I recently had a phone call with a friend in the course of which she told me she would never again join a spiritual group. The experiences she had with a group and its teacher 2-3 decades ago had marked her for her whole life. And another one lately told me: “I no longer recognize myself in the group where I was (of an Indian teacher) and so I left it.” She added, “For my spiritual quest, I have always been fascinated and attracted by the Masters, and the WTT is a beautiful synthesis.”

From my own experiences in various spiritual groups and contexts I know how delicate it can be to associate with a group and a teacher. In public here in the West, it is mostly disparaged as Guru cult. And when you come in closer contact with a group you unavoidably also meet shadow aspects – be it of the teacher or the group. You can call the shadow the personality. And what makes the thing even more tricky is that we mostly have blind spots towards our own shadows and like to project them on others.

Spiritual groups and teachers are no exception to this. I very well understand people who want to keep aloof from getting into such situations.

However, when you are fairly well grounded in yourself, you can take it as an excellent field of training – how to evolve if you don’t work on yourself and on developing friendly relations with others? For me, the obstacles were a challenge to get more committed.

In my life, I came to know a number of spiritual teachers directly and a few more by way of books. It was an odyssey and a great way of meeting people with many different attitudes – the devotional type, the sceptic type, the indecisive one, the impractical intellectual, the fervent apologist, and even the spurned love…

For a while, I myself was a mixture of several of these. I learnt much by observing and putting to practice what I learnt. And so I approached my present teacher, Sri Kumar, who more and more became the role model for me. A lot of transformation happened – I would call it an occult process because it mostly went on within, very slowly. Or was it more the outcome of my work with meditation and persevering activities, with others, with groups in various contexts? In a way, I ended up to come to myself, not to the teacher. The teacher, the teachings and the group were instrumental in this. On the other hand, it’s an interrelated thing.

A close friend said to me, “I don’t need a teacher for this. I want to rely on the inner guidance and autonomy – no dependence or pressure of rules.”

I understand and respect and I also feel the same – inner guidance of the soul and putting to practice what I have realised as right – not because of any dependence of pressure of rules.

At the same time, I receive great support by following my teacher and the teachings (and leaving other things behind). They are giving strength and orientation and help me not to get side-tracked and stuck. Joy is the compass in this.

I yesterday found a thrilling video about the history of Europe from about 400 BC to the present (published 1. 1. 2018) in less than 12 minutes.

For every year, it shows – partly just for a split-second – the borders and populations of each country in Europe, northern Africa and Middle East. (Vassal states and colonies are not included in the count of a country’s population.)

The rise and fall of great empires – of the Romans, the Huns and Mongols, of Napoleon or the two world wars of last century – they all appear like the pulsating heart of a part of humanity. Behind all this flickering of states lie the destinies and sufferings of millions of people.

Keep in mind that from the larger perspective of the immortality of the soul, we all have gone through many incarnational experiences in the past leading us to where we are working out our lives now.

Scorpio represents the fall of spirit into matter and the reversal of the process through the ascent of consciousness from out of the bondage of matter. The movement of energy is described as a serpent creeping on the ground or rising as a brilliant light inside the spinal column. Beyond the brow centre the energy bifurcates into two arcs like a winged serpent and further ascends like an eagle. The flying serpents are described as carrying a radiant jewel which is the jewel in the lotus of the head centre, Mani Padme.

In the centre of the image you see the central axis of Sushumna surrounded by the descending and ascending serpentine energies. In the upper part, they form two resplendent wings around the head of the serpent with the jewel of light. An eagle, symbol of an initiate, is soaring up from out of a jewel in the background symbolising the Ajna centre. And above, a group of three eagles is flying in the vastness of space. To the right, you see the constellation of Scorpio.

The wheel of the zodiac in the background, designed with a photo of a friend, indicates the movement of ascent and descent.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Scorpio paintings.

Did you notice? Unbounded space disappeared! It seems to be so inconspicuous that nobody seems to take note of it.

This morning, when I came along the construction site in our neighbourhood, I noticed it again. When the walls are put up, suddenly the sky starts disappearing and the unbounded space seems to condense into a tiny hall called a room.

I very well remember how, as a little boy, I several times run from the garden into my parents’ home and then came out again, and I wondered how it can be that space disappears in the house. And how it feels being inside, cut off from the freedom of vastness.

It is like getting into the mother’s womb. From out of the unlimited space of the subtle dimensions shrinking into the narrowness and confinement of body, with its heaviness. As a child, I had the feeling that I did not really want to come down. And it took me many years to get accustomed to live in such a narrow thing like the body.

Yes, the curtain slowly falls and you get used to it. As you get used to live in a room.

At the beginning, you can still see the larger space. Space…. another word for spirit. Slowly you forget that you are not an island, in a corner of space, but contain in you the great whole.

In the morning, when I walk over the field, looking up to the blue sky where just some clouds block the view, and where on the one side the ring of the horizon is limited by the residential area and on the other by the mountain range of the Alps in the distance, I feel like opening up my subtle bodies which envelop the encased spark of the Sun called I AM.

And when I come back into the street of the settlement, it narrows down again, a kind of crippling. Do the people living here notice it?

But when I go down the stairs into the house where I am living, and then the staircase up to our apartment – although it gets really narrow outside, it feels like having re-connected to the vault of heaven. And that the cosmic vastness is also here.

Morning sun shining on some dahlias from the nearby farmhouse, with the Sripada statue in the background, in my study.

Some changes in the team of collaborators during the last weeks made me ponder upon volunteer work in the context of the wisdom teachings.

It looks and feels like a way through a cloudy jungle to discover the path towards the subtle dimensions of life. Running around in various directions does not help. With the years, I found it necessary to focus on one path and to go into the depth instead.

Digging deep needs endurance and commitment. I slowly realised that I have to help build the road to the “goldmines” of wisdom for others as well. And the deeper you go, the more you see the need of cooperation.

As an outcome, I slowly grew into responsibility for various publications and websites related to wisdom, and I met reliable fellow seekers who cooperate in this endeavour.

It takes time to carve out. And many skills need to be developed to fine-tune and to anchor. Newcomers hardly see what lies behind and if they take a glimpse, they sometimes shrink back. Or they pick up some work for a while but find it hard to keep up with rhythm and continuity.

“Likes” and social media entertainment are easier than carrying some stones for a building. Solid steps need to be firm and well done. But who finds time, who takes time for entering a spiritual apprenticeship? Without quick benefits and recognition?

Good will is not enough to become a reliable team member. And often the qualifications required and the equipment in the rucksack of the seeker do not match immediately. But is sh/he willing to enter and learn, to let go of one’s first ideas? And to keep the inner fire burning unsvervingly so that it does not get extinct at a first blast of wind?

New qualifications and skills need to be developed, trust and endurance. Cooperation and at the same time working in a self-reliant way.

It is nice to do something inspiring, but mostly it is seen just as a hobby, when time and other demands allow. The path, however, calls for a commitment like in a challenging work. You have to see where a task needs to be picked up for the greater plan and how to integrate your stone, and at the same time cooperate with the others like a dear friend.

And what if the friends do not give nice feedbacks and cooperate as you expect them to do? Often you have to wait, more often for years, before a door opens. Before you can step in.

Otherwise, life offers many other priorities – job, family, friends; or chilling, sport, travelling… The list is long, and there are many reasons why not to pick up a lasting commitment.

But what about working for an age-old “enterprise”, working out the path to the light? Spiritual Hierarchy has enormous patience in developing the network of collaborators.

Last week a man from France contacted me via e-mail: Sylvain wanted to bring me a gift from friends living on Ko Pha-ngan island of Thailand. (I had written a blog-post about their activity of spreading the knowledge about rudrakshas.)

Last Saturday evening, Sylvain arrived – a tall young man with a special present in his hands, caringly enveloped with a fine string. I opened it and discovered inside two light-brown rudrakasha seeds (called “white rudrakshas”), embedded in a rudraksha shell and embedded in white cotton-like fibres.

It is a very special special gift and the messenger had travelled quite a distance – it was his way of giving thanks to our friends with whom he had lived for some months on the Thai island.

We were not prepared for an overnight stay in our apartment but somehow could arrange. And this was very good. Sylvain and I had an intense exchange. Sylvain told me about adventures on a bicycle tour from France to Kyrgystan, nearly to the Chinese border, about other journey to North and Central America, about his spiritual search and a project related to Ayurveda he is trying to realise in the French Alpes. He carried a fresh energy of bringing inspiration to people and of knowing how to realise his visions.

Sunday morning, he joined the meditation and fire ritual; afterwards we did a walk over a nearby field and enjoyed the magic of the sunrise. Before he left again back to France, we did a selfie with my wife on the balcony. A hearty encounter.

“May the times of the autumn and spring equinoxes not be neglected. They are of immeasurable importance to the disciple of yoga/discipleship.”

Following this hint of Sri Kumar, we met again at autumn equinox in the WTT Paracelsus Centre to celebrate this cardinal point of the year in meditative orientation.

We wanted to meet at the mountain ridge near the Etzel pass but it was not so easy to get there for many roads in the area were blocked because of an “Iron Bike” festival around Einsiedeln.

Also the road at the top of the pass was blocked but somehow we managed to get to the fire place where we had already met the years before. The clouds looked grey but there was a majestic ambiance and a grand panorama view.

While we were singing the mantrams of the fire ritual, the flames rose and spread their magnetic radiation.

Afterwards we met at the Paracelsus-Center. As usual, we started with a little ritual and a short meditation. Afterwards, I spoke a bit about the importance of the eqinox celebration and the energies of Libra.

In the afternoon we made a walk along the Sihl River to Egg and returned via the other side of the river.

We greeted a group of cows on a meadow – it was cute to see a cow couple in exchange of affections.

Later in the afternoon, we read a little text about the spiritual importance of Libra and closed the meeting with the evening meditation. It was again a profound experience to meet and meditate at such a beautiful place.

During my morning walks I come along a construction site. Over the last months, I observed how two old houses were demolished, then the foundation pit excavated, walls coming up. First, I just observed; later, I started pondering on what was happening.

Many people are cooperating, material is arranged in a certain way. Slowly a house takes form. Or is part of it a garage? Why are things done in this way? I did not know. But it was obvious that all this was done with a purpose – there was a plan behind.

Later, a picture was hung up on the fence of how the house should look like, with information about the enterprises involved. And still later, there were panels with information about sale contacts. I didn’t want to buy an apartment, I just was an uninvolved observer – or was I not? Observing the whole process gave rise to thoughts about what observing this process did with me.

I started pondering again on what is the plan, the plan of my life, the bigger plan. What is the purpose? Or is there no purpose? Obviously, there is. But then what do I recognise and how do the details of my life, of the bigger life, fit into the purpose? Are the activities in tune with the plan? How am I planning and how am I supervising the progress of construction, in my life, in the activities involved? Where am I craftsman, collaborator? Where am I architect? Am I an executor and what is the direction of executing, what I am doing? What do I perceive of a bigger plan and how do my elaborations fit into it? Personality plans, plans without personal perspective, or with a bigger or lesser…

Like with the house construction I am observing things develop without my knowing the bigger purpose, but certain patterns give hints to understand the bigger plan. I remarked how I have been doing plans which ended up in “ruins of goodwill”. Or were they not ruins but stepping-stones for further working out? There is a masonic story that all bricks are needed for the construction of the temple…

I pondered on how I do my plan of the year – by noting everything in a calendar with ephemerides (positions of planets) at the beginning of a year, to mark things which need attention, and things which rhythmically repeat, like solstice and equinox meetings, journeys intended, ongoing meetings, important constellations. And then, in the course of the year, it is worked out.

It takes time to prepare the year but this helps to be in tune with many details, to notice them in advance. There is communication planning, keeping contact with people by contacting them at their birthdays, a part of networking activities. I noticed that many details get elaborated when you repeat and revise. And this way, subtle aspects of the plan reveal which were unknown or unnoticed before. And especially the monitoring and developing of relationships, team building, transforming conflicts into steps of learning.

There is a planning of the day, with what are the tiny activities which first one might not realise as important but which turn out to be so. The cornerstones of the day, like the cornerstones of the building. And thus, the construction of the days, the weeks, the months, the years slowly take shape, a shape which might be useful for the bigger plan, into which my activities might increasingly fit.

Such planning helps to be in tune with what I perceive as the purpose of my life, of life.

In Spiritual Astrology, the solar year is called the Day of the Gods. In Aries, we have noon and in Libra midnight; in Capricorn there is dawn and in Cancer dusk. When the spiritualist has completed his journey of tracing the path from Libra to Aries, the lower pole is absorbed into the higher pole. Man is reunited with his higher pole, the God centre. He later enters into the soul of the Sun and finally attains the centre of the spiritual Sun. He then sits in the lotus above the head centre, the jewel of the seventh lotus.

In the upper part of the picture you see the cross of the year with the vertical line of Aries and Libra and the horizontal line of Capricorn and Cancer, designed with the help of an old astronomical illustration of the movement of the Sun around the Earth. It is dovetailed into the arch of a colonnade symbolizing the stages of unfolding consciousness.

The figure of the meditator was formed by the fusion of two Buddha statues. Above his head is depicted the jewel in the lotus which creates the pathway to the zodiacal wheel and to the Sun. In the upper right corner, you can see the constellation Libra.

See more pictures on the site with my paintings. If you want to print the image, you can download the file in medium and high resolution format.
The different zodiacal signs are clustered in groups – you can see here all my Libra paintings.

A friend sent me the link to a new video of Cristóbal Vila: Infinite Patterns (here on YouTube). Cristobal is a graphic designer, illustrator and art director in Zaragoza, Spain. His website Etereaestudios consists mainly of a gallery showing the outstanding work done by Cristóbal Vila within the field of 3D and digital imaging. I already had done a blogpost about some of his video works in February 2011. See here links to his work.

On his website, he writes about Infinite Patterns – Connecting geometry, nature and architecture:

“This is a new personal project that seeks to establish connections between various fields that interest me deeply: geometry, and how it appears linked to nature, on the one hand, and to art and architecture, on the other; raising relations between all of them. Somehow it would mean the fusion of the interests of two of my previous works: Nature by Numbers and Ars Qubica.”

Have also a look at another of his works, “Lux Aeterna” (Eternal Light) – a journey of light, from distant galaxies to small drops of water. Fascinating!

The video Infinite Patterns cannot be seen on other websites, please click on this link to see it on YouTube.