Category Archives: happiness

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

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:

what’s fresh out of the oven?…

!😃!

https://goldenganeshart.com

The RAMAYANA reloaded🏹

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

fresh out of the kiln!

🌈🌞 https://goldenganeshart.com

208 years, Husarentempel in the Vienna Woods (from 1813)

the Austrian Saugstads out and about exploring our neighbourhood again! 🦌🏔🔭🌞

“Happy Valentine’s Day!💗”

https://goldenganeshart.com

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

new scientific evidence – benefits of Sahaja Yoga meditation

Meditation and Neuroscience

Mental Silence benefits your brain.

• Meditators showed around 7% more grey matter, the largest published difference between healthy groups.

• As grey matter decreases with age and with most mental illnesses, this difference throughout the brain is associated with a younger and healthier brain.

• The grey matter difference was more marked in areas related to the control of attention and emotions.

An investigation on the influence of mental silence in the human brain has just been published in the magazine Plos One. The article is entitled: “Larger whole brain grey matter associated with long-term Sahaja Yoga Meditation: a detailed area by area comparison”. The original text is available at the following link:https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0237552

It is said that, for more than forty thousand years, human beings have a language that allows us to communicate with precision, that language is reproduced within our brain as thoughts without interruption. When negative thoughts are repeated in vicious cycles, our mental health can be affected with issues such as stress, anxiety or depression.

Today there is plenty of scientific literature that shows that being with the attention in the present moment, in the here and now, is beneficial for our psyche and our general health. Unfortunately, thoughts take us out of the present moment and to stop the thoughts for a long time is not easy, especially when we are not doing tasks that demands much attention.

Yoga includes many different techniques, among which meditation (Dhayana in classical yoga) plays a leading role. The first yoga treatise, “The Yoga Sutras of Patanjali”, mentions that “yoga is the suppression of the modifications of the mind.” In ancient yoga a higher state of consciousness has been described, called “Nirvichara Samadhi”, which can be translated as “mental silence” or “thoughtless awareness”. In this state, the mind is calm, with a feeling of inner bliss, and with the attention focused on the present moment. Sahaja Yoga Meditation puts into practice the goals of classical Yoga to achieve the state of Nirvichara or mental silence.

Researchers led by Professor Sergio Elías Hernández from the University of La Laguna in Tenerife (ULL), in collaboration with scientists from King’s College London University, Jaume I University of Castellón and Sermas of Madrid, have been exploring for more than ten years the benefits of the state of mental silence on the human brain.

The study was carried out at the ULL MRI scanner, where the researchers recorded the brain anatomy of 23 meditator volunteers, experts in Sahaja Yoga meditation, and 23 non-meditating volunteers. Both groups were made up of healthy volunteers and both groups did not differ in age, educational level, ethnicity, proportion of men and women, etc.

To better understand this study, we must mention that the brain tissue is classified, according to its appearance, into three types: grey matter, made up of neuronal bodies and interconnections, (dark grey in resonance images); the white matter, formed by nerve fibers or long connections between distant areas, (light grey in the resonance images), and the cerebrospinal fluid or watery substance that fills the interior voids and serves as protection and transport of chemical substances.

The study of brain anatomy showed that meditators had, on average, 7% more grey matter in the whole brain. This type of comparison of the grey matter of the brain has been made in recent years among other groups in: athletes, musicians, taxi drivers, Buddhists, mindfulness meditators, etc. In these cases, the analyses showed that the group studied had local differences, greater grey matter, in brain areas associated with their specific practice, but the difference was never in the whole brain as it is the case with mental silence. The difference of 7% larger grey matter is especially significant if one takes into account that our brain loses between 0.15% and 0.3% of grey matter per year and small differences in grey matter can mark whether or not we keep intact our cognitive functions. It should be also noted that diseases, typical of the elderly, such as Alzheimer’s, senile dementia or Parkinson’s are also associated with loss of grey matter.

An advance of this study was published in the same journal Plos One in 2016, but the available methodology did not allow a detailed study to be made to see how the grey matter differences were distributed in the different areas of the brain. Given the uniqueness of the group differences observed throughout the whole brain, the researchers had to develop a specific statistical method (ad- hoc) to be able to evaluate these differences, area by area. Of all the brain areas, the grey matter difference was significantly larger in meditators in the right temporal lobe, an area associated with emotions, and in both frontal lobes, areas associated with cognitive and emotional self-control functions.

Study authors: Sergio Elías Hernándeza*, Roberto Dortab, José Sueroc, Alfonso Barros-Loscertalesd, José Luis González-Morae, Katya Rubiaf

a: Departamento de Ingeniería Industrial, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.

b: Departamento de Matemáticas, Estadística e Investigación Operativa, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain.

c: Centro de Salud Jazmín, Sermas, Madrid, Spain.
d: Departamento de Psycología, Universitat Jaume I, Castellón, Spain.
e: Departamento de Fisiología, Universidad de La Laguna, Tenerife, Spain
f: Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology and Neuroscience, King’s College, Londres, UK.

*Author for more information: Email: sehdez@ull.edu.es

SAHAJA YOGA MEDITATION: https://wemeditate.co

“Happiness and Good Fortune, 2021!”

Wishing you all the best for the coming year!

Best wishes, Ed and Brigitte

“Merry 2020 Lockdown Christmas!”

Lots of love from Brigitte & Ed.

Here comes 2021! …

Christmas songs:

outer lockdown, inner freedom

https://wemeditate.co

outer lockdown, inner freedom

 

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

interview of an old Canadian pioneer sahaja yogi

MEDITATE TO REGENERATE ☺️

Christmas Concert Vienna, 2019 — grand finale

😀

New Year. New Decade. New Age?

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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?

 

our open house/studio!

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drop by for a visit!

 

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surviving the storm!

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

Prime Minister Atkinson – 2019

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Rowan, do us all an unforgettable favour and run for the office of prime minister of the UK
(and, for God’s sake, win — PLEASE WIN!)

Truth is stranger than fiction!:

We’re briefly interrupting global corruption for some good will and valuable comedy entertainment 😉

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-48007487?fbclid=IwAR3mNyoPg_KklB-WIEQFmEjOIcUgcreithMqyERQ90_M6dNRztvloM4oq8M

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“Happy Springtime 2019!”

http://www.brigittesaugstad.com

winter’s last rain

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

inner-most-child

🌺 each of us has a happy baby elephant inside 🌺

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

Neil Young, Van Morrison, thoughtless awareness and the cool breeze

Everything we’ve generally accepted about human beings is quickly changing. As soon as we discover that we are much larger and more precious than our familiar shells, all the Game rules change. Our limited perception is expanding out into beautiful reality. This is what it’s all been leading up to.

More about the mysterious, enlightening ‘cool breeze’ appearing in our modern culture, and forgiveness that enables ‘thoughtless awareness’:

or here:

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

Sarayu = Wind: The name is the feminine derivative of the Sanskrit root सर् sar “to flow”; as a masculine stem, saráyu- means “air, wind”, i.e. “that which is streaming”.

 

 

https://www.sciencealert.com/yoga-and-meditation-in-the-us-are-totally-exploding-right-now

“Wishing you and yours a great, memorable Christmas time!”

lots of love, Ed

what i’ve benefited the most from most of my life …

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(… almost 37 years now)

 

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awaiting the dawn of music

My existence has been a silent song

awaiting the dawn of music 🦋🎶

034006E6-9131-4A87-B007-5139180B2698

Ed Saugstad TV interview and garden-party

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In which Sir Ed Word appears on local television

… and the Party commences!

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“Happy Easter 2018!”

“Happy Springtime!”
“Happy Easter!”
lots of love,
e&b

💐
(welcome back from the winter sleep)

http://brigittesaugstad.com

inner peace, inner springtime

🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

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🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷🌷

where our heads are headin’

Merry Christmas! (the Evolution of Eddie)

I was born into the realm of the Wild West when Elvis was king, at the height of social freedoms which were slipping steadily down into the mists of abandon. Unlimited alcohol and tobacco consumption were a household norm for many families, with few or no suspicions about their ill effects — gross and subtle.

My first eight years took me along an often bumpy road, with the scary shadows of evermore chaos lurking just around the next bend. But there was also love. I grew up with some delightfully humorous and caring souls. My best memories still shine from those joyous occasions when we, once a year, exchanged presents, had fun together, and temporarily forgot all our fears and worries: Christmas Days!

Just before my eighth Christmas in 1965, my Dad returned home, sober, after a four year absence. From that time on, everything seemed to get more prosperous and abundant — including the number of siblings. Within another three years we would be eight brothers and sisters celebrating at home together!
I was then blessed to live through a period of wealth and wellbeing that most children in the world will never know. Looking back at my long climb as a human being, I recognize how very lucky I’ve been this time around.

May the liberating Innocence, that we call Luck, fill the hearts of good people, everywhere.

Wishing you and yours Love and Light at this special time,
your friend in this abundant moment,
Ed

(We were, oldest to youngest: Dad, Mom, Darlene, Cheryl, Rick, Ed, Glenn, David, Allan and Don. Christmases were also celebrated at Nana and Grandpa’s place, Mom’s Finnish parents. Almost half-a-century later we would be three more, Tia, Karen and Cliff, senior siblings divided from us by Dad’s first divorce.)

https://www.facebook.com/edward.saugstad/media_set?set=a.10155257909416545.1073741890.583641544&type=3

Darlene, Eddie, Rick and Cheryl

Darlene, Eddie, Rick and Cheryl

Rick, Eddie, Darlene, Grandpa, Glenn and Cheryl

David and Glenn, Darlene, Rick, Cheryl and Eddie

Darlene, Eddie, Rick, Glenn and Cheryl

Rick, Mom, Nana, Glenn, Eddie, Darlene and Cheryl, Grandpa and David

Rick, Cheryl, Eddie, Glenn, Darlene and David

Eddie’s haircut, May 1965
(a month before the end of grade one, and still half a year before that special Christmas that marked the end of Dad’s long drunken absence)

Glenn, David and Eddie

Darlene, Mom, Cheryl, Rick, Eddie, Glenn and David

David, Glenn and Eddie

Cheryl and Darlene, Glenn, Eddie, Rick and David

Darlene, Rick and Cheryl (the ‘Big Kids’) and Eddie, Glenn and David (the ‘Little Kids’)

Cheryl, Glenn and David

Darlene, Mom and Dad, Eddie, Nana, Rick, Cheryl, David and Glenn

Eddie, Rick, Darlene, Dad, Allan, Mom, Cheryl, Glenn and David

Eddie, Rick, Darlene, Dad, Allan, Mom, Cheryl, Glenn and David

Rick, Allan, Mom and Nana

Allan and Cheryl

Glenn, David and Eddie

Allan, Glenn, Eddie, Don and David

Darlene, Dad, Eddie, Don and Rick

Rick, Cheryl, Darlene and Eddie, Dad with David, Mom with Don, Allan and Glenn

Glenn, Eddie, David, Allan and little Don

FUN CHAOS!

Eddie (Ed the Head) and Don

Allan, Glenn, Ed and Don

🎄Merry Christmas!🎁 (the Evolution of Eddie)

I was born into the realm of the Wild West when Elvis was king, at the height of social freedoms which were slipping steadily down into the mists of abandon. Unlimited alcohol and tobacco consumption were a household norm for many families, with few or no suspicions about their ill effects — gross and subtle.

My first eight years took me along an often bumpy road, with the scary shadows of evermore chaos lurking just around the next bend. But there was also love. I grew up with some delightfully humorous and caring souls. My best memories still shine from those joyous occasions when we, once a year, exchanged presents, had fun together, and temporarily forgot all our fears and worries: Christmas Days!

Just before my eighth Christmas in 1965, my Dad returned home, sober, after a four year absence. From that time on, everything seemed to get more prosperous and abundant — including the number of siblings. Within another three years we would be eight brothers and sisters celebrating at home together!
I was then blessed to live through a period of wealth and wellbeing that most children in the world will never know. Looking back at my long climb as a human being, I recognize how very lucky I’ve been this time around.

May the liberating Innocence, that we call Luck, fill the hearts of good people, everywhere.

Wishing you and yours Love and Light at this special time,
your friend in this abundant moment,
Ed

(We were, oldest to youngest: Dad, Mom, Darlene, Cheryl, Rick, Ed, Glenn, David, Allan and Don. Christmases were also celebrated at Nana and Grandpa’s place, Mom’s Finnish parents. Almost half-a-century later we would be three more, Tia, Karen and Cliff, senior siblings divided from us by Dad’s first divorce.)

https://www.facebook.com/edward.saugstad/media_set?set=a.10155257909416545.1073741890.583641544&type=3

Darlene, Eddie, Rick and Cheryl

Darlene, Eddie, Rick and Cheryl

Rick, Eddie, Darlene, Grandpa, Glenn and Cheryl

David and Glenn, Darlene, Rick, Cheryl and Eddie

Darlene, Eddie, Rick, Glenn and Cheryl

Rick, Mom, Nana, Glenn, Eddie, Darlene and Cheryl, Grandpa and David

Rick, Cheryl, Eddie, Glenn, Darlene and David

Eddie’s haircut, May 1965
(a month before the end of grade one, and still half a year before that special Christmas that marked the end of Dad’s long drunken absence)

Glenn, David and Eddie

Darlene, Mom, Cheryl, Rick, Eddie, Glenn and David

David, Glenn and Eddie

Cheryl and Darlene, Glenn, Eddie, Rick and David

Darlene, Rick and Cheryl (the ‘Big Kids’) and Eddie, Glenn and David (the ‘Little Kids’)

Cheryl, Glenn and David

Darlene, Mom and Dad, Eddie, Nana, Rick, Cheryl, David and Glenn

Eddie, Rick, Darlene, Dad, Allan, Mom, Cheryl, Glenn and David

Eddie, Rick, Darlene, Dad, Allan, Mom, Cheryl, Glenn and David

Rick, Allan, Mom and Nana

Allan and Cheryl

Glenn, David and Eddie

Allan, Glenn, Eddie, Don and David

Darlene, Dad, Eddie, Don and Rick

Rick, Cheryl, Darlene and Eddie, Dad with David, Mom with Don, Allan and Glenn

Glenn, Eddie, David, Allan and little Don

FUN CHAOS!

Eddie (Ed the Head) and Don

Allan, Glenn, Ed and Don

free online (real) meditation

… In Sahaja meditation, there is no deliberate effort to “concentrate,” and certainly, you do not need to focus your attention on a specific object. In fact, the goal is to avoid concentration or mental activity altogether. There’s no need to be mindful of or engage with your thoughts and feelings while meditating.

In fact, you won’t want to. Engaging your mind in such mental noise will only drag your attention back down to the first floor — that mental plane — rather than remaining in the state of thoughtless awareness. Thoughtless awareness is not simply a thought vacuum or state of thoughtless emptiness on the mental plane. It is a whole new dimension of awareness, higher awareness that is difficult to describe to someone who has not yet experienced it. We cannot fully conceive of its depth or describe it with language we’re accustomed to using on the ordinary mental plane.

https://sahajaonline.com/science-health/self-improvement-traits-abilities/mindfulness/mindfulness-sahaja-is-sahaja-mindfulness-meditation/

 

by Marc Andeya-Trefny

meditation is a free, natural state of optimal equilibrium

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http://www.freemeditation.com/online-meditation/self-realization-workshop-kundalini-awakening/

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there is such a thing as a real state of meditation …

… but, unfortunately for so many (including misled children), ‘mindfullness’ has nothing to do with it.

all those precious sincerely benevolent gems

MEDITATION – THE LAST LINE OF DEFENSE

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stay safe and influence world peace — know your own heart and mind

Ω

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TIME is an illusion (when we rise above it)

time-is-an-illusion

Time is an illusion

There is always enough of it for us to rise up

and enjoy the big picture

in meditation

whenever we choose

e.s.

Ed-olution (birthday 1983)

Ed found! (Delhi 1983)

For the period of about a year-and-a-half after I finally found out how to actually meditate in April 1982 (having put in much effort already for eight years, without benefit) and I moved away from the party neighbourhood of my youth, there seem to be no photos of my amazing progress. Now, by chance, I saw THAT Ed, exactly thirty-four birthdays ago, strolling along with a wedding procession in the heart of New Delhi!

I had arrived alone at 2:00 a.m. in humid Bombay two weeks before, after anbombay-marine-drive-1983 exhausting series of flights, with an overweight suitcase and a phone number. It was the first international journey in my quarter century of life on Earth. (Little did I guess then that I would return to India more than twenty times!) Someone back home in Vancouver had just bought my ’65 Chevy panel van, enabling me to join my new yogi friends on the India tour. A kindly airport police officer 65-chevy-panel-vanhelped me reach the others, already a huge, international group of pilgrims, and that very evening I met Shri Mataji, the founder and teacher of Sahaja Yoga meditation, on the first of many joyful occasions over the coming days, years and decades, in various countries.

Among the many memorable events in Delhi was our viewing of the new Gandhigandhi-movie-poster movie in the cinema that it had world premiered in just nine weeks before. (As a girl, Shri Mataji had spent time with Gandhi at his ashram, where he would sometimes implement Her advice on spiritual issues.) I remember walking out of that air-conditioned building and looking up at the hot, wide blue sky, realizing that those historic happenings had taken place not long ago under this very canopy.

I was lucky to be among those few of us from Canada (at that time there were only a handful of people practicing Sahaja Yoga in North America) that were invited to stay for a few days with Shri Mataji in Her daughter’s house. Several massive public programs were held throughout the city, and I attended my first puja, which celebrated Shivaratri at that time. At the compound where we all met each day, someone organized a cake and candles 🎂, and some new friends sang Happy Birthday to me that third day of February … so long ago, now! I drank lots of yummy chai there, discovering too late that the caffein was brutal on my sensitive liver. We also travelled up to the Himalayan foothills, where I saw some Indian girls enjoy snow for the first time. I spent that wonderful month in India without getting sick, a bit of a miracle (although as soon as I got back to the West I cleared out quite thoroughly!)

I still feel all that as a solid building block in my evolution, and this unexpected window view now brings a fresh breeze to grownup Ed.💨

(And, adding an interesting twist to the perspective: I happen to be turning 59 now, the same age Shri Mataji was when we first met back then!)

Shri Mataji gave each of us a present that afternoon (6 Feb 1983)
They were original Indian artworks. Somehow I managed to hold on to mine (the only thing I have left from my early twenties). It now hangs in my little art-studio in our homestead in the Vienna Woods:

Shri Saraswati Goddess of Art and Knowledge

Shri Saraswati
Goddess of Art and Knowledge

(read more here …)

https://edwardsaugstad.com/reaching-the-top-reloaded/

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cool up

🖐🏼 💨

cool-up-meditate

https://wemeditate.co

2017!

My dear blog has fallen into the shadows of neglect. Let’s see if we can remedy this.

My first beam of light here in … 2017 already!? … has to do with our current world sit-u-eh-shun.

Keeping it really simple: There are only two wrong turns in life: one is left, the other is right.

Psychologists used to believe that everything was piled up on top of each other inside of us — that we had to pass through the subconscious and all kinds of other gobbledygook in order to rise up to our higher, ideal selves. Well, as it turns out, we’ve got the past (conditionings) and emotions running in our left sympathetic nervous system, all our future projections (ego) in our right sympathetic nervous system, and a beautiful ascending waterfall of evolution smack-dab in the middle: the once mysterious parasympathetic/autonomous system.

If you look around (and in the mirror) you’ll find that most everyone — with the exception of most babies, maybe — is being led around by those carrots-on-strings that are our thoughts streaming from one extreme and/or the other. Very rarely do we encounter peaceful souls who know exactly who and why they are, and are satisfied with that. The whole jumble in most of us is now becoming increasingly transparent in world affairs. Unless and until we can naturally zoom into central focus mode, that mega-mess is not going to fade away. It will only continue to get worse until we click and fine-tune into the center of ourselves. That’ll reveal that reality is not noisy after all, unlike most of our previous identifications.

I put a helpful link at the end of this post (a technique I can sincerely vouch for after almost thirty-five years of daily use) but first I’d like to share this insight from the I Ching about our collective 2017.

In this new (very, very temporary!) Trumpish age, people, lost in their own self-mistrust and misleading ideas, tend to mistrust others more and more. The big picture changes then to Innocence, a quality, by the way, that never actually leaves a human being, but simply becomes buried and ignored deep inside. Every one of us is empowered with the instrument and all the natural means to reawaken this universal quality. It’s not a manmade procedure, but something builtin, ready and waiting for our desire and attention to trigger it.

Be alert and quiet, and you will discover that the present moment is bigger and more abundant with amazing possibilities than you have ever imagined.

fellowship-with-men

 

 

 

 

THE JUDGMENT

FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN in the open.
Success.
It furthers one to cross the great water.
The perseverance of the superior man furthers.

True fellowship among men must be based upon a concern
that is universal. It is not the private interests of the individual
that create lasting fellowship among men, but rather the goals
of humanity. That is why it is said that fellowship with men
in the open succeeds. If unity of this kind prevails, even
difficult and dangerous tasks, such as crossing the great water,
can be accomplished. But in order to bring about this sort of
fellowship, a persevering and enlightened leader is needed
— a man with clear, convincing, and inspiring aims and the
strength to carry them out. (The inner trigram means clarity;
the outer, strength.)

THE IMAGE

Heaven together with fire:
The image of FELLOWSHIP WITH MEN.
Thus the superior man organizes the clans
And makes distinctions between things.

Heaven has the same direction of movement as fire, yet it is
different from fire. Just as the luminaries in the sky serve for
the systematic division and arrangement of time, so human
society and all things that really belong together must be
organically arranged. Fellowship should not be a mere
mingling of individuals or of things — that would be chaos, not
fellowship. If fellowship is to lead to order, there must be
organization within diversity.

THE LINES

Nine in the third place means:
He hides weapons in the thicket;
He climbs the high hill in front of it.
For three years he does not rise up.

Here fellowship has changed about to mistrust. Each man
distrusts the other, plans a secret ambush, and seeks to spy on
his fellow from afar.We are dealing with an obstinate
opponent whom we cannot come at by this method. Obstacles
standing in the way of fellowship with others are shown here.
One has mental reservations for one’s own part and seeks to
take his opponent by surprise. This very fact makes one
mistrustful, suspecting the same wiles in his opponent and trying
to ferret them out. The result is that one departs further and
further from true fellowship. The longer this goes on, the
more alienated one becomes.

(then changing to …)

innocence

 

 

 

 

Ch’ien, heaven, is above; Chên, movement, is below. The
lower trigram Chên is under the influence of the strong line it
has received from above, from heaven. When, in accord with
this, movement follows the law of heaven, man is innocent
and without guile. His mind is natural and true, unshadowed
by reflection or ulterior designs. For wherever conscious
purpose is to be seen, there the truth and innocence of nature have
been lost. Nature that is not directed by the spirit is not true
but degenerate nature. Starting out with the idea of the
natural, the train of thought in part goes somewhat further and
thus the hexagram includes also the idea of the unintentional
or unexpected.

THE JUDGMENT

INNOCENCE. Supreme success.
Perseverance furthers.
If someone is not as he should be,
He has misfortune,
And it does not further him
To undertake anything.

Man has received from heaven a nature innately good, to
guide him in all his movements. By devotion to this divine
spirit within himself, he attains an unsullied innocence that
leads him to do right with instinctive sureness and without any
ulterior thought of reward and personal advantage. This
instinctive certainty brings about supreme success and
“furthers through perseverance.” However, not everything
instinctive is nature in this higher sense of the word, but only
that which is right and in accord with the will of heaven.
Without this quality of rightness, an unreflecting, instinctive way
of acting brings only misfortune. Confucius says about this:
“He who departs from innocence, what does he come to?
Heaven’s will and blessing do not go with his deeds.”

THE IMAGE

Under heaven thunder rolls:
All things attain the natural state of innocence.
Thus the kings of old,
Rich in virtue, and in harmony with the time,
Fostered and nourished all beings.

In springtime when thunder, life energy, begins to move
again under the heavens, everything sprouts and grows, and
all beings receive from the creative activity of nature the
childlike innocence of their original state. So it is with the
good rulers of mankind: drawing on the spiritual wealth at
their command, they take care of all forms of life and all forms
of culture and do everything to further them, and at the proper
time.

(I ‘performed’ in an old primary school here in Vienna for over a hundred children recently, reading from my books, meditating a bit and partying with my Roland Handsonic. We had lots of fun communicating, dancing and playing music together. My friend, who’s a teacher there, told me a few weeks later that the mood and vibrations of the school had been surprisingly improved by that event. Many children were more cheerful afterwards — the mother of an autistic child was amazed to find her child so balanced and happy — and my friend felt light and cool entering the school each day! Click on the following link to enjoy more experiences about Sahaja Yoga meditation …)

http://www.innerpeaceday.org/en/

two-girls-with-blossoms-above

earth-kundalini

happy-meditating-oriental-child

chakra-modern

Shri Mataji enjoying

children-kundalini-awakening

heaven-is-here-on-earth

indian-children-meditating

http://www.innerpeaceday.org/en/

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merry Christmas (again) from the Vienna Woods!

ed-brigitte-in-christmas-video-collage

the video 📽:

Ed Saugstad – Sahaja Yoga meditation (german)

(in case you understand german)
here are a few segments of the recent interview about some of my experiences with Sahaja Yoga meditation:

(more on the YouTube page)