This material below is from the link
http://www.mysticsaint.info/2005/12/om-mani-padme-hum-and-its-esoteric.html
The Six-Syllabled Mantra ‘ OM MANI PADME HUM ’ is the heart mantra of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattvas (the Ultimate Buddha) and the essence of the Buddhas. its very difficult to translate, but literal translation means, hail to the jewel in the lotus.
Gen Rinpoche's definition: The mantra Om Mani Pädme Hum is easy to say yet quite powerful, because it contains the essence of the entire teaching (of Buddha).
Om it is blessed to help you achieve perfection in the practice of generosity.
Ma helps perfect the practice of pure ethics.
Ni helps achieve perfection in the practice of tolerance and patience.
Päd, the fourth syllable, helps to achieve perfection of perseverance.
Me helps achieve perfection in the practice of concentration.
Hum helps achieve perfection in the practice of wisdom.
What could then be more meaningful than to say the mantra and accomplish the six perfections?
The ESOTERIC MEANING:
The Theosophist and Mystic H.P.Blavatsky writers, "Om Mani Padma Hum," means simply "Oh the Jewel of the Lotus,"
Esoterically it signifies "Oh my God within me."
Yes; there is God in each human being, for man was, and will re-become, God.
The sentence points to the indissoluble union between Man and the Universe.
For the Lotus is the universal symbol of Cosmos as the absolute totality, and the Jewel is Spiritual Man or God.
Avalokiteshvara - "The on-looking Lord": In the exoteric interpretation, he is Padmapani (the lotus bearer and the lotus born) inTibet, the first divine ancestor of the Tibetans, the complete incarnationor Avatar of Avalokiteswara; but in esoteric philosophy Avaloki, the"on-looker", is the Higher Self, while Padmapani is the Higher Ego or Manas.
The mystic formula "Om mani padme hum" is specially used to invoke their joint help. While popular fancy claims for Avalokiteswara many incarnations on earth, and sees in him, not very wrongly, the spiritual guide of every believer, the esoteric interpretation sees in him the LOGOS, both celestial and human. (TG) Agni Yoga.
[ THE SECRET DOCTRINE -VOLUME -3- by H.P.Blavatsky - The Seven Hierarchies (Page 475) ]
The mantra refers to those primal Light within each of us, Buddhist call it The Buddha Nature, non - dualistic state of mind and clear vision.
my note: LOGOS which Blavatsky refers to is the English equivalent of The WORD or the 'I AM' principle. And in the understanding of the East this is also the TAO principle which exists in all things 'both celestial and human' (cosmos). Differing names...identical meaning. They all speak of Re-unification of the humanity with DIVINE SOURCE
Tuesday, December 4, 2012
Go With the Flow
"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes. Don't resist them, that only creates sorrow. Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like." —Lao-tzu
Thursday, July 19, 2012
INTUITION, RESOLVE & ETHICAL INDIVIDUALISM
"People vary greatly in their capacity for intuition. In one, ideas just bubble up; another acquires them with much labor. The situations in which people live and which provide the scenes of their actions are no less varied. The conduct of a person will therefore depend on the manner in which one's faculty of intuition works in a given situation. The sum of ideas which are effective in us, the concrete content of our intuitions, constitutes what is individual in each of us, notwithstanding the universality of the world of ideas.
In so far as this intuitive content applies to action, it constitutes the moral content of the individual. To let this content express itself in life is both the highest moral driving force and the highest motive a person can have [i.e. Resolve] who sees that in this content all other moral principles are in the end united. We may call this point of view ethical individualism..."
The fore-going is from Rudolf Steiner's ...freedom philosophy...known as 'Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom'...a central paragraph within chapter 9 entitled "The Idea of Freedom". translation by Michael Wilson. I have taken the liberty to insert 'people' or 'person' where Michael had used 'man'. This is my personal choice of meaning.
commentary: In my blog, one field of my endeavors is to relate the principles of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy to the very same principles inherent in the ancient Wisdom of Chinese TAO. To assume that the Wisdom of the ancients is past, is a false assumption...in my view.
The TAO within is an ever-evolving...ever dynamic but silent inner power...it is our essential-self.
In this and the following blog posting, I have chosen several of Steiner's quotes to express some qualities of TE as dwelt upon by Lao Tzu in his world-known Tao Te Ching. TE means the virtuous or ethical qualities of human action.
Is not Steiner's concept 'ethical individualism' just this?....a dynamic state of being where-by an individualized, human-in-balance allows a flowing into practical action as a free spirit [love for the action], his or her highest and best Moral Self...and in doing so, bridging heaven and earth....actualizing universal spiritual ideas in practical life...striving step-by-step to re-unify and heal some small part of what has been torn away by our human frailty from the Great TAO through our own incarnations as individuals, as peoples, as a whole humanity?
jsheartsourcehk@aol.com
In so far as this intuitive content applies to action, it constitutes the moral content of the individual. To let this content express itself in life is both the highest moral driving force and the highest motive a person can have [i.e. Resolve] who sees that in this content all other moral principles are in the end united. We may call this point of view ethical individualism..."
The fore-going is from Rudolf Steiner's ...freedom philosophy...known as 'Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom'...a central paragraph within chapter 9 entitled "The Idea of Freedom". translation by Michael Wilson. I have taken the liberty to insert 'people' or 'person' where Michael had used 'man'. This is my personal choice of meaning.
commentary: In my blog, one field of my endeavors is to relate the principles of Rudolf Steiner's Anthroposophy to the very same principles inherent in the ancient Wisdom of Chinese TAO. To assume that the Wisdom of the ancients is past, is a false assumption...in my view.
The TAO within is an ever-evolving...ever dynamic but silent inner power...it is our essential-self.
In this and the following blog posting, I have chosen several of Steiner's quotes to express some qualities of TE as dwelt upon by Lao Tzu in his world-known Tao Te Ching. TE means the virtuous or ethical qualities of human action.
Is not Steiner's concept 'ethical individualism' just this?....a dynamic state of being where-by an individualized, human-in-balance allows a flowing into practical action as a free spirit [love for the action], his or her highest and best Moral Self...and in doing so, bridging heaven and earth....actualizing universal spiritual ideas in practical life...striving step-by-step to re-unify and heal some small part of what has been torn away by our human frailty from the Great TAO through our own incarnations as individuals, as peoples, as a whole humanity?
jsheartsourcehk@aol.com
MORAL IMAGINATION and FREE ACTION
"A free spirit acts according to his impulses, that is, according to intuitions selected from the totality of his world of ideas by thinking. For an un-free spirit, the reason why he singles out a particular intuition from his world of ideas in order to make it the basis of an action, lies in the world of percepts given to him, that is, in his past experiences. He recalls, before coming to a decision, what someone else has done or recommended as suitable in a comparable case, or what God has commanded to be done in such a case, and so on, and he acts accordingly.
For a free spirit, these prior conditions are not the only impulses to action. He makes a completely first-hand decision. What others have done in such a case worries him as little as what they have decreed. He has purely ideal reasons which lead him to select from the sum of his concepts just one in particular, and then to translate it into action. But his action will belong to perceptible reality. What he achieves will thus be identical with a quite definite content of perception...."
The fore-going is from Rudolf Steiner's ...freedom philosophy...known as 'Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom'...the first paragraph of chapter 12 entitled Moral Imagination (Darwinism and Ethics). Translation by Michael Wilson
jsheartsourcehk@aol.com
For a free spirit, these prior conditions are not the only impulses to action. He makes a completely first-hand decision. What others have done in such a case worries him as little as what they have decreed. He has purely ideal reasons which lead him to select from the sum of his concepts just one in particular, and then to translate it into action. But his action will belong to perceptible reality. What he achieves will thus be identical with a quite definite content of perception...."
The fore-going is from Rudolf Steiner's ...freedom philosophy...known as 'Intuitive Thinking as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom'...the first paragraph of chapter 12 entitled Moral Imagination (Darwinism and Ethics). Translation by Michael Wilson
jsheartsourcehk@aol.com
WU WEI: ACTION THROUGH NON-ACTION
Action through non-action can be a way of characterizing the concept of WU WEI. It is a Chinese Taoist term which is often misunderstood in English translation since, at first, it may appear to be an oxymoron...a misleading contradiction. But what does it really mean?
Offering my thoughts from life experience, from my 'most human' moments it means the following...being. actively creative with very little and at best with no involvement of my narrow petty personal self. My Higher Self, a divinely given principle...or the 'I AM principle' which should and will grow to become ever more consciously active in earthly life, flows into earthly creative activity as into water...love for the action or into my spoken words are 'born' into fluid harmony with the existing factors of space and time...transforming space and time..a living alchemy..
In this most ideal state of activity, WU WEI means consciously and willingly surrendering from out of inner necessity. This is a complete love for the action. One is acting from the 'over-personal', or from what I experience as my essential self. One's essential Inner-Tao-Self flows into the essential TAO of nature and cosmos.
Clearly this implies that one's heart-mind is fully engaged .....expressive to the full. No brain-bound intellectuality is at the helm. Here, a heart-intelligence only steers as a 'captain' this 'non-active yet active ship' upon the waters of life.. Through this heart intelligence we become truly human. And this heart-activity can deepen to encompassing community...the great Art of Life.
the following quote is from Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky 1821-1881 of Russia
"The destiny of art in our time is to transmit from the realm of reason [here he means brain-bound intellect] to the realm of feeling [meaning heart-mind] the truth that the well-being of humanity consists in their being united together, and to set up, in place of the existing reign of force [by false leaders and 'experts' in every domain of modern life] that kingdom of God--that is, of Understanding Love--which we can all [can] recognize to be the highest aim of human life." [and of the Mother Earth] ....brackets added by editor
jsheartsourcehk@aol.com
Offering my thoughts from life experience, from my 'most human' moments it means the following...being. actively creative with very little and at best with no involvement of my narrow petty personal self. My Higher Self, a divinely given principle...or the 'I AM principle' which should and will grow to become ever more consciously active in earthly life, flows into earthly creative activity as into water...love for the action or into my spoken words are 'born' into fluid harmony with the existing factors of space and time...transforming space and time..a living alchemy..
In this most ideal state of activity, WU WEI means consciously and willingly surrendering from out of inner necessity. This is a complete love for the action. One is acting from the 'over-personal', or from what I experience as my essential self. One's essential Inner-Tao-Self flows into the essential TAO of nature and cosmos.
Clearly this implies that one's heart-mind is fully engaged .....expressive to the full. No brain-bound intellectuality is at the helm. Here, a heart-intelligence only steers as a 'captain' this 'non-active yet active ship' upon the waters of life.. Through this heart intelligence we become truly human. And this heart-activity can deepen to encompassing community...the great Art of Life.
the following quote is from Fyodor Mikhailovich Dostoyevsky 1821-1881 of Russia
"The destiny of art in our time is to transmit from the realm of reason [here he means brain-bound intellect] to the realm of feeling [meaning heart-mind] the truth that the well-being of humanity consists in their being united together, and to set up, in place of the existing reign of force [by false leaders and 'experts' in every domain of modern life] that kingdom of God--that is, of Understanding Love--which we can all [can] recognize to be the highest aim of human life." [and of the Mother Earth] ....brackets added by editor
jsheartsourcehk@aol.com
Saturday, June 9, 2012
ALPHA and OMEGA ...Is the Eternal One: TAO
'I am the Alpha and the Omega,
the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.'
from the Book of Revelations Chapter 22:13
'The Apocalypse of St.John'
The I AM ...the LOGOS ...these are identical to TAO
this TAO derives from Ancient Atlantis ...
the TAO which resounded through all manifestations
and is known both in
American Indian Lore as the 'Great White Spirit'
as well as in Ancient Chinese Wisdom
made known through Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching
At the time of St. John's life 2,000 years ago
he was writing the New Revelation of the ancient
Wisdom ....which Is that TAO..
The TAO evolves ever and ever...never becoming
static...always eternal...therefore the I AM is but
another Name for Eternal Beingness...
The SON Principle
....that which is the cosmic spiritual essence
of our own being ....that which is the Great Spirit
existent in all of nature ...never dying..
always indestructible...
which lives within all things...
transforming all things....
.
the First and the Last,
the Beginning and the End.'
from the Book of Revelations Chapter 22:13
'The Apocalypse of St.John'
The I AM ...the LOGOS ...these are identical to TAO
this TAO derives from Ancient Atlantis ...
the TAO which resounded through all manifestations
and is known both in
American Indian Lore as the 'Great White Spirit'
as well as in Ancient Chinese Wisdom
made known through Lao Tzu's Tao Te Ching
At the time of St. John's life 2,000 years ago
he was writing the New Revelation of the ancient
Wisdom ....which Is that TAO..
The TAO evolves ever and ever...never becoming
static...always eternal...therefore the I AM is but
another Name for Eternal Beingness...
The SON Principle
....that which is the cosmic spiritual essence
of our own being ....that which is the Great Spirit
existent in all of nature ...never dying..
always indestructible...
which lives within all things...
transforming all things....
.
"our spirit...continues from eternity to eternity"
We had gone round the thicket (the Webicht), and had turned by Tiefurt into the Weimar road, where we had a view of the setting sun. Goethe was for a while lost in thought. He then said to me, in the words of one of the ancients—
Untergehend sogar ist's immer dieselbige Sonne.
“Still it continues the self-same sun, even while it's sinking.”
“At the age of 75,” Goethe continued, with much cheerfulness, “one must, of course, think sometimes of death. But this thought never gives me the least uneasiness, for I am fully convinced that our spirit is a being of a nature quite indestructible, and that its activity continues from eternity to eternity. It is like the sun, which seems to set only to our earthly eyes, but which, in reality, never sets, but shines on unceasingly.”
The sun had, in the meanwhile, sunk behind the Ettersberg. We felt in the wood the chill of the evening, and drove all the quicker to Wiemar, and to Goethe's house. Goethe urged me to go in with him for a while, and I did so. He was in an extremely engaging mood. He talked a great deal about his theory of colors, and of his obstinate opponents; remarking that he was sure that he had done something in this science.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Conversations with Eckermann, May 2, 1824
Untergehend sogar ist's immer dieselbige Sonne.
“Still it continues the self-same sun, even while it's sinking.”
“At the age of 75,” Goethe continued, with much cheerfulness, “one must, of course, think sometimes of death. But this thought never gives me the least uneasiness, for I am fully convinced that our spirit is a being of a nature quite indestructible, and that its activity continues from eternity to eternity. It is like the sun, which seems to set only to our earthly eyes, but which, in reality, never sets, but shines on unceasingly.”
The sun had, in the meanwhile, sunk behind the Ettersberg. We felt in the wood the chill of the evening, and drove all the quicker to Wiemar, and to Goethe's house. Goethe urged me to go in with him for a while, and I did so. He was in an extremely engaging mood. He talked a great deal about his theory of colors, and of his obstinate opponents; remarking that he was sure that he had done something in this science.
— Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
Conversations with Eckermann, May 2, 1824
Birth, Death and Eternity
Birth is not a beginning. Death is not an end. There is existence without limitation. There is continuity without a starting-point. Existence without limitation is Space. Continuity without a starting-point is Time. There is birth, there is death, there is issuing forth, there is entering in. That through which one passes in and out without seeing its form, that is the Portal of God. The Portal of God is Non-Existence. Existence could not make existence existence. It must have proceeded from Non-Existence. And Non-Existence and Nothing are One... At the beginning there was nothing. Then life came, to be quickly followed by death. They made Nothing the head, Life the trunk, and Death the tail of existence, claiming as friends whoever knew that existence and non-existence, and life and death were all One.
Chuang Tzu, Tao master (399-295 B.C.)
Chuang Tzu, Tao master (399-295 B.C.)
Love, Death and Eternity
The love that is in me, the justice, the truth can never die & that is all of me that will not die. All the rest of me is so much death— my ignorance, my vice, my corporeal pleasure. But I am nothing else than a capacity for justice, truth, love, freedom, power. I can inhale, imbibe them forevermore. They shall be so much to me that I am nothing, they all. Then shall God be all in all. Herein is my Immortality. (October 24, 1836)
I said when I awoke, After some more sleepings & wakings I shall lie on this mattress sick; then dead; and through my glad entry they will carry these bones. Where shall I be then? I lift my head and beheld the spotless orange light of the morning beaming up from the dark hills into the wide Universe. (October 21, 1837)
The event of death is always astounding; our philosophy never reaches, never possesses it; we are always at the beginning of our catechism; always the definition is yet to be made, What is Death? I see nothing to help beyond observing what the mind's habit is in regard to that crisis. Simply, I have nothing to do with it. It is nothing to me. After I have made my will & set my house in order, I shall do in the immediate expectation of death the same things I should do without it. (October 28, 1837)
Life & Death are apparitions. Last night the Teachers' Sunday School met here & the theme was Judgment. I affirmed that we were Spirits now incarnated & should always be Spirits incarnated. Our thought is the income of God. I taste therefore of eternity & pronounce of eternal law Now & not hereafter. Space & time are but forms of thought. I proceed from God now & ever shall so proceed. Death is but an appearance. Yes & life's circumstances are but an appearance through which the firm virtue of this God-law penetrates & which it moulds. The inertia of matter & of fortune & of our employment is the feebleness of our spirit.
(May 14, 1838)
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Journals
I said when I awoke, After some more sleepings & wakings I shall lie on this mattress sick; then dead; and through my glad entry they will carry these bones. Where shall I be then? I lift my head and beheld the spotless orange light of the morning beaming up from the dark hills into the wide Universe. (October 21, 1837)
The event of death is always astounding; our philosophy never reaches, never possesses it; we are always at the beginning of our catechism; always the definition is yet to be made, What is Death? I see nothing to help beyond observing what the mind's habit is in regard to that crisis. Simply, I have nothing to do with it. It is nothing to me. After I have made my will & set my house in order, I shall do in the immediate expectation of death the same things I should do without it. (October 28, 1837)
Life & Death are apparitions. Last night the Teachers' Sunday School met here & the theme was Judgment. I affirmed that we were Spirits now incarnated & should always be Spirits incarnated. Our thought is the income of God. I taste therefore of eternity & pronounce of eternal law Now & not hereafter. Space & time are but forms of thought. I proceed from God now & ever shall so proceed. Death is but an appearance. Yes & life's circumstances are but an appearance through which the firm virtue of this God-law penetrates & which it moulds. The inertia of matter & of fortune & of our employment is the feebleness of our spirit.
(May 14, 1838)
— Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803-1882), Journals
Monday, June 4, 2012
TAO....PAST, PRESENT AND FUTURE
"The Tao gives expression to the highest to which a large part of humanity can look up and has revered for thousands of years.It is something which was considered as a distant goal of the world and of humanity, the highest element which man carried as a germ within him, which would one day develop into a fully opened blossom from the innermost depths of human nature.
Tao signifies both a deeply hidden basis of the soul and at the same time an exulted future. Not only the name Tao, but the very thought of Tao filled those who had insight into it with timid reverence. The Tao religion is based on the principle of development, and it proclaims:
'That by which I am surrounded today is but a stage which has to be overcome. I must clearly see that this development in which I am involved has a Goal, that I am going to work towards an exulted Goal and that within me there lives a power which spurs me on to come to the Great Goal of Tao.
If I can feel this great force within me and if I can feel that all creatures are aiming towards this great goal, then this force becomes the guiding force rushing towards me in the wind, sounding out of the stones, flashing its light to me from the sun. In the plant it is revealed as the force of growth, in the animal as feeling and perception. It is the force which will continually create form after form for every exulted aim, through which I know myself to be at one with the whole of nature, which flows out from me and into me with every breath I take, the symbol for the highest evolving spirit which I experience as life itself. I feel this force as Tao." Nov. 16, 1905... R.S.
Tao signifies both a deeply hidden basis of the soul and at the same time an exulted future. Not only the name Tao, but the very thought of Tao filled those who had insight into it with timid reverence. The Tao religion is based on the principle of development, and it proclaims:
'That by which I am surrounded today is but a stage which has to be overcome. I must clearly see that this development in which I am involved has a Goal, that I am going to work towards an exulted Goal and that within me there lives a power which spurs me on to come to the Great Goal of Tao.
If I can feel this great force within me and if I can feel that all creatures are aiming towards this great goal, then this force becomes the guiding force rushing towards me in the wind, sounding out of the stones, flashing its light to me from the sun. In the plant it is revealed as the force of growth, in the animal as feeling and perception. It is the force which will continually create form after form for every exulted aim, through which I know myself to be at one with the whole of nature, which flows out from me and into me with every breath I take, the symbol for the highest evolving spirit which I experience as life itself. I feel this force as Tao." Nov. 16, 1905... R.S.
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
Inspiring Books for your reading!
Clairvoyance and Consciousness:
The TAO Impulse in Evolution
http://www.templelodge.com/pages/viewbook.php?isbn_in=9781906999360
A 2012 re-print of a classic...Incredible! Indispensable! Absolutely the very best book in English on this theme. (Original in German 1988, first English 1991)
Thomas makes a wonderful presentation of Steiner's main spiritual scientific researches into the Akasha concerning the TAO on Atlantis. He then leads the reader to an understanding of how the Tao today can and does live in present day humanity (even Goethe is described as one who had a deep feeling for the Tao). A particularly profound presentation is made of Steiner's basic philosophic work Intuition as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom as a path to experiencing the TAO in our time! Indications are also given of the Fulfillment of Tao through humanity for the world in the distant future. http://www.amazon.com/Intuitive-Thinking-Spiritual-Path-Anthroposophy/dp/088010385X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337158492&sr=8-1#reader_088010385X
(And one further note here: one does not need to be a philosopher to read this Steiner book!... just willing to develop an open, unbiased, clear and logical mind for free active thought. Free active thinking leads to fresh insights and even powerful intuitions which can have practical and even healthy and ethical consequences. I've tried it...it works.)
Lao Tzu and Anthroposophy by Kwan-Yuk Claire Sit 2010 and 2012
http://steinerbooks.org/detail.html?session=985f459a6a6fc9eed4388f933121f969&id=9781584201267
Fresh ink!...now in 2nd revised printing May 18...a very excellent new translation from an Anthroposophical perspective with beautiful, inspiring commentaries ...profoundly interesting.
Claire was born in Hong Kong and now resides in the US. However she will soon be here to deliver three lecture during our upcoming TAO and Anthroposophy Symposium to be held in Hong Kong June 1-3, 2012 contact me at jsheartsourcehk@aol.com for more information
also by Claire:
The Lord's Prayer: an Eastern Perspective same author 2008
http://steinerbooks.org/detail.html?id=9780880105965 Since I have not seen or read this...cannot make a statement here, but undoubtedly a wonderful well written commentary.
May I recommend purchasing a few of either 3 of these titles to give to friends as gifts!
The TAO Impulse in Evolution
http://www.templelodge.com/pages/viewbook.php?isbn_in=9781906999360
A 2012 re-print of a classic...Incredible! Indispensable! Absolutely the very best book in English on this theme. (Original in German 1988, first English 1991)
Thomas makes a wonderful presentation of Steiner's main spiritual scientific researches into the Akasha concerning the TAO on Atlantis. He then leads the reader to an understanding of how the Tao today can and does live in present day humanity (even Goethe is described as one who had a deep feeling for the Tao). A particularly profound presentation is made of Steiner's basic philosophic work Intuition as a Spiritual Path: A Philosophy of Freedom as a path to experiencing the TAO in our time! Indications are also given of the Fulfillment of Tao through humanity for the world in the distant future. http://www.amazon.com/Intuitive-Thinking-Spiritual-Path-Anthroposophy/dp/088010385X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337158492&sr=8-1#reader_088010385X
(And one further note here: one does not need to be a philosopher to read this Steiner book!... just willing to develop an open, unbiased, clear and logical mind for free active thought. Free active thinking leads to fresh insights and even powerful intuitions which can have practical and even healthy and ethical consequences. I've tried it...it works.)
Lao Tzu and Anthroposophy by Kwan-Yuk Claire Sit 2010 and 2012
http://steinerbooks.org/detail.html?session=985f459a6a6fc9eed4388f933121f969&id=9781584201267
Fresh ink!...now in 2nd revised printing May 18...a very excellent new translation from an Anthroposophical perspective with beautiful, inspiring commentaries ...profoundly interesting.
Claire was born in Hong Kong and now resides in the US. However she will soon be here to deliver three lecture during our upcoming TAO and Anthroposophy Symposium to be held in Hong Kong June 1-3, 2012 contact me at jsheartsourcehk@aol.com for more information
also by Claire:
The Lord's Prayer: an Eastern Perspective same author 2008
http://steinerbooks.org/detail.html?id=9780880105965 Since I have not seen or read this...cannot make a statement here, but undoubtedly a wonderful well written commentary.
May I recommend purchasing a few of either 3 of these titles to give to friends as gifts!
Monday, May 14, 2012
Lao Tzu ...with a quote from Goethe
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Lao Tzu, lived 6th cent. B.C.
"When the healthy human nature works in its entirety, when the human feels herself as a great and beautiful, worthy and valuable whole within the world, when the feeling of harmonious pleasure affords her free delight --then, if the universe could perceive itself, it would shout with joy as if it had arrived at its ultimate goal and would acclaim the pinnacle of its achievement and striving. For to what purpose is the expenditure of suns and planets and moons, of stars and milky ways, of comets and nebulae, of worlds already created and worlds in the making, unless ultimately a happy human being enjoys it unselfconsciously?"
Goethe 1749-1832
This quote epitimizes the spirit of Tao as it can be experienced by a selfless human consciousness...a natural state of being where one feels at One with the universe without a dint of selfishness...but when Love prevades all being and things....a great unity...js.
Thursday, May 10, 2012
a pastel painting...
'TAO'
flyer background for a lecture given by js
on 'Tao and Anthroposophy' at the
Waldorf Education Conference
for Chinese Speaking Teachers May 2012
TAO as Experienced by Atlanteans
"TAO.... is the reminder of the conception of the divine held by our early forefathers. Before Europe, Asia and Africa were scenes of early civilization, early forefathers of ours lived on the continent of Atlantis, which was finally submerged by the mighty floods. In the Germanic sagas of Nifelheim or Nebelheim, the memory of Atlantis still lives. For Atlantis was not surrounded by pure air. Vast cloud-masses moved over the land. like those to be seen today clustering around the peaks of high mountains. The sun and moon did not shine clearly in the heavens - they were surrounded by rainbows - by the sacred IRIS. At that time the human being understood the language of nature. Today we no longer understand what speaks to us in the rippling of waves, in the noise of winds, in the rustling of leaves, in the rolling of thunder - but in old Atlantis it was understood and felt as a divine reality. And within these voices of clouds, and waters and leaves and winds a sound rang forth - TAO - THAT I AM. The people of Atlantis heard and understood it, feeling that Tao pervaded the whole universe. Later, Tao was expressed by the by the letter T, upon which rests a circle, a sign of the all - encompassing divine nature."
R.S., lecture Dec. 24, 1905
R.S., lecture Dec. 24, 1905
Sunday, April 22, 2012
"All the World's a Stage"
on May 11, 2012...a 'forward' added to the following post on Shakespeare
The Shakespeare post below, is not really directly related to the themes of either TAO or the Grail as my blog site usually addresses. However, I thought to include this from Shakespeare since his work from 'As You Like It' is an interesting and also quite humorous theatrical statement made about the evolutionary stages of a human being in a very ordinary course of one life.
As to my own view of the matter, I hold and add that of a higher expectation of humanity. And it is this... to raise our consciousness from ordinary, passive and blind belief in a fated course of life....awakening instead to a spiritual law of existence based in freedom. The choice of each individual in coming to this realization is just that...a matter of freedom.
I further hold that we sub-consciously or consciously create our own individual course of life in close relation to an over-all, pre-birth decision. From this pre-birth decision, there follows one's life something like how Shakespeare puts it, in which 'All the world's a stage'...we pass then follows an after-life when in spirit we recollect and assess one's own previous past life and then after long a expanse of time, prepare for a re-newed earth life in accordance with the spiritual laws of reincarnation and karma.
To my knowledge Shakespeare did not address the issues of reincarnation and karma... as the deeper truths about these spiritual laws were hidden from most of humanity until a time when they could again be exoterically revealed through the exacting spiritual scientific researches of Rudolf Steiner who about 100 years ago began placing these questions against the background of the great responsibility humankind has in fulfilling the ultimate mission of the earth...that of redemption..creating a great community of love in freedom and a resurrected earth in spiritual form. Can this ever be accomplished in a single lifetime?
The first exoteric teachings of the laws of re-incarnation and karma were of course brought before humanity through the great teachings of Gautama Buddha, 6th century B.C.. In this teaching we re-incarnate in order to purify our personal passions and ultimately illiminate all karma, and finally with no further need to incarnate, reach Nirvana. In that original teaching, importance is laid on transforming oneself with the goal of doing it for one's own salvation...a goal of supreme enlightenment and doing it in a 'timely manner'. This teaching had it's mission. That of purification or catharsis of our all-too-human self
In our times, spiritual realities have been unveiled through far deeper and wider teachings. They can be grasped by a modern rational consciousness, and understood and penetrated through individual unbiased sound judgement...free from any dogma or faith in a guru worship. Invididual sound judgement, in an of itself, will step-by-step reconcile with the deep longing of each to know oneself in depth and breath. This self-knowledge we can call acheived heart wisdom tested in life. This is the Way of the TAO available to all human beings be they Chinese, European, american or African.
Again, this is a matter in the first place of freedom. But if and when an individual comes to certain inner realizations of certain universal truths ...then they become a profound emancipating...liberating forces for the self in accordance with the universal laws of existence. In my life, this is proven so.
Any modern philosophic thought, religious belief or dogma, one-sided scientific or educational system which today further ignores, negates or hinders paths of oneself or others to understand these ideas, works in opposition to the spiritual evolution of humanity and the earth and therefore can be called anti-Grail or an attack on the further potential and fulfillment of the TAO.
and now for:
William Shakespeare
born 1564 and died 1616
on the very same day April 23
Act 2, scene 7
from 'As You Like It'
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
[Not a very pleasant way to finish!]
The Shakespeare post below, is not really directly related to the themes of either TAO or the Grail as my blog site usually addresses. However, I thought to include this from Shakespeare since his work from 'As You Like It' is an interesting and also quite humorous theatrical statement made about the evolutionary stages of a human being in a very ordinary course of one life.
As to my own view of the matter, I hold and add that of a higher expectation of humanity. And it is this... to raise our consciousness from ordinary, passive and blind belief in a fated course of life....awakening instead to a spiritual law of existence based in freedom. The choice of each individual in coming to this realization is just that...a matter of freedom.
I further hold that we sub-consciously or consciously create our own individual course of life in close relation to an over-all, pre-birth decision. From this pre-birth decision, there follows one's life something like how Shakespeare puts it, in which 'All the world's a stage'...we pass then follows an after-life when in spirit we recollect and assess one's own previous past life and then after long a expanse of time, prepare for a re-newed earth life in accordance with the spiritual laws of reincarnation and karma.
To my knowledge Shakespeare did not address the issues of reincarnation and karma... as the deeper truths about these spiritual laws were hidden from most of humanity until a time when they could again be exoterically revealed through the exacting spiritual scientific researches of Rudolf Steiner who about 100 years ago began placing these questions against the background of the great responsibility humankind has in fulfilling the ultimate mission of the earth...that of redemption..creating a great community of love in freedom and a resurrected earth in spiritual form. Can this ever be accomplished in a single lifetime?
The first exoteric teachings of the laws of re-incarnation and karma were of course brought before humanity through the great teachings of Gautama Buddha, 6th century B.C.. In this teaching we re-incarnate in order to purify our personal passions and ultimately illiminate all karma, and finally with no further need to incarnate, reach Nirvana. In that original teaching, importance is laid on transforming oneself with the goal of doing it for one's own salvation...a goal of supreme enlightenment and doing it in a 'timely manner'. This teaching had it's mission. That of purification or catharsis of our all-too-human self
In our times, spiritual realities have been unveiled through far deeper and wider teachings. They can be grasped by a modern rational consciousness, and understood and penetrated through individual unbiased sound judgement...free from any dogma or faith in a guru worship. Invididual sound judgement, in an of itself, will step-by-step reconcile with the deep longing of each to know oneself in depth and breath. This self-knowledge we can call acheived heart wisdom tested in life. This is the Way of the TAO available to all human beings be they Chinese, European, american or African.
Again, this is a matter in the first place of freedom. But if and when an individual comes to certain inner realizations of certain universal truths ...then they become a profound emancipating...liberating forces for the self in accordance with the universal laws of existence. In my life, this is proven so.
Any modern philosophic thought, religious belief or dogma, one-sided scientific or educational system which today further ignores, negates or hinders paths of oneself or others to understand these ideas, works in opposition to the spiritual evolution of humanity and the earth and therefore can be called anti-Grail or an attack on the further potential and fulfillment of the TAO.
and now for:
William Shakespeare
born 1564 and died 1616
on the very same day April 23
which is St. George Day
(St. George is the earthly
representative of the present
Time Spirit Mi-cha-el.)
(St. George is the earthly
representative of the present
Time Spirit Mi-cha-el.)
Act 2, scene 7
from 'As You Like It'
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.
[Not a very pleasant way to finish!]
Saturday, April 21, 2012
TAO as Perceived by Goethe
"When the healthy human nature works in its entirety, when the human feels herself as a great and beautiful, worthy and valuable whole within the world, when the feeling of harmonious pleasure affords her free delight --then, if the universe could perceive itself, it would shout with joy as if it had arrived at its ultimate goal and would acclaim the pinnacle of its achievement and striving. For to what purpose is the expenditure of suns and planets and moons, of stars and milky ways, of comets and nebulae, of worlds already created and worlds in the making, unless ultimately a happy human being enjoys it unselfconsciously?"
This quote is included in chapter 12 of T.H. Meyer's Clairvoyance and Consciousness: The Tao Impulse in Evolution. To reword Meyer's thoughts which accompany this quote he means that Goethe held a 'soul-atmosphere' within him which was the inspiration for his lifework. And this 'soul-atmosphere' was an 'underlying feeling for the unity of man and nature which sees all separation as only a partial phenomenon'. This 'underlying feeling for the unity of man and nature' is a deep sense for the Tao.
Further, Meyer mentions Steiner's 1905 characterization in one of Goethe's works with these words in a lecture 1905:
'Goethe had an inkling of the Tao-perception when addressing Nature in the words of his 'Hymn to Nature'.
Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her--powerless to leave her and powerless to enter her more deeply. Unasked and without warning she sweeps us away in the round of her dance and dances on until we fall exhausted from her arms.
She brings forth ever new forms: what is there, never was; what was, never will return. All is new, and yet forever old.
We live within her, and are strangers to her. She speaks perpetually with us, and does not betray her secret. we work on her constantly, and yet have no power over her.
All her effort seems bent towards individuality, and she cares nothing for individuals. she builds always, destroys always, and her workshop is beyond our reach. she lives in countless children, and the mother--where is she? She is the sole artist, creating extreme contrast out of the simplest material, the greatest perfection seemingly without effort, the most definite clarity always veiled with a touch of softness. Each of her works has its own being, each of her phenomena its separate idea, yet all create a single whole.'
(a fragment from Goethe's 'Scientific Studies')
my commentary:
How far we really are in our consciousness as individual and collective humanity from this closeness to Nature! Will we ever reunite?.... and how will we ever regain that union with her that he speaks of?...it will take time assuredly, long ages. It will happen...in this we can be sure... but it will only happen firstly on an individual basis when an achieved rebirth occurs out of one's deepest core of humanity 'Die and Become' Goethe once said. The Spirit of the human being will at long last achieve reunification with the Spirit in Nature. When many accomplish this in brotherhood...in freedom and through many lifetimes...then the Mighty Work will be accomplished...the TAO will be fulfilled. All dualities and all divisions will have been overcome. The 'underlying feeling for the unity of man and nature' which Goethe felt deeply and which we can only to begin with...emulate ....becomes for a ever-growing number of humanity a 'power which spurs me on' ...a matter of warmth-filled-resolving-will.
Rudolf Steiner 1905 with the following:
"The Tao gives expression to the highest to which a large part of humanity can look up and has revered for thousands of years. It is something which was considered as a distant goal of the world and of humanity, the highest element which man carried as a germ within him, which would one day develop into a fully opened blossom from the innermost depths of human nature....
...That by which I am surrounded today is but a stage which has to be overcome. I must clearly see that this development in which I am involved has a Goal, that I am going to work towards an exulted Goal and that within me there lives a power which spurs me on to come to the Great Goal of Tao."
This quote is included in chapter 12 of T.H. Meyer's Clairvoyance and Consciousness: The Tao Impulse in Evolution. To reword Meyer's thoughts which accompany this quote he means that Goethe held a 'soul-atmosphere' within him which was the inspiration for his lifework. And this 'soul-atmosphere' was an 'underlying feeling for the unity of man and nature which sees all separation as only a partial phenomenon'. This 'underlying feeling for the unity of man and nature' is a deep sense for the Tao.
Further, Meyer mentions Steiner's 1905 characterization in one of Goethe's works with these words in a lecture 1905:
'Goethe had an inkling of the Tao-perception when addressing Nature in the words of his 'Hymn to Nature'.
Nature! We are surrounded and embraced by her--powerless to leave her and powerless to enter her more deeply. Unasked and without warning she sweeps us away in the round of her dance and dances on until we fall exhausted from her arms.
She brings forth ever new forms: what is there, never was; what was, never will return. All is new, and yet forever old.
We live within her, and are strangers to her. She speaks perpetually with us, and does not betray her secret. we work on her constantly, and yet have no power over her.
All her effort seems bent towards individuality, and she cares nothing for individuals. she builds always, destroys always, and her workshop is beyond our reach. she lives in countless children, and the mother--where is she? She is the sole artist, creating extreme contrast out of the simplest material, the greatest perfection seemingly without effort, the most definite clarity always veiled with a touch of softness. Each of her works has its own being, each of her phenomena its separate idea, yet all create a single whole.'
(a fragment from Goethe's 'Scientific Studies')
my commentary:
How far we really are in our consciousness as individual and collective humanity from this closeness to Nature! Will we ever reunite?.... and how will we ever regain that union with her that he speaks of?...it will take time assuredly, long ages. It will happen...in this we can be sure... but it will only happen firstly on an individual basis when an achieved rebirth occurs out of one's deepest core of humanity 'Die and Become' Goethe once said. The Spirit of the human being will at long last achieve reunification with the Spirit in Nature. When many accomplish this in brotherhood...in freedom and through many lifetimes...then the Mighty Work will be accomplished...the TAO will be fulfilled. All dualities and all divisions will have been overcome. The 'underlying feeling for the unity of man and nature' which Goethe felt deeply and which we can only to begin with...emulate ....becomes for a ever-growing number of humanity a 'power which spurs me on' ...a matter of warmth-filled-resolving-will.
Rudolf Steiner 1905 with the following:
"The Tao gives expression to the highest to which a large part of humanity can look up and has revered for thousands of years. It is something which was considered as a distant goal of the world and of humanity, the highest element which man carried as a germ within him, which would one day develop into a fully opened blossom from the innermost depths of human nature....
...That by which I am surrounded today is but a stage which has to be overcome. I must clearly see that this development in which I am involved has a Goal, that I am going to work towards an exulted Goal and that within me there lives a power which spurs me on to come to the Great Goal of Tao."
Friday, April 20, 2012
TAO and Water
from Lao Tzu 5th Century B.C.
"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong."
"Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not oppose them."
from St. Francis of Assisi 1181/82-1226
"Water is the mirror of nature."
from Rudolf Steiner 1907
"The wisdom of Atlantis is embodied in water, in a drop of dew. Tau (German for 'dew' and phonetically Tao) is nothing other than that ancient Atlantean sound. So we should look with reverence and devotion at every dew drop glittering from a blade of grass as a holy legacy from that age in which the connection between man and the Gods was not yet severed."
"Water is fluid, soft, and yielding. But water will wear away rock, which is rigid and cannot yield. As a rule, whatever is fluid, soft, and yielding will overcome whatever is rigid and hard. This is another paradox: what is soft is strong."
"Water benefits the ten thousand things and does not oppose them."
from St. Francis of Assisi 1181/82-1226
"Water is the mirror of nature."
from Rudolf Steiner 1907
"The wisdom of Atlantis is embodied in water, in a drop of dew. Tau (German for 'dew' and phonetically Tao) is nothing other than that ancient Atlantean sound. So we should look with reverence and devotion at every dew drop glittering from a blade of grass as a holy legacy from that age in which the connection between man and the Gods was not yet severed."
Wednesday, April 18, 2012
pastels and canvas paintings
 |
| Radiating Earth '05 |
Majesty '05
Aurora '04
Heaven's Gate '11
Gloria in Excelsis Deo! '06
Festive Sunset '04
Tranquility '04
Welcoming the Light '11
Sunday, April 15, 2012
Master and the TAO by Lao Tzu
The Master keeps her mind
always at one with the Tao;
that is what gives her radiance.
The Tao is ungraspable.
How can her mind be at one with it?
Because she doesn't cling to ideas.
The Tao is dark and unfathomable.
How can it be radiant?
Because she lets it.
Since before time and space were,
the Tao is.
It is beyond is ...and is not.
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself and see.
always at one with the Tao;
that is what gives her radiance.
The Tao is ungraspable.
How can her mind be at one with it?
Because she doesn't cling to ideas.
The Tao is dark and unfathomable.
How can it be radiant?
Because she lets it.
Since before time and space were,
the Tao is.
It is beyond is ...and is not.
How do I know this is true?
I look inside myself and see.
Friday, April 13, 2012
Thursday, April 12, 2012
Klingborg on Beauty, Creativity and Freedom
"Beauty is a far-reaching concept which in itself embraces creativity and the element of freedom. Beauty is an expression of the free creative act. The 'urge to play' exists in human nature as a disposition, and it is here that freedom should be first aroused. This is the goal of education.
The free act, the activity of art, does not exist by natural necessity. If it did, the act would not be free. It must be awakened by each individual. The human community which attends to the creative possibilities of each person develops a sense for true human dignity. Knowledge regarding the human person has been one-sidedly cultivated around the concepts of heredity and environment. Schiller is exploring a new outlook."
This is the answer to those who believe that 'everyone is an artist' which is sometimes often heard. Notice that Klingborg quite rightly indicates that free creativity (emphasis on 'free') must be awakened 'by each individual', meaning within the individual. It is the task of the educator to provide the nurturing conditions for this awakening to occur. Encouragement is the foundation....inner motivation may result. No one can awaken for us we must awaken from within ourselves and if there is another person to sensitively assist in this process and it is a successful process, then this is called the art of education.
When will humanity resurrect the art of education on a broad scale ensuring that each child or adult not only has this opportunity to become freely creative but are then allowed to exercise and remain freely creative throughout life? This seems to me to be a fundamental question in view of growing global conditions brought on by human beings themselves which seek to hinder, imprison and even obliterate the free human spirit of others!
Arne Klingborg (1915-2005) was a great Swedish-European artist, master gardener, educator and community builder. From first hand experience I can say that in his lifetime he was certainly one of the most remarkable figures in the modern European life of the 20th century. His influence stretched globally effecting thousands of students and professionals in every field of life.
Arne acutely recognized Schiller as the one who showed the way to authentic education...an education which nurtures the 'urge to play' ....where all motivation 'exists in human nature' ....where 'freedom should be first aroused'...'be awakened by each individual'... engaging and making real the 'free creative act'.
Friedrich Schiller 1759-1805 'The Freedom Philosopher'
The beginning quote by Klingborg is excerpted from his article 'The Arts in Life' which is contained along with chapters on various themes in 'Work Arising from the life of Rudolf Steiner'.
Waldorf education which Steiner founded in 1919, is today the vibrant and on-going example of Schiller's aesthetics put into practice. Waldorf exists worldwide starting from kindergarten and continuing with grades 1-12 in many schools where there has been time and opportunity to develop.
The free act, the activity of art, does not exist by natural necessity. If it did, the act would not be free. It must be awakened by each individual. The human community which attends to the creative possibilities of each person develops a sense for true human dignity. Knowledge regarding the human person has been one-sidedly cultivated around the concepts of heredity and environment. Schiller is exploring a new outlook."
This is the answer to those who believe that 'everyone is an artist' which is sometimes often heard. Notice that Klingborg quite rightly indicates that free creativity (emphasis on 'free') must be awakened 'by each individual', meaning within the individual. It is the task of the educator to provide the nurturing conditions for this awakening to occur. Encouragement is the foundation....inner motivation may result. No one can awaken for us we must awaken from within ourselves and if there is another person to sensitively assist in this process and it is a successful process, then this is called the art of education.
When will humanity resurrect the art of education on a broad scale ensuring that each child or adult not only has this opportunity to become freely creative but are then allowed to exercise and remain freely creative throughout life? This seems to me to be a fundamental question in view of growing global conditions brought on by human beings themselves which seek to hinder, imprison and even obliterate the free human spirit of others!
Arne Klingborg (1915-2005) was a great Swedish-European artist, master gardener, educator and community builder. From first hand experience I can say that in his lifetime he was certainly one of the most remarkable figures in the modern European life of the 20th century. His influence stretched globally effecting thousands of students and professionals in every field of life.
Arne acutely recognized Schiller as the one who showed the way to authentic education...an education which nurtures the 'urge to play' ....where all motivation 'exists in human nature' ....where 'freedom should be first aroused'...'be awakened by each individual'... engaging and making real the 'free creative act'.
Friedrich Schiller 1759-1805 'The Freedom Philosopher'
The beginning quote by Klingborg is excerpted from his article 'The Arts in Life' which is contained along with chapters on various themes in 'Work Arising from the life of Rudolf Steiner'.
Waldorf education which Steiner founded in 1919, is today the vibrant and on-going example of Schiller's aesthetics put into practice. Waldorf exists worldwide starting from kindergarten and continuing with grades 1-12 in many schools where there has been time and opportunity to develop.
Transforming Building Environments............. Through Color in Movement
This project was completed 10 years ago at Eden Foods Inc,
Clinton, Michigan USA
Eden Foods is one of the world's largest manufacturers
and wholesale distributors of natural foods.
The corridor is a thorough-way for rolling forklifts
moving palettes of food from one space to another.
So the artistic concept
was to create a colorful-feeling-mood of
rhythmical-living-movement...
transforming the environment through color.
The color was applied in transparent layers of wash-glazes.
This technique was initiated by Rudolf Steiner.
The technique or method is called Lazure Painting.
Lazure Painting helps to give breath to wall surfaces.
View many other beautiful examples of lazure
done by fellow American artists
Robert Logsdon and Charles Andrade
In my work illustrated above,
this was an environment where there is
alot of mechanical-machine movement.
The space has been transformed by lazure art.
Lazure enters into a dynamic living relationship with people
in an environment where there are
rolling but lifeless machines.
Imagine the corridor in this industrial environment with the
typical drab, lifeless paint job...your basic utilitarian solution...
just 'slap' the paint on the wall and get on with business!
Thank you Eden owner Michael Potter for making beauty
a part of industrial business life at Eden.
I would think that workers and the machines
have felt a little happier these 10 years
whenever entering this corridor environment.
Now I have been busy the last three and a half years
helping the Chinese, mostly on the mainland,
just how to awaken their innate sense for color...
and also for painting sensibilities which is of course
is what the Chinese masters were best at.
And with the devastating effects of gross capitalism
rising up in the country.. like a specter...
it is fundamentally important
to help guard against
the ill effects of this capitalism
when and wherever possible with all its
commercialism, consumerism and materialization
....which is also engulfing the urbanized globe.
Lazure Painting with living color in movement
will bring some rejuvenating life, joy and healing.
for more of my work
done in Europe, the US and Asia
Monday, April 9, 2012
Goethe on Nature and Art
"Supreme works of art, like the most sublime products of Nature, are created by man in conformity with true and natural Law. All that is arbitrary, all that is invented, collapses: there is Necessity, there is God.”
These thoughts are inscribed in Goethe's Diary of his “Italian Journey” under the date, 6th September, 1787.
These thoughts are inscribed in Goethe's Diary of his “Italian Journey” under the date, 6th September, 1787.
Sunday, April 8, 2012
NATURE AND ART
by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 1749-1832
Nature and Art, they go their separate ways,
It seems; yet all at once they find each other.
Even I no longer am a foe to either;
Both equally attract me nowadays.
Some honest toil's required; then, phase by phase,
When diligence and wit have worked together
To tie us fast to Art with their good tether,
Nature again may set our hearts ablaze.
All culture is like this; the unfettered mind,
The boundless spirit's mere imagination,
For pure perfection's heights will strive in vain.
To achieve great things, we must be self-confined:
Mastery is revealed in limitation
And law alone can set us free again.
translated from the original german
by David Luke
Saturday, April 7, 2012
TAO: The Resurrecting Guiding Force
posting Easter Sunday, 2012
From the akashic readings of R. Steiner, we receive knowledge of the spiritual origin of TAO. Modern spiritual science or Anthroposophy which he founded, based as it is on clarity and precise perception, enabled him to do conscious and accurate research into the Akasha. This dissolves any and all boundaries set by natural science. Whoever said that science had to concern itself only with Nature?
To begin with Anthroposophy or spiritual science can on the one hand be intently developed and then be nurtured and translated into life through artistic process. A disciplined schooling of consciousness in ever higher forms of thought through study, research and contemplation as well as nurturing a path of artistic development through creative practice ....is available for any thinking, feeling and willing human being.
In fact we may not all be thinkers and artists but we can surely become these through self-education. Self-education can be aided by another who has prior experience...who knows what to say and also knows how to listen. The fundamental step for oneself is motivation....I wish to change, I will change with my best intentions...I resolve to change...to become more effectively human. How can I learn...? What are the steps which I need to take?
Developing along...the way... the path towards human hood begins with being able...to think, to say and to dwell on this within oneself... 'I am'. This mature deed is essentially an fundamental stage along the Middle Way which is the third principle of the TAO born out of the first two principles Heaven and Earth.
We of course said 'I am' even in childhood but now as an adult we can now fill that experience with deepening contemplation. We ask "Who am 'I'? Where do 'I' reall come from? Where do 'I' go? Is there only fate...or am 'I' free to create my destiny?"
The powerful first manifestation of TAO amongst humanity long after the beginning of the world, originated in the ancient past during the Atlantean Age. Atlantis, the sunken 'lost continent' once existed in the region covering most of the Atlantic Ocean. The historic existence of a highly developed civilization at its prime was a reality...though it has been for long millennia buried in mystery and wisdom-filled myth and legend.
It's once existence must now become acknowledged...conceptually at least...and recognized for its significant role...and also for the sake of understanding world destiny. Though there are today no physical remains remaining of that time, one can through inner spiritual contemplation...through an inner quiet remembering... along with a acknowledgement of wisdom from the past in the new form of knowledge...spiritual science... create a living imagination with trust in its reality. As for myself as a 14 year old boy, I 'recalled' that it was part of my past. It was a real tangible inner experience in my feeling. Now at 62 I know it in my bones. Anthroposophy has been a guide which has confirmed my feelings. Now I am resolved to fully know more.
The TAO was 'in the beginning' and gave original birth to Heaven and Earth. So TAO existed long before Atlantis. Lao Tzu tells us the following in the following recent translation from the Chinese by Kwan-Yuk Claire Sit...we listen here to Lao Yzu in his very first words of the Tao Te Ching...
A Tao that can be a road is not the eternal Tao.
A name that can connote fame is not the eternal Name.
Wu is named for the origin of all things.
You is named for the mother of all things.
So, ever free of desire, we can see only its manifestations.
These two appear together.
They differ in name, yet are considered the same.
Mystery within mystery,
they are the gateway to all marvels.
From the middle, and onwards towards the later periods of that ancient Atlantean time, the Great TAO was a mighty but peace-loving-sounding which increasingly streamed through all of nature and humanity from all widths and heights of heaven. This TAO resounded not only throughout all of nature, sounding from the stones and watery streams, in the swirling mists, in the rushing wind, but it was also, in this time of paradise, when we received more fully as a gift from the divine, our pure 'dew drop' or drop of the spirit. This 'dew drop' (with the same meaning of 'Tau' in German) is our pure human essence. Today the only real existing remnants of this experience is in our thinking ego...a mere densified contracted materialization of this pure essence. Yes, it has nearly dried up.
This same thinking ego has for most of humanity, each at one's own stage, become a detached abstraction!...mere accumulations of impressions and re-hashing reflections of the outer sense world, of theories and lemur-like beliefs and then also wallowing in very personal emotions and sensual temptations of all sorts. The ego has become entangled and confused and divided from True Spirit, from living nature with its own indwelling Spirit and from the higher Spirit of other human beings by a process of inward-contracting-densification and selfishment.
This deepening condition has evolved into a separation, into ego hood by a karmic necessity. It has occurred for the purpose of individualization. This individualization is a necessary stage in evolving authentic freedom. BUT we, as a collective humanity, have now come to the tipping stage. An illusion of freedom has now caused an attitude which, for the most part, is essentially destructive anti-spirit, anti-nature and anti-social. This condition now dangerously threatens the very existence of humanity and of nature as a whole. every new day humanity and this physical earth is threatened by annihilation.
...When an individual's thinking begins to awaken from confusion, calamity and a nightmarish conditions; when the thinking ego says to itself ..."my true 'I' is more than this earthly I"; when this higher 'I' begins to move and free itself more and more through thinking from its narrow attraction and imprisonment in the brain; when this 'I' even empowers itself by way of a fiery force of the heart through contemplation and meditation...overcoming the coldness and narrowness of one's earthly I ...it enacts a metamorphosis...transforming and rejuvenating itself...this is the striving for authentic freedom...it becomes a process of resurrection!
Every gradual step is a Grail experience however small in the greater picture of evolution. Yes, I believe even Darwin's thinking mind will also evolve next time to newer insights! With all due respect, he may even return as a zoo keeper or a veterinarian!
The individual human being resurrects as by a inner guiding force its own humanity through the power of love in freedom. This inner force is the evolving TAO.
That divine essence once received as a gift into the depths of the 'temple', will little-by-little radiate and stream from within and outward in all directions as like a slowly rising sun. It will re-unite at long last with the 'highest evolving spirit' which is Life itself...the Alpha and Omega...both the origin and re-unifying exulted Principle and Goal of all things True, Beautiful and Good...the Great TAO.
here are following words from RS in 1905:
'That by which I am surrounded today is but a stage which has to be overcome. I must clearly see that this development in which I am involved has a Goal, that I am going to work towards an exulted Goal and that within me there lives a power which spurs me on to come to the Great Goal of TAO.
If I can feel this great force within me and if I can feel that all creatures are aiming towards this great goal, then this force becomes the guiding force rushing towards me in the wind, sounding out of the stones, flashing its light to me from the sun. In the plant it is revealed as the force of growth, in the animal as feeling and perception.
It is the force which will continually create form after form for every exulted aim, through which I know myself to be at one with the whole of nature, which flows out from me and into me with every breath I take, the symbol for the highest evolving spirit which I experience as life itself....I feel this force as TAO."
From the akashic readings of R. Steiner, we receive knowledge of the spiritual origin of TAO. Modern spiritual science or Anthroposophy which he founded, based as it is on clarity and precise perception, enabled him to do conscious and accurate research into the Akasha. This dissolves any and all boundaries set by natural science. Whoever said that science had to concern itself only with Nature?
To begin with Anthroposophy or spiritual science can on the one hand be intently developed and then be nurtured and translated into life through artistic process. A disciplined schooling of consciousness in ever higher forms of thought through study, research and contemplation as well as nurturing a path of artistic development through creative practice ....is available for any thinking, feeling and willing human being.
In fact we may not all be thinkers and artists but we can surely become these through self-education. Self-education can be aided by another who has prior experience...who knows what to say and also knows how to listen. The fundamental step for oneself is motivation....I wish to change, I will change with my best intentions...I resolve to change...to become more effectively human. How can I learn...? What are the steps which I need to take?
Developing along...the way... the path towards human hood begins with being able...to think, to say and to dwell on this within oneself... 'I am'. This mature deed is essentially an fundamental stage along the Middle Way which is the third principle of the TAO born out of the first two principles Heaven and Earth.
We of course said 'I am' even in childhood but now as an adult we can now fill that experience with deepening contemplation. We ask "Who am 'I'? Where do 'I' reall come from? Where do 'I' go? Is there only fate...or am 'I' free to create my destiny?"
The powerful first manifestation of TAO amongst humanity long after the beginning of the world, originated in the ancient past during the Atlantean Age. Atlantis, the sunken 'lost continent' once existed in the region covering most of the Atlantic Ocean. The historic existence of a highly developed civilization at its prime was a reality...though it has been for long millennia buried in mystery and wisdom-filled myth and legend.
It's once existence must now become acknowledged...conceptually at least...and recognized for its significant role...and also for the sake of understanding world destiny. Though there are today no physical remains remaining of that time, one can through inner spiritual contemplation...through an inner quiet remembering... along with a acknowledgement of wisdom from the past in the new form of knowledge...spiritual science... create a living imagination with trust in its reality. As for myself as a 14 year old boy, I 'recalled' that it was part of my past. It was a real tangible inner experience in my feeling. Now at 62 I know it in my bones. Anthroposophy has been a guide which has confirmed my feelings. Now I am resolved to fully know more.
The TAO was 'in the beginning' and gave original birth to Heaven and Earth. So TAO existed long before Atlantis. Lao Tzu tells us the following in the following recent translation from the Chinese by Kwan-Yuk Claire Sit...we listen here to Lao Yzu in his very first words of the Tao Te Ching...
A Tao that can be a road is not the eternal Tao.
A name that can connote fame is not the eternal Name.
Wu is named for the origin of all things.
You is named for the mother of all things.
So, ever free of desire, we can see only its manifestations.
These two appear together.
They differ in name, yet are considered the same.
Mystery within mystery,
they are the gateway to all marvels.
From the middle, and onwards towards the later periods of that ancient Atlantean time, the Great TAO was a mighty but peace-loving-sounding which increasingly streamed through all of nature and humanity from all widths and heights of heaven. This TAO resounded not only throughout all of nature, sounding from the stones and watery streams, in the swirling mists, in the rushing wind, but it was also, in this time of paradise, when we received more fully as a gift from the divine, our pure 'dew drop' or drop of the spirit. This 'dew drop' (with the same meaning of 'Tau' in German) is our pure human essence. Today the only real existing remnants of this experience is in our thinking ego...a mere densified contracted materialization of this pure essence. Yes, it has nearly dried up.
This same thinking ego has for most of humanity, each at one's own stage, become a detached abstraction!...mere accumulations of impressions and re-hashing reflections of the outer sense world, of theories and lemur-like beliefs and then also wallowing in very personal emotions and sensual temptations of all sorts. The ego has become entangled and confused and divided from True Spirit, from living nature with its own indwelling Spirit and from the higher Spirit of other human beings by a process of inward-contracting-densification and selfishment.
This deepening condition has evolved into a separation, into ego hood by a karmic necessity. It has occurred for the purpose of individualization. This individualization is a necessary stage in evolving authentic freedom. BUT we, as a collective humanity, have now come to the tipping stage. An illusion of freedom has now caused an attitude which, for the most part, is essentially destructive anti-spirit, anti-nature and anti-social. This condition now dangerously threatens the very existence of humanity and of nature as a whole. every new day humanity and this physical earth is threatened by annihilation.
...When an individual's thinking begins to awaken from confusion, calamity and a nightmarish conditions; when the thinking ego says to itself ..."my true 'I' is more than this earthly I"; when this higher 'I' begins to move and free itself more and more through thinking from its narrow attraction and imprisonment in the brain; when this 'I' even empowers itself by way of a fiery force of the heart through contemplation and meditation...overcoming the coldness and narrowness of one's earthly I ...it enacts a metamorphosis...transforming and rejuvenating itself...this is the striving for authentic freedom...it becomes a process of resurrection!
Every gradual step is a Grail experience however small in the greater picture of evolution. Yes, I believe even Darwin's thinking mind will also evolve next time to newer insights! With all due respect, he may even return as a zoo keeper or a veterinarian!
The individual human being resurrects as by a inner guiding force its own humanity through the power of love in freedom. This inner force is the evolving TAO.
That divine essence once received as a gift into the depths of the 'temple', will little-by-little radiate and stream from within and outward in all directions as like a slowly rising sun. It will re-unite at long last with the 'highest evolving spirit' which is Life itself...the Alpha and Omega...both the origin and re-unifying exulted Principle and Goal of all things True, Beautiful and Good...the Great TAO.
here are following words from RS in 1905:
'That by which I am surrounded today is but a stage which has to be overcome. I must clearly see that this development in which I am involved has a Goal, that I am going to work towards an exulted Goal and that within me there lives a power which spurs me on to come to the Great Goal of TAO.
If I can feel this great force within me and if I can feel that all creatures are aiming towards this great goal, then this force becomes the guiding force rushing towards me in the wind, sounding out of the stones, flashing its light to me from the sun. In the plant it is revealed as the force of growth, in the animal as feeling and perception.
It is the force which will continually create form after form for every exulted aim, through which I know myself to be at one with the whole of nature, which flows out from me and into me with every breath I take, the symbol for the highest evolving spirit which I experience as life itself....I feel this force as TAO."
Healing the Earth: Bio-Dynamic Agriculture
posting at Midnight to Easter Sunday, 2012, from Hong Kong
AGRICULTURE and the EARTH
The Organic Farming Movement has a somewhat long history.
It began in the US before mid-20th century. How did it begin?
http://www.organic-nature-news.com/organic-farming.html
from this site we read of the run up to the organic movement with the following:
"The first half of the 20th century saw the introduction of the internal combustion engine, which led to tractors and other mechanized farm equipment. Research in plant breeding led to the production of hybrid seeds. Nitrogen fertilizer - first synthesized in the mid-1800s – became commonly available. There were over 3,000,000 tractors by 1950. As a result, fields grew bigger and farm crops became more specialized to make more efficient use of machinery. In England in the 1920s, a few individuals in agriculture began to speak out against these farming trends.
After World War II, large-scale irrigation, fertilization, and the use of pesticides became common practice. In particular, two chemicals that had been produced for use in warfare were put to use in farming. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became an abundantly cheap source of nitrogen. Soon, new pesticides appeared: DDT, which had been used to control disease-carrying insects around troops, became a general insecticide, launching the era of widespread pesticide use.
In 1944, an international campaign called the [so called] Green Revolution was launched in Mexico with private funding from the US. It encouraged the development of hybrid plants, chemical controls, large-scale irrigation, and heavy mechanization in farms around the world. During the 1950s, sustainable agriculture was a topic of scientific interest, but research concentrated on developing new chemical approaches.
[Then] In the US, J.I. Rodale [founder of Organic farming] began to popularize the term ['organics'] and methods of organic farming, particularly to consumers through promotion of organic gardening.
In 1962, Rachel Carson published 'Silent Spring'.
(Read about Rachel Carson and her early 60's shocking reporting and warning about pesticides here)
http://classwebs.spea.indiana.edu/bakerr/v600/rachel_carson_and_silent_spring.htm
going on:
The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) began in France in 1972 for the purpose of sharing information on organic farming all over the world. IFOAM also hoped to counter the impact of "chemically-based" agriculture on the environment and peasant societies. A generous contribution of "seed" money from the Rodale Press helped to make these early developments possible. The Institute was dedicated to comparative trials of different methods of organic cultivation and to show the effects of each on food quality. The oldest of these, inspired by the insights of Rudolf Steiner, was the Bio Dynamic movement, which was [at first] mostly influential in German speaking countries. "
And today, interest and practice in Bio-Dynamics has spread worldwide.
This following is an excerpted statement from the home page of
http://www.happyheartfarmcsa.com/content/9762
"Although the Bio-Dynamic Movement originated slightly before the Organic Movement, it actually represents the next conscious step beyond what the Organic Movement brings to agriculture.
Fundamentally, it is inclusive of many of the methods familiar to "organic" and "perma-cultural" practitioners, but also takes into account the planetary influences and spiritual forces that affect plant growth.
The use of the "Bio Dynamic preparations" (specialized composts that are applied in homeopathic doses) also sets Bio Dynamics apart from other farming practices."
more details on Anthroposophical Agriculture or Bio-Dynamics
http://www.andrewlorand.com/biodynamicintroduction.html
Here it must be stated in this context that we are presently in the midst of a conscious destruction of our planet. One of the leading representatives of global destruction is Monsanto Corporation with head office in the US. There is on the internet ample evidence of what ruthlessness this elitist operation has in it's focus on total world-wide control of seeds and farmland, destroying life and livelihoods of countless dedicated farmers not to mention an entire industry.
This is what I call an anti-Grail impulse. It arises out of utter disregard for earthly life. Greedy control is the primary motivation. We are also talking here about the annihilation of life.
In utter contrast to this is Bio-Dynamics which holds total respect and responsibility for earth existence and it's inhabitants. BD practice works in harmony with the planetary movements in relation to the stars constellations, as well as the course of lunar rhythms in nature. The main 'heart' of BD agriculture is the compost heap with those homeopathic preparations. So we are not talking about an ordinary compost heap!
perhaps the following quote from the link just given above sums up BD agriculture most adequately:
"Although Bio-Dynamics can be understood in many ways, it is foremost an attempt to understand how nature as a whole really works, how the substances, forces and beings at work in nature interact and form a whole, living physiology - and how to work successfully, naturally and ethically within nature's system of substances, forces and beings."
Hmmm...this does sound familiar to me...yes, these are Tao principles in practice!
This initiative was started 1924 by R.Steiner to bring a healing to the earth and to humanity. One does not need to be a farmer or to even have the blessing of a small garden to understand and appreciate the significance of this effort to bring healing. One can grasp not only the concept but take it a courageous step forward...read Steiner's 1924 lectures (hint: amazon) or start a study group, or visit a BD garden or farm whether you may be in India, Philippines, Hawaii, Egypt, Sweden, Scotland...yes farms in all these countries...and more worldwide. Better yet, consider taking a training in the BD practice somewhere in the world....which may lead not only to fulfilling one's own personal destiny but at the same time the good destiny of humanity and the earth.
AGRICULTURE and the EARTH
The Organic Farming Movement has a somewhat long history.
It began in the US before mid-20th century. How did it begin?
http://www.organic-nature-news.com/organic-farming.html
from this site we read of the run up to the organic movement with the following:
"The first half of the 20th century saw the introduction of the internal combustion engine, which led to tractors and other mechanized farm equipment. Research in plant breeding led to the production of hybrid seeds. Nitrogen fertilizer - first synthesized in the mid-1800s – became commonly available. There were over 3,000,000 tractors by 1950. As a result, fields grew bigger and farm crops became more specialized to make more efficient use of machinery. In England in the 1920s, a few individuals in agriculture began to speak out against these farming trends.
After World War II, large-scale irrigation, fertilization, and the use of pesticides became common practice. In particular, two chemicals that had been produced for use in warfare were put to use in farming. Ammonium nitrate, used in munitions, became an abundantly cheap source of nitrogen. Soon, new pesticides appeared: DDT, which had been used to control disease-carrying insects around troops, became a general insecticide, launching the era of widespread pesticide use.
In 1944, an international campaign called the [so called] Green Revolution was launched in Mexico with private funding from the US. It encouraged the development of hybrid plants, chemical controls, large-scale irrigation, and heavy mechanization in farms around the world. During the 1950s, sustainable agriculture was a topic of scientific interest, but research concentrated on developing new chemical approaches.
[Then] In the US, J.I. Rodale [founder of Organic farming] began to popularize the term ['organics'] and methods of organic farming, particularly to consumers through promotion of organic gardening.
In 1962, Rachel Carson published 'Silent Spring'.
(Read about Rachel Carson and her early 60's shocking reporting and warning about pesticides here)
http://classwebs.spea.indiana.edu/bakerr/v600/rachel_carson_and_silent_spring.htm
going on:
The International Federation of Organic Agriculture Movements (IFOAM) began in France in 1972 for the purpose of sharing information on organic farming all over the world. IFOAM also hoped to counter the impact of "chemically-based" agriculture on the environment and peasant societies. A generous contribution of "seed" money from the Rodale Press helped to make these early developments possible. The Institute was dedicated to comparative trials of different methods of organic cultivation and to show the effects of each on food quality. The oldest of these, inspired by the insights of Rudolf Steiner, was the Bio Dynamic movement, which was [at first] mostly influential in German speaking countries. "
And today, interest and practice in Bio-Dynamics has spread worldwide.
This following is an excerpted statement from the home page of
http://www.happyheartfarmcsa.com/content/9762
"Although the Bio-Dynamic Movement originated slightly before the Organic Movement, it actually represents the next conscious step beyond what the Organic Movement brings to agriculture.
Fundamentally, it is inclusive of many of the methods familiar to "organic" and "perma-cultural" practitioners, but also takes into account the planetary influences and spiritual forces that affect plant growth.
The use of the "Bio Dynamic preparations" (specialized composts that are applied in homeopathic doses) also sets Bio Dynamics apart from other farming practices."
more details on Anthroposophical Agriculture or Bio-Dynamics
http://www.andrewlorand.com/biodynamicintroduction.html
Here it must be stated in this context that we are presently in the midst of a conscious destruction of our planet. One of the leading representatives of global destruction is Monsanto Corporation with head office in the US. There is on the internet ample evidence of what ruthlessness this elitist operation has in it's focus on total world-wide control of seeds and farmland, destroying life and livelihoods of countless dedicated farmers not to mention an entire industry.
This is what I call an anti-Grail impulse. It arises out of utter disregard for earthly life. Greedy control is the primary motivation. We are also talking here about the annihilation of life.
In utter contrast to this is Bio-Dynamics which holds total respect and responsibility for earth existence and it's inhabitants. BD practice works in harmony with the planetary movements in relation to the stars constellations, as well as the course of lunar rhythms in nature. The main 'heart' of BD agriculture is the compost heap with those homeopathic preparations. So we are not talking about an ordinary compost heap!
perhaps the following quote from the link just given above sums up BD agriculture most adequately:
"Although Bio-Dynamics can be understood in many ways, it is foremost an attempt to understand how nature as a whole really works, how the substances, forces and beings at work in nature interact and form a whole, living physiology - and how to work successfully, naturally and ethically within nature's system of substances, forces and beings."
Hmmm...this does sound familiar to me...yes, these are Tao principles in practice!
This initiative was started 1924 by R.Steiner to bring a healing to the earth and to humanity. One does not need to be a farmer or to even have the blessing of a small garden to understand and appreciate the significance of this effort to bring healing. One can grasp not only the concept but take it a courageous step forward...read Steiner's 1924 lectures (hint: amazon) or start a study group, or visit a BD garden or farm whether you may be in India, Philippines, Hawaii, Egypt, Sweden, Scotland...yes farms in all these countries...and more worldwide. Better yet, consider taking a training in the BD practice somewhere in the world....which may lead not only to fulfilling one's own personal destiny but at the same time the good destiny of humanity and the earth.
Wednesday, March 28, 2012
"...like finding water in the desert."
This link is to very interesting short 'trailer' to a documentary film produced in 2011 which was 150 years since Rudolf Steiner's birth in 1861. He died 87 years ago in 1925, on March 30.
In this video, individuals worldwide are interviewed who have found inner resonance with the worldview that Steiner introduced in his time. However, very importantly, "he was..." as is stated in the film's opening by Dennis Klocek "...ahead of his time in his time, and he is actually ahead in his time in this time."
Steiner could be considered a true representative of the Middle Way of the TAO between Heaven and Earth. He continually encouraged all human beings, touched by a universal world perspective which he initiated, to examine closely, test and individualize...and become as a flame...by first making things experiential for oneself...all that he was destined to reveal for humanity for our time...then continue the great work of the Divine by serving humanity and the world. This is the active Middle Way. Virtue coupled with conscience.
So, can a universal philosophy which synthesises the wisdom of the past, be brought...not only into a modern scientific context...but be tilled into the soil? Can it be given social and real practical footing in the many man-made deserts created, by what I choose to call elitist-enforced-materialism, driven as much of it is, by society's so called experts, most of whom lead by the direction of their error-prone, cold intellect and unbounded egotism for personal profit gain and power?
The film gives many examples of persons who give varying testaments that the lifeless, dusty desert soil created by man-made materialism can be tilled with new life..
Let's take a look at another example...SEKEM, 60 kilometers outside of Cairo Egypt
There exists there today a thriving and robust oasis community created by a Dr. Abouleish who had in 1975 returned to his homeland after 19 years in Austria, Europe. He was touched by the tragic economic and social situation of his country of origin. It was then resolved to begin two years later 1977, a project of cultural renewal on the basis of a synthesis of Islam and Anthroposophy. He started with 70 hectares of actual desert...you know... barren sandy nothingness!! This initiative is called SEKEM.
This the link to the new website posted just 10 days ago...http://www.sekem.com/
This first time I heard the doctor speak about SEKEM in Chicago many years ago at the downtown Branch of the Anthroposophical Society in America, I was amply impressed by his warm humanity and sincere concern for world peoples and nature. It was then with deep gratitude again to have met years later in '09, together with his wife and with Sinmei with me as we traveled there to the training centre of SEKEM community. The name is taken from the Egyptian hyhieroglyph for vitality.
“Sustainable Development is one of the most important challenges to man and it means the creation of living conditions today which will still allow future generations to live with dignity."
Dr. Abouleish... from that SEKEM website
The answers to the questions I posed above, are found in the practical solutions and results derived from that expanded science. This is a spiritual science ...or Anthroposophy... which can awaken new life and healing in existing practices such as medicine, nursing and all therapeutic fields of care, agricultural, the field of human rights and law, banking and economics, the arts including architecture, sculpture and painting, music and the speech and dramatic arts an all social forms of community life...and most importantly in that context...aging educational systems. All these fields can be enlivened by Anthroposophy.
And at SEKEM over these past 35 years, many of these areas of human endeavor are woven into the tapestry of the community.
If this heighten expanded science brings new life and healing to a world in need... then perhaps we should take a little closer look and not always continue to ask why there are such a multitude of world of unsolvable problems when there just may be some real solutions close at hand.
So where to start?
Well, for all of it's evident dark sides, the internet is a phenomenal source for beginnings and change as long as we don't get stuck behind it too much! On this internet screen in front of us there are appalling postings aimed at destroying our world ..but more most interesting and ultimately life changing for many...is plenty of information put up by those who seek to build a more humane future by transforming present conditions. They are sharing the fruits of their struggles and discoveries and sharing insights gained from experience.
Then there are countless walk-in organizations and those websites which give leads to various paths of inner development such as meditation. There are eastern paths, there are western paths... then there is the Middle Path which Steiner developed in Central Europe. Sure, we can call him a western thinker in relation to the east ...but in actuality he was a man of the Middle for he bridged east and west, even north and south.
This following is a link to help I have found helpful towards making beginnings.
http://www.anthroposophy.org.uk/book/chapter7.html#forcesofthinking
Everything starts with self-education. Even the role of education of the young should be to educate towards freedom...a freedom which in turn motivates each human being to find the value of self-education and not end up getting permanently stuck behind an iphone or computer! That's precisely what the inventor and manufacturers of the iphone and the computers and the consumerist/profit driven corporates wish us to do...become glued in our chair or glued with our eyes and fingers. Just look around at people mesmerized by those little screens and not even noticing the people around!
So the first step in that self-education is of course motivation! and heart-courage for new thinking...and along with that is a healthy dose of wonderment and trust in the what-was-previously-unthinkable...for hidden meanings in all things...not just believing in surface appearances. This is what materialism does when we have lost touch with the Divine in all things. The search is again the way of the TAO ...or the step-by-step path of the GRAIL. Enlightenment or fulfilling moments may come if we are blessed or graced to receive it... but persevering effort must be made to learn as much as possible from life. Each lifetime is too short.
And to close:
Ben Cherry who is interviewed among all the others in this short film, was one of the first couple of people to introduce Steiner education called Waldorf schooling in mainland China. He is the one who states in the film, that when he found the work of Rudolf Steiner, it was ...'like finding water in the desert'.... Ben, Scottish born, had been long searching for answers to his personal questions. Now he is himself continuing the great work of the Divine...he is busy along with his colleagues, offering some answers to the urgent questions from multiple-hundreds of Chinese parents and teachers. They will in turn try to find creative answers for young children and teens searching themselves with personal questions.
Again the short video link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmrQ75xaFck
A full length film is available as DVD or online download
important note! I most recently made a correction in the blog address. There was one little letter missing in the blog name which I had been using. It is now corrected and if you have previously kept this site as a 'favorite' on your toolbar, then it is imperative to reset that favorite now to reflect the corrected address otherwise it will be impossible to come to this site in the future via the toolbar favorite. I hope this is clear. Also, if anyone wishes to contact me directly via email, it is this address: jsheartsourcehk@aol.com
Thursday, March 22, 2012
TAO and Education
....thoughts attributed to Confucius' grandson
What Heaven confers is called nature.
Accordance with this nature is called the Way.
Cultivating the Way is called education.
That which is called the Way
cannot be separated from it for an instant.
What can be separated from is not the Way.
Therefore the superior man is cautious
in the place where he is not seen;
And apprehensive in the place where he is not heard.
Nothing is more visible than the hidden;
And nothing is more apparent than the subtle.
Therefore the superior man is cautious when he is alone.
What Heaven confers is called nature.
Accordance with this nature is called the Way.
Cultivating the Way is called education.
That which is called the Way
cannot be separated from it for an instant.
What can be separated from is not the Way.
Therefore the superior man is cautious
in the place where he is not seen;
And apprehensive in the place where he is not heard.
Nothing is more visible than the hidden;
And nothing is more apparent than the subtle.
Therefore the superior man is cautious when he is alone.
On Change...self-transformation
by Lao Tzu
If you want to awaken all of humanity,
then awaken all of yourself.
If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world,
then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.
Truly, the greatest gift you have to give
is that of your own self-transformation.
If you want to awaken all of humanity,
then awaken all of yourself.
If you want to eliminate the suffering in the world,
then eliminate all that is dark and negative in yourself.
Truly, the greatest gift you have to give
is that of your own self-transformation.
Sunday, March 18, 2012
On "Change"
...inherent in the Yin and Yang principles of the
I CHING and TAO:
Yin...is not dark, cold, low. These are the results
that manifest because of its changing action
she is not dark, it is a movement of changing darkness.
it is not cold but a tendency towards coldness.
it is neither interior nor at rest but rather turning inward
and slowing down.
Yang is not light...but is becoming light;
it is not hot but becoming hot,
not external or active but becoming active
the changing should be verbs:
becoming...rather than nouns
... dynamic changing activity
Yin and Yang are the concerted, counterforce movements of life
and comprise the dynamics that also unite them!
(fore-going thoughts gleaned from
Understanding the I Ching by Cyrille Javary 1989)
On change from Lao Tzu (570-490 BC) Zhou Dynasty, China
"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality.
Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like."
On change from Heraclitus 535 --475 BC Greece
"Nothing endures but change".
Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher of Ephesus, Greece
known for his doctrine of... change being central to the universe,
and for establishing the term LOGOS...Greek meaning for the WORD
...in Western philosophy designating both the source
and fundamental order of the Cosmos. and could also be taken as TAO
Heraclitus by Johannes Moreelse. The image depicts him as "the weeping philosopher"
wringing his hands over the world and "the obscure" dressed in dark clothing,
both traditional motifs.
On Change from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) Germany
"We must always change, renew,
rejuvenate ourselves, otherwise we harden."
...change endures...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist,
biologist, empirical physicist
On change and 'going with the flow' from Tom Upton
"If you just go with the flow,
no matter what weird things happen along the way,
you always end up exactly where you belong.”
― Tom Upton born in Chicago, USA, living writer
I CHING and TAO:
Yin...is not dark, cold, low. These are the results
that manifest because of its changing action
she is not dark, it is a movement of changing darkness.
it is not cold but a tendency towards coldness.
it is neither interior nor at rest but rather turning inward
and slowing down.
Yang is not light...but is becoming light;
it is not hot but becoming hot,
not external or active but becoming active
the changing should be verbs:
becoming...rather than nouns
... dynamic changing activity
Yin and Yang are the concerted, counterforce movements of life
and comprise the dynamics that also unite them!
(fore-going thoughts gleaned from
Understanding the I Ching by Cyrille Javary 1989)
On change from Lao Tzu (570-490 BC) Zhou Dynasty, China
"Life is a series of natural and spontaneous changes.
Don't resist them; that only creates sorrow.
Let reality be reality.
Let things flow naturally forward in whatever way they like."
On change from Heraclitus 535 --475 BC Greece
"Nothing endures but change".
Heraclitus was a Greek philosopher of Ephesus, Greece
known for his doctrine of... change being central to the universe,
and for establishing the term LOGOS...Greek meaning for the WORD
...in Western philosophy designating both the source
and fundamental order of the Cosmos. and could also be taken as TAO
Heraclitus by Johannes Moreelse. The image depicts him as "the weeping philosopher"
wringing his hands over the world and "the obscure" dressed in dark clothing,
both traditional motifs.
On Change from Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832) Germany
"We must always change, renew,
rejuvenate ourselves, otherwise we harden."
...change endures...
Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a German writer, pictorial artist,
biologist, empirical physicist
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On change and 'going with the flow' from Tom Upton
"If you just go with the flow,
no matter what weird things happen along the way,
you always end up exactly where you belong.”
― Tom Upton born in Chicago, USA, living writer
TRUTH SEEK WE BOTH words by Schiller
Truth seek we both --
Thou in the life without you and around;
I in the heart within.
By both can Truth alike be found.
The healthy eye can through the world
the great creator track;
The healthy heart is but the glass
which gives creation back.
Friedrich Schiller
1759-1805
close friend to Goethe
'track' ...means of course... observe, recognize...
and...I believe, that by the word
'glass' ...he may here mean
the heart's inner Grail Cup...
which when in a healthy mood
and receiving a divine content......can in turn...
continue the great creator's work.
js
Thou in the life without you and around;
I in the heart within.
By both can Truth alike be found.
The healthy eye can through the world
the great creator track;
The healthy heart is but the glass
which gives creation back.
Friedrich Schiller
1759-1805
close friend to Goethe
'track' ...means of course... observe, recognize...
and...I believe, that by the word
'glass' ...he may here mean
the heart's inner Grail Cup...
which when in a healthy mood
and receiving a divine content......can in turn...
continue the great creator's work.
js
Thursday, March 15, 2012
Eternity...words by Chuang Tzu 3rd century BCE
Birth is not a beginning.
Death is not an end.
There is existence without limitation.
There is continuity without a starting-point.
Existence without limitation is Space.
Continuity without a starting point is Time.
There is birth...
there is death...
there is issuing forth...
there is entering in.
Chuang Tzu Tao philosopher
Death is not an end.
There is existence without limitation.
There is continuity without a starting-point.
Existence without limitation is Space.
Continuity without a starting point is Time.
There is birth...
there is death...
there is issuing forth...
there is entering in.
Chuang Tzu Tao philosopher
Wednesday, February 29, 2012
Rudolf Steiner's Goetheanum as an Example of Universal TAO Principles in Artistic Concrete Form
The second Goetheanum opened 1928, stands in Central Europe. The main structure is of concrete. In this picture we are viewing the west facade with it's main entrance. The building was named by Steiner to honor Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832), founder of living organic science. As a guide to scale, the three doorways are about 4 meters in height (over 12 ft.).
In this posting I hope to convey what I believe to be exemplary artworks in photos of applied universal TAO principles in artistic form. This presupposes that one views the TAO as an ever present evolving dynamic presence of interweaving cosmic and earthly forces. As above, so below... with an intermediate rhythmic-breathing dynamic which harmoniously unifies the above and below...these being the mighty heavenly forces and earthly material forces. So wouldn't it be possible that these great principles be expressed in artistic form... if mediating artists knowingly grasps the underlying principles and processes of all Divinely given creative manifestations and molds them, as in these examples, into earthly concrete form? This is the question!
To familiarize ourselves with the four main principles of TAO: oneness or wholeness, duality or polarity, tri-plicity and 'myriadness',
So how do we see these expressed in this example above?
Oneness or wholeness...It should be quite evident to the viewer that from this view at least, we can discern a total oneness of intent meaning that the entire creation expresses a unity. Here all form elements including graceful gestures and corresponding surrounding spaces are in synthesis just as an open rose bloom...or if we might we say... a symphony in synchronicity.
Duality or polarity...It is also quite clear that duality is everywhere evident...left and right, up and down and also, though we can here only view this one perspective, forward and back.
Tri-plicity...The weaving, intermediate movement we may call metamorphosis where small and large gestural forms and spaces grow organically between the great polarity of above and below as in the plant world. In the single well-formed plant form, we can observe the principle of metamorphosis where every form gracefully evolves onto another.
'Myriadness'...This means multiplying diversity, where all the small details of design organically continue. And if with the awakened loving imaginative eye of the observer, a continuation of the elements could as well be...yes...seen to go on into the 'empty' surrounding space.
The late master architect Rex Raab (1914-2004) entitled his book on the building 'Eloquent Concrete", and in my view this is a beautiful and apt title for a book on the subject. This building is one of the first examples of modern organic architecture at the beginning of the 20th century, the first in large scale be built in reinforced concrete. And it is certainly the very first monumental organic structure built out of a unversal spiritual conception. It is believed that this building inspired LeCorbusier in his designing of Ronchamp after his visit to the Goetheanum. See this link for images of LeCorbusier's chapel in France. http://www.archdaily.com/84988/ad-classics-ronchamp-le-corbusier/
and a bio about Rex Raab http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rex-raab-6171107.html It is also known that the architects Frank Lloyd Wright as well as the world famous contemporary architect Frank Gehry have both visited this building and have, I believe been deeply influenced in various ways.
The awe inspiring first Goetheanum was utterly destroyed by fire on New Years Eve 1922-23. It was not completed. The fruits of voluntary labor by professionals as well as amateurs coming from 17 differing countries went up in flames in a single night. It stood on the very same ground as does now the second building. That original building was also sometimes referred to by Steiner as the "House of the Word" signifying an edifice that gives full expression to the Creative Word... or Logos ...or TAO...that which is a powerful present day full artistic creation out of the ground principles of existence. It was meant to be a well-spring-source of inspiration for modern humanity standing as in mighty counter-force to materialism for modern humanity and for many generations to come.
A building such as this which is created in the a threefold image of humanity of body, soul and spirit, could help to remind us of our origin, helps us to find meaning in the present and can only indicate a possible future... fulfillment of the TAO Spirit in it's furthest and highest manifestation... with the mediating, balancing tri-plicity principle: the human being. This is all a possibility with co-creative-community-building; humanity actively creative between heaven and earth, bridging our created origin with new and future creations.
More postings on these two Goetheanum buildings and 17 other structures designed by Steiner in future posts!
and a bio about Rex Raab http://www.independent.co.uk/news/obituaries/rex-raab-6171107.html It is also known that the architects Frank Lloyd Wright as well as the world famous contemporary architect Frank Gehry have both visited this building and have, I believe been deeply influenced in various ways.
The awe inspiring first Goetheanum was utterly destroyed by fire on New Years Eve 1922-23. It was not completed. The fruits of voluntary labor by professionals as well as amateurs coming from 17 differing countries went up in flames in a single night. It stood on the very same ground as does now the second building. That original building was also sometimes referred to by Steiner as the "House of the Word" signifying an edifice that gives full expression to the Creative Word... or Logos ...or TAO...that which is a powerful present day full artistic creation out of the ground principles of existence. It was meant to be a well-spring-source of inspiration for modern humanity standing as in mighty counter-force to materialism for modern humanity and for many generations to come.
A building such as this which is created in the a threefold image of humanity of body, soul and spirit, could help to remind us of our origin, helps us to find meaning in the present and can only indicate a possible future... fulfillment of the TAO Spirit in it's furthest and highest manifestation... with the mediating, balancing tri-plicity principle: the human being. This is all a possibility with co-creative-community-building; humanity actively creative between heaven and earth, bridging our created origin with new and future creations.
More postings on these two Goetheanum buildings and 17 other structures designed by Steiner in future posts!
Steiner stated that the second Goetheanum is a kind of testament or memorial to the original. This does not lessen in the least the impact and importance of the second! In some ways it 'speaks' through its presence even more emphatically and profoundly to the oncoming visitor..."Know Thyself!" These very words were in fact inscribed in Greek in the forecourt of the Temple of Apollo at Delphi, Greece. Today, in a very different time but meant with identical depth, these words call on the individual to awaken to one's true higher-self and in freedom take responsible, loving co-action in the world. "For the time is at hand!" ...from Goethe's 'Fairy Tale' for humanity The Green Snake and the Beautiful Lily.
A picture here of the original Goetheanum 1913-22 viewed from the southwest, the main structure carved out of laminated wood, roof of Norwegian slate and with the foundation base of poured concrete. The central area (under the larger dome) seated 1000 people. Read and view more about the first Goetheanum at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetheanum
A picture here of the original Goetheanum 1913-22 viewed from the southwest, the main structure carved out of laminated wood, roof of Norwegian slate and with the foundation base of poured concrete. The central area (under the larger dome) seated 1000 people. Read and view more about the first Goetheanum at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goetheanum
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