Sat, 12 Jul 2008

European Parliament: 1500 people take Demeter refreshments

Brussels (NNA). Demeter International was represented for the first time at the Open Doors Day of the European Parliament in Brussels. At an exhibition stand shared with the European branch of the Greens, under the auspices of EMP Milan Horacek, visitors were able to ask questions about biodynamic agriculture. Demeter International in Brussels reported that the focus of its exhibition was on plant breeding. But above and beyond mere information, visitors could sample the quality themselves, for the stand also included Demeter refreshments. Around 1500 people enjoyed the fruit juice, wine, beer, pastries and pretzels that were on offer.

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Contact: Brussels office, Rue du Trône 194, B-1050 Brussels, Demeter-brussels@belgacom.net

Item: 080711-02EN Date: 11 July 2008

Copyright 2008 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

Crisis - what crisis? GLS Bank takes over another ethical bank

Bochum (NNA). Despite the crisis on the international finance markets, the GLS bank in Bochum grew by 20% this year, continuing its successful progress. At a press conference in Bochum, the GLS executive board also reported on its imminent take-over of IntegraBank in Munich. This is not the first take-over by GLS: back in 2003 it already took on Ökobank (Ecobank) which had got into difficulties. With the take-over of IntegraBank, said spokesman Thomas Jorberg, GLS would be further consolidating its position as market leader in the field of ethical and ecological fund management. IntegraBank, like GLS, is organised on a mutual and cooperative basis, and subscribes to sustainable and fair economics. It is founded on Catholic social doctrines, and offers its 1,600 clients all normal banking facilities, from giro accounts through savings accounts and insurance brokering to asset management. Its total assets currently stand at around 38 million euros. When take-over comes into effect, the mutual shares held by IntegraBank members will be transferred into the same number of full-value mutual shares in GLS bank. The bank’s main office in Munich will be retained and its employees will be taken on by GLS, with the exception of the bank’s executive board. So far – beside its head office in Bochum – GLS bank has branches in Berlin, Frankfurt, Freiburg, Hamburg and Stuttgart. The new branch in Munich will further accentuate the bank’s presence in South Germany, said executive board spokesman Jorberg. He went on to highlight the fact that GLS bank has been promoting the idea of transparency – which many finance experts are now calling for – for over 30 years. Its clients therefore benefit from double returns: the companies and projects funded by the bank give both monetary and also social and ecological value. The ethical and ecological GLS group is currently supporting over 4,000 innovative companies, projects and initiatives in the fields of energy, organic agriculture, natural foods, education, social welfare, social housing and culture. The bank also includes the GLS Treuhand [Trust], which gives advice about managing foundations and donations, and GLS Beteiligungs AG [Holdings]. The latter makes available capital to new and sustainably run businesses in the form of closed funds and profit participation rights.

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Item: 080711-01EN Date: 11 July 2008

Copyright 2008 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

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Fri, 27 Jun 2008

Between mantram and microphone: the remarkable work of the Buddhist nun Ani Choying

By NNA correspondent Cornelie Unger-Leistner

MAINZ (NNA) - Almost simultaneously with the start of the European Football Championships, around 200 people witnessed a quite different kind of premiere at Mainz University of Applied Sciences: the film “One more concert, one more child” was shown there for the first time in Germany.

Film-maker Karin Guse has created a portrait of the Buddhist nun Ani Choying Drolma, who tours Europe and the USA with spiritual songs to raise funds for a girls’ school in Nepal. The artist was present at the film-showing in Mainz and gave a concert afterwards. The event was organised by the department for women’s affairs at Mainz University of Applied Sciences.

Whereas Buddhism is most often publicly represented by men, primarily the Dalai Lama, the film by Karin Guse documents thriving female involvement in this religion.

Born in Nepal in 1971 as the daughter of Tibetan refugees, Moktan Lama - as Ani Choying was originally called - decided at the age of eleven to become a Buddhist nun. Tulku Urygen Rinproche, the head of Nagi Gompa monastery, became her teacher.

Singing and melody, as Ani Choying explains, play a major part in the rituals of Buddhism. The novice, who already had great vocal power, gradually became a formidable singer over the years. Ani Choying says in the film, “I don’t sing, I pray”, thus accentuating the spiritual background without which her performances are inconceivable.

In 1988 she was discovered by the American guitarist Steve Tibbetts, who recorded a CD of her singing and suggested she go on tour with him. There followed invitations to give concerts in the USA, Germany, Austria and Switzerland, and she also became well-known in her own country of Nepal.

“Suddenly I had money, a whole lot of it, but what was I to do with it?” she relates. She conceived the plan of founding an educational institute for nuns, for while the monks in Nepal all receive education, there are many older nuns who pray and sing with great perfection but cannot even write their own names.

They are not alone in this in Nepal. As we hear in the film, in the Himalayas 40 percent of men and 80 percent of women are illiterate. Ani Choying therefore started the Nuns Welfare Foundation, whose chief project is the Arya Tara School, situated 18 kilometres from Nepal’s capital Kathmandu. The nun was strengthened in her resolve to launch this project by a visit to the spiritual leader of Buddhism, the Dalai Lama. “Are the nuns also learning to read and write?” his Holiness asked her, as she relates in the film, and Ani Choying was able to confirm this.

Today over 50 girls and women aged eight to 24 attend the school, and every concert enables Ani Choying to fund one more school place. Six hundred euros is sufficient for one year’s school attendance.

Most of the girls come from poor families and this is their only chance to receive an education. As part of a state-recognised school curriculum, the young nuns are taught Nepali, English, maths, social studies and science for six years. In the film Ani Choyang proudly tells us that three girls who went to her school are now attending a Buddhist university in India – a dream which she always had herself but was never able to realise.

Instruction in Buddhist rituals takes place in the Tibetan language. Ani Choying’s aim is for the girls to return to their villages and become teachers there.

In the film she explains how important it is to start with the women. “If you send a man to school you’re just educating one person. When a women goes to school, you’re educating a whole family, for it’s the mother who brings up her children.”

Film-maker Karin Guse, who met the nun at a concert in 2003, tells Ani Choying’s story in striking images. Unlike most others who film in the Himalayas, she does not dwell endlessly on breathtaking pictures of the landscape. The landscape is there of course, but it only provides the backdrop. Guse’s camerawork focuses primarily on the people, and their deep involvement with religious and spiritual life. Apart from details about illiteracy and the situation of women in Nepal, we do not hear much about the country itself.

Karin Guse worked on the film for four years, but in 2005, due to the difficult political situation in Nepal, things ground to a halt. Now at last the film has been completed – precisely at the moment that the world public is focusing greater attention on the South Asia region because of the Olympic games and natural catastrophes.

The concert which Ani Choying gave after the film, ended with a memorial to the victims of the natural catastrophes in Burma and China in the form of a mantram sung together.

In the concert itself, the audience could experience the effect and fascination of Ani Choying’s ritual songs. It almost seemed as if the plain concrete block of Mainz University of Applied Sciences faded away to allow through another world that is invisible to the eye but can become audible in song.

And it also became clearer, perhaps, why people who consistently live by the rules and traditions of Buddhism are currently exerting a great power of attraction on us in Europe. With great naturalness and elegance, Ani Choying – who is a nun after all - moved between mantram and microphone, between deep concentration and humorous engagement with those around her.

And so, quite effortlessly, without any hint of missionary zeal or presumption, she communicated her authentic spiritual conviction to the audience that it is human thoughts which form the world.

Her song “Flower Eye”, whose refrain she also sang in German at the end, encapsulates this. The eye of the flower sees the world as flower world, says the song; and the eye of a thorn sees only undergrowth.

Just beforehand, Ani Choying declared laughingly that this song in particular had brought her pop-star popularity in Nepal. “Flower eye, flower eye” the people in Karin Guse’s film call out to her, thronging cheerfully around her as she hurries from appointment to appointment in Kathmandu, and visits a school. She never has a spare moment, we hear, for too many tasks await her whenever she returns from her concert tours. So she’s happy to have a driving licence and a car – even though it is by no means common for a nun to drive a car in Nepal.

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Links: www.choying.de, choying@karin-guse.de, wikipedia.org/wiki/Nepal

Item: 080627-03EN Date: 27 June 2008

Copyright 2008 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

Esotericism as source of musical inspiration: gathering of international academics in Rome

ROME (NNA) - Music and esotericism was the theme of an international academic colloquium that took place in April at the Academia Belgica in Rome. The conference was prepared by an academic committee consisting of representatives from universities in Europe and beyond, including Professor Wouter Hanegraff from Amsterdam University, who is one of Europe’s leading researchers on esotericism.

Around 25 speakers presented their research findings over three days, and each lecture was followed by discussion. Drawing on particular compositions and music theory texts, the relationship to music of various esoteric disciplines such as magic, astrology, alchemy, demonology, soothsaying and the Cabbala was examined. Only the western esoteric tradition was included, originating from Platonism, and Jewish and Christian roots.

According to the advance publicity, the conference aimed to help remedy the habitual isolation of disciplines such as history, history of art, music history and the history of philosophy. Interdisciplinary discussions sought to show musical approaches and methods in the light of an historical and specialist context, so that, in the language of academic discourse and belief, our knowledge acquired from the cultural background of the world of music could be enriched and shared.

The various lectures focused either on approaches to music within cultural and hermetic traditions, or the presence of such traditions within music. Here, two questions mutually complemented each other: how have philosophers integrated music into their theories, and how have musicians, composers and music theorists tried to introduce occult knowledge into their theories or their scores?

It became clear during the conference that the search for cosmic patterns in music may be as old as humanity itself. This was demonstrated by examples ranging from the theoretical sketches of the neo-Platonic philosopher Proclus through Jesuit and polymath Athanius Kircher or alchemist Heinrich Khunrath to Johannes Kepler. One lecture was devoted to the mysteries of musical sound in H. P. Blavatsky’s esoteric teachings. It was interesting to see that twentieth century composers were also included. Wouter Hanegraff spoke on the subject of “Ineffability and lawfulness: music as esoteric language in Anton Webern”.

It is increasingly apparent that, in the twentieth century, innovations not just in the pictorial arts but also in music were closely interwoven with theosophy and anthroposophy. In particular the development of Arnold Schönberg - who is rightly seen as the father of modern music – would have taken a different course had he not gained stimulus from the esoteric tradition at work in his time.

Academic studies of esotericism are discovering the affinity between anthroposophy and our contemporary zeitgeist. The example of modern music in the twentieth century, and specifically the school of Schönberg, can show anthroposophy’s influence in particular. Initial signs of this could already be detected in Rome.

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Item: 080627-02EN Date: 27 June 2008

Copyright 2008 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

In defence of Rudolf Steiner

By NNA correspondent Wolfgang G. Voegele

DORNACH (NNA) - In response to recent campaigns against Rudolf Steiner and the Waldorf schools, Walter Kugler, director of the Steiner Archive in Dornach, Switzerland, has revised, retitled and republished his book “Demonising Steiner” (Feindbild Steiner) which first appeared seven years ago.

“Rudolf Steiner as some see him and others perceive him” is the new title of the 128-page volume, which is set to correct a range of false judgements and also offers insiders some new information.

The chapter “Steiner versus anti-semitism” is one section that has been revised and enlarged. Here Kugler shows how much Steiner’s comments – which cause such offence to modern critics – were wholly in line with debates common at the time about the assimilation of the Jews.

For example, reflecting on the nineteenth century the Jewish historian Michæl A. Meyer wrote in 1994: “Judaism had lost its justification because it had no intrinsic content enabling it to survive over time […] According to Hegel, Judaism had ceased to possess any world-historical importance.” This is precisely the same perspective from which Steiner assessed the situation of liberal Judaism. The reader learns that similar ideas had governed the work of the “Association for Jewish Culture and Science” which was founded in Berlin as long ago as 1819.

According to Kugler, critics have also entirely overlooked Steiner’s articles in the “Journal Against Anti-Semitism” (“Zeitschrift zur Abwehr des Antisemitismus”).

A completely new chapter in the book is entitled “Occultism: Source of the Sciences” which, in line with academic studies on esotericism, shows that western esotericism and modern science have a common origin. A sentence by the well-known American scientist and journalist Russell W. Davenport – “Steiner is no more a mystic than Einstein; he was first and foremost a scientist, but one who dared penetrate the secrets of life” – is still as topical as ever.

Another new addition to the book is a section citing commentators who see Steiner as one of the twentieth century’s greatest lateral thinkers. These quotations come from renowned writers, art academics and museum directors.

The core of the book remains largely the same however. It points to important facts in Steiner’s biography that critics have overlooked or intentionally ignored. A new arrangement and better print quality of illustrations also enhance the volume’s attractiveness.

The cover depicts a wave rolling on the shore, as symbol for the rhythmically recurring attacks on Rudolf Steiner and anthroposophy which, at regular intervals over the past hundred years, have been launched by opponents in an effort to defame Steiner and render him the object of public disapproval. The fact that public interest in objective accounts is increasing has not hindered them in their undertaking.

In his foreword to the expanded edition, Kugler writes that his hope for the original edition published in 2000 was that public perception of Steiner would gradually become more factual. There had been no lack information from among the ranks of the anthroposophical movement.

But a certain type of critic, says Kugler, is not really interested in clarification and objectivity. This was thoroughly clear from occurrences such as false media reports, for instance in the Frankfurter Sonntagßeitung newspaper in July 2007, or the application to have some works by Steiner put on a list of proscribed publications that pose a risk to young people. What is really going on is still shrouded in darkness, writes Kugler, but he suspects that the aim of such activities is to cast the Waldorf schools in a bad light.

The Frankfurter Sonntagßeitung printed an entirely false report which implied that tendencies to violence in Waldorf schools were greater than at state schools. The paper never published a correction.

Kugler does not specifically name one of the fiercest opponents, Michæl Grandt – who lodged a formal complaint against the authority which had dismissed the application to blacklist Steiner.

Ten years ago, already, the brothers Guido and Michæl Grandt published their “Black Book of Anthroposophy” in the attempt to conflate Rudolf Steiner with satanism in the public’s perception. Fortunately this did not succeed, thanks to pro-active publicity work by the anthroposophical movement. Michæl Grandt has now announced publication of a new book in the autumn, issued by a well-known publisher with links to the Evangelical Church in Germany. This is said to be a companion volume, a “Black Book” to attack the Waldorf schools.

Thus the next round of anthro- and Waldorf bashing is imminent. Kugler’s revised book has therefore appeared with perfect timing.

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Walter Kugler: “Rudolf Steiner. Wie manche ihn sehen und andere wahrnehmen”. Stuttgart: Verlag Freies Geistesleben 2008. 128 pages, EUR 9.90, CHF 18.90

Item: 080627-01DE Date: 27 June 2008

Copyright 2008 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

Tue, 10 Jun 2008

The teacher’s tale: helping in the aftermath of the Chinese earthquake

CHENGDU (NNA)- The only Waldorf school in China is located in the town of Chengdu in the province of Sichuan, 90 kilometres away from the epicentre of the devastating earthquake which hit the country almost a month ago. Immediately following the earthquake, the school community published reports about the situation on its website. Sinologist Astrid Schroeter, a German teacher who has been at the school for just a year, translated the texts.

Six days after the earthquake, Waldorf teacher Zhang Li writes in her report: “So much is happening that we have the feeling a month has passed. Although the rain clouds in the sky have moved away and although international rescue teams have arrived in the affected areas, an oppressive feeling remains in the heart. The psychological care of the survivors and the relatives of victims is difficult to cope with because demand is so great.”

Some of the Waldorf teachers work in a hospital in Chengdu to look after seriously wounded children who were flown in by helicopter. These children have no news about their parents; some of them have probably been orphaned.

Zhang Li continues: “A 12-year-old girl found a way out of the rubble through her own strength. But her left leg was so badly injured that it had to be amputated. She is still inconsolable and sometimes she cries bitterly, sometimes she screams. Her name is pronounced the same as that of one of our children in class 6, although it is written differently. Our teacher Li Zewu has managed to calm her down. When our teacher Yang Rong cared for her, the girl suddenly called out to her: ‘Mama, Mama, can I give you a kiss’. Everybody had tears in their eyes. 

“Other three- and four-year-olds are being looked after by our kindergarten teachers Xiao Gao, Mengmeng, Xiao Yan and Su Chen. The children are badly injured and they constantly call for their mothers.”

Other Waldorf teachers help the hospital administration to train unskilled volunteers. Zhang Li: “We try to implement a system that avoids the children being cared for by different volunteers every few hours, so that they have the same people looking after them over the long term.”

The situation is a real trial of strength for the helpers: “We also need periods quiet and distance and we have therefore divided the 24 hours of the day into a fixed rhythm of care, which helps us and the children. In addition there are many volunteers in the hospital who have no experience at all” writes Zhang Li.

The teachers at the Waldorf school discussed the rules which should be adhered to if one was going to volunteer to help others without becoming needy oneself.

“Listen to your body to tell you when you need a break” is just as much part of this as “at least twice a day takes some time out to mess about with your colleagues and have a really good laugh.” And don’t believe you can solve all the problems by yourself.

Both the Waldorf school’s busses and their drivers are out in the disaster area with the Red Cross taking blankets, food and clothes. Many school parents have made donations to the Red Cross relief effort.

And this is the situation at the school: “Colleagues often telephone the parents and discuss what useful things they can do at home with the children. Our colleagues Hongyu, Xinhua, Astrid Schroeter (Xu Xinghan), Xu Tian and our kitchen staff are all available at the school and in the office; they answer the phone, look after our homepage, give interviews and keep the map of the area of devastation up to date so that we know which roads have re-opened. They also look after the few children that are here during the day because their parents could not make other arrangements.”

Two days later Zhang Li continues with her report: “Today I would have liked to be more specific about our situation, but a few minutes ago television and radio broadcast a warning that a heavy aftershock is expected so that I can only briefly describe our situation. Chengdu is at present very chaotic. Everywhere cars are in the middle of the roads where people live and all reasonably available places are filled with tents.

“Many of our teachers and parents have returned to the school and live here in tents. We are going through very hard times. Many people are incredibly sad, desperate, overcome and without hope. We are facing a great inner challenge.”

Waldorf teachers Li Zewu and Zhang Li have since participated at a conference on the psychological care of survivors of the earthquake organised by the ministry of education in Beijing. Zhang Li says that it focused on the method with which to help especially the children in the disaster area. Zhang Li believes that there is good reason for the Waldorf school in particular to have been included in this conference because Waldorf education was greatly respected by the psychologists in Chengdu.

About a dozen teachers volunteered to take part in the activities decided by the conference.

Zhang Li continues: “We went to Mianyang north of Chengdu. There are around three hundred children who live in tents. In one tent there is a school. Countless children, parents and journalists are congregated there. Injured children from the affected areas are continuously flown in. We thought of how we could help these children. Our brave and experienced teachers played ring games, clapping games and games to get to know each other with the children.

“But because there was so much noise that one could barely hear ones own voice, the Waldorf teachers mainly played games using gestures to explain and copy. We painted with the children. This was a great challenge. Many children looked content during the games, some laughed. But there were also children who were reserved and distant. Many children didn’t know as yet whether their parents were still alive. We also organised discussion groups with the teenagers. For us the question remains what is most important for these children right now.”

According to many psychologists, the children are still in the first stage of shock. First of all they need ordered surroundings and a firm rhythm where they feel secure. Once they have received new clothes, school items, flowers and gifts, the long term emotional care becomes very important, as is the care for those who had lost their relatives.

Many people in China from all areas and the ministries work on this task. Also for Zhang Li this cooperation proved to be a moving experience.

She writes: “Normally I am not particularly interested in politics and I have more of a mundane relationship to the government. But now I am aware of the exceptionally great and human efforts of the government. I am very touched by this. I feel how through this disaster the best, truest and most positive features of people come to the fore.

“Although the price is indescribably high and the death toll is hardly comprehensible, I hope that the victims’ souls in heaven can feel the great love which emerges everywhere at the moment. If they can experience this, they can feel protected.”

Every morning the college of teachers assembles. “We do eurythmy and exchange our thoughts to gain the strength to face the day. Then we make a list of priorities and plan the next step,” writes Zhang Li.

In another report on its website, the school community of the Waldorf school in Chengdu expresses its gratitude for the help it has received since the disaster from friends throughout the world.

Most needed, however, was aid for the most affected adults and children. “As Waldorf teachers we are doing everything in our power to help the children in the disaster area and to care for them. In the Huaxi hospital in Chengdu and in Mianyang close to the disaster area we have experienced the tears and laughter of the children as well as the never ending selfless help of nurses, doctors and teachers.”

Finally, the school community in Chengdu refers in its text to the connections and transformations that have been created through the love among people in the disaster area. “They appear as an unfailing, bright stream that permeates us and warms us and brings us peace.”

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Link: http://www.waldorfchina.org

Donations for the Chengdu Waldorf school: Recipient: Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e. V., account no.: 39800704, sort code: 600 100 70, bank: Deutsche Postbank AG

Item: 080610-02EN Date: 10 June 2008

Copyright 2008 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/

China: coping with the earthquake

By NNA Correspondent Jakob Steigerwald

BEIJING (NNA) - On 12 May at 14.28 (local time) China experienced its strongest earthquake for 30 years. The epicentre was in the Province of Sichuan about 1500 kilometres from Beijing.

As it was happening, I was sitting in Beijing University canteen – about five minutes later I received a text message: “Serious earthquake in Sichuan“. As I looked up I noticed how the screens hanging from the ceiling were shaking.

The latest reports suggest that the earthquake cost the lives of more than 67,000 people, with 20,000 still missing. In the closely settled province of Sichuan about five million people lost their homes.

One week after the earthquake, at the exact minute, sirens sounded out all over Beijing. I was in the reading room of the university. Suddenly the whispering and rustling of those present ceased. The huge number of students stood up and with lowered heads they listened to the noise of the sirens for three minutes.

From where I was, I could see the twelve lane motorway through the dusty Beijing air: even the cars had stopped, the drivers stood with lowered heads by their cars. An international metropolis stood still for three minutes – in memory of those who had died.

The disaster has united the country. Cars with loudspeakers drive through the streets asking for donations. Schools, companies and universities are organising aid for the victims of the earthquake. Whilst until now the Olympic Flame dominated the media, now there are daily reports on the areas affected by the disaster.

The countless helpers are being celebrated as heroes. Television documentaries show the dramatic actions of the army and the local forces. Indeed, the region needs urgent help and China wants to show that it is doing everything possible to help the victims.

Aid is also needed for the Waldorf school in Chengdu. The first and only Waldorf school in China is only 90 km from the epicentre, in the south-east of the metropolis Chengdu. “Luckily nobody was hurt, but half of the buildings are so badly damaged that we are likely to have to pull them down,” says sinologist Astrid Schroeter from Germany, who has been teaching in the school for just a year and whom I was able to reach on the phone. (For a report from the school see NNA report “The teacher’s tale: helping in the aftermath of the Chinese earthquake” of 10 June 2008)

Until this happens a few rooms can be rented in a neighbouring building, which belongs to the town. The school, which has been in existence since 2004, now has five classes with around 50 pupils, as well as a kindergarten with roughly the same number of children. Next Monday school is to re-start. However, first a number of questions have to be answered. The authorities have to inspect the state of the buildings and it is not yet clear what the quality of the drinking water is at the moment.

Greenpeace China reports that it has sent a research team into the area. This will investigate whether damaged chemical factories may cause a hazard for the people and the environment.

Immediately following the earthquake, the state health and safety authority ordered a production stop in all chemical factories within the area of the disaster. Greenpeace, however, found at least one company that had continued with their production. It is also a problem that many victims in the area surrounding chemical factories look for shelter there and sometimes drink the unfiltered water.

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Donations for the Waldorfschool Chengdu: Recipient: Freunde der Erziehungskunst Rudolf Steiners e. V., account no.: 39800704, sort code: 600 100 70, bank: Deutsche Postbank AG

Item: 080610-01EN Date: 10 June 2008

Copyright 2008 News Network Anthroposophy Limited. All rights reserved. See: www.nna-news.org/copyright/

More NNA reports at: www.nna-news.org/en/