A friend just sent me the link to a beautiful video by Conservation International (CI). On their website they explain that for more than 30 years, CI is working to build a healthier, more prosperous and more productive planet. They want to empower societies to responsibly and sustainably care for nature, our global biodiversity, for the well-being of humanity.

In their camplaign “Nature Is Speaking” they aim at raising awareness that people need nature in order to survive: “Our goal is simple: It’s time to change the conversation about nature to focus on what we all have in common: Our shared humanity.” The voice of Nature is Julia Roberts.

The video contains sublime images and a touching message.

Picture from the video “Nature is Speaking” (c) Conservation International

The point of the birth of objectivity from subjectivity is visualised as the gate of the temple linking the inner space with the outer space. It is symbolised by the glyph of Gemini ♊ or the Greek letter ‘Pi’, Π. Pi is the path from the circumference to the centre or the origin; it is called the path from visibility to invisibility. Pi stands for wisdom; the upper line of the symbol projects two vertical lines meaning that the duality emerges from the unity. Gemini is worshipped as the birth of the first Androgyne, the male-female God, the divine pair of Shiva and Shakti.

The centre of the image shows the gate of the temple formed by a duplication of the Greek letter Pi. The gate is standing on the periphery of the circle whose centre is the sun. The sun is located in the middle of the upper line of the symbol. The circle reflects again in the lower part of the image representing objectivity. On the surface of the water the light reflects like a path of light leading to the gate. In the inner of the gate there is a lingam of light, a symbol of the divine. From out of it comes forth the first pair.

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 Gemini paintings.

The video:

2 February 2018, pencils and photo work

Today 18 years ago, on 16 May 2000, I passed a threshold in my life. It happened at the beginning of a group life with Sri Kumar at the then Taurus full moon, and it was my active joining the World Teacher Trust. I already wrote about it in two blogpost four years ago, “How I joined the WTT” (WTT: World Teacher Trust), and “Fire and Flame for the Fire Ritual”. I do not want to repeat these memories but I would like to share some facets of the unfoldment which started from that date on and was speeded up ever since.

Step by step, new activities and responsibilities crept into my life. For a long time, I did not realise their inter-relatedness. But looking back, I notice that while the scope and intensity of activities grew new skills developed. New activities build upon existing ones, and the latter always had to be maintained as a basis. For example, when I started publishing a newsletter, the related activity  had to be maintained and incoming new activities had to be integrated.

This way, the activities gradually started spreading into other fields, mainly by writing, structuring, condensing. The growth took partly place in my profession but it was more so in the realm of my volunteer activities for the wisdom teachings. For a long time, the two fields developed in parallel. Later, when I left my job, I focussed intensely on the latter activities.

I don’t want to give a list, but looking back, I see that the inner blessings came following the power of rhythm. I think this is nothing specific with me but of a general relevance. When you pick up an activity of goodwill and follow it with the related attention and continuity, its rhythm generates a magnetism attracting new and similar aspects.

I witness that although I do things with an active commitment, its impact is much better when it is not related to my personality. Things grow by themselves, through me as a doer but not by my feeling as a doer. It might sound strange to some but it contains the “magic trick”. Another, more “magic trick” is to stay aligned with the inner, the divine, to keep contact and follow the rhythm of inner work. Without this, the outer cannot thrive.

A basis topic in what I am doing since many years is: How to reduce complexity and make complex ideas or systems available in an easy manner. I started synthesizing themes of the wisdom teachings already in the 1970s with meditation seminar and in a way it has accompanied me in many forms. But only since I receive the conscious guidance of Sri Kumar, my mental structures became clearer and more fluid. And by following great role models, I got deeply formed, inside out.

The 8th May is celebrated as ‘White Lotus Day’, in remembrance of Madam Blavatsky or HPB, as she was called by her friends. In his discourse on 8 May 2016, Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar said:

“On this day, Madam HPB passed over in the year 1891 and after the departure, she attained a permanent place in the Ashram of a Grand Master in the Himalayas. Grand Masters themselves declared this day as ‘White Lotus Day’ because to fulfil their grand Plan, Madam HPB was born. She was a highly pure soul which can be compared to a white lotus. It is said that there was no other being as pure as her, at the time when she was in a body. She went through lot of hardships in her life and worked towards the establishment of truth and Divine wisdom on the planet. It is considered a highly difficult task because it is the age of Kali and lot of lies was spreading around and the messengers of Kali were very powerful in their work. Through her, the Divine wisdom spread all over the globe.
So on this day, we should recollect her. She keeps giving her presence to all groups which aspire to learn and practice the path to Divinity. She has a body of light and she is always prepared to grace sincere aspirants. She was given the title ‘Upasika’ by the grand Masters. It means she was highly devoted to the Divine and his work.”

Here is a text extract of HPB’s book “From the Caves and Jungles of Hindostan“, where she speaks about her encounter with Master Morya, her teacher, whom she called there the “Thakur” or “Gulab Singh”. Have a good White Lotus Day.

“The Thakur went on smoking, and as for me. I sat on my folding chair, looking lazily at everything round me, till my eyes rested on Gulab Sing, and were fixed, as if by a spell.

“Who and what is this mysterious Hindu?” I wondered in my uncertain thoughts. “Who is this man, who unites in himself two such distinct personalities: the one exterior, kept up for strangers, for the world in general, the other interior, moral and spiritual, shown only to a few intimate friends? But even these intimate friends do they know much beyond what is generally known? And what do they know? They see in him a Hindu who differs very little from the rest of educated natives, perhaps only in his perfect contempt for the social conventions of India and the demands of Western civilization…. And that is all—unless I add that he is known in Central India as a sufficiently wealthy man, and a Thakur, a feudal chieftain of a Raj, one of the hundreds of similar Rajas. Besides, he is a true friend of ours, who offered us his protection in our travels and volunteered to play the mediator between us and the suspicious, uncommunicative Hindus. Beyond all this, we know absolutely nothing about him. It is true, though, that I know a little more than the others; but I have promised silence, and silent I shall be. But the little I know is so strange, so unusual, that it is more like a dream than a reality.”

A good while ago, more than twenty-seven years, I met him in the house of a stranger in England, whither he came in the company of a certain dethroned Indian prince. Then our acquaintance was limited to two conversations; their unexpectedness, their gravity, and even severity, produced a strong impression on me then; but, in the course of time, like many other things, they sank into oblivion and Lethe. About seven years ago he wrote to me to America, reminding me of our conversation and of a certain promise I had made. Now we saw each other once more in India, his own country, and I failed to see any change wrought in his appearance by all these long years. I was, and looked, quite young, when I first saw him; but the passage of years had not failed to change me into an old woman. As to him, he appeared to me twenty-seven years ago a man of about thirty, and still looked no older, as if time were powerless against him. In England, his striking beauty, especially his extraordinary height and stature, together with his eccentric refusal to be presented to the Queen—an honour many a high-born Hindu has sought, coming over on purpose—excited the public notice and the attention of the newspapers.”

You can read here the little brochure about Helena P. Blavatsky which I once published. And here you find my annual blogposts about the White Lotus Day.

Statue of H.P. Blavatsky by Alexey Leonov (c)

Two days ago, Sebastián, a friend from Buenos Aires, sent me the video he had done on the basis of my Taurus painting. (The last blogpost was about the creation of this image.)

The painting was inspired by the Taurus Full Moon seminar Sri Kumar held 20 years ago, 1998, on Mount Rigi, Switzerland. It was my third seminar and I was deeply impressed by it. These are some of Sri Kumar’s words from the seminar:

“Taurus is the bull. The bull is called Vrishabha in Sanskrit. Vrishabha also means the downpour of the energy of Will. The energy of Taurus is the bull. It is a bull of higher circles and the planet is the cow which is impregnated by the energies of the bull. This is an annual happening. The full moon of Taurus is an important event for the planet. The energy impregnates the earth and the beings on this earth. Therefore, Taurus full moon is known as the time where you can be impregnated by the Will.”
Dr. K. Parvathi Kumar, Taurus full moon 1998

The astrological sign of Taurus, a semi-circle above a circle, symbolises the moon through which the energies are received from higher circles and passed on to the earth. Taurus is called ‘Vrishabha’ in Sanskrit meaning the downpour of light. The star Aldebaran, which is called ‘Rohini’ in Vedic wisdom, is understood as the eye of the bull through which the energies are transmitted. When the sun passes through the constellation Rohini (between 11 and 24 degrees of Taurus), he is called the impregnating bull which impregnates the life on earth. It is also a spiritual impregnation which can give us a fresh dose of energy for acts of good will.

To illustrate this symbolism, I merged the image of the head of an Indian cow with the image of the crescent moon. I edited a photo of Aldebaran and placed it at the top as the sun from which a fiery drop comes down into the bowl formed by the horns of the cow. The earth indicated with a flower meadow shows the fullness of the freshly impregnated life.

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 Taurus paintings.

20 December 2017, pencils and photo work

On the way back from the CVV Sharing meeting I visited several friends. First I travelled with Wolfgang to the place where he is living now, the community living project in Dahlem-Harmstorf, a small village south of Hamburg. Already during the two hours drive we had an intense exchange, also about his commitment in another project in South Germany – project peace, a fascinating one-year training and orientation for young people between 18 and 25. Wolfgang is now also active in creating a North German equivalent of project peace.

Wolfgang and his wife Karina are also the initiators of the community project in Dahlem-Harmstorf, “Gemeinschaft Mittendrin Leben” (Community Right in the Middle). It is a living community that develops without a hierarchy and where each one is and remains autonomous and responsible for themselves, also in financial terms: the community is the owner of the land and buildings by way of shares for constructing the houses.

Upto now they have a total of 12,000 square meters of land available, with houses of a former farm with  a former main house and residential house, stable building and a barn. The main house of 1889, with about 300 square meters of living space, is a listed building and was renovated by April 2017. Two new buildings (straw bale houses) have been created in 2017, and they are currently expanding their group house (the “Backhaus” – baking house). In the project, 15 to 20 residential units are supposed to emerge, as well as common areas (shop, office, workshop). There is more space around with a forest and meadow area; the group will decide what happens to the areas and buildings, how and where they will be developed.

When we entered the residential building, where Wolfgang is living, lots of children boots were lying in the entrance corridor – a children’s festival as well as a marriage had just taken place the previous days. Several young families with were around, partly community members.

Wolfgang took me on a tour through the site – first we visited the “Backhaus”, where renovation work is taking place; at the same time, it serves for organisational meetings.

Then we visited the two new “straw bale” buildings which had a very nice ambience. The first residents just had moved into one of the houses; everywhere signs of ongoing work were still to be seen.

The barn will be transformed into a big assembly hall for meetings, concerts etc. Wolfgang explained: “In this area there are many innovative people who have come in the wake of the Gorleben protests – against the construction of a nuclear repository. The university of nearby Lüneburg has developed to a centre for environmental and ecological development research.”

“Here we will have gardens and a parking”, Wolfgang explained.

In the evening I met several members of the project – they regularly meet on Sunday evenings for an open silent meditation in the living room of Wolfgang and Karina’s apartment. There was a 84 years old lady who is still living in the direct neighbourhood – she now has given her manor house to the community and plans to move into one of the new apartments: “I’m thrilled to start something new at my age.”

Next morning before leaving, Wolfgang and I made a little promenade along the countryside. He explained that the whole area belongs to two big farmers; the extensive use of the soil in great parts of the larger area has destroyed the foundations of life and big masses of slurry from mass pig farming is sometimes creating a pungent smell. “The economic pressure and the expectation of the customers for cheap meat has devastating results. Up to now the ecological awareness is still dormant or has not reached yet awakened an awareness of the consequences. It is private farming, and the state does not intervene.” They hope for a change in the attitudes by working for a change in consciousness.

Today 12 years ago, I published the first blogpost on Friday, 31 March 2006. In the meanwhile, 1402 little “flowers” (blogposts) have grown along the wayside. The quote from Agni Yoga, Leaves of Morya’ Garden I with which I started is still the guiding star:

Yes, yes, yes, each word of unity is as the seed of some fair flower.
To cultivate a garden of beauty is permitted to all.
But where are the gardeners who can judge which seed is best?
We shall teach them to gather the fertile stalks.
We shall pluck out the blighting weeds.
And the ground where God has manifested Himself
We shall adorn with flowers.

I decided to do the blog in English to keep the scope international. In a way the blog is my public diary of events, reflections and little stories to sow some seed of inspiration and good will. And I frequently search the blog to re-find a specific topic.

And sometimes interesting comments by readers add a little flower to the garden. So I hope that the garden of inspiration will further grow with future blooming.

Easter Bunny working in the garden in front of the seminar centre “Lichtblick” (Bright Spot). On the ball in the background it says:
“Good thoughts are angels which you send out to bring about the desired event.”

Early morning, the day after spring equinox, I started my annual journey to North Germany for the CVV Sharing meeting. On the way, I visited some family members and friends before I continued further north to Hude in Oldenburg, Germany.
It was already the 9th “CVV Sharing” and the fourth time we met during the weekend after spring equinox at the seminar centre “Lichtblick” (“Bright Spot”).
The motto of these meetings is “Experiment – Experience – Expression” and the inspiration given by Sri Parvathi Kumar for the 2018 meeting was:
“The Master permeates within the cerebro-spinal system. Contact within and permeate in Presence.”

This year, there was an increased focus on meditation: we followed a meditative alignment every three hours with longer meditations – up to one hour – at 6 am and pm and at noontime.

There were profound exchanges in small groups and in plenary, where we spoke about inner movements and group experiences, and we did experiments with triangular group visualisations.

Friday evening there was an input with group exchange about Sri Kumar’s message for the New Year (contained in the Aries Vaisakh News Letter).

Saturday afternoon, two members gave a contribution on “Myth and Music” – one member presented thoughts about Greek mythology and the Lyra – the invention of the instrument by Hermes and the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice; the other member transmitted the myths into guitar improvisations. Later, the group sang a continuous “OM” in different pitches for ten minutes – it created a strong synchronisation of the group. Afterwards there was an exchange about meditation.

Sunday after the morning meditation we assembled on the terrace for a short fire ritual. And while the group sung “Agnaye Swâhâ, Agnaya Idam Na Mama” each group member put a stick into the flames – a thrilling ambiance.

Later, a group member gave an input about the network of light and the experience of Buddhi, and we exchanged about group experiences. Afterwards, we went to a small lake in a nearby forest to speak the Global Peace Prayer and the Invocation for United Europe.

The final round showed that the group much appreciated the longer meditations and all felt very uplifted and inspired. Next year, we will meet again in Hude on the first weekend after spring equinox, for the 10th CVV Sharing.

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Ritualistic work is the conscious following of a rhythm, aligning with the rhythm of nature. An important annual rhythm are the cardinal points of the year, the equinoxes and the solstices.

At spring equinox – 24 March 2018 – we met at the Paracelsus centre, like in previous years, to celebrate the beginning of the new annual cycle, the entrance of the sun into Aries. Outside, it looked still like winter; it was cold, snow and fog were covering the nearby meadows and hills. But the air was filled with the dynamic impulse of the transition which was taking place in nature. And we created spring ambiance with some primroses, candles and colourful fruit. It is always like magic when a little altar is set up – beauty and the geometry of the arrangement manifest a subtle magnetism uplifting the surrounding.

Our little group of seven members tuned up to the energies of spring equinox by lighting candles, singing mantrams and reciting the Equinox Prayers. Afterwards, I read and commented on the message of Sri Kumar for the New Year (contained in the Aries Vaisakh News Letter). In the South Indian cycle of 60 years it is called Vilambhi, meaning slow down – to clear hindrances and to lay the foundation for a deeper, sustained growth.

After lunch, we made a little walk along the nearby pathway which is part of the European pilgrimage network leading to Santiago de Compostela in north-western Spain. Later we had a vivid exchange about principles of yoga and how we apply them in daily life. After the evening meditation we set out for our journeys home.

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