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
Stratford portrait
which is St. George Day
(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."

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."

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.

Friday, April 13, 2012

sculpture


MUSIC  '12


painting


Converging Rushing Mountain Water  '11


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.

pastel

THE GRAIL SEEKER PARZIVAL  '05

sculptural work in clay 2005

LISTENING

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

pastel

Pink Horizon  '05
inspired at Lake Michigan in Chicago 
 










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.

Sunday, April 8, 2012

new sculpture 2012

MUSIC


MUSIC


NATURE AND ART

by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe  1749-1832
Ideologistik | August' 10

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."

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.