Paris In Spring

Spring time is in full bloom. Trees are blossoming everywhere and while we missed that in Tokyo, Paris is embracing us sweetly amidst all of its flowering. And today temperatures definitely moved up another big notch.

The last two days we were working at the center near Montmartre, giving individual sessions. After we were done, Raylene wanted to go shopping, so we hit one of the major shopping areas in Paris; it being Saturday afternoon and a gorgeous spring day, it was immensely crowded. This was immediately forgiven, because after all, we are in Paris.

After we were done, we drove along the Seine and I could not stop marveling how much this city is feeding everyone with its all-pervading beauty.

As I keep mentioning the seeming deep impact of the soul tools that we are providing, it must also be said how deeply this process of teaching in these high-intensity settings is affecting us also. While the people are changing through the retreats, workshops and individual sessions, we remain in the center of this continuing work. This keeps us at an unusually high practice level, which opens us to new vistas of consciousness also. We deepen, we grow and we learn.

After another string of individual sessions again I was reminded how all pervasive suffering is, even in a city as beautiful as Paris. Right now I simply cannot imagine doing anything else but continuing to disseminate tools that have the power to alleviate some of that suffering.

I remember standing in front of a large group in Tokyo. I found myself saying that I am well aware that the experience of Satori represents the ultimate form of healing. But to insist on that when a person is before us bleeding and starving, physically, emotionally or psychologically, actually is a form of spiritual arrogance, even ignorance. True and powerful healing modalities include the capacity to address the respective suffering that is before us and to provide the appropriate response.

If various levels of suffering can be successfully addressed, then it is possible to say Oh, by the way, what about this business of spiritual awakening?

The Next Phase

We completed the Easter retreat and from reading the testimonials I feel the momentum is continuing to grow just beautifully. I will get them translated and post some of them.

We are now moving into the stage of shifting into offering two mini workshops per week, thus grounding the teachings further and creating easy access. We are doing this with the help of Yaelle, a beautiful woman and highly committed practitioner of many years. Yaelle is providing the space and the enthusiasm. Gurdjieff used to say that alone we cannot do anything. And help is coming in the form of people who love the teachings we are bringing and feel deeply supported and nourished by them.


There are also preparations in process to take the work to Brussels and to Nice.

We feel very at home and comfortable; at the right place, at the right time.

Telephones Are Rinigng!

The phones are ringing all day long with people booking sessions and workshops. Olivier, who takes the calls and does the bookings, says he loves the energy when the phones explode into activity like this. The phone is ringing as I write. I am amazed myself.

We are having another intro evening tonight, more individual sessions tomorrow and the 3 1/2 day Easter retreat starting tomorrow night. Plus ... Full Moon!

So, I won't do any bloogging until Tuesday. Signing off until then.

The Path of Conscious Awakening

Please see http://www.nbhonline.com/magicalblend.com/library/readingroom/articles/Samadhi.html

Spiritual Growth

As part of our teachings we point out that whatever is taking place in your life is 100% your responsibility. Whatever adverse circumstances are taking place in your life, you yourself created them, even though you may be clueless as to how you did it. Therefore, if you wish to change those circumstances; the responsibility is yours. If you wish to generate genuine spiritual growth in your life, the work is yours and it may be connected with some very sincere effort and the need to generate discipline in your life. If you want change, you yourself are the one to turn to.

We point out that whatever unconscious work you have done to create your misery, has to be matched by at least the same degree of conscious work to undo it. That is just cleaning up the garden of your life. Then you have to condition the soil, plant seeds and then nourish that growth meticulously every single day.

I noticed that saying this has quite the sobering effect on people at times. It is so much easier to just sit around and wait for the second coming of Christ or the Buddha in the form of Maitreya. Or to go to a 21-day program that promises enlightenment or teaches you to live on light. Such programs represent metaphysical fraud and the immense shortcuts they suggest will always attract the insincere, the gullible and the downright stupid. P.T. Barnum used to say that A Sucker is Born Every Minute. Let us keep in mind that he said that a very long time ago. Adjusting for the tremendous growth in population, we must update this statement for the year 2006 by saying that today A Sucker Is Born Every 10 seconds.

My own learning consists of stepping back and watching suckers go and have their experiences, after all they have their rights to them if they insist.

The French: Anarchists at Heart

In every French man and woman there exists an anarchist just beneath the skin, ready to surface at the slightest excuse and ready to bend or break the rules whenever possible. Paris traffic is most definitely a good example.

Yet the entire nation - men, women & children - stand united in the agreement that to break the rules of good taste constitutes an unacceptable crime. A capital crime, in fact.

To act in accordance with the rules of good taste, beauty and elegance comes natural to every French person. It is mysterious and unexplainable. It seems like a genetic condition. Perhaps it is in the water or the air. And sooner or later visiting foreigners, such as us, will be affected. And certainly we will be affected by the people who are ready to inform us when we break the rules of good taste or disturb the balance of beauty and elegance that prevails everywhere. And the people who are ready to tell us - that is every living being in France.

Therefore one gets educated in the French ways, whether on wants it or not.

For example, there exists a science here that determines which foods can and cannot be combined. There are food sequences that even the most ignorant Frenchman would not tolerate on his taste buds.

And while I may not lose my life (by a small margin) having been caught combining a certain cheese, wine and chocolate, I certainly have lost face completely.

Wine. Not drinking any wine is most definitely un-French. Anybody here can give you a description of any given wine using at least 10 adjectives without the slightest effort, thus defining a wine in a historically unprecedented way.

This can be followed by a heated dicussion with everybody else in the room if they disagree with the interpretation of the wine taster. This heated argument can easily last 10 minutes.

Only in France. I love this place.

To say that I feel I have been dropped into exotic circumstances is putting it mildly.

Individual Sessions & Agent Necessary?

Yesterday individual sessons were starting back-to-back. Each time I continue to be in awe as the blessings rain down in such an amazing, tangible fashion.

Then later in the evening we met an agent who wants to represent our work in France. We discussed this after the meeting between Olivier, Raylene and myself, and decided to not go that route for now.

Things are unfolding in a rapid and beautiful way; we are continuing with our current modalities.

After the first weekend Workshop

We completed the first workshop and people seemed to really love the work. Sunday night I found myself surrounded by a group of people and at one point I suddenly recognized how much hope was in their eyes as they looked at me. This instantly reminded me of the responsibilty this placed on me. I feel immensely satisfied to have had the opportunity to gather truly powerful tools for the soul over the last 33 years. If I am confident of nothing, I am confident how tremendously effective and impactful these methods are. As people put these techniques to the test, the techniques deliver and people are very surprised.

One woman said to me: "These techniques are very powerful!" This creates conviction very rapidly and people are gathering for the work almost at an exponential rate. This is very satisfying for us.

Paris at Night

After the session last night we got into the car to drive back home. After a few moments it dawned on both of us .... We are driving through Paris at night!

With a seeming casual disinterest the city showered upon us its lavish beauty. We crossed the Seine, one of its many bridges illumined with numerous lights; looking to the right there was the Eiffel Tower, bathed in light. Then we passed the Louvre and its newfound trademark, the pyramid, disseminating its structural grandeur and dignity in a pillar of light.

The City of Light is merely the appropriate name for Paris. Just stepping onto the streets one just cannot help but immediately feel uplifted by the beauty and the elegance; it is everywhere: in the architecture, in the clothes of the people and in their faces.

Walking by the windows of the shops, we see food created and arranged with such an impeccable sense for pleasing the eye, one stops to take in the sight. Only here in Paris does it occur to me to call a display of food breathtakingly beautiful.

Versailles

Yesterday we spent the afternoon in the royal gardens of Versailles with our friends Olivier and Emmanuel, after having lunch at Emmanuel's and Rosie's house.

Raylene was in heaven. The royal gardens are amazing in their beauty and splendour, not to forget their size. It is easy to spend a day there. At the same time I could see how the people of France were bound to revolt against such luxury, since it it taxed people into abject states of suffering and poverty in order to sustain it.

Then in the evening we had another introduction into our healing work; there were 17 people and there arose again Grace and Blessings. Energy descended again and people cried and seemed to have intense experiences.

At one point we lost our translator for about 15 minutes apparently due to Kundalini waves washing through his body during a meditation with a Kabbalistic Mantra.

The work in action leaves no doubt in the minds of people as to the extreme degree of its substance. In fact, they are generally not used to this type of work at all. Therefore, we usually get a rush of bookings for the ensuing workshops right after introductions of this kind. They usually last about three hours and are hugely effective in bringing direct powerful experience to the participants.

The Mind

The mind does not understand the difference between conceptual processing and experience-based understanding. The mind operates constantly with three underlying programs:

1 I know (and you don't)

2 I am right (and you are wrong)

3 I am afraid of what I do not know

These three programs are constantly preventing deep understanding and experience from happening.

Being the ultimate highjacker, the mind is quick to embrace a concept it likes and make it its own.

The question DO I REALLY UNDERSTAND does generally not arise; this would require new modes of mind training and a rewiring of the processing circuity.

The inability to distuinguish between concept and experience, transferred into the domain of the spiritual quest, is responsible for stagnation and lack of substantial experience-based progress.

This illusion- perpetuating program is difficult to pierce.

Chartres and Afternoon Talk

This morning we went to Chartres. This cathedral is truly amazing. The people who designed the cathedral were weaving immense architectural complexities and beauty, it is hard to imagine how they could have done this at a time and an age that generally was not that refined and sophisticated. Look Ma, no computers!

In the afternoon we gave a talk and healing presentation to a group of about 35 people. The energy felt like spirit coming down from heaven like flames of fire. People seemed greatly touched.

Very happy event. Very happy facilitators. Momentum is continuing to build.

Visit to the Publisher

Yesterday was a great day. We saw Raylene's publisher in Paris, Tredaniel.
We are entering the final stages of the French books publication. When complete, the book
will be available in all French speaking countries additionally to France such as Belgium, Switzerland & Quebec.
Quite the achievement.

I am proud of her. She waited for this a long time and deseves every bit of this expansion into success.

Today we are continuing our preparations for the workshops and retreats. Things are getting busier by the minute.