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This panel is constructed with small pieces of wood and different colours. “Maya” is the world of illusion: the material creation – including plants, animals, humans ... – that will have to disappear at the end of time. In the middle you see the Bhavasagara, or Void: the ocean of conditionings and illusions. “Void” means emptiness. So, in principle there shouldn’t be anything in it, but in our childhood – from education, school, friends, occupations, neighbourhood ... – and from later life, through all kinds of information we accumulate, we store all kinds of conditionings and the accompanying illusions in that chakra that is situated right in the middle of our belly: the green circle that you can see on this chakra-image.

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This vital part of our body is essential for our wellbeing, for our physical, psychological, mental ,and not in the least, spiritual health. If this part is overloaded with conditionings and illusions, we don’t feel well, we get sick and we can’t be connected to the

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Source of our existence. By self-realisation we can get connected to that Divine Creative Source , that will try to empty this so called Void.... that is mostly far from empty. If this can succeed, depends on our karma, on former lives. And that’s one of our major problems. Because, when we reincarnate, we bring (strong) desires and (strong) negative loads to our new life. These loads are stored in our superego, in the subconscious part of our system... and, because it is the subconscious, we can’t reach it. Meaning that we are (normally) not aware of these negative influences, that can nevertheless cause a lot of trouble in our lives. So, to really empty the Void, we should first of all introspect and try to find out what is troubling us. By serious and very honest introspection we’ll have to find out where some negative tendencies come from. That might be conditionings of our upbringing or of past lives... etc. In doing so we might

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find out some of them and do something about it. If this becomes a habit, we will be able to discover more and more of these lingering forces. If this was not so, it wouldn’t have been necessary to reincarnate at all. With self-realisation we become aware of ourselves, we start to see ourselves as we really are: the cloud of unknowing, the cloud of ignorance, is partly pushed apart to give the Kundalini (vital force, life force, Divine Force) enough space to come through and cleanse (slowly, but gradually) our subtle (spiritual) system.[We dó have a spiritual system, in the same way as we have a physical and – also not visible – psychological and mental system, as you can see on the chart on page 4.]The Void is the domain of Dharma, the right conduct, morality and evolution. Dharma is the kingdom of Shri Ganesha, who is the personification of wisdom, innocence and chastity.

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Shri Ganesha is – in almost all cultures in the world – symbolised by this sign:

... in which the four arms are pointing to the left.If it is misused, it will point to the right, as in the perverted swastika of the nazis from 1943 on.

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Remark now that in “The Maya” (page 2) in the middle (Void) the arms are bent to the left. But in the six circles around they are bent to the right, as in the Hitler-swastikas. These 6 circles represent the 6 enemies that are disturbing our wellbeing, our spiritual ascent. Those six enemies are: passion, anger, greed, pride, jealousy and temptation. When these enemies assault us, we get –anew- lost in the world of illusions; they throw as it were a veil of ignorance over our system and we get tempted, either by outside forces our from our own inside. The outside forces do not depend on us, but we let them in, we give them free way (consciously or unconsciously); we give them as it were the permission to harm us, to destroy us. The inside forces depend on our senses: they tempt us to give in into certain impulses that are detrimental for our spiritual growth. Both of them forge/create swords that dislodge us from ourselves and have a

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definite influence on our surroundings. (That’s why the swords are pointing outwards, but they might as well be pointing inwards.)

When we succeed in emptying our Void, our other chakras will also get cleansed ánd our crown chakra (Sahasrara) will open up as a beautiful lotus.

... and then we become really deeply connected to our Source in full commitment, in deep dedication and limitless surrender.

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SURRENDER is probably the most important point of all. We are so attached that we don’t know or want to know how to give up our conditionings.

the wheel

Only if we are sufficiently detached, we would be able to proceed from the lower black part of the wheel of life

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( of Samsara, of karma) to the bright side above.(Note that in the lower part the spokes of the wheel are turning in the wrong direction and to the opposite side in the higher part.)

And so we might reach the Higher Realm of

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... our glorious Inner World.

If you would like to see more of these works, you can go to the website of Etienne Loyson: “art-and-spirituality.be”, where you will find about 300 of these sculpted-paintings in wood and other materials.

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NIRVIKALPA hg 0,58 – br 0,80

By surrendering, confidence increasedHarmony, peace and quiet were established.

Equanimity and stolidityWere values reached and settled.

The Holy wind gained total freedomAnd led the sublime KundaliniThrough the seven pure spacesAnd reached the final goal, “Nivikalpa”.

Nirvikalpa Nirvikalpa

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