conveniently.

I told him that he might have got an “overdose” of vital energy and that it is important to integrate the exercises one does into a continuous routine and normally not do them over too long a period. Otherwise it is like playing with a fire that can cause serious damages to one’s subtle bodies for a long time. H.P. Blavatsky compared it with jumping into a pond full of crocodiles. I gave him some hints how the fire might come down and the energy re-establish a normal, natural flow.

He then answered that actually he overdid things and that now the “hurricane” has gone over, he feels as comfortable as before. He described the practices he had been doing and said he has now followed my advices, cut down some of his practices and took a lot of fresh water. It was not his first experience in which he tried to catapult himself towards a higher plane, in his eagerness to consciously align with his Higher Self to be a good channel for the Divine.

His eagerness of striving for inner experiences, to align with the higher self, is very understandable. However, on a sound spiritual path it is absolutely necessary to establish a regulated, normal routine of life and not to try to “shoot up” into the higher worlds, to unite with the Divine – at all costs. The orientation should be to train oneself to acquire skills and competences in order to be of good use for a work of service and good will. Personal experiences are regarded as “secondary by-products”, but not as the primary focus. Therefore it is of great importance to balance one’s life and also one’s practices, to have a stable stand in the world and reach out for others. The thing is, you realise the side-effects of unhealthy practices often only years later, when they have done damages. In the positive or less positive way meditation exercises are powerful tools for transformation.

My wife says, the fiery striving is like a big summer fire, which has to be reduced and put into a small oven to be of use for cooking. The big fire would only burn oneself and the others. Spiritual progress is not done by “fireworks” of catapulting oneself towards higher planes, but a work of slow and steady integrating the different fields of life.

Picture of a fire ritual

A friend from California sent me today the following story with pictures, which I also found on different blogs:

“The following pictures are of the same place but taken in different seasons…

There was a man who had four sons. He wanted his sons to learn not to judge things too quickly. So he sent them each on a quest, in turn, to go and look at a pear tree that was a great distance away.

The first son went in the winter, the second in the spring, the third in summer, and the youngest son in the fall.

When they had all gone and come back, he called them together to describe what they had seen.

The first son said that the tree was ugly, bent, and twisted. The second son said no it was covered with green buds and full of promise.

The third son disagreed; he said it was laden with blossoms that smelled so sweet and looked so beautiful, it was the most graceful thing he had ever seen.

The last son disagreed with all of them; he said it was ripe and drooping with fruit, full of life and fulfilment.

The man then explained to his sons that they were all right, because they had each seen but only one season in the tree’s life.

He told them that you cannot judge a tree, or a person, by only one season, and that the essence of who they are and the pleasure, joy, and love that come from that life can only be measured at the end, when all the seasons are up.

If you give up when it’s winter, you will miss the promise of your spring, the beauty of your summer, fulfilment of your fall.

Don’t let the pain of one season destroy the joy of all the rest.
Don’t judge life by one difficult season.
Persevere through the difficult patches,
and better times are sure to come some time or later.

Happiness keeps You Sweet,
Trials keep You Strong,
Sorrows keep You Human,
Failures keep You Humble,
Success keeps You Glowing,
But Only God keeps You Going!

A friend from the southernmost part of Chile, at the Strait of Magellan, who started some months ago to meditate, wrote to me last week:

“You know, during the morning meditations something marvellous is happening. I can recognise the sound of my self, like a heartbeat, like the blood circulation, the different kinds of respirations which I might have. I became aware of the importance that a bit of silence during the daily activities can have. I feel already that this experience is necessary during the day. I can only say that it is magical in every sense, and the most extraordinary is, that you don’t have to look for it neither in the shops nor in the internet nor with friends, for the experience is unique, individual.”

This is a beautiful description of the effect the regular experience of silence starts opening in us. You cannot describe it with words, you have to experience: “Silence is the source of the soul!” (K.P. Kumar, On Silence).

By the way, while we are enjoying summer, in Patagonia it is now very cold and full of snow. A week ago my friend had been with a plane in an area more to the north – Puerto Montt / Los Lagos, which had been colonized 150 years ago by Germans and Swiss – the way of life is said to be still quite European -� and it looks beautiful.

From time to time I get e-mails from friends with certain appeals for help or other curious stories. I normally check them up at Snopes, and most of the stories turn out to be hoaxes.

So I got today an e-mail from Argentina with the photo of a badly burned baby, where there was a call that people should forward this mail so that 0,03 Euro would be donated to rescue that child. I checked it up on Snopes and quickly found that the story was partly true and partly false. And it was already collected there in 2005 – as the case of a real Polish baby.

The perverse thing is: Of course nobody is giving any money by forwarding the e-mail to your friends, it is a sarcastic hoax which only increases the amount of unwanted mails. People misuse the compassion of others with these dirty tricks.

User participation is the big credo in the new online-development called Web2.0. But there are only a few who are actively participating or expressing their opinions.

This week I read an article of Jakob Nielsen’s Alertbox, (Nielsen is a world-famous researcher on usability, the� user-friendliness of the web, and Alertbox is his bi-weekly column) where he writes about “Participation Inequality“:

“All large-scale, multi-user communities and online social networks that rely on users to contribute content or build services share one property: most users don’t participate very much. Often, they simply lurk in the background. In contrast, a tiny minority of users usually accounts for a disproportionately large amount of the content and other system activity….

User participation often more or less follows a 90-9-1 rule:

• 90% of users are lurkers (i.e., read or observe, but don’t contribute).
• 9% of users contribute from time to time, but other priorities dominate their time.
• 1% of users participate a lot and account for most contributions: it can seem as if they don’t have lives because they often post just minutes after whatever event they’re commenting on occurs….

The problem is that the overall system is not representative of Web users. On any given user-participation site, you almost always hear from the same 1% of users, who almost certainly differ from the 90% you never hear from… Blogs have even worse participation inequality than is evident in the 90-9-1 rule that characterizes most online communities. With blogs, the rule is more like 95-5-0.1.”

This participation inequality is a general situation in life: in a school class few pupils are really committed, the same it true in a local community, in politics, in environmental groups – or in a spiritual movement. They set the tone and give shape to a group or a trend.

There is always a big group of passers-by or of onlookers – that’s like things are. They might be interested, but don’t take up any commitment. On the spiritual path people who are just interested stagnate, active commitment is the way to progress: “In every way engagement in duty to the fellow beings fulfils the one in all ways and always.” (K. Parvathi Kumar)

See also the blogpost on “A Child Appealing to the UN to save the Future” as an example for committed action.

Passers-by, City of Berne, April 07