Category Archives: gratitude

artists don’t retire

When I turned fifteen, half-a-century ago TODAY🎈 — back in the era of Rock’n’Roll🎸 — this is how I thought I would look now! (Rock-Star saving the World with MUSIC🎶 … didn’t quite work out that way😉)

(Only the stuff on the wall is photoshopped!)

You

Beyond the windows of your eyes,

Your soul abides in sunny skies,

Bathing in the light of love

That pours down sweetly from above.

That is the way it’s supposed to be

When a soul is clear and free,

But on the unmapped sea of life

Inner storms bring pain and strife.

High above each storm, a star

Shines to show you who you are:

Not this head and not this hand;

Not the owner of this land;

Not this angry shrunken heart

Feeling like it’s torn apart;

Not the one whose thoughts bring noise

Never knowing peace or joy;

Not the child that fears the night;

Not the man that wants to fight;

Not the woman, alone and sad;

Not those thousand dreams gone bad.

High inside, but within reach,

There waits a pristine, sunlit beach,

That graceful shore of your own spirit –

Listen now, and you will hear it.

Open your hands and feel your breeze

That softly blows through inner trees,

In the Country that’s your own

Where seeds of happiness are sown.

It’s only just a breath away.

Once you reach here, you will stay;

For here is where your life will start,

And soul and joy will never part.

– Edward Saugstad 2008

“Happy New Year!”from the Canadian/Austrian Saugstads

Brigitte Saugstad Art Exhibition

public opening in Neulengbach, Lower Austria

3 December 2022:

AND ALREADY FIFTEEN YEARS AGO!😃

(Brigitte’s first solo exhibition)

Georgio Pilla, Italian art critic
~Austrian artist Brigitte Saugstad~
(Venice, 16 January 2008)

“This artist, this charming signorina, is here to present her ceramic work.
These pieces are art in its purest form.
She takes nature and transforms it into art.
That alone should give you an idea
of her intellectual and comprehensive capacity.
But she doesnʼt rest there.
She also wants to give us the feeling of joy in form,
and so these pieces were created, beautiful, sometimes white,
sometimes colorful, a little darker a little lighter.
And when she concentrates on her favorite sport,
she gives us the ice princesses, where the body weight defies gravity.
As you can see, the skaters are quite robust,
but their whole being, the whole body, their physical form turns to poetry in her hands.
They simply float in the air, there is no weight,
only music and dance, only pleasure in contact with the frozen earth
or lifting up and away from it.
These ice dancers, when they are in the air, appear to be flying.
It looks like there is no weight holding them down.
She was able to feel this and express it in these wonderful works of art.
Look at these figures that float towards the sky.
It is truly an expression of joy, an expression of happiness, and much more.

Nature is expressed in these beautiful spheres, which are made up of nothing but little field flowers.
Look at the wonderful forms that remind me of seashells and the waves, the song the ocean sings.
We are looking at pure art; we are in the hands of an artist.
Out of a handful of earth, out of a handful of clay, life is created, because these figures are alive.
They live in her and, as they are here in front of us, they should also live in us now and in the future.
We should feel the joy and the lightness of heart that she has given us today.”

please, meditate

Yesterday my wife and I felt a deep peace filling our nervous systems and I heard the same from friends in various parts of the world. There is definitely a general change of frequency taking place on Earth which is fine tuning, but also exposing embedded corruptions, individually and collectively. For over forty years I’ve been advising others to develop subtly by meditating (long before most doctors discovered its usefulness).

Please take a few minutes a day for this. The only way out of all this mess created by human beings is in-and-up. Otherwise the shaking and quaking is going to be experienced more and more intensely, and the roots of the chaos in us cannot be replaced by harmony.

Lots of love,

Ed

https://wemeditate.com

In-and-Up (essential now)

becoming your own spiritual master

Ed leading international online meditation via Australia today

(I finally got a chance to visit Australia!😃🇦🇺🦘)

https://youtu.be/ArbfnRFbgAg

40 years ago – Christmas 1981🎄📞📺⏳

I’ve enjoyed sixty-three Christmases with family and friends. Most of them were at home in the suburbs just south of Vancouver, and in the charming old heart of Vienna. A few were in rural India. One was in New Jersey, and one in North Carolina.
Although all of these occasions bring back colourful memories of abundance and joy, one of the most memorable happened when I was, internally and externally, quite down and out — at the bottom of a long dive that was about to transform into a steady ascent that is still bringing me higher and higher today.
Forty years ago, Christmas 1981 (before portable telephones, personal computers, The Internet, etc.) I was living in a ‘shack by the railroad track’, on the edge of a wealthy neighbourhood. At this time of my life I used to have my place open to parties with local peers on the weekends. On Monday I would cash-in all the beer bottles to buy a bit of food for the week.
My fridge was always empty (except for all the alcohol from Friday to Sunday). On this occasion I came back to my humble home late Christmas evening and opened the fridge for some reason. I can’t describe to you my utter surprise when I FOUND IT PACKED FULL OF EVERY IMAGINABLE FOOD! Although I tried to find out who did it, none of my many smiling friends would admit to doing the deed. I still don’t know.
When I moved back to Canada twenty years later, a mature married man who had traveled the world and enjoyed undreamed of wonderful experiences, it was about a year before I ran into one of the old crowd (back in the 1970s, a couple hundred teenagers, and then young adults, in North Delta). My heart sprang open and my chest was filled with gravity-defying mirth! Then that same day I ran into three more old buddies in various locations, between ten and thirty kilometers apart, something I consider nothing less than a miracle. (As a result I ended up organizing a reunion that brought about a hundred and fifty of us back together for a nostalgic gathering.)

One thing that life has taught me is that Friendship is the highest form of love (collective consciousness). Even in a family, if the members aren’t ‘friends’, there’s no real bond.
May the whole world become a family of best friends.

Merry Christmas 2021!
Lots of love,
Ed Saugstad

(more here: https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top-reloaded/ )

https://goldenganeshart.com/

Happy ‘Pentecost Day’💨

An artist’s depiction of possibly the first historical mention (Bible) of the cool breeze https://wemeditate.com/subtle-system/kundalini (“Wind of the Holy Spirit”) and flowing waves of light (“Tongues of Flames”) above the heads of Self-realized human beings:

The Nobel Mother of Prince Philip

Brigitte and I happened to see a documentary last night (in German on Austrian national television) about the life of Prince Philip’s mother. Wow! And we think we have difficulties sometimes! A very spiritually oriented person, obviously a deep seeker, she went through hell (not just personal, but also, dealing with others, like bandaging soldiers with missing body parts on war’s frontlines as Princess of Greece and Denmark) but was able to maintain her benevolent, selfless attitude.

—————————-

 Prince Philip’s life was chockfull of drama and controversy with his three sisters being married to Nazis.

However, the one person in his family who was known far and wide for her noble services was his mother, Princess Alice of Battenberg.

Despite links to the Nazis, Princess Alice was honoured for rescuing the lives of Jews during the Holocaust, before she turned into a nun.

The life lived by Queen Victoria’s great-granddaughter was filled with spirituality and struggles as she was born congenitally deaf but could speak clearly.

The family was exiled from Greece and had to settle in Paris where Alice found solace in religion and was said to have started hearing voices that she claimed were divine messages.

Alice was diagnosed with schizophrenia and had her womb irradiated with x-rays to thwart her supposed sexual desires, upon the advice of Sigmund Freud.

She was then admitted to a Swiss sanatorium against her wishes when her son was nine years old. She stayed there for two years and after her release, remained homeless, seeking refuge in a number of German inns.

It wasn’t until her daughter Cécilie passed away in a plane crash in 1937 that she met Philip again, then 16 years old.

She eventually found a home in Athens, Greece and was known to have given shelter to a Jewish family during World War II at the top floor of her house.

She was honoured by the Holocaust center Yad Vashem in Israel, which in 1993 bestowed her with the title of Righteous Among the Nations.

She sold last of her jewels to establish her own religious order, the Christian Sisterhood of Martha and Mary after which she formed a convent and an orphanage in Athens.

She spent her last years in Buckingham Palace with her son after she was forced to leave Greece in 1967 following a military coup.

Before she passed away in 1969, she had inked a heartfelt note for Philip, her youngest child, that read: “Dearest Philip, Be brave, and remember I will never leave you, and you will always find me when you need me most. All my devoted love, your old Mama.”

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Princess_Alice_of_Battenberg?fbclid=IwAR2K4GFN98MExIkrpO87bIxEb1Ge5aOlUIBbYstoXWcknUXT08P-v0lMz-A

“Happy Easter 2021!”💐

“Happy Easter 2021!” 💐 (from us and our new ‘Family’!)
“Happy Easter 2021!” 💐 (our joyful garden Ganesha celebrating his 16th Easter with us!)

https://goldenganeshart.com

inner-silence, freedom

We all seem to be climbing a great mountain, some slower, some quicker. Up here near the summit we discover that we are free from the bindings of our egos, conditionings and physical bodies — that we exist permanently above and beyond these limitations. In Rhonda Byrne’s new book, The Greatest Secret, I was happy to hear that deep experiences I’ve been having for almost forty years, through the teachings of Shri Mataji and the practice of Sahaja Yoga meditation, are becoming mainstream. This isn’t because of mass media, but because human beings are asking the right questions and feeling reality within themselves.
But I find that this new book, although it beautifully describes thoughtless-awareness and natural detachment from internal and external complications, is missing much of the detail that so many of us have experienced through daily, actual meditation. Among the most prominent phenomena is the amazing ‘cool breeze’ that flows in our central nervous systems when human beings attain joyful equilibrium. Also missing are the details of the workings of our subtle-systems of energy centers and channels, and the benevolent Kundalini energy in our spines.

Of course, the highest priority is the deep, silent meditation itself, a natural, essential state that should be achieved by all. But The Greatest Secret is only a glimpse through the window of enlightenment.
Just sayin’.
https://wemeditate.co

“Merry 2020 Lockdown Christmas!”

Lots of love from Brigitte & Ed.

Here comes 2021! …

Christmas songs:

“Happy Diwali…

…with lots of Love and Light to you and yours!”

https://goldenganeshart.com/ceramic-art/

5 May 1970 – when the Seed sprouted

Two weeks before May 5, 1982, I learned how to meditate (really meditate, in thoughtless awareness, feeling the benevolent effects of my very own kundalini energy in me). Now Sahaja Yoga is celebrating 50 years of establishing global transformation, from a time when meditation was viewed as an esoteric hobby, to the present when it’s recommended worldwide by health experts for its universal balancing and integrative effects.
How time flies. Today it’s been half-a-century since that crucial sprouting that’s since risen into this majestic tree. Then, for me, it was still a 12-year-old sapling that has gradually lifted me into reality.
It’s so peaceful and fulfilling up here. Thank You, Shri Mataji, and everyone that has dedicated their lives to establishing this essential metamorphosis. 🦋🌳

https://shrimataji.org

the true Thanksgiving Day: Earth Day 2020

Thanks Mom (Mom Earth) 🌳💗🌎

interview of an old Canadian pioneer sahaja yogi

MEDITATE TO REGENERATE ☺️

my birthday djembe!

😁

New Year. New Decade. New Age?

.

Dear Friend!

We’re about to enter the decade that history books will remember as the one that ushered in the END OF KALI YUGA, the Age of Darkness.
As we find ourselves moving more and more beyond duality we will soon discover all the precious treasures in ourselves and others.
 
So, HO-HO-HO! HOLD on to your hat and enjoy the sleigh ride 🛷
HAPPY NEW AGE! 😁 (Optimism is contagious 😉)
 
Lots of love💗
Edward and Brigitte
🌈🌹

Year 2020 will be the last one of the age of materialism…

“The biggest and grandest alignment comes on December 21, 2020 when Jupiter joins Saturn in what’s referred to as the great conjunction. “

“These grand conjunctions come every 20 years, but this meeting has extra gravitas. It marks the end of a 200-year cycle of unions in earth signs that’s brought the age of materialism, banking, capitalism and corporations.”

“December 2020 kicks off a new 200-year cycle of unions in air signs. What that will bring isn’t entirely clear yet, but early indications are that thought, philosophy and truth will prevail. This is going to be a big shift.”

 

human angels and the new Dawn

Here in the twenty-first century, moving amongst us are personages of past renown marked now not by outstanding appearance or popular appreciation, but by the inner treasures they radiate: universal benevolence and the germinating power of enlightenment.
A Sunrise approaches that will reveal all the sublime glory of life — not on any media display, but in the hearts of human beings.
Look within. That precious hour is upon us.

~Edward Saugstad

“We are indeed larvae, eating our way through Earth’s resources in a mindless, caterpillar fashion, but I believe that the imago is already beginning to stir within. When the ‘climate’ is right, it will break out not as some sort of super computer but as an organic being [collective consciousness] that will embody all of the Supernature and look back on technology as a childhood toy.”

~Lyall Watson

rising like a phoenix from childhood trauma: The King’s Speech

Unlike the highly acclaimed new Joker movie, The King’s Speech depicts the struggle from childhood trauma up into the noble realms of bravery, compassion and liberation. (With 12 Oscar nominations, it is among the most nominated films of all time.) Decadent Gotham City and megalomanic Nazi Germany rise up darkly as universal threats to the shattered child, as does the wanton destruction of our biosphere and essential moral integrity today.
As a victim of deep childhood trauma that has taken decades for me to transcend, I find it tremendously compelling and inspiring. How many of us can indeed be born again like a phoenix from the ashes of our past?

 

an Austrian-Italian wedding!

NON-

STOP

FUN!

sunshine, beauty and friends!

when the Italians get dancing!

Traun Lake!

the Canadian Ice Cream Inspector hard at work!

what we happened to get as the last available hotel room in the whole area – the one guarded by ancient asian angels!

the romantic Spitz Villa in Traunkirchen

winter’s last rain

all things green sprout suddenly after the last winter rain, here on the threshold to Narnia …

2019: the year of Inner Peace

“Happy New Year!”

(meditate to regenerate)

🌹🍀🌹🍀🌹🍀🌹

Like millions of dew drops, each perfectly reflecting the morning sun, may every cell inside me naturally reflect the Heart of God.

I will no longer be divided from Her by my two arbitrary balloons of ego and conditionings.

Her promise to me is healing equilibrium and eternal Union.

Unconditionally do I accept my destiny divine.

Mother …

or here:

http://edsaugstad.com/VIDEO-files/the-cool-breeze-and-forgiveness-from-The-Shack.mp4

endearing

.
“I discovered now why I’ve always been so easily moved to tears, witnessing human emotions in songs and movies:
I catch a glimpse of all the diverse human beings,
like beloved children of a common Mother,
and how universally sweet they can sometimes be,
struggling through life’s hardships.”
.

I have become the hollow drum

36 years ago today I crossed an essential threshold and embarked on an epic journey …

into enlightenment.

Almost every day since the 20th of April, 1982, I’ve been able to attain clarity, and briefly glimpse blissful Reality through the instrument of my central nervous system, and the state of thoughtless awareness.

The upward spiral unfolds, with wonderful surprises arising just around every curve.

More than anything else, I wish this for you.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

(for full-size headphones or bass intense speaker system!)

In separation have I suffered long,
But now am glorified in the eternal bliss of Union.

And from my core,
That once was small,
The sound of Light
Expands to all.

Never will I shrink again
Into a ball of doubt and pain.
Forever forth, in inner sky,
I spread my wings and upward fly.

All Life pulsates within my breast.

I have become
The hollow drum.

~Ed Saugstad
20 April 2018

 

 

—special thanks to Linda Dzus (wife of one of my old best buddies, Doug) who took this amazing photo in their neighbourhood on Mayne Island, British Columbia, the oasis that I briefly took refuge in after attaining self-realisation, 36 years ago—

the only way to become truly great …

.

… is to be truly grateful