So much natural beauty around here! As the Japanese saying goes, ‘Where I am is the dojo’; where I am consciously and experiencing whatever I have learned, practiced, understood, and seen. Harada Roshi, my Zen Master, used to make a rolling motion with his hands and repeat in his deep voice, “Washing mind, washing mind.”
I often have to smile these days. I am deeply touched by the magical clarifying powers experienced on each new hike in the local mountains in our corner of Switzerland. It’s nice to live in a beautiful place. I grew up near Disneyland in Southern California, also a place where people seek and perhaps find happiness. I think I went there fifty times or so. But, as a youth and young man, I didn’t find it easy to smile, not at Disneyland, not for a camera, and certainly not in front of a mirror. I had a very serious inner life, filled with doubts about myself, the state of the world, and later, the state of my country. For various reasons, it was more scary than satisfying to think about my future or the future of mankind.
It is a long story of happenstances that brought me now to this this country known for its cows, cheeses, and banks. And for its Nature! Many people have come to Switzerland for refuge, and maybe I have as well. The Nature does inspire clarity of mind. Does clarity lead to happiness?
Some of the people that have revolutionized my life in early years and still inspire me through their clear expression are from this country or have spent years here. They were rare minds and are heroic figures for me. I name some of them:
Jean-Jacques Rousseau was born in Geneva and awoke to a deeper connection with Nature on Lake Biel. His Noble Savage inspired me to quit college in 1981 and head to the Matterhorn in the southeast of Switzerland (I found the place much colder than expected and returned to UCLA humbled and intent to learn German.)
Frederick Nietzsche, who I discovered as a student of History at UCLA , helped me (and many others) to raise the intensity of my thinking ‘beyond good and evil’. He lived out the last chapter of his life in Sils-Maria and was fond of seeking out such energetic hotspots to support his thinking and writing.
Hermann Hesse also left his homeland of Germany for Switzerland and did all he could in his writings from Montagnola near Lake Lugano to convince early 20th Century Germans to be better than mere soldier-pawns. Those men weren’t able to listen, but later generations were more determined after reading him to aspire to a deeper vision of life and reject catering to materialistic and militaristic trends. I listened.
Rudolf Steiner brought revolutionary and practicable insights to the fields of medicine, agriculture, education, and art. His ‘inclusive’ communities were important resources of information for me on my path of social work. He built the mecca/center to his anthroposophic movement in Dornach. His teachings of human history have also expanded my understanding of evolution and progress immensely.
Jiddu Krishnamurti turned my life upside down when I was sixteen with the book ‘You Are the World’, sharing his critical, compassionate, and uncompromising views from his lucid mind. He came to Saanen, Switzerland regularly from 1961 – 1985 to speak, but also to rejuvenate. I was able to attend two talks of Krishnamurti in Ojai, California and the clarity of his presence still touches me. He was the first living evidence I experienced beyond books that silence is alive and that a human being can live a truly deep and beautiful life.
Mario Mantese, Master M is a very special present-day wisdom teacher who left his home in Switzerland as a young man to be a bass player for the pop-funk band Heatwave. After having gained profound insights in a near-death experience, he began to write and offer teachings all around the world. He resides in Western Switzerland. I have the good fortune to attend his gatherings and have translated some of his books with the aspiration to resonate more deeply with his teachings of ‘pure love’. Mario and the work of Master M prove to me daily that one can have a ‘normal’ life in the world while deepening one’s spiritual life. Light and love are our foundation, and we can live from it.
These are some of my mentors. I find them remarkable and they continue to remind me how big and clear the mind can be. They have helped me to ask good questions and to angle my mind/heart in good directions. They reflect to me that one single life can be significant. To experience deep qualities of the human heart and share them is to help humanity move beyond the crudities and cruelties that still hold the collective human condition down in defensive survival modus most of the time.
It feels good to be in Switzerland and see myself smiling honestly. We certainly don’t need to smile all the time, but I hope you are able to feel your mind is clear, that you can smile naturally and share what’s behind it wherever you are. The places and the people who loved and inspired you live through that smile. It’s beautiful!