Yesterday a friend from another country informed that he had to withdraw from the presidency of a voluntary aid organisation, which is doing substantial good-will activities for people in difficult social conditions, especially immigrants. I was fascinated by the way they had been doing a great scope of service activities since I came to know about the project some years ago.

The organisation had been created 10 years ago and grown quite a lot since. The founding members, however, who had been committed to the project in the beginning, had dispersed with the time. He had now been the only one who had remained for running the management of the organisation, with several helpers in the activities.

He told me some months ago that it was increasingly difficult for him to keep on running the activities. He wrote now he had tried to cope with all the deficits, to do the work that nobody else wanted to do, but had reached his limits: “We all have had other things more important to do or we have found some reason to avoid it.”

Burnout – even with a lot of good will you have to see and respect the limits of ones forces. Sometimes, however, a phoenix might come out of the ashes.

The news touched me, for I felt how much my friend had been committed to the work and the pain of his decision. It needs courage to say no, when a certain limit is reached, even with a good cause. And even if one work disintegrates or collapses, there is the hope that other people take up the challenge or start something new. You should never fall into the trap of thinking that you are indispensable or that a good activity which exists now will go on forever.

See also the blogpost on “Burnout or Burning” with some thought about compassion fatigue, your the beautiful little booklet by K. Parvathi Kumar”On Change“.

A new tree growing out of the stump of a cut tree.

We yesterday had a walking-tour with our little local meditation group to the Kien valley, a beautiful alpine valley about 30 miles from here. Following the river there were some art sculptures dispersed between the rocks and bushes, forming a beautiful accentuation of the natural ambiance. Like nature spirits they were hiding along the river.

After a lake we arrived at the valley basin where waterfalls were coming down from different sides. We went up the “white water way” along some roaring rivers and cascades. At times the water went through very deep gorges where you could bridge the gap from one side to the other, but didn’t see the river below, because it was lost in the depth.

Above the cliffs we arrived at the Griesalp, where a few houses at the foot of still higher mountains. One of the houses built in the traditional chalet style was decorated with calligraphic decorations of wisdom aphorisms, which reminded me of Paracelsus or of Eastern teachings like those of the Bhagavad Gita:

” The purpose of action is not the result, but to become the eternal bliss of God.”

“Everything perfect in word and deed comes from the depths of eternal silence.”

“Everyone of us has still a million lives on earth ahead – so why this haste, this noise and this impatience.”

“In God’s providence there is no evil, only good and its preparation.”

Our youngest son (14) yesterday evening dyed his hair. He tried a chestnut brown Henna colour on his blond hair, but it turned out to be patchy and quite red, and he didn’t want to appear out of the bathroom nor go out in the evening. My wife had to save him by rushing to a nearby supermarket to buy a dark brown colour, and so he did a second turn. Afterwards all over the bathroom and on some of the clothes different colour spots were spread.

Not only we, but also he felt at first a bit irritated with the result of his change of appearance – brownish black hair. After returning home in the night he told my wife he would like to go to a barber to undo the dying. He himself is quite cured of dying his hair on his own. We quickly got used to the new outlook, and it’s not bad, but he isn’t very happy with it.

This way he is making his experiences with presenting himself in changing outlooks – in search of “Who am I?” and “what is my effect on others?”

Water Spirit – Artwork in the Kien Valley, photo from today’s excursion

A friend wrote me today:

“An investigation in USA of the most successful companies run by well-liked leaders showed that out of many questions there was only one to which they gave the same answer: they had all in the past experienced bad bosses! So, to become good on something you should first ask the Universe for the negative experience of that.”

A stone in a waterfall, picture from today’s excursion into the Kien Valley, Alps

It is a deep biographical truth – the so-called negative experiences with superiors in my life as well have given me an impetus what not to do in my life. And going through times of torrential changes and standing in them like the stone in the waterfall, just from one day to the other keeping the head high, gives a fruit of deep experiences. What was most important for me was (and is) to keep the link to the inner, through daily times of withdrawal within. If you don’t root yourself firmly, the tides will wash you away.

I today got a German powerpoint-presentation entitled “Reap as we sow”. When I had a look on the web to verify if there is an English source and if the content is genuine, I saw it had been posted in different versions on many sites since 2001, with and without comments and different titles. Here is one post from the BBC-website (“Where was God on September 11th?”, the text isn’t from the author mentioned there…). Though it is also not just genuinely the text of Anne Graham, the daughter of Bill Graham, as it is claimed, its worth reading. Here a small appetizer:

“For years we’ve been telling God to get out of our schools, to get out of our government and to get out of our lives. And being the gentleman that He is, I believe that He has calmly backed out. How can we expect God to give us His blessing and His protection if we demand that He leave us alone?”

And where the text on the above site ends, it goes on in another post with:

Probably, if we think about it long and hard enough, we can figure it out. I think it has a great deal to do with “WE REAP WHAT WE SOW.”
Funny how simple it is for people to trash God and then wonder why the world’s going to hell. Funny how we believe what the newspapers say, but question what the Bible says. Funny how you can send ‘jokes’ through e-mail and they spread like wildfire but when you start sending messages regarding the Lord, people think twice about sharing. Funny how lewd, crude, vulgar and obscene articles pass freely through cyberspace, but public discussion of God is suppressed in the school and workplace. Are you laughing?
Funny how when you forward this message, you will not send it to many on your address list because you’re not sure what they believe, or what they WILL think of you for sending it. Funny how we can be more worried about what other people think of us than what God thinks of us.

(followed by “Pass it on…”)

Reap as we sow: Cacao fruits from a floral art exposition

Following today news-posts on the Climate Savers Computing initiative, which brings together industry, consumers and conservation organizations to significantly increase the energy efficiency of computers and servers (Intel, Google, Dell, HP, IBM, Lenovo, Microsoft, WWF and many others have joined it by now), I came across a website called Things Are Good: good news.

They are trying to inspire change by celebrating all the good in our world. They started the site to bring the attention to news that benefits people – that encourages people: “Negative news is easy to find, we aim to make positive news easy to find. Don’t stop reading those other news sources, just remember not to get bogged down by them.”

Anybody can write for ThingsAreGood. You have to register here and you can publish with a web text editor: ” What’s good? Anything that looks at the news with a positive spin and doesn’t contract our list of categories. Here’s the full list: Direct Action / Energy / Environment / Equality / Freedom / Fun / Health / International Events / Mind Space / Peace / Random Act of Good / Spin da News / Technology / Tolerance / Transportation.

So if you want to read some inspiring news or get active yourself, have a look at the site.

A friend who started meditating some time ago and is now discovering this new dimension for herself just wrote me: “You know, my husband says to me, ‘I don’t understand what you speak about a light and about spirituality. Are you already a special person?’ But nevertheless he is interested in knowing about it.”

I answered her that in general men have more difficulties approaching spirituality than women, and that this is quite normal. Women are often more receptive and susceptible to the psychic world or to subtle dimensions than men, who are more oriented towards the outside, and often more intellectualizing and sceptic. It is my experience that in spiritual groups there are generally much more women than men. I have come across several couples where conflicts arose when the wife started discovering the subtle dimensions and where the husband didn’t understand what was going on and he felt irritated and went into opposition. I know some couples who thus divorced due to their differences in views and attitudes or where there is a certain constant tension.

Even if a husband doesn’t have access to the spiritual dimension or to a meditation practice , when he is open-minded and accepts that his wife is engaged in spiritual matters, it works. If both practice together, it’s fine – though no guarantee for no crises -, if not, there has to be on both sides a certain open-mindedness to accept the different ways and paces of development.
You might like to read the Lunar Messenger about Woman and Man.

Dollhouse Café Scene

Some days ago I got an e-mail from a friend living in another part of the globe. She wrote me that since she began meditating regularly a few months ago some strange things started happening in her house which were irritating her a bit: water taps started running, her daughter started hearing some strange voices via the mobile and a few other phenomena happened, which were disturbing her. She asked if she is doing something wrong and ended by writing that people in her country say: “These things exist…”

I answered her that there are beings living on the lower planes of the subtle worlds, which might feel stimulated when somebody is approaching their realms. Normally the inner light emerging in meditation, especially through the intonation of mantric sounds creates an energy field which makes these beings depart. It is good not to counteract any such experiences, but just to notice them and stay neutral. These beings can be found more often at places where something not very good had happened in the past. It isn’t necessary to know about it. It is enough to light a light in order to make the shadows go away.

She replied that she thinks the same way and feels encouraged that she isn’t doing something wrong because of these things happening. It might be souls from the so-called purgatory which come for a visit. Her daughters, however, have fear to go to sleep and think that something could happen to them. She asked if there was something more she could read about.

I answered her she could tell her children that these things are o.k., there is no need of having fear. It is probable that what they are experiencing are “wandering souls”, which haven’t detached themselves enough from the material world. They could say “hello” to them, with a positive feeling, to help them find their way to more luminous planes. But we shouldn’t pay too much attention to these phenomena, because this might be distracting for us and for them. It is good to know about these things, but not to go into details with reading more about it, and better do something else. If her daughters experience fear before sleep, they could speak some prayer to the inner Master, to Christ or to some other great being, this would help creating a protective field.

We had been in touch the last weeks with a situation a bit similar, where according to medical people it was a case of a mental disease. As per the phenomena it could be very well understood as an intrusion from the dense layers of the subtle world through an unduely open channel in the inner system of the person. Stabilising one’s life through a righteous, pure way of living and work for the general welfare creates a protection towards these and other shady influences.

“Wandering Souls” – people walking along a lake in Senegal

A friend of mine sent me yesterday some lines describing an experience with the healing power of OM and mantrams:

“One Sunday early morning in May this year, my wife experienced the power of the Word or Song. OM and the Gayatri song didn’t appeal to her the first time I played them. She woke up complaining about a terrible bellyache. She could not move easily, so she stayed up in bed groaning. While getting ready to go the hospital, something happened.

It dawned on me to play the Om and Gayatri song from the CD I got from you while preparing a glass of water for her to drink. Meanwhile I told her to close her eyes and listen to the lyrics and the utterance of sacred sound. Almost 45 minutes or more later she fell asleep and when she woke up the pain had gone. Then she was able to do some chores at home: cleaning, washing up.

She recognised that the sounds she listened to have some power in them. Even my sister-in-law who knows nothing about Sanskrit can’t sometimes refrain from chanting OM, Guru, Shanti… as if it was automatic. Both my wife and sister-in-law said these words have found their way into their memories.
Very often at home I let the music on with OM sound pervading our household and the surrounding.

It is not in my habit of speaking of my experiences, but I deemed it fit to tell you just this. It ain’t no jest!”

You might be interested in reading more about the power of sound in the book on “Mantrams” by Sri K. Parvathi Kumar or Basics of Spiritual Life on “Working with Sound“.

In India, in the Planetary Healing Centre near Visakhapatnam, there is a constant reverberation of OM to purify the entire surrounding.

I sometimes get mails from friends about astonishing things, situations or information. Generally I try to verify them via a web-search before considering them, and some of the stories turn out to be fakes. There are also stories coming which sound phantastic, and people seem to be attracked by them. I try to keep neutral towards them and don’t go into any details, for mostly I don’t see any relevancy for me. I could take them as true or as fairy tales or a rumour of “urban legends“. One such story came to me yesterday, about the “Children of Winter“, by Sorcha Faal – see also her blog.

Normally when I come across such stories / information, I put them inwardly into a “broom cupboard”, where they can stay without disturbing. I don’t need to judge pro or con, I can just leave them there. I might also take them out later when needed. I also use the cupboard when I come across seemingly opposing doctrines in systems of wisdom teachings.

This inner cupboard is very practical: It helps you to keep in good humour and to stay open-minded, without getting drawn into any queer things and theories going against a good sense of discrimination.

Bird in Bhutan, being carefull and discriminative with the cactus