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

Yesterday a friend from Barcelona sent me a note about a film called The Secret. For personal use it is also available for free on YouTube in a series of 10 parts ( 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10), of about 20 min. each. There is also a version with Spanish subtitles available.

I had a look through the first part – and it tasted quite “American”: for my taste too much of marketing an idea, which is basically correct. The story goes: “One spring day towards the end of 2004, Rhonda Byrne discovered a secret – the secret laws and principles of the universe. Almost immediately her life was transformed, as she began to put into practice what she had learned. It seemed to Rhonda that almost no-one knew the things that she had discovered, even though the concepts could be found in almost every religion and field of human endeavour throughout history. And in that moment her greatest wish, and mission, was to share this knowledge with the world…”

The “miraculous” idea for the missionary zeal is, with statements from the film:
Every thought has an energy, which an even be measured. Thoughts are sending out magnetic signals and attracting things. So thoughts become things. People attract what you think of, when they think negative, it attracts the bad things. And when you think of things you don’t want, you also attract what you don’t want. The law of attraction is always working, if you want it or not. Mind is shaping the thing it perceives. It is working in an ongoing manner.

They are ballyhooing: “A New Era for Humanity – For the first time in history, the world’s leading scientists, authors, and philosophers will reveal The Secret that utterly transformed the lives of every person who ever knew it… Plato, Newton, Carnegie, Beethoven, Shakespeare, Einstein. Now YOU will know The Secret. And it could change your life forever.” And as clever businessmen they are trying to create a community, so they� have added blogs, newsletters, shop articles…

Everything has its value for those on a certain level. So also this film reveals as something totally new an aspect of the timeless wisdom teachings which in less sensational words can be found in many teachings. What seems to be totally new for one might be known since long by others. However, transformations by “magic want” generally don’t work in the long run, you need to transform your character by regular training and� sticking to the� regulations of the path. You might have a look to the Lunar Messenger on Awareness and Thought.

The power of thought is compared in the film to Aladin’s Magic Lamp:

A thought from Tuesday’s talk with Sri Kumar came to my mind. He mentioned in our conversation that the Indian minds are generally more lithesome than the minds of Westerners. They don’t hold to an idea like we tend to do here. This makes it more difficult for them to plan and organise, but they don’t get stuck so much in concepts. Their mind is closer to the abstract realms, to the planes of energy or Buddhi. In the West the concrete mind is strongly developed, focused on efficiency and achievement.

For an Indian mind it is easy to look to a theme from many sides, again and again. I am fascinated how Sri Kumar in his lectures elaborates themes of the wisdom teachings from many angles, illustrating them with a variety of lively stories. I myself would think that all has already been said by mentioning a few aspects of a topic, but when you go deeper into it and ponder on different layers and facets, a movement of thoughts gives rise to a flow, which is nourished by the radiance of a subtle energy or light.

Eastern and western approaches… Some Indian chilis

Yesterday afternoon we went half way across Switzerland to Einsiedeln to meet Sri Kumar, our spiritual teacher. Besides some administrave issues and watching a tennis match with Roger Federer at the TV, we had a meditation, a walk and a talk together. Again I was impressed by his deep spiritual wisdom expressing in minute details of day-to-day life.

We spoke about keeping the inner contact during the day. My wife told him that she experienced during the seminar we had attended last week a strong energy of presence that was brought in through him, and she asked him how he does it. He said that through opening up to the Presence and invoking the Spiritual Hierarchy, the energy starts flowing through.

We also spoke about meeting with adversaries. He told us that he had had in his life strong attacks from different sides, but he never acted against them. Instead, he neutralised the opposition by keeping silent and absorbing it. He said, it is his experience, when you don’t oppose to an adversary, this takes away the opposing energy. The person starts inquiring what is going on in the other,� why he doesn’t strike back.� When a person starts pondering, he stops attacking.

When people come and complain about others, he is trying to subtly show them the viewpoint of the other, so that they can come to a broader understanding. Actually we can be sure that we usually only know half of the truth or even less.

Kandersteg, May 27th,� 07

Today a friend sent me a link to a video with a unique morphing and blending of expressions of women portrayed in paintings and drawings over 500 years, condensed in a three minute video. You can regard the morphing images as the multiple faces of the female principle, the expression of the veiling nature of the Mother of the World.