The picture for the month of Leo discloses itself intuitively to the observer, but some words might help for a better understanding.

The wisdom teachings tell us that the sun we see is just the physical appearance of the soul of the sun, called the heart of the sun. And this one is hiding the central spiritual sun. Our sun is an inlet gate for the higher planes. In us the physical heart corresponds to the physical sun. It is the seat of the pulsating principle of life, the sound of which is also called the roar of the lion. So you see in the picture the radiating lion in the centre of the lotus.

When we listen to the sound of pulsation and fall into its rhythm, the mind comes to rest and we slowly get uplifted out of personality to unite with the ajna centre on the forehead, the heart of the sun. This is depicted as a huge flower like a sunflower with a pulsating heart in the centre. The spiritual sun corresponds to our head centre, the sahasrara, where the spark of the eternal light rests in the centre – the jewel in the lotus. This is represented as a sun globe opening its petals into space.

In the background you see the window of a cathedral. I constructed it from out of three cathedral windows and transformed the colours into fiery golden yellow. It represents the inner subjective side, the holy space within us, which opens up and allows the fusion of the different planes of light to happen.

You can download the high-resolution version from the Good-Will website.

A great flashmob concert in Sabadell, Spain, with the Ode to Joy. The video description says:
“On the 130th anniversary of the founding of Banco Sabadell we wanted to pay homage to our city by means of the campaign “Som Sabadell” (We are Sabadell) . This is the flashmob that we arranged as a final culmination with the participation of 100 people from the Vallès Symphony Orchestra, the Lieder, Amics de l’Òpera and Coral Belles Arts choirs.” Enjoy.

Although the time of midsummer-night dreams is already over with the sun entering Leo today, the enchanted pictures of Phil McDarby will carry you off into fairyland. In his sublime images Phil combines photos with digital art. His painstaking paintings are magic worlds with minutest details – see the fantastic Greenspindle fairies – incredible. A number of his paintings were at an exposition at The Copper House in Dublin.

Phil McDarby: An Encounter at Greenspindle, 2011 (c)

BBC has done a beautiful documentary about the important events of Buddha’s life, interspersed with some interviews. There is a good quote of Buddha at the description of the film:

Do not believe in something because you are told to.
Do not believe in something because a holy person said it.
Do not believe in something because you read it from a book.
Follow and practice the teaching without prejudice.
If it brings happiness to you and others and does not
encourage self harm or harm to others then follow it.

A worthy topic for the 1000th blogpost of Flowers on the Wayside:

USA Postage has published a series of 7 stamps with pictures of Hindu gods. These spiritual designs are targeted to the Indian community in the United States, which makes up 1% of the total population. For the first time, USA postage depicts Sri Krishna, Shiva-Parvati, Sai Baba, Murugan, Lord Venkateshwara, Vinayaka and Lakshmi on beautiful 20-stamp commemorative sheets.

By the way: I started blogging on 31st March 2006 – at it still gives me joy posting about all the many flowers I find along the wayside.

Stamps of USA Postage

A beautiful video on Parahawking. As Wikipedia puts it, “Parahawking is an activity that combines paragliding with falconry. Birds of prey are trained to fly with paragliders, guiding them to thermals for in-flight rewards and performing aerobatic manoeuvres.” This is a video of parahawking in Nepal. Read more at Parahawking.com. (I heard from a German friend that this video is blocked there  -probably due to GEMA right disputes because of the music -, try to find another video on “Parahawking” at YouTube).

Changes are natural for life – many we don’t notice, some come as thresholds and some bring new directions in a drastic way. This year there were a number of challenging situations of  transformation where I was / am learning to go through in balance – surgery, friendships, job – without clinging to something  when its time is over. A little observation:

Cars get older, and ours got a gearbox malfunction after nearly 200 000 km. A repair would have been too costly. Yesterday we got a new car and gave the old one away.  A change without pain. Leaving the old vehicle to take the new one is like changing bodies: We depart from the old body with its malfunctions to get into another one. We continue to exist as solar principles or “the soul”. When we identify with the body, we “lose” our existence at death. When we maintain continuity of identity we will be able to consciously withdraw and enter into the next body, realizing that we live eternally. This is the main purpose of spiritual exercises. Have a look at the book “Venus – The Path to Immortality” by Sri K. Parvathi Kumar. The fundamental wisdom teaching in the present time is to realise that there is no such thing as death.

I’m reading at the moment two books of Michael Newton (Journey of Souls / Destiny of Souls), a hypnotherapist who over more than 35 years has done clinical research and practice about regression into prior lives and especially into episodes taking place between them, such as spiritual progress reviews and the planning of future incarnations. Quote Wikipedia: “Newton describes that during their continuous visits, a great number of his patients regressed beyond this life and passed through the spirit worlds; through ongoing age regression sessions, these subjects have recalled and revealed their past life experiences and their journey through the spirit world.”

For me it is fascinating to read these detailed descriptions which substantiate the wisdom teachings and give an understanding for many twists in destiny. For more information see the website of The Newton Institute for Life between Lives  Hypnotherapy.

The reincarnation of our car

An young Indian friend, Jayadev, yesterday sent the link to a video with Sri Balamurali Krishna, where he and his brother Gyandev were accompanying him in a concert in June.

Last January I had the good chance to participate in two concerts in Visakhapatnam with Balamurali Krishna, who is aged 82 and still very dynamic. Sri Kumar presented him to us as the most respected Indian musician of today. See the blogpost.

A Canadian friend just sent me the link to this great video of kids speaking about oneness and unity. About love and what you can do, power with, not power over…  Children of the new age – inspiring! The video was done by the Center of Spiritual Living, Dallas.

Didn’t you ever dream of flying over the earth like a bird? BBC has done a number of films with cameras on the back of trained birds. And taken photos of the swarm – incredible impressions.

Snow Geese flying by New York:

Barnacle geese flying over London being filmed for the BBC1 series Earthflight

Fish Eagle Hunting Flamingos in Lake Bogoria

Pelicans and Flying Rays