story about the narrow minded foolness of old men

the third eye is made of stone

On our trip in Nepal, more nolens than volens overwhelmed by the eloquence of an enterprising Chinese, I had bought myself a grey-banded sphere, of incredible value, the merchant assured me, intended to open one's eyes to the origins and background of being, after lengthy haggling for a limp 2 dollars and the leather strap to carry it for free. What self-affirmation!!

When I wanted to ask him about the meaning and purpose of what we had bought, the successful dealer's willingness to talk was exhausted and, with a comprehensive gesture, he directed himself more towards the other possessions scattered around him

"Fathers of Wisdom" I addressed my question to the gurus and stoner brothers waiting there for gifts and donations of money in the small temples arranged in steps in the central complex near the cremation sites. They kindly invited me to sit next to them on the steps, aware of the cameras of all the other tourists.
With a tried and tested gesture, they tapped the spot between my eyes with their colored forefingers in order to recognize the third eye, the Shiva-eye, as a sign of my successfully completed apprenticeship, so to speak in advance. Looking for a conversation, a hand clasped the newly purchased stone on my neck and held it up to the light.

Now it was up to me to prove myself worthy of these gestures:
“Fathers of wishdom, I bought this stone from the Chinese traders down at the market, an eye agate. What can you tell me about that?"

“Now look, I have painted the Shiva eye on your forehead, the eye of Shiva, who also sees the hidden with it, who let the world come into being out of himself, out of his lingam, in individual shells, the innermost shell for the Gods, then the helping spirits, the Brahmins, the rulers and warriors and then the bowls of the artisans and officials, the bowl of the peasants on the outside and far from the center the bowl of the untouchables and slaves". In the opposite direction, Shiva will also dissolve the world again at the end of days. Such is the meaning of this eye agate with its concentric rings, my paying friend!”

"Our scientists see it a little differently, but in principle and in terms of content it is very similar to how the world came into being.", I tried to join in: "There is said to have been a big bang, and from an enormous compression of the parts at the beginning it expanded the universe, almost orgiastic, ever further apart and ever further dissolving into the uncanny expanses of space. ...and in the end everything concentrates and then compensates for itself backwards to an incredibly condensed point. Unfortunately, no one knows whether this, like pumping out blood with your own heartbeat, will repeat itself in less than a second in space after billions of years.

"Most of you tourists accumulate success and wealth around you, building shell after shell around you, like this eye agate. As your prosperity spreads, and with it your apparent influence over the course of things, you will not only be content with understanding and power over your own culture, but with the apparent understanding of other cultures and the prestige of travel you provide You a valuable outer shell like this jewel. Through the apparent understanding you think you are above the cultures and believe that you can also exercise your power over everything foreign. In fact, you rich people have to realize at some point: Only by renouncing do you get closer to the beginnings, the center of being, that with all the forms of distraction you just lose sight of it. Isn't that the only way to penetrate through all the shells that block the view to the core of being, shells like this stone ball? Isn't that the final insight in philosophy for you too? Isn't that the philosopher's stone?” asked someone who had previously held back in the circle of gurus.

"The philosopher's stone from the Judeo-Christian mysticism and alchemy of the Middle Ages with its analogous materiality formed from concentric intellectual spheres building on one another, that could certainly be seen as a conceptual model for the concentric structure of the eye agate, but what is the point of such encoded and ambiguous esotericism today? ' was my own objection.

“ Of course, Islam also played a very important role in the Middle Ages as the guardian of Christianity and Judaism and for the development of modern thinking with its sciences such as alchemy, algebra, astronomy, medicine. Parallels from chemical reactions, from known natural processes and from the experience of the people of that time were sought for trains of thought that lacked scientifically provable basics and detailed information. Stories and parables should impart knowledge and also reasonable, nature-adapted morality. Just look at the wondrous stories of Sinbad the Sailor or from the Arabian Nights, where Scheherazade develops one story from the other or, conversely, integrates new ones into a story again and again.

"All of our science at the end of the Middle Ages may have matured in the coexistence of the three great religions, but this knowledge does not go back to the considerations of the Greek philosophers, to the dispute between Plato and Aristotle, for example, to the analogies, to the correspondences of the microcosm and macrocosm: Just as here in the agate concentric shells of different rock composition and color stick together, one must see the globe of the earth just as shell-shaped from just larger rock layers. This, so these thinkers thought, must be so, because every small order is based on the same basic principles as the big and powerful things,” another one announced his thoughts.

"Papperlapapp" reported a somewhat plump meditation disciple who was apparently more oriented towards worldly pleasures: "Isn't this just a stone that one shouldn't bite if one doesn't want to lose one's most important organs early on? I prefer the egg to that round inedible pearl, and what good does it do me to know if that one savory something came before the hen that laid it. Of course, the hen is important because it also lays other eggs, and if it doesn't lay any more eggs, it should be slaughtered and a delicious soup made from it. But you take good care of your last egg in order to breed a chicken from it again. That is the law of life, one way and another the other way around.”

As we sat chatting on the steps of one of the many pagodas and shrines, a young mother came climbing up the steep path, her child tied tightly to her body in a swaddle and sari. The face was flushed with youth, health, and exertion. Nevertheless, she spoke in a soothing, singing tone as she climbed up to the little one, who had probably just woken up from her sleep and had started to cry. The child calmed down quickly and seemed to respond to the mother's pleasant words with his babble.

"You're only thinking about eating, dear round friend," said one of the young mendicant priests from the background who had remained silent until now: "You know I'm still hesitating, whether your path of meditation, of reflection, but also of constant leisure without really working, is the right one for me at all. Hasn't this woman here answered your constant questions about the meaning of life and the right way without many words? I want to tell you that this stupid lifeless eye stone seems to me to be a good symbol for the maturing, spreading life at most in my thoughts. But even this musing seems to me to actually scurry past the really relevant things in life. We live to be. The route is the goal. This mother and her child are moving

The sun had blinded me but also warmed me comfortably and giving peace. I had my eyes closed and must have gotten a little daydreaming among these beggar gurus as I sat quietly for a photo among these honorable gentlemen and colorful motifs at face value. The 100 rupee note changed hands and soon the imposing place in the middle of the somewhat slow and self-satisfied brothers with the stoned eyes was occupied again by the next tourist for the souvenir photo.

"Life is like a beanstock" sang the Prokul Harum in the ghetto blaster of another group of tourists who descended the Temple Mount. Another level of cognition.

About the eye agate
“ According to Tibetan customs and belief, strange minerals and fossils found in nature promise good luck, which can be quite banally explained by the rare finder's luck in finding extraordinary objects. Eye stones with circular lighter or darker layers cut into the curve are not really rare in rounded river pebbles, but more so with two staring round eyes next to each other and are said to help in many cultures and in our local folk belief against the "evil jealous look", in the " Menacing Stare" banish the sinister opponent and should therefore have a healing effect and ward off evil.
In Tibet such stone amulets with eyes and strange symbols are called dzi beads. Real, purely naturally formed pieces, especially made of agate, are valuable and are passed on through generations and are highly valued. Natural agate cut in a targeted eye shape is of course real stone and is also processed in eye agate pearl necklaces. Counterfeits from China, however, are etched, engraved or burned in with a laser and can be found in heaps on the markets there.
In addition to other unusual pieces of jewelry and beautiful stories, we also offer some of these eye agates for sale in our museum shop in the House of Cultures in Diedorf.