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

Last weeks the children have developed a skill to “slip away” from their responsibilities in the household. They tend to leave their schoolbags, skateboards or instruments on the floor right at the entrance. Used plates stay on the table, packing garbage doesn’t find its way into the bin. When asked to clear their mess away, they tend to say, “Yes, I’ll do it in a minute” – and nothing happens. Computer games are much more fascinating than homework, and the latter are started late in the night.

Two days ago my wife felt tired of the Don Quichottean fight, the feeling of running against rubber walls. So she decided to go on strike as per the service in the “Hotel Mom”. She packed the dirty clothes of the children into their room and told them to do their laundry themselves. And she stopped preparing food for them. So yesterday we had breakfast, lunch and a cake – but not for the children. They stayed at first “cool” and were out most of the day.

In the evening the younger one (14) made a “charm offensive” and said, o.k., he’ll clean up his mess and help preparing the dinner. We had a dinner with three – the elder one didn’t yet come back. But my wife didn’t react on the younger one’s demands for preparing some extra wishes. The youngest found this “antisocial”, but tried not to come into the front line. And he did the clean-up of the kitchen.

The other one (16) is living at “minimum effort level” in highschool and at home. He yesterday said he would come home at 8.30 pm, however, it turned out to be 2 hours later, totally wet from rain. At the moment he is still blocking and somehow organising his meals. If “mom on strike” is stronger or his “strategy of freedom” – the outcome is still open…

A friend sent me the following comment: “There were some articles recently in Swedish newspapers on teenagers and empathy. Twelve year olds have great empathy. Then it disappears totally, and re-appears around 18-20. So there is some light in the end of the tunnel :-)”

In puberty the inner roads sometimes seem to be blocked because of reconstruction work.

Yesterday we had a final spurt time at home: Our youngest son (14) had been finalizing the website he had created together with some classmates for the Junior Web Award, a Swiss national class competition for realising websites which closed this night at midnight. The contest was organised by Switch, the Swiss Education and Research Network, which is responsible for all Swiss domain registrations.

With the project they wanted to offer “teaching staff the possibility of integrating the topics of internet, domain names and websites in their school lessons. By having students gain insight into the structure of a website and letting them learn something about usability, for instance, they have been able to improve on their own personal information capability and enhance their media competence. At the same time, the competition has also allowed them to acquire other competences of central importance in the present-day world of work, such as teamwork and project management. It is precisely these aspects that have made the competition so valuable for vocational school classes too: planning and implementing a project (e.g. a website) jointly in a team and within a limited timeframe is a skill that is absolutely essential for professional life today.” More than 100 classes – or more than 2000 students – have created in excess of 100 websites in the categories of Design/Fun and Topic/Contents.

Our youngster however, didn’t have much of his web-knowledge and experience from school, but from his enthusiasm about creating websites. Since he was 12 he had started doing sites and studying web programming (he switched from reading Mickey Mouse to reading books on html- and php-programming…) and has done already some projects.

The site for the competition he called Freizeit und Sport (Leasure Time and Sport, for the contest section Design/Fun), of course housted on his own domain… He got some friends together to portray scenes from sport and hobbies, and one of his friends does really good photos. Another friend dropped off from the project 2 days ago, so that they had to realise with another one the missing section, and it worked out well.

Besides a school soccer cup of our community, where his class yesterday made the first rang, and a school band concert from his ex-school there was quite some stress around till the site was finalized, but it really turned out well, also in comparison with many other sites of the competition.
So in case you want to vote for this site in the contest, you can do it here (write Freizeit und Sport into the box) from June 18 – July 15.

Today is new moon, this being a time of a reorientation of forces. A new cycle is about to start. A beautiful impression of the moon was captured in July 2006 by astronauts from the International Space Station (ISS) floating far beyond the horizon. You find here some information about the picture.

(c) NASA

There just was a festival in New York City dedicated to the new movement using digital games for social change. “Games for Change” is a community of practice for those interested in making digital games about the most pressing issues of our day, from poverty to race and the environment. They belong to the Serious Games Initiative, which is focused on the use of games in education, training, health, and public policy. (See also our previous blogpost on Computer Games against Disasters.)

There is quite a lot of activity going on in mobilizing good-will ideas in the masses with the help of video-games. A series of games is trying to address health questions, like Nanoswarm – Invasion from Inner Space, a videogame adventure in healthy eating and exercise, as an effort against childhood obesity (to be released in 2008. There is a game on 3rd World Farming, one about a World Without Oil or a Peace Maker Game, aimed at conflict resolution and understanding. In the game simulation of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, you can choose to play as either the prime minister of Israel or as the Palestinian president.

An interesting game on social change is the Redistricting Game, designed by the University of Southern California to educate and empower citizens around the issue of political redistricting. State legislators draw the lines of voting districts thus giving way to a wide range of abuses and manipulations: “As a mapmaker I can have more of an impact on an election than a candidate, a campaign or voters”, said an election consultant. And the poitologist Jonathan Aronson said about this game in the Washinton Post, why to manipulate election machines, when you can manipulate the whole election process by mapping. The game teaches how a more collaborative and innovative system can be set up.

Or you like to play Karma Tycoon, where players can pick some type of nonprofit organization they would like to administer and establish it in one of 12 major U.S. cities. The game by DoSomething.org aims to entertain teens while also giving them an appreciation for the business side of charitable works. In an Interview in USA Today a child said: “Why not create a game that maximizes karma in order to make the world a better place?” The game is developed with the help of the JP Morgan Chase Bank: “This is one example of many where we will collaborate with an organization to bring change. Social investing is core to the business strategy and the culture of JP Morgan Chase.”

(c) Karmatycoon

Sunday we had been at a floral art exposition in a nearby park, the Elfenau (elves meadow). Colourful tropical flowers, fruits and spices were arranged by floral artists to delicate charming displays:

There was a lightness in the installations, which resulted from very diligent work. Nature’s richness combined with the skill of an artist’s hand.

I yesterday finished typing my notes from the seminar with Sri K. P. Kumar. The seminar was quite intense, but he gave a lot of illustrations and stories to make abstract thoughts more comprehensible. Here are a few examples and stories, which can be understood without the bigger context:

A businessman was in a shop selling and buying. A madman passed by and asked him: What are you doing? He said: I’m doing business. – What for? – To make profit. – What is profit? – Making 2 out of one. The madman replied: That’s not profit, that is loss. If you make 2, 3, 5, 10 out of one, it is loss. If you make One out of 10, then that is profit. The businessman was confused. He know hot to multiply. We know how to multiply thoughts, money… Multiplication is anti-yoga. Bringing to One from many is yoga. The businessman said: How? Madman: Yoga is to be One, to join, enjoy.

* * * * * * *

The butterfly is totally different from the caterpillar. The flower is totally different from the tree, but it has come from the tree. The Master is totally different from the man, but he has come from the man. Yoga is nothing but cultivation of the field.

* * * * * * *

This is a story related to balancing. There was a Zen master always laughing. We believe that when someone gives us a laughing Buddha we get luck, that is our own perception. The more we seek luck, the more we are in the contrary. That is our own expertise. This Zen master is always laughing like laughing Buddha. He was considered very highly accomplished. In the high land of Tibet they are scarcely habited. One day a disciple requested to be in his house. The master was in the basement, he was in the first floor. In the midnight hours the devotee found him moving on the roof of the house. He knew the master is in the basement, but he found him over there. He asked: What are you doing there, master? Dancing. How did you go there? – I fell up there. We fall down, he fell up. Wherever you keep me, I fall up.
I tell these stories, because we are all inclined to move up. Moving up is possible only when we balance the lateral, then the centripetal and centrifugal, the internalization and externalization.

* * * * * * *

Blind following is not recommended, especially in the Aquarian Age.
On the Indian roads, in the busses, when you travel with speed it is 80 km. When you travel in such busses, there will be a lot of backbone adjustments. Traveling takes long hours, much more so in such busses. A group was traveling at night in such a bus for long hours. The bus stopped because of a problem. The driver said, it takes one hour to repair, stay in the bus and relax. You cannot relax there, so the passengers came out. One looked into the sky, then the next one did the same, then the others. The last one came out and asked: What are you looking into the sky? – I don’t know. No one knew why he was looking. The last one asked all, the first one said: I am not looking at anything; I had a back pain and was stretching, thanks to the bus and the roads.
Like that the humans visualize consciousness. We have that habit. All sheep go without knowing. Like that many people keep on doing it, not knowing what it is. Better know and do it.

* * * * * * *

There was a man who said that rabbits have three legs. Even if you say to him, it has four legs, he would not agree. And he would demonstrate it, holing a rabbit by one leg and showing the other three legs. What do you tell him? Likewise people are fixed with their own viewpoints, they cannot see the others’ viewpoints. Be open to see some more viewpoints. Be open, but be not fixed.

* * * * * * *

There is a nice story in Zen Buddhism:
A man was living all alone. He never had a companion to see. Once he had to travel from one place to the other. On the way when it was dark he had to take a place in a transit house. There was a group living. All sleep in a hall. They went to sleep, but he could not. He was feeling the discomfort.
In some of the side-beds his neighbor saw the person: What is the problem? – I cannot sleep. – Every day or today? – Today. – What is it today? – I am not accustomed to sleep with so many. Tomorrow when I get up, I don’t know who I am when I get up, for there are many. It is like a wave going into the ocean. How do you know it is the same wave in the ocean? When we sleep together, we all become one. When I wake up in the morning, I don’t know who I am. If there are 100 waves merging into the ocean, the waves come out again. How do you identify the waves? You cannot.
That is his problem. The next time he gets up, he has a problem, who I am. The neighbor said: Don’t worry, I shall bind a red ribbon to your body. When tomorrow you get up, by the red ribbon you know. He remembered the colour of the ribbon and comfortably slept. When he was in deep sleep, the other untied the ribbon and tied it around another person. In the morning when he woke up, the ribbon is with the other. There is a great confusion: “I know he is me, but I don’t know who I am – because our identity is by the ribbon of name, form, nationality.
We think we are these ribbons, because we don’t know who we are. There are many stories like this in India.
When we identify ourselves by our peripherals, we are lost. If we daily practice, it will be helpful to identify the wrong identities. The real identity is, I am That and That I am. Other identities are bound to mislead you.

Wisdom stories are colourful illustration for a better digestion of ideas. Photo: India 06