dewdrop vol 2/spring... · 2017. 11. 21. · dewdrop-evera newsletter spring 2008, volume 2, issue...

Dewdrop-Evera Newsletter Spring 2008, Volume 2, Issue 2

Dewdrop Evera NewsletterEvera, 14 Forest Street, Trentham VIC 3458 [email protected] +61 (0) 5424 1702

Spring 2008

Volume 2 Issue 2

In this Issue1 Editorial

Sweet Dew

2 Things Fall into Place Rain Blessings

3 Spring Horses

4 Meditation, Dreams and Poems

5 4 Poems

6 Guru Purnima

7 More Reflections from India, March 2007

8 Musings, Spring 2008

9 Virtues

11 Shin’s Lecture - Part 2

14 Triskelion Crop Circles

EditorialTineke BakIt is a typical (Melbourne) Spring day here today, several seasons in a day, with wind, rain, clouds, and patches of warm sunshine, and overall the scents of nature growing, blossoming and weaving the return of her gar-ments for summer. The natives too are flowering, the delicate wildflowers contrasting with the bold golden wattles in full bloom.

And the Dewdrop has produced yet another full and colourful issue, with some contributions already overflowing and waiting for the summer issue to come.

In the northern hemisphere the summer is coming to an end, and those of us here who have followed the crop circle season (via the internet) have been delighted and astonished at the wonderful forms given to the earth this year. On our final page we offer images of a few (from over the last de-cade) with the geometric theme of the three-armed spiral - the Triskele.

We especially offer our gratitude and appreciation to everyone who man-aged, despite busy and demanding lives, to find time and energy and in-spiration to contribute to this issue. And we hope you enjoy our/their offering!

Shin Shiva Svayambhu M.

Consider every morning that ev-erything which goes out from you on this day will have its effects and after-effects. Sooner or later the results will come back to you. May all that you send out or do be true, beautiful and good. Act out of calmness, out of truth and in love.

The Voice of Mahadeva (pg 2)

The Way is constantly nameless.

Though in its natural state it appears to be unimportant, No one in heaven or earth dares to make it his subject. Were marquises and kings able to maintain it, The ten thousand things would submit to them on their own.

Heaven and earth come together and send forth sweet dew, No one causes this to be so, of itself it falls equally on them.

When we start to “regulate” or “put into order” there will be names. But when names have indeed come into being, we must also know that it is time to stop. Knowing [when] to stop is the way to avoid harm.

The Way’s presence in the world, Is like the relationship of small valley streams to rivers and seas.

Translation by Robert G, Henricks, of the “Bamboo Slip Laotzi”, Chapter 21, found in 1993, in Guodian, Hubei Province, China,

dating from 3oo BC. Columbia University Press. New York, 2000.

Sweet Dew

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Dewdrop-Evera Newsletter Page 2


Note:

Contributions for the Summer Issue should be already typed and preferrably sent by email to

[email protected] or

[email protected]

by 10th December 2008 If you send illustrations they should be in jpg, gif, png, and be in resolu-tion suitable for printing (250dpi) if photographs or scanned images.

Donations towards costs are welcome and can be made out to:HR Bak, Bendigo Bank BSB: 633-000 Account: 111 245 643Reference: “Dewdrop”

Cass RoadknightAt dawn,Just after a cold, rainy night,The sunlight is raying sideways across the earth.Some birds land in a tall tree;Glistening raindrops fall into the puddles below,Causing expanding circles to criss-cross each otherWith flashes of sunlight.In a country of drought…What a delight.

Rain Blessing

Photo: Tineke Bak

Henk Bak

A firm breeze and a bright sun invited me to rest a while in a comfortable chair on Shin’s land. It is pure spring. Trees are trembling their silvery leaf-reflections in the breeze, glistering and shimmering in the high risen sun. Tiny birds flit and twitter unseen through the fruit trees and shrubs. Magpies are on a mission over the paddock, alternating between flapping their wings and resting them, sailing elegantly as master gliders.

The grass close-by glows a lush and saturated green and in the distance I survey all around he trees and shrubs, and around the rise, we call ‘Kangaroo hill’ the wide ring of groves which now have become the focus of the seven world-religions, to be visited in walking meditation. Its centre most likely a favourite camping spot for the Dja Dja Wrung people in earlier times.

All of it made me think of the many beings, people, devas, ancestors, angels who have been shaping and developing this land, the co-creative gardening, (the Perelandra way), that Helma practises to prepare a healing environment in which people can really be at peace and listen. And then the tree-planting working bees, the summer camps, the paneurythmy, the weekend courses, the singing workshops with Jonathon (1995) and Rhyll Godber (1998) and with Sylke Fromberg (2005), Shin’s seminar (2006), the women’s work and festi-val group, the play group and ‘bush-kinder’, the home-schooling and most recently: the midwinter 3-day holiday project: children and adults learning to play traditional games… All together a process on the way toward integral learning and intuitive doing.

For me this year ‘things’ began ‘to fall into place’ at the day of midwinter and haven’t ceased to do so since. It started with a throw-away line by a friend, who suggested the I Ching was perhaps just as effective in getting you to think ‘outside the box’ as the method of present-day science. In philo-sophical conversations this ‘box’ became for me an image of the self-imposed limits of scientific knowledge that dominate our culture since Kant (ca 1800), and forces our education into what Shin calls ‘small band learning’. Science became confined to what one can count, measure and weigh. The being or inner life of plants, animals or humans, therefore, cannot be known scien-tifically. My recent experience in hospital showed me, that doctors, nurses, all staff involved, did not treat me as a ‘thing’ at all, but addressed me as someone with an inner life, notwithstanding the scientific climate of a medi-

cal approach. And a recent, very plastic, demonstration of how genes are modified in GM experiments, i.e. throwing genetic materials in a hit-and-miss manner at a string of DNA, with one in the million chance of ‘success’, makes ‘advanced’ science pale in comparison with I Ching.

It made me shift the attention from ‘limit’ to ‘horizon’ from a closed ‘box’ to an open universe. A recent (second) arrival (a story in itself) of Hugo Kuekelhaus’s Das Wort des Johannes helped me realise how boundaries are not obstacles but me-diators. Dark and light in the Tao symbol are interwoven, not separated by the line in between. Both Tao and Triskele sym-bols playfully turn divisive oppositions into dynamic and cre-ative polarities: Triskele through a circular dance, Tao through a weaving gesture.

Thus beauty brings – in gratitude – goodness and truth together, through pure attraction, without force or fusion.

Things fall into Place: Tao and Triskelion

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Dewdrop-Evera Newsletter


Angelique Stefanatos

“I am the life of all animals and human beings, protector and shepherd for all. I am the deer and his task. I am the horse, lord of all horses.” (From the booklet ‘Message from Shin’, November 2000)

If anyone were to ask me: show me the existence of God, I would lead them out to a large green pasture, sit them down and say: watch the herd of horses.

Every time I look at horses I am grateful to God for let-ting us share the earth with such awe inspiring creatures. It never ceases to amaze me how a grazing horse can exhibit so many qualities simultaneously: half a tonne of muscle and bone—grazing peacefully with the sweet smell of grass on its breath—at first makes a horse ap-pear so “earthy”. Then at the slightest hint of danger, or as happens in Springtime for pure joy, the horse will take flight...tail flying high behind it as it gallops like the wind. Suddenly the “earthy” quality has given way to that of “air/wind”. Dainty hooves barely touch the earth as it wheels and turns, bucks and jumps. What appeared to be a paddock full of quiet herbivores has become a fantasy scene of animals with phenomenal strength, power and “fiery” energy, yet at the same time an al-most unbelievable grace and lightness. Everywhere you look on a horse’s body there is this incredible perfection of both earthy strength and heavenly grace.

How is all this possible from one humble animal? An ani-mal so humble that, despite all this strength and the ability to kill a human being with a single blow, it never-theless allows us to ride it and use it for work and war.

However, every horse owner knows that in the beginning of Spring, even the quietest, most trustworthy, cuddliest and fattest ponies and horses, belong to God and Mother Nature! (Horses just lend themselves to us for the rest of the year). In my childhood, every Spring, my quiet, golden-coloured palomino named “Apollo” would take me by surprise while we were out for a nice ride, with-out warning he would put his head down, throw his hind

legs out behind him and buck. It always gave me a fright, but he was not really serious because he never threw me off. And instead of being upset with him I was so happy that he was truly alive and free to be himself. Instead of punishing him as people expected me to do I would chuckle away and tell him he was a good boy. His whole demeanor would change, he would get this cheeky look in his eye, and he would prance and arch his neck and carry his head proudly. I knew he was much more in tune than I was to the surging energies of nature and spring, and he was kindly passing them on to me! The rest of the year he behaved beautifully and we won lots of shows together.

In the modern world, horses are so important because they allow us to experience a direct and intimate con-nection with nature: when you ride bareback you can feel every muscle ripple under your legs and seat, and feel the warmth of the horse’s body and smell their salty scent. If there was one word to sum up what horses have given mankind it is FREEDOM. Freedom to roam the globe, or just the freedom of a child, too young to drive, getting on a horse and galloping away from the senseless world of school, homework and the rules of modern society…off to unknown adventures.

So, I thank God for the horses. Without them, my child-hood would have been impoverished.

Spring Horses

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Shin Shiva Svayambhu M.

Respect and honour the life in all creation. Care for and protect animals, plants and stones, for you carry a gift from each of them within you. Respect and honour life, it flows to you from God. All beings have given you gifts. Search for the highest gift. It lies deep within you. It is your blissful unity with the Great, Beneficent God.

I am – I am – I am.

The Voice of Mahadeva (pg 16)



Catherine Warner Just as everyday life is a patchwork of experiences and emotions, so it is with one’s inner world. Events in the inner landscape are not linear, which is why it is both interesting and informative to make notes of one’s dreams as I explained in some detail in Dewdrop Vol 1 Issue 4 and Vol 2 Issue 1. Initially I was only making notes of my meditations. Then I had a separate notebook for my dreams when I began studying them. However now I keep both my meditations and dreams in one and the same notebook. Keeping detailed notes enables one to look back to review the inner journey. In this way, one can make sense of what is happening, and come to a deeper realisation of one’s progress in one’s soul life and become ever more clear about the messages received.

I have often in the past been classified by my mother and aunts as “complicated” and “difficult”. “What is the matter with you?” “Why can’t you make up your mind?” (in decision making) were the cross expressions addressed to me as a child in the 1950s and 1960s. My self protection mechanism had me shut down. What I did not realise was how much I did shut down, or even that it was depression I was suffering from until the early 2000s when I was well on the way to recovery. To all outward appearances I was a fairly successful young woman, having obtained a degree and working as a bilingual secretary and administrative assistant in two international organisations in Geneva, Switzerland for eight years, then moving to Australia in 1981and marrying a scientist at the peak of his career in 1982. A high flying life, you would say, considering we emigrated to the United States and did much travel for the next five years before returning to Australia.

Poetry has the special characteristic of crystallising experience in a distilled form. I began writing poetry of a sort while in Geneva, lots of it rather immature, yet it was an attempt to put my feelings about nature and other things on paper. I always liked writing, but my attempts at creating little poetic vignettes became a pleasurable pastime. Even at that stage I wrote the odd awkward poem about my inner life. I have had episodes of poetry writing throughout my life, dreaming of being published one day, which I did in the most unexpected manner. I rang up the (Melbourne) Victorian Writers’ Centre in 1998 and told the woman who answered the phone that I was doing a personal development course and had given myself the goal of having my poetry published by a date that was three months away. I did not see how on earth I could manage to get published in that time. She informed me that performance poetry was regarded as publishing one’s material and told me how to go about becoming involved in the open mic portions of poetry nights in and around Melbourne. I thoroughly enjoyed

these experiences and it meant I was in contact with quite a few well-known poets and their various styles of poetry.

Little did I expect that the very first poem of mine that was in print was to be one in Japanese. Yet that is what happened as, in hiding away from my internal troubles I took up the study of the Japanese language firstly in Boulder, Colorado and finishing my honours degree at Monash University. In 1990, my final year of study, I spent six months in Tokyo and apart from my regular study of the language and doing research for my thesis, I attended classes in traditional Japanese braiding, learning to make braids with silk threads and learning much about Japanese culture and history besides. And it was through my returning to Tokyo in 1993 and 1995 for two three-month spells at the Domyo School of Traditional Japanese Braiding that I came to stay for a month with a Japanese woman who was on the editing team of a poetry journal. It was she who later published a (slightly edited) poem I had sent her.

But I digress. The purpose of relating the above to you is to show you how over the years I plugged away at my poetry and even had it appraised around 1997 by a poet working at the Victorian Writers’ Centre who told me to either try prose instead or, if I wasn’t put off by her strong cuts and thrusts at my efforts, to do a writing course so I could improve. I did not do that. And, it was thanks to the inner work I did that my poetry improved. I have already mentioned doing yoga meditation. I also attended many courses at Landmark Education and completed the two-year full time Advanced Diploma of Rudolf Steiner Education.

The first poem below was written in February 1997 two months before I began meditation. I wrote it after cutting the deadheads off native daisies in our garden and really did go to dancing classes for a few months from that date. The second poem was written in March l999 about the older woman I saw in a dream I had. It was not till much later that I recognised that she was who I was at that stage. The third poem written in 2005 represents how I felt at five years old. And the last poem, also written in 2005 reflects a happier state of mind.

The Healing Power of Meditation, Dreams and Poems

(Continued on page 5)

In the 2nd century Irenaeus (man of peace) saidGloria Dei vivens homo

“God’s glory is the fully lived human life”.For this century he might have addedHumanitas vivens Trinitatis Gloria

“Humanity alive in WE is the glory of the Divine Triunity”.



Four Poems by Catherine Warner

DeadheadsI cut off the deadheads of my sorrow and went dancing,Wary of tomorrow, yet advancingFor alive entombed to beIs no thing for you nor me.

Hail, my lonely child, so long you’ve been abandoned:Not gone wild, just on an island stranded.Come with me and we will seeWhat together we can be.

ComplicationsIn her dream mindall is plain. Clear and simple.No worries, she would always answerbut the reality is otherwise.

Not wise is sheto the mismatched wiringwithin her mental frame.And yet she knows all is not right.

And so she worriesand gets all tangled upin that great invisible mind maze.

Class One

Inside meI know I can do itOutside meAll goes so fastInside meI want to knowBut it makes me messes insideInside meWants my body to do the thingsOutside me is different, it’s hardInside me is wanting to cry Inside me is not going to give up.Inside me.

Inside me is not feeling good nowHere in the sun at the seaInside me feels that nobody cares nowat all about me.

Inside me sinks beneath the waves nowAs outside me walks into the seaInside me is dead nowAs outside sea tickles my kneeInside me feels OK nowThat outside me is joining me

But now that I am up to the neck in seaSomeone comes and carries meBack to the sand and the sun and the voicesBack to the numbness of who is me.

For the Glory of a RainbowRainbow-coloured wind spiral Twirling on your thread Shedding radiance all around.

When the wind blows you groundwardsI pick you up so you can twirl againWhen the dust coats youI wash you with sweet waterWhen your thread breaks I mend you

So also do I do withThe rainbow in me.

(Continued from page 4)

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“GURU PURNIMA”

Tasmaye Sri Guruvay namah

Gururbrahmaa gururvishnuh gururdevo Maheswarah |

Guruh-saakshaat parambrahma tasmai shrigurave namah ||

which means as follows:

The Guru in the Hindu tradition is looked upon as an embodiment of God himself. For, it is through his grace and guidance that one reaches the highest state of wisdom and bliss. “My salutations to the Guru who is Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara. The Guru is Parabrahma incarnate.”

Guru Purnima falls on the full moon day in the Hindu month of Ashad (July-August) is observed as the auspicious day of Guru Purnima, a day sacred to the memory of the great sage Vyasa. All Hindus are indebted to this ancient saint who edited the four Vedas, wrote the 18 Puranas, the Mahabharata and the Srimad Bhagavata. Vyasa even taught Dattatreya, who is regarded as the Guru of Gurus.

On this day, all spiritual aspirants and devotees worship Vyasa in honor of his divine personage and all disciples perform a ‘puja’ of their respective spiritual preceptor or ‘Gurudevs’.

This day is of deep significance to the farmers, for it heralds the setting in of the much-needed rains, as the advent of cool showers usher in fresh life in the fields. It is a good time to begin our spiritual lessons. Traditionally, spiritual seekers commence to intensify their spiritual ‘sadhana’ from this day.

The period ‘Chaturmas’ (“four months”) begins from this day. In the past wandering spiritual masters and their disciples used to settle down at a place to study and discourse on the Brahma Sutras composed by Vyasa, and engage themselves in Vedantic discussions.

For the true Indian knows that the Guru is the only guarantee for the individual to transcend the bondage of sorrow and death, and experience the Consciousness of the Reality.

“Guru is Shiva sans his three eyes, Vishnu sans his four arms

Brahma sans his four heads. He is parama Shiva himself in human form”

~ Brahmanda Puran

Guru is the God, say all our scriptures.

The Bhagavad Geeta describes the concept of yajna as the sacrificial offering of one’s self to the good of all beings. “Not mine, but thine” is the true message of yajna. Whatever one achieves in this life in terms of physical prosperity and knowledge, one has to offer them back to the society. The Ishaavaasya Upanishad declares:

Ishaa Vaasyamidam sarvam, yatkincha jagatyaam jagat |

Tena tyaktena bhunjeethaah maa gridhah kasyaswiddhanam ||

“God is the lord of all creation. After offering to Him, enjoy only that which is left over by Him. Do not rob what belongs to others.”

The Sun (Surya) is the visible symbol of the Supreme (Narayana) and is therefore known as Surya Narayana. The full moon reflects perfectly the light of the illuminating Sun. The moon is also symbolic of the mind. When the mind is purified it reflects the Atman. Purification is attained through selfless service and through spiritual sadhana. On the full moon of Guru Purnima, aspirants seek and pledge to purify their mind to reflect the glory of the Sun in all its splendour.

Dhyaana moolam guror murtih; Pooja moolam guror padam;

Mantra moolam guror vakyam; Moksha moolam guror kripa

~ Guru Vandana

The form of the Guru is worthy of meditation Offer worship at the feet of the Guru

The words of the guru are mantras indeed Liberation is by the grace of the Guru.

On Guru Purnima we affirm our belief in the Eternal Truth, and our faith in the scriptures and teachings that have been brought to humanity through the great immortal seers who guide the evolution of

Guru PurnimaVirendra Aswal, India




consciousness. May we be blessed to seek Brahma Vidya (Supreme Knowledge). May our minds be purified and our hearts open so that we may be adhikaris or deserving of spiritual knowledge and may the sanctity of the sacred teachings be preserved by us.

May we recognise, revere and serve the Satguru Shin Shiva by whose grace this knowledge is revealed to us.

Jai Gurudev……Jai Shin Shiva…...Jai Mahadev ……Jai Bhairava…..

May Shin Shiva and Maa Parvati bless all of us……….


Henk BakAfter Shin had spoken, opening the Intensive Retreat at Bhairave Nagar, 16 March 2007, his guest of hon-our, Shree Raja Mohan Nath Kriplani, king of Sad-hus, spoke in response, addressing us all. (I read from my notes and try to convey the meaning of what was said in translation as accurately as I can).

‘To be invited here is to be invited to Darshan of Heaven.’ When Shree Mohan Nath first met Shin, he was impressed by Shin’s energy and power. He thanks Shin for inviting him to Garwal and he wishes Shin Shiva’s projects to grow and grow. ‘All our holy gods come to earth.’ There are some things mistaken in Hinduism, which will be corredt-ed by Shin Shiva. Shin selected this land. Garwal will bless the whole of humanity, we will be happy, every city, every country, every state, then everyone will be happy.

‘We all pray to Mother Shakti for Shin. In India we have a saying, playing on the name Shiva: Shava=dead body; Shiva=Lord of Life. Before death we should accept Shiva, accept him in this life, otherwise you have to come back. Shiv=life=soul. We have to see: He is everywhere, in na-ture, and if you help poor, help sick, help earth, help na-ture, you will see Shiva.

Shiva and Shakti cannot be separated: where there is light, shade comes with us. Shakti we see divided in dif-

ferent elements, spirits. All the religions should be one. The one can be, by the power of Shiva. Can we bring the different elements, qualities, ‘currents’ of Shakti into One? We have to do spiritual work, otherwise we cannot see Shiva and Shakti together. Why don’t we try to find Shiva in Shakti? (It is said, that Shiva once begged Shakti for food for his children.) which can be seen as a symbol of Kundalini.’

Mohan Nath then song a mantra, which meant:

Our liberation happens when we follow

The way of verity.

And he concluded with a wish for Shin, who protects the senses, the cow, energy, fish (the one who cleans the water, the higher insight (?) is the water) and yoga: due to yoga we can see nature. Shiva lives in the yogas and has them for everyone.

Shree Raja Mohan Nath Kriplani has travelled widely through the whole of India, creating ashrams, working for the peace of the earth. He worked for a whole year (?) in Bangalore, where people recognise Shiva, and hon-oured him with the title Raja, King. Now he lives in Ra-jastan and works for peace, the earth and nature.

More Reflections from the Retreat in India, March 2007

Virendra Aswal (New Delhi and Shin Shiva Charitable Trust, Uttaranchal, India.) Virendra Aswal works for Shin’s various Projects in Garhwal, Uttaranchal, India. He was Opera-tions Manager in one of India’s foremost Travel and Tourism Companies for 23 years. He left the organization after meeting His Holiness Shin Shi-va in 2002 and since then with the blessings of Shin he has experienced many astonishing divine things, bringing fulfillment in spirit, soul, and daily life.

Shin and Shree Raja Mohan Nath Kriplani Photo: courtesy Virendra Aswal



Musings, Spring 2008Helma Bak

Recently I had a telephone conversation with Sylke From-berg from Germany, Sylke who got us singing, with such pleasure and confidence, here in Australia. She had been to a seminar with Shin, in Rigi. In Europe it was the time of Lughnasad, the festival of the first harvest (cherries, berries, plums). In Australia we celebrate this festival at the beginning of February.

One of the things she mentioned was the importance of working with group awareness, the group essence: that we should develop our I AM to such a reality, that we can stay in the strength of the I AM and in the strength of the WE awakened, and stand in the experience that both the I AM awareness and the WE are embedded in God’s glory…

What a rich picture!

If so, then we might have to work with the mastery of empowering each other within the sustenance of the group, the WE. Is it through understanding each other’s point of view, or feeling each other’s heart concerns? Or mastering the Word in us, so that our speaking does not hurt? Or through stimulating each other to be who we really are and enabling each other to achieve what needs to be built.

In the Norse mythology there is a story describing how the gods want to tame the fierce fenriss wolf (Loki’s offspring). They had acquired him as a cub, but he has outgrown this lovely state and has become down right dangerous. They try to tie him down with strong chains, but he breaks out nevertheless. Then the ‘little people’ make a super fine, extra strong chain, which keeps the wolf in the right place. They make the strong chain from the following elements:

The roots of stones, the noise made by the foot-fall of cats walking on wood, the beard of women, the spittle of birds, the breath of a fish and the sinews of bears.

An interesting collection of energies! They seem to be the little small touches that have strong healing power. They are the ‘touches’ that are directed by the I AM.

Christ brought the I AM awareness to humanity, and the teachings of how to live out of that strength. The devils might have been able to form in our feeling- and other bodies - the false identifications, sometimes positively, sometimes negatively coloured. We still have some work to do discovering and recognising them. Shin speaks about the I AM as the spark of God in us, strengthening the Christ message. And Shin brings new elements, and one of those elements is when Shin speaks to us about the

essence of WE, the group. Friendship is an element of group-awareness. Real friendship seems to be in danger these days. But friendship is a most beautiful melody that sounds through sitting around the campfire, talking about the ‘weather’ or about the most memorable happenings in each other’s life. The stars above, the sound of the waves breaking on the shore, the rustling of the wind in the trees, the fire in front of you, cup of tea in your hand, listening to the trusted friend. There is also the heart wrenching melody of your friend in serious illness. How to be a good friend then? Or the distressing melody of a friend in emotional turbulence through problems with children or marriage break-up. And there is the peaceful regenerating melody of friends sharing their insights gained on the spiritual path.

This is how we know it can be. However these days friendships can easily be broken, by misunderstanding, neglect, or having no time for a nurturing frame of mind for these friendships. It hurts. It is hard to heal it, hard to find the time to overcome the paralysing feeling (‘tomorrow I will phone’). And with a shrug of the shoulders you go the path alone.

But let us go back to the group, the WE Shin speaks about. After Pentecost the Apostles were a WE. How do we fathom, sensing out into the environment, into the near future, this WE group. What are integral learning experiences of a group?

Say you start group work enthusiastically and there will be friends in the group. Frictions will happen after the first honeymoon time. If we come together for spiritual work, does that make us a WE? Is it the shared ideal which makes us We? Is it genuine concern for each other?

What happens when a mood of criticism slips in, or negative feelings, or a lack of forgiveness? These moods are not helpful for individuals or friends. One feels that. Yet that feeling: ‘oh, I don’t know’ can become so pervasive that one says: ‘Perhaps I better stay home and do my own work. And when I work on myself, surely the world will improve.’

And the group?

Every member is important, every presence is unique. That new element Shin brings, the WE of a group is the challenge. As Shin says: ‘there is a school of love, of wisdom and of pain.’ The upsets through group-processes can give us sudden insights, lights: ‘oh, that is what is meant!’ Little by little the puzzle falls into place. Grad-ually we will grow into the reality that God, Goddess, stones, plants, animals and man belong together. This is a creation reality to which we all belong. And the I AM, the group-that-is-WE, nature, God and Goddess will become discerned reality for us consciously living and creating in the sea of life.



Tineke Bak

These next three virtues take us once more into a quite new direction. This time they seem to require us to turn more inward, towards our deeper, in-nermost resources. Where the first three focussed on action and endeavour, and the second on purification and social interaction, these challenge us to reach into our own eternal, infinite being.

The first of the three is contentment. We all know that contentment can never be found only by outer means. And we know, too, that contentment cannot ultimately be bought or manufactured. To find it and practice it, we notice more and more that the deeper roots of it must reach further and fur-ther inwards into the core of our being. It is very easy for us on the surface of life to feel our discontent, whether it is with our circumstances, other people, or ourselves. In fact, most often somewhere or other the discontent is with our own selves. Either way, we seldom have to look far for an ex-ample, and contentment itself seems a fragile and transitory thing indeed.

The star sign Libra (scales) supports us to see many points of view, and chal-lenges us to nevertheless remain balanced. It is an air sign and cardinal, suggesting that in our thinking and attitudes we can find strength to lead the way.

The search for contentment brings us up against the realities of the world, the conditions all around us of injustice, change, inconstancy, inconsistency, and so on. Even the happy times change and are ephemeral. And we struggle continuously to achieve some equilibrium in all this, some peace. Like bal-ance, like the scales, we need to constantly adjust and adapt, rethink and re-examine our attitudes to strive ever anew for contentment. One powerful way to find the centre point of contentment, is to accept the world (and one’s self) just as it is. This means letting go a lot of opinions, expectations, wishes, hopes and judgements. But in the process of accepting that what is, is, contentment can arise. And in accepting what is, rather than wanting or expecting things to be different, more, or better, we can also begin to perceive it as it is.

In English we can play a word game with the ‘contentment’, as we can have two meanings: content and content. When we accept the content of life and the world as it is, we open a door inwardly to being content. We are always larger than that which we let go, and what we accept. Letting go seems like a diminishing, but the act of it allows us to grow, allows us to grow roots deeper into our inner infinite and eternal being. Striving for contentment builds in us a greater strength to face with inner composure and equanimity all the content of life and the world that comes and that goes again. In the face of bliss or pain we remain, not untouched, but undisturbed, unshaken, the calm eye of the storm.

This calm is of great support in the challenge of the next virtue: patience. Without a foundation of contentment and acceptance, it is much more dif-ficult to find in ourselves strength for the duration of patience. Patience relates to time somewhat in the way that we could say contentment relates to form or space. To accept what is all around us and within us AS IT IS, we are both at the centre of and larger than the forms and space around us. Patience places us in the deeper currents of time, so that we stay centred in

It is as it is,

and as it is, it is.

Jiro Murai, founder of

Jin Shin Jyutsu

Virtues: Contentment, Patience and Clarity


CONTENTMENTAnthony De Mello, SJ

Paradoxical as it seemed, the Mas-ter always insisted that the true reformer was one who was able to see that everything is perfect as it is -- and able to leave it alone.

“Then why would he wish to reform anything?” protested his disciples.

“Well, there are reformers and re-formers: One type lets action flow through them while they them-selves do nothing; these are like people who change the shape and flow of a river. The others gener-ate their own activity; they are like people who exert themselves to make the river wetter.

MORSEL: Be still like a mountain and flow like a river. --Lao-Tze.



the now, while processes and transformations move through their own cycles or time. We remain patient until… there is a new development, however long that may take. It is only in the NOW that we can be patient and give time and space to what needs time and space to unfold or complete itself.

Contentment gives strength and openheartedness to deal with the forms in their different stages. Patience holds my focus, my allowing and supporting these forms through time’s streams and cycles. And in time, more of the true nature of things, of processes, of people is revealed. Patience held in the mo-ment allows for the birth of ever deepening insight, born of our presence in the streams of time and the form of space.

This capacity for insight then supports our striving for clarity. Built on a foun-dation of inner composure and capacity for insight, our search for clarity is able to reach further and deeper and wider into the realities of the world towards the fabled “kingdom of truth” (Gideon Fontalba, 3rd Rule of the Masters).

As we strive for clarity we search for the characterisation, for the ever truer concept and understanding of our perceptions and experiences of this world of form and time. In some versions of this circle of twelve virtues, clarity is also known as control of the tongue. A connection can be seen in our striving toward clarity through conceptualising and language. Care for the words we choose and mindfulness of when we use which words contributes much to bringing clarity into the world. The right word at the right time is very potent. Even greater clarity is created around us when we strive to live in integrity with our word.

Gradually, as we practice clarity of thought, feeling, action and perception, a new capacity arises for sensing, feeling, for perceiving what is the True. A feeling for the deeper principles of creation and life develops, beyond the realms and valleys of reality. Truth is by nature something else, and remains mostly hidden behind the world of forms, and even behind the cycles of time. And by practicing clarity of heart and mind, we grow a new sense organ for feeling the presence and shape and potency of Truth itself in the depths of our own being.

Goethe demonstrated the activity of these three virtues when he discovered the metamorphic nature of the growth of plants. First we have to become quiet enough to notice the ‘isness’ of the various forms themselves from shoot to stem and leaf, to but, flower and seed. And to accept each stage and each form for what it is, as it is. Then we can patiently observe the phenom-ena through the cycles of time, which allows us insight into their intercon-nectivity. Clarity is then needed to express this new knowledge as truthfully as possible, care for the concepts and words used to communicate the idea so that others can feel the truth of it as well.

Contentment, patience and clarity ask from us ever greater mastery of our-selves as we grow in our capacity to behold, know and understand the beauty and terror of the world and our own being.

Contentment, Patience and Clarity stimulate the growth of the roots for perception, knowledge and understanding - and become higher moral

powers of Inner Composure, Insight and Feeling for Truth.


A guru said to his gathered disciples, “There are two kinds

of people: those who don’t know, and those who don’t

know that they don’t know.”

A disciple asked, “How do you know?”

Alan Harris

An Everywhere Oasis www.alharris.com

Used with permission

Imposing virtue upon others is like trying to paint raindrops.

Alan Harris

A sea mandala created (and stone ceremony performed) at Lakes Entrance by Greg Fyfe, Kaz Wilson, Cass Roadknight and Angelique Stefanatos.

Phot

o: A

ngel

ique

Ste

fana

tos

http://www.alharris.com



Shin’s first lecture at the Secret of Renewal Seminar 2006Transcribed and edited from the recordings taken on

Thursday morning, 26th of January 2006, Evera – Trentham

Part 2

The Triskelion

I am not here for to bring the indoctrination of any par-ticular religion or philosophy. But we are very interested in the source or spring-point, in where all this came from, in what may be the deeper, scientific, spiritual-scientif-ic background of all the real religions of the different streams, of the different lands, of the different cultures. This is what is interesting. And finally, if we do these re-searches, we can find that in Egypt, for example, and in India, in Sumeria and Mexico—we can even go further and further into older and older times, like Africa (e.g. the Dogon people) or Ethiopia, or the knowledge of some in-digenous tribes of North America—and we can find there wisdom and knowledge that the very old streams knew very well, each on their level of science and religion and culture. We can find that they knew the same things, but explained them in different ways.

According to the Celtic tradition this principle is shown with the symbol of the Triskelion, Triskele or Tricaru. And because (or with the help) of the Temple Knight Order, you can find the beautiful, wonderful, light constructions of the Gothic cathedrals and churches here and there. And there you can find the wheel (not with yin and yang or two fish turning) with three fish turning around. This is Triskele. Triskele is a wheel with three energies moving.

One energy is creating, engendering, giving birth, bring-ing development. One is changing, accelerating but also taking away. And between them, constantly, continuously, during the whole evolution process of this being— whether an apple tree, a lion, a human being, or whatever other being—the holding, protecting energy is working, the ener-gy which holds through, bringing things through from one step to the other.

You can see wisdom, the wisdom in nature. The wisdom of animals and plants working together. You can see how plants work together. How some families of plants like to grow and to help each other. And how different stones and mineral conditions give beautiful places for the plants. A wisdom is there. A wisdom you can recognize in all the uncountable number of medicinal herbs.

Somehow, one could say after research, there is not one herb which is not of some medicinal use and purpose.

The old traditions in various lands gave human beings the impulse to be very interested in the world. They needed

to be interested in the world and to be with nature and with what was helpful or dangerous in the powers around the human being. The old traditions knew very well by experience and by integral learning that everything wants human being to tell something. All the plants and animals and stones, all the processes all around you want to tell something. You can learn from everything that is given as an element of this world.

There lies wisdom, but there is also power. There is also energy streaming through all evolutions. Some aspects of life on Earth have gone, others are coming. Some partici-pants, I mean some animals, some trees have been devel-oping very much by themselves, others in connection with certain animals or with the human being. For example, the grape, the plant of wine. Originally it was located in the area of Sumeria, the Babylonian area. Those old traditions told that the wine-plant was a gift from god, and that it did not develop as it is now on earth, but was transformed. Some plants have even been brought to the gods. Don’t be nervous when I speak about the gods and not about angels. I am just speaking about the time be-fore one gave the name ‘angel’.

Angel means angelus and angelus means messenger. And naturally all the closer gods and goddesses and all the greater, larger and stronger gods and goddesses, as well as the highest gods and goddesses are sons and daugh-ters of the One, and in a sense, therefore, messengers of the One. But the further you go back through history and through time, and look at the different traditions of knowledge about religion, about the cosmos and gods and goddesses and all these beings, the more you find in some region an even more complex knowledge. You can find out with your research, that the later traditions could gain some new knowledge, but always by taking away a part of a more complex, older wisdom.

We shall deepen some aspects of this phenomenon: that later versions of knowledge are more specialized, but have less of the whole, up until today, when there is a very separated consciousness. Nowadays most people no longer have such a direct contact with nature and all the participants of this life on Earth. They also feel more and more separated from what is called God or Angel or Spirit or Helper or even Ancestor, and so on.

And then according to the old tradition of, for example, the Celts or the Hindus, of the Indo-Germanic area, the third principle which is between wisdom and power is love. Not perhaps love as you might think it in the first moment, not like a lot of people think : ‘oh, this is love; oh, this is highest moment of love’— ‘this is love, this is not love’— ‘love is not good, love gives only problems’— and so on. Not this level of love. What was meant ac-



cording to the old tradition is divine love in creating, in holding, accelerating evolution and in – that is in the next part of love – attraction.

There is one energy which brings you forward in love. You run after this or that—after your love. But it is also at-traction. There are elements, there are forms, there are beings which attract your love. For example, a child. A child attracts most normal people to be calm and tender, to admire and to contemplate. Children can change you, in some moments, by their appearance, their beauty and their purity, and by their innocence. Most people who re-ally live, feel a need to be careful, and gentle and tender with a child. And you are attracted—if you really live, you are attracted by children. It is the manifestation and ar-rival of a spiritual energy and divine atmosphere of life and youth, and of something which is mysterious, a mys-tery of a pure life, a pure consciousness.

And you can be very attracted to the ocean, especially when you can contemplate the sunrise there. You are at-tracted. It is beautiful. It invites you to look. And those who let themselves be invited by the sunrise, for example, or some beautiful moon appearance or the rainbow, as no one has time to do, can then learn a lot. They can gain energy, they can lose sorrows, they can be transformed by only half an hour of contemplating sunrise, especially by the ocean.

And if you have experienced what this means, you are attracted again and again. The kind of attraction I mean is always attraction to the higher, to the more refined, to the more transparent. It brings you higher and higher. So the attraction to God is thereto bring you up to divine consciousness. ‘Don’t you know that you are children of God?’ ‘Don’t you know that you are divine?’

Somewhere, somehow there is something which is seed from the light and the fire. This is a science. It is not a part of a confessional system. It was a science when it was said: ‘I am not of this world. But you also, you are not of this world.’ So it was told 2000 years ago by Yeshua. It is a science. Now we are moving away from Kashmiri Shivaism and the Celtic tradition, and we come to knowledge be-longing to the Christianity of St John. St John, the beloved one, was the guardian of this knowledge, in particular. And it is even more interesting to find that in this science it is said: ‘I come from the heights, from above, you are coming from below’. In our ears, or in some ears of today, this could give rise to lots of questions.

Thus we could ask how this man can say such things and how this man can allow himself to say these words. Is this not – (sorry, it is not actually, but we could ask the ques-tion) – is this not a sign of extreme arrogance? Or even of a person who is somewhere not grounded in reality? No. Again, and even more deeply than the previous example,

it is a science of highest kind, which gave this master Ye-shua (called Jesus, but the name was Yeshua) the right to say: ‘If you identify yourself with your body—which is of the ground, which is of the earth, which has had its de-velopment with the evolution of the earth, which is aris-ing out of the spiral of the evolution of this earth—then you are from below. If you identify with your life ener-gies, with your power, with what you have done, what your father has done, your grandfather has done, what your teacher has done, the rabbi has done and the rabbi before him has done, then – again – you are going with the spiral of evolution of your family and destiny and so on and you are rising from below upwards.’ It is not even negative, it is merely descriptive.

Home-School

I am running for the moment, running from one thing to the other, because I am trying, with your permission —I have to tell what I am doing—to break the intellectual, the observer, the customs officer: your personality. I want to break his need to ‘have it’, to have it, to have it, to have it, again and again. Because this one, this person-ality of yours, this ego of yours, this little, small-range intellect of yours, cannot ‘have’. You are able to have, but not that one. I don’t want to wound you. I don’t want to offend you. It is just that we are only breaking through the small-range consciousness to another consciousness, one that is worthy of the human being.

Also, if somebody identifies himself now with his thoughts, his opinions, his feelings, his emotions, his will, his de-sires – any elements of the soul – it is again that he identi-fies himself with the gifts that come via evolution. Your body is something you have, but animals also have it and plants as well, and stones also have this body, and the stones had it first.

We can be very general and say we have the physical body by the help of fire. It is true. When stone was liquid—as it still is down below, inside the earth—stone was fire, was lava. Then it moved outwards and was between the depths and heights, between the center of the earth and the wider surroundings of the cosmos, and it became stone. Your body remembers the stone world, the mineral world and your bones are witness of this. And also some of your liquids are witness of this. The densest part of your body, you have because there is the world of stone, the mineral world.

But also there is life—life giving transformation, life giving growth, life giving different forms and a way through the forms, life-energy holding your body, holding your body-energies together. Again you share it with partners on the earth, with animals and plants. With plants the physical forms begin from inside for the first time, they begin to be transformed from the inside. Naturally, you know all



this. I have just to run through what you already know in order to go in these directions and come on to those levels not reachable anymore by anyone immediately and directly.

And then there is the soul. Soul you can already find with animals. Not the same soul, not as differentiated, not as elevated, not as ennobled, perhaps. But be very careful: animals have soul. And animals are sometimes more pure than human beings. But animals cannot change them-selves. Animals have – perhaps you can understand it as something like a guardian, like an angel, like a divine en-tity/identity as the guardian of them.

Identification with the soul or with the life energies or with the generations and the knowledge of those who have lived before you in the family, is still an identification with a consciousness and a love stream and a life stream which comes spiraling through the evolution of the Earth and all its participants.

There is a divine and spiritual element in the human being, however, which is not of this kind and not of this world. Our integral learning is going in the direction of bringing the understanding of what the need is of this I AM pres-ence. What is the need of this divine identity in you? It has been shown clearly through different traditions—and by God through some of the masters again and again, in higher and higher steps—that the human being is a divine entity/identity, which is not realized in most people, but has sometimes been realized.

Imagine now that we come to an epoch where everybody is requested and everybody is helped to come to this I AM presence. To come to fulfill what was shown in a most wonderful and divine example 2000 years earlier by the master Yeshua, and especially through God in the master Yeshua.

How do we gain this being who is light and fire. How do we reach oneness with the real I AM presence? Is it possible? Is this high aim and goal of the various Yoga and initiation systems through the different cultures real or is it an in-vention of priests?

I say: ‘It is real and humanity has waited too long, mis-guided by the enemy of the gods and the human being, waited too long to develop this and to realize this, which is the real goal of humanity.’

Integral learning wants to give you a way to understand that this Earth is not for leaving. Should we leave because we suffer, because we have this or that problem, because it is so full of suffering and anxiety? Or because there are spiritual worlds and beautiful heavens and higher situa-tions, better situations? What is it that we should do here on this Earth?

Imagine that this Earth was created, step by step through millions of years, as a base only in order to grow so that the babies, the young seeds, the I AM pres-ence, the real divine entity can have an embodiment and learn in this home-school, in this university, what-ever this entity/identity of the cosmic tradition has to learn in order to become himself, herself, and to be a creator spirit, a divine individuality, to become a free, good creator. Good, because it knows everything about creation and development, creation and development of worlds and beings, in the sense that all these worlds and beings can have a harmonious, dynamic, evolution without evil disturbance.

It is a deep and long story, wherein we also have to touch on the question of good, or so called good and bad, or so called good and so called bad. One key has been given already. One key as been given with the triskele. Triskelion or the wheel of evolution—held by one God, namely the creator—the wheel of the tri-unity, the active, harmoniously, dynamically active tri-unity of wisdom, love and power. In order to come through all the realities to the truth or birthplace of all realities.

I know we are running wide through time and space and it might be a very wild opening and perhaps for some a stormy, chaotic beginning. (But the winds are very happy!)

Let us, for just a little moment, look to the old Greek tradition in the time when philosophy came more and more to birth. And the word philosophy, friendship or love for wisdom, is an expression of one element of the Triskele from the Celtic tradition. I allow myself to mention the Celts on one side and the Greeks on (the) other side, because they had a very deep and wonder-ful exchange. (And there is even a very old saying of Greek philosophers that the best scholars of the Py-thagorean tradition would be the Druids. That was said by a Greek, but in a later time.) Philosophy is friend-ship or love of wisdom. We have three elements in the Triskele: love, wisdom and power /might. (Don’t fear might, but fear misuse of might, that is something else.) One element is love for wisdom.

Then from Egypt, old Egypt, another saying would ap-pear on the door of the teaching of the [mysteries]: bring wisdom to power, bring wisdom to power oth-erwise it will be very dangerous! And then we could follow the Celts and the Indo-Germans, understanding: bring the might, bring the power, bring the energy to love, the principle of love, goodness and compassion. So with love to wisdom, wisdom to might and power, might and power to love, goodness. This is how the wheel, Triskele, Tricaru runs in the universe. So I have tried with the help of elements of other cultures, to present to you this element of the Celtic culture.



Adapted from: wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triskelion)

A triskelion or triskele (both from the Greek τρισκέλιον or τρισκελής, for “three-legged”) is a symbol consisting of three interlocked spirals, or three bent human legs, or any similar symbol with three protrusions and a threefold rotational symmetry.

A triskelion is the symbol of Brittany, as well as the Isle of Man and Sicily (where it is called Trisceli). The Manx and Sicilian triskelions feature three running legs, bent at the knee and conjoined at the crotch. Spiral forms of the triskele are often classed as solar symbols, while the legged version, sometimes including a gorgon mask or Me-dusa’s head at the central axle point in the Sicilian ver-sion, suggests a chthonic significance.

Origins

The triskelion symbol appears in many early cultures, in-cluding on Mycenaean vessels, on coinage in Lycia, and on staters of Pamphylia (at Aspendos, 370–333 BC) and Pisidia. A symbol of four conjoined legs, a tetraskelion, is also known in Anatolia. Celtic influences in Anatolia, epitomized by the Gauls who invaded and settled Galatia, are especially noted by those who theorize a Celtic origin for the triskelion.

Celtic / Gaelic Triscele

The triscele has been used since ancient times in Celtic culture to symbolize the cycle of life. It has also been a symbol for the trinity since post-pagan times and medi-eval times in Scotland, Ireland and parts of England and Wales. As with many of the pagan myths and stories that changed during this time period so did the pagan symbols that were once part of the culture in an effort to convert the entirety of celtic culture to Christianity. The triscele also was a symbol for the three goddesses of Celtic my-thology (also found in Greek mythology). There is also some debate if it came to be a symbol for wise men, lead-ers, scholars and people of the arts among the druids an ancients celts alike. Origins of this can be found in Brigid daughter of Dagda (Brigid is one of the three goddesses). When looking at the symbol it is clear to see that spirals move inward therefore also being cited that each spiral symbolizes strength, honor & fortitude.

Neolithic spiral formation

Spiral triskele, found in Celtic artwork, used by Celtic Reconstructionists and occasionally as a Christian Trinitarian symbol.

Triskelion

Copyrights for all items belong to the contributors (writers, artists, photographers). Crop Circle im-ages taken as low resolution thumbnails from the best crop circle site: www.cropcircleconnector.com/

Crop Circles: modern trisceles

These images of trisceles are but a selection of the many spiralling and complex geometric forms of the crop circles in England over the last decade. The ‘season’ is over for 2008, and the crops have been harvested. Each year the images are posted on the internet (link in box below), and year books are available of these remarkable and mysteri-ous communications. They are known by many as temporary temples. If anyone knows more about them, and would like to share their knowledge in the Dewdrop, we would wel-come that very much.
http://www.cropcircleconnector.com/

dewdrop vol 2/spring... · 2017. 11. 21. · dewdrop-evera newsletter spring 2008, volume 2, issue...

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