These days in Istambul




Dear Friends,
This is what happened in the last few days in Turkey:
On Saturday we had the weekly gathering of the Message in the salita. Jöntürk was there, as well as Dani (the Brazilian girl), Canan, Canan's friend, Cengiz, Eduardo and me.
It was a nice gathering, with good people in a friendly atmosphere. Before the ceremony Eduardo gave some explanations (Jöntürk translated) and then we did a Service. Jöntürk in Turkish, Eduardo in Spanish. It was a very good experience for me. Dani said she recognized her tensions first and by the end of the ceremony she felt much more relaxed. Cengiz, who speaks a little English, and who participated for the first time, explained us that because he is coming from an alevi background this sensibility is not new for him. Unfortunately with Canan we do not understand each other, although she and Eduardo try to speak in Turkish as much as day can, and Jöntürk tries to translate. Canan proposed to create a facebook group for Silo's Message - Kadiköy. We all thought it would be a great idea, espceially if it was in Turkish. It was also her idea to get together more often, given that she, Jöntür, Cengiz and we all live in the same nighborhoud. Finally we agreed to gather for a dinner on Sunday. And we did.

We had a wonderful dinner the next day: Eduardo made fish, Canan brought salad, I made vegetable soop and the others brought drinks. The others were: Aris (a Cuban guy whom we met in the mesa espanol on Thursday), Ebru (a friend of ours we have not met for a long time ago, and a few days ago wrote to me in facebook), Ana and Alberto (Eduardo's children), Canan, Cengiz and his wife, Eduardo and me. We had a great food and a great time together. There were lots of conversations about everything, including  the Message of course and what we are doing in Tukey.
Jöntürk told me that one day when we have good translator with us, he would like to talk more about the Message, in more detail, more deeply because he is having trouble when tryning to explain it to others. And yes, although we know that the Message primarily is an internal experience, we all know how enriching and inspiring conversations about our experiences can be, and yes, this is definitely a difficulty we are having here. So, we agreed that for this Saturday we are trying to find someone who could translate for us, even if only for one occassion, and will try to initiate a conversation about the Message with those who will be present. It could be something like the presentation of the book, but in a very informal, interactive way.
Today we arrived to Ankara with Eduardo, and tomorrow we will gather with the friends here.
I am sending some photos.
A big hug,
Judit

Conversations at Promethe Café



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Here are some pictures of the cafes where we went these days with Judit, and had some very interesting conversations about Silo's Message.
We met the person who started the Spanish table, more than 3 years ago. In the beginning hardly anybody came, then little by little (week after week) a group of persons started forming itself and it grew and grew so that now, besides Taksim, there are groups in Kadikoy, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya etc.
Very interesting how people began including themselves and how it is a good ambit to meet people and talk about our issues with those who ask about our activities in Turkey.

Some of the people you see, invited us from the Turkish table to go to the Spanish table and now we are inviting them to our ceremonies.
So, next Saturday there will be some ceremonies at 7:00 p.m.

A big hug
Eduardo

Ceremony day at the salita-house



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Here is a picture I took of the last ceremony day at the house-salita.
Two Italians came, one of them knew Tommaso since he had participated a while ago and was on a trip on his scooter from Milan, with the idea of going to Pakistan and India passing through Persia. It seems though that he didn't calculate the time and seasons very well, so he was going back to Milan. He invited a friend who joined although they had to leave soon.
The most interesting thing was that Jöntürk comes and feels the ceremonies, the work with the Force and Well Being are positive, are more and more conforting.

We will meet at Promethe cafe, where we went for the Spanish-speaking table on Thursdays, but we will meet on Wednesday this time, to inform on the Message. 
We gave two books of the Message to the cafe owner, one for the public library and another as a donation for prisoners. They receive all kinds of books to read, so we thought it might be useful, since it is in Turkish and who knows in which hands they will fall.
We also met a friend of Ana Facundes, called Dani Sou, who is an artist, singer, dancer and music student. She is very nice and interested in participating, so we had very interesting and inspiring conversations.


We are continuing with contacts and inviting people we've met from the Spanish table in Kadiköy and the Turkish table in Taksim, with lots of contacts, table, a bunch of languages, but a very interesting mundialization process we are living.

A big hug
Eduardo

Sunday, November 11th: Couchsurfers Day




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We wake up early for a Sunday... to go to Chuch! Today we will take a walk in Eyüp, to mister Pierre Loti, passing by different Orthodox churches.
Getting off from the boat, we go towards the Egyptian bazaar, meeting point with the international troops of couchsurfers. The group becomes bigger as the participants arrive. It will be an English speaking day since the troops are multiple... Turks, Iranians, Israelis, one guy from Quebec, a girl from Holland, another from Armenia, two Spaniards, a girl from Morocco and 3 French… The world meets there: Istanbul is always a bridge between cultures. It is very touching to see that all the stories told by media and politicians don’t touch us, we simple humans, joyful in discovering each other… We like couchsurfing more and more, it testifies to a new sensibility. Walking all the while, we have some good interchanges, little by little the conversation becomes more fluid and “unity” draws itself… We discover a world hidden between each person, we are delighted to meet 3 young Iranians and we feel this emotion that cannot be expressed: there are so many beautiful things that attracts, our desires go to the East, especially this country.  
On the walk down the Golden Horn, we visit some richly decorated monasteries and trek on the narrow streets of run down houses of the Jewish neighborhood. We discover on the way another Istanbul reality, poorer and more popular. We eat, and I discover a young officer of the Turkish army , maybe also a poet, who talks about his love for his birthplace, Konya, city of Rumi and the dervishes. We go up stairs and the bare slopes of a cemetery, in this sacred Muslim place. Our deep desire of another humanity elevates itself, since our group could be the forefront of the world we hope for tomorrow. On the place, faced with the magnificent mosque, the day ends with email exchanges, promises of future meetings in Teheran or Kadiköy.
We say good-bye but, curiously, looking for the way back, our groups meet again various time as if, by now, it were impossible to separate us. We get back to the ferry tired but happy with these magnificent encounters. We buy some fish, Eduardo will cook an excellent meal for us... then we go back to the port and by chance we meet Jonturk with his couchsurfing guests who are going to Nepal. A new meeting with this new dimension of humanity: travelling, discovering, sharing without too many means, expressing one’s sensitivity.
Silo’s Message is transmitted slowly, humbly, softly, adding meaning and giving faith and energy to these new generations. The night falls on Istanbul and we can already see the dawn of another world.

Denis

Saturday Nignt à Kadikoy, céremonies, before and after.




Everyone arrives at 7:00 p.m. carrying something to eat or to drink.
We sit down and chat. A little bit in every language, 3 words in English, 2 in Turkish, a sprinkle of French. A translator arrives! Finally an English-speaking Turkish friend, Murat, can translate Canan’s questions. “What is most important in the Message?” Canan asks Eduardo. He answers in English and Murat translate “overcoming suffering” and we have started.
Jonturk is also there “but where does this name come from?” A Multilanguage explanation takes place where we are confused with the French words for “peoples” and “young”  in the context of a faraway rebellions. But Jonturk, whom we met during the World March in 2009, takes his name from the young Turks who rebelled.
At 9:00 p.m., Christophe, the man from Toulouse has been Master of Chai (the tea we drink in Istanbul), and it is time for ceremonies.
Eduardo asks tentatively, “Will you understand me if I read the ceremony in Turkish?” Our friends answer yes. Eduardo guides the Service in Turkish.
It is so moving and inspirational to be there, in this salita, in the Eastern coast of Istanbul, and to listen to this ceremony in Turkish for the first time. I cannot understand the language but it seems to me I understand its sense even better. And I smile.
Driiiing. The doorbell rings and I get up to open to Elena. We go to the kitchen to let the others finish the experience.
They finish and we join them for the Well Being. This time it is Murat who guides the ceremony.
The after, like the before, in Turkishfrenchspanishenglish. With some extra sly moves, like using google translator. The Master of tea is still active, passing bakhlavas, chatting, laughing.
Lots of laughter with Elena’s (young Italian artist, passing through Istanbul) breathtaking story. She tells us in French, translating a little in English, passing to German, which she speaks well since she lives in Berlin for Canan, who wants to understand and without hesitations, calls her daughter on the phone, who explains it to her mother. The telephone ends up in Eduardo’s ears, who tries to explain to the daughter why so much laughter instead of meditation.
We are overcome, the situation is so surreal and so funny. Everything is so serious and then it isn’t. We laugh until we cry.
The evening ends with a little walk through the neighborhood streets. We take some cool air. We speak of today and tomorrow.
Nelly

Istanbul, November 8, 2012




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The way back to Istanbul was much quicker. Our bus stops midway, like before, for a rest at a shopping mall. Christophe tells me it is the same one, I tell him it is the double. On the other side of the highway, like a mirror, is the exact same building outside like inside! That gives me a strange sensation, of a world which builds smooth things, without spirit, uniform and misleading. It is terrible that in the heart of the Anatolian lands, where humanity has taken some of its greatest steps and  expressed its most beautiful creativity… quick! Let’s go back to Istanbul, its diversity and joyous bazaar!!!
We are welcomed by Eduardo who comes from his siesta and have some good Italian Arabica coffee and some cakes… We savor his testimony inspired by reading a letter sent by a friend. Together, we go back to Silo’s words which resonate in the present moment. We evoked the correspondence between David and Silo “Is profound and essential change possible in the human being?... Everything that has been done up to this moment has great meaning, but it will not be enough until the people (even the nicest and most kind) decide to Convert their lives, realizing the need for a profound mental change. It is of this that our work speaks in its last phase; it is of this that the Message speaks. I believe that in the current situation in which Humanity is living (and of course ourselves), if we do not work to overcome all censure and censorship, including what is self-imposed, throwing ourselves into the meanings and works of the Message, then essential change will not be possible. The direction must be toward the Profound of the consciousness, to connect with the meanings that have been slowly driving forward the evolution of the human being. Now it is urgent and we have no other way to make this impulse known….” (Manual of Formative Themes and Practices for Messengers – Seminar of profound and essential change, pg. 56).




Later, Christophe and I, went to look at the sea. It was sunset, the sky was composed of a magnificent blur going from orange to deep blue. It is hard to describe this beauty, especially if it mixes in my spirit with questions raised by our interchange on profound and essential meaning. Then we spent the evening with Elena, a young artist who showed us her collage exhibit and asks us, “is it possible to be constantly happy and relaxed?” Good question! And we go together to the couchsurfers’ meeting who want to speak Spanish... There are more and more persons around the table: Spaniards, Colobians, Cubans, Turks wanting to learn Spanish... Istanbul is a mosaic. We meet around beers and chai (guess for who?) while the Turkish salsa dancers are shaking. I take out my cards for the game of the Message for the latinos who actually decided to stay at the table. All the while I asked myself if I would be able to overcome all censure, enter in the world of meanings and produce this conversation. Like in Elena’s collages, I can try to acknowledge the sacred that exists in everyday life and in those around me, or like in another work: being in the present moment, trying to look at the details and the colors of everyday life, like a path towards a future that is less gray. 

Denis.

Ankara - Wednesday, November 7





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A surprising, joyful and dynamic day of the Message in Ankara
We started the day with the works to install the new heater. Denis went to deepen his studies on Mani at the park close to the Salita, while Yüksel and Hüseyin were busy at their jobs.
At 1:00 p.m. the new flaming heater worked perfectly. We will notice later that is uses too much gas and we will need to fine tune it.
Later, Yüksel invites us to visit his mother.
There we go crossing the big and busy city of Ankara. We stopped on the way to visit some of Yüksel’s clients and then  we have tea with one of his friends and we quickly propose the game of the Asking. We are welcomed with smiles and lots of sweetness. We quickly feel close to one another and it is clear that sharing Silo’s Message helps a lot.
Finally, we decide to go take the bus to Yüksel’s Mother’s house. Due to the endless traffic jams of the city, it takes us an hour to get there. We arrive with the night on top of a mountain towering over Ankara, giving us a new and luminous view.
“Why not a Park here?”, exclaims Yüksel.
Our visit to Yüksel’s family will be a very short one. We will live there a deep and delicious moment  when we proposed his mother and brother play with us the game of the Asking.
It is always moving to see the eyes of the other light up once they read the sentence of Silo’s Message written on their chosen card after having asked an inner question.
At that moment, we shared the deepness of Silo’s Message in an inexpressible, brief instant, a moment of contact with another time, another space...
The sentence in the card chosen by Yüksel’s mother fills us with joy “Contradictory or unifying actions accumulate within you. If you repeat your acts of internal unity, nothing can detain you.”
But we must go back to the Salita, the weekly ceremonies on Wednesday are waiting for us.
In the city, Yüksel leaves us to continue his visits to friends.
At seven-thirty at the Salita, we are 3, Hüseyin, Denis and Christophe. Our guests seemed not to have been able to join us. We decide to wait until eight and do the ceremony anyway.
Just before eight, Yüksel arrives with 3 other persons: Reyhan, Yilmaz and Anil.
Hullaballoo in the kitchen, before doing the ceremony, we prepared the meal.
In the meantime we got to know our new friends.
Yilmaz explains that he had already been to the Salita on a Wednesday but he had never wanted to join the ceremonies. Today he has decided to try his first ceremony.
Hüseyin guides the Service and Reyhan the Well Being. Two beautiful and unitive experiences.
Seven joyous Messengers share a meal after the ceremony. Ending the feast with delicious pears in orange sauce...
While our 3 friends went back to their homes, we (Denis, Yüksel, Hüseyin, Christophe) went to the other side of the city to have some tea in a cafè of Yüksel’s friends...
And so this humble and brotherly journey of Silo’s Message  in Ankara...

A strong abrazo
Christophe



Ankara, Tuesday, November 6, 2012


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This morning the cries of help of the old heater were heard! The gods of war descended into the kitchen of our peaceful apartment-salita. Before 10:00 a.m., they were there, armed with their infernal device.In order to familiarize with comfort (heating and very hot showers) we had not imagined to withstand life at the construction site and the sound of the pneumatic drill. Just enough time to have a showers, I leave Mars, Aries, Tyr and Onoris. I am looking for peace in the Park and have some coffee with my pal, Mani, and he is joined soon by all our cathar and bogomil friends (Christoph). They were with us during the whole day! Life was difficult while there was war in the Salita, so we decided to take a walk in the city and assault the byzantine citadel, passing by the temple of Augustus where I read to Christoph some beautiful manichean writings.

The way up is hard and the exchange regarding our adored themes become more powerful, accompanying the landscape we encounter. The Manichean or Cathar heretics or “perfect ones” were burned by the “righteous” and contradictory Christians: and so we found ourselves in the middle of beautiful, ancient houses, often in ruins and along narrow and potholed roads of the ancient village of Ankara. High above on the ramparts, the view is clear and in this elevated place we know that all these good persons who passed – and us today – are hear with the hope of freeing parcels of light, even though the way up is difficult and if certain spaces give vertigo... However, we will not rise anymore, because we are not at ease on the narrow ramparts.

We rejoin the Salita to discover our old heater, abandoned, stretched, torn in the middle of the floor. Then we left (yes it was an exhausting day...) for our evening date at the Babil Cafe. Before that; however, we tried to give out a hundred invitations our so to the Well Being ceremony in the neighboring streets. Turkey isn’t very different from our West. I feel the strong contrast between the amused looks of those who pick up the small paper and the closedness of those who do not even want to meet my gaze. I feel very irritated by that, it is not my true North. This small somber moment passes once we’re in our favorite cafe and that we are joined by Ümit, Yuksel and Huseyin. There was nobody new at the ceremony, but the pleasure of seeing Ümit again, whom we hadn’t seen for quite a while. We liked it better to do the ceremony somewhere else, in an open space with some background music. One of the songs reminded me of a friend in need, another piece had taken the surprising journey from Toulouse (Cristoph’s home) to Anakra... as if our Guides had stayed there with us, until the end of the day, watching over us, going as far as putting the music we asked....

Thank you for these beautiful moments,
Denis

Report of the trip to Istanbul and Ankara from October 31st to November 5th. Manuela


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We arrived at Ataturk airport with Tommaso at 2:00 a.m. and an hour later at the house/salita. There I met Huseyin and, from the first moment I thought I was in front of a small “Gandhi”, I recognized we were on the same path and perceived a strong feeling of friendship towards him.
The next day, after breakfast, we went on a short walk around the neighborhood and very quickly, we found ourselves in a small street where we met Canan, an artist and her friend Ismael.
They invited us to chai and, from the very first moment, a very light atmosphere was created. The sensation I had facing this woman, whom I had seen for the first time, was of Recognition and this experience helped to find my place in the Message and perceive its action. Although she didn’t speak much English and I didn’t speak much Turkish, thanks to our some glances and smiles, I experienced a very profound contact.
It seemed obvious to me that “passing the Message” does not mean to pass a doctrine but a lifestyle, a way of living. I saw that it is something lighter, something which passes through an atmosphere that is created and reaches far beyond words because it is developed from another center.
Tommaso invited them to the Salita, Sunday night for ceremonies and to share experiences with us.
At one in the afternoon we took a bus to Ankara, arriving at home at 7:00 p.m. Huseyin was there to welcome us. We started sharing with him the experiences of the day and we waited for Yuksel and Handan who also said they would pass by. I was very impressed with the force with which they expressed they were a community, we could see the ambit was a reference to them and that they wanted to create a good atmosphere for us. Handan asked if we wanted to do ceremonies and we did a Service and Well Being, in Turkish only. Personally, I felt a part of this community from the beginning because I recognized behind this different landscape from where we came, the same direction and the same meaning.
The next morning, as always when I am in Turkey, I woke up without any idea of what would happen during the day.
We went out with the idea to charge gas for the house and visit Babil café where, on the next day, we would do a book presentation. There we met Huseyin and Yuksel and after a while Hulya arrived. A very beautiful interchange ambit was also create here, inside this place which doesn’t seem to belong to this century but to the preceding one, when writers and artists met in cafes to interchange about their works.
The impression I have is that here things are fixed from another dynamic and, if at the beginning of the day, it seems that nothing happens, in the end, you realize how many things happened and how all of them relate with the intention of the Message.
At 7:00 p.m. we went with Eduardo, Tommaso and Huseyin to café Leman. It is a very modern, very Western place, with really loud music and young people who drink. We went there because every week there is a interchange table of young University students who meet there to practice foreign languages. In the beginning, I felt a little awkward in a situation which seemed unreal to me, but, thanks to the Message, I managed to center myself again and realize the opportunity the situation was offering me. We arrived with some materials with the description of the book in Turkish and, since we were foreigners, almost everyone approached to practice a different language with us. Of course, the first question was always “what are you doing here?” and this made our job a lot easier and opened the path to talk to them about the Message, of the intention of opening a Park in Turkey and about Silo’s work. This situation made me understand that wherever you go, you have the chance of “feeling at home”, if you have a clear direction and intention in what you’re doing. I spoke with many persons and, although nobody asked any questions, nor demonstrated a real interest in what I was commenting, I was very happy for this opportunity I had. Only one boy, who had talked to Eduardo for a long time, seemed to me to enter in the same frequency we were in; in fact, we saw him on the next day at the presentation in Babil Café.
At midnight we went to the bus station to pick up Christoph and Denis who were arriving from France. I was very happy to see them, and on entering the house with them I could feel the atmosphere had changed and we could count on new energies and strong intentions.
The next morning seemed to me a repetition of the days before: nobody had clear ideas about what to do and we all wanted to schedule things thinking they depended on us… almost forgetting how the Message works…
In the end we went out to Café Babil, ordered chai and started to distribute materials of the book presentation to those who were ver. I really liked to see that for us, the important thing wasn’t so much the peoples’ reaction but the enjoyment of talking about Silo and his work. We talked conscious that we had a great gift to offer and we could only hope to meet someone who was looking for it.
After eating and taking a small nap, we went back to Babil Café at 5:00 p.m. for the book presentation.
The development of the situation was what allowed me to definitely change the emotional climate and made me understand why I was there.
We arrived there, a little before five and we were very prepared, with many books of the Message, the book of the Parks and some materials in Turkish. As we suspected, nobody was there.
So we went out to the street with Christophe and Denis to distribute some naterials and we found ourselves in a situation which seemed to me very much like “Milan”, nobody stopped and when they realized we wanted to give them materials, they lowered their eyes and changed direction. How strange I thought, very different from the situations I lived in during the presentation tour last summer!!!
We went back to the Café, a bit down, and sat with the others. Little by little the situation changed: all the friends of the Ankara community started arriving.:
Zehra came, after a while Aylin and Hülya, Yalcin and finally Handan who came with a “new” friend. So, in a short time the situation transformed itself and started taking a different form.
Since we had an “invited person” we could start the presentation. It was carried out by Christophe and Denis in French with Hulya translating into Turkish. A very moving atmosphere was created, with our new friend asking questions and the “old” people of the community very connected in trying to give her not only an answer but also an experience.
At the end of the presentation, which lasted for quite a while, another one of Handan’s friends came, as well as the boy we had met yesterday night at Café Leman. They sat with us having chai and quickly entered the atmosphere.
To end the presentation in the best of ways, Handan proposed to do some ceremonies. She asked permission to the owner of the café and invited him to participate. It was very unusual being seated in a circle, almost 15 people, in a public situation in Turkey, when generally “ours” are scared of only distributing some materials on the street…! But in this circumstance everything seemed normal and natural… there were three new friends in the circle: two of Handan’s friends and the owner of the Café. The boy we had met the day before sat a little to the side saying he preferred to watch once before participating. Handan did a Service which completely changed the frequency of everyone who was there and helped everyone let go of inhibitions and make askings for Well Being. Huseyin did the Well Being ceremony which completed the change in atmosphere and invited everyone to join in the final hugs. There we saw people being moved and “feeling” themselves, we saw the owner’s face transforming and we saw him put the card saying “Here it tells how the non-meaning of life can be converted into meaning and fulfillment” on the door of the café, saying that from that moment on, the purpose of that café would be to follow that principle. We also saw the other new friend, who didn’t want to participate in the beginning, approach without censure and participate in the ceremony and the final hugs.
We were floating in the air thanks to these emotions and went back home full of joy and force.
The next morning we left for Istanbul with Eduardo and Tommaso. During the trip, Eduardo was sending sms to friends informing them that at six we were having ceremonies in the salita. Before arriving, he received an sms from a girl, Joana, who said she was a friend of Isabel Torres from Rome and that she was in Istanbul with her boyfriend and wanted to meet him. We arranged to meet at the bus station and we went together to the Salita. On arriving, I felt I was in a very unusual situation: we were two Italians, one Spaniard and two Brazilians in the Salita of Silo’s Message in Istanbul!!!
When we started to talk I found out the only contact they had with us was during a Well Being ceremony in a friend’s house in Brazil years ago… and again I recognized in this situation something familiar without understanding what it was… an hour later Elena arrived, an Italian girl who lives in Berlin and who Eduardo met through couchsurfing and who participated in a meeting last week and a friend of hers from Istanbul, Murat. The situation was animated and everyone started speaking freely, creating a very joyful atmosphere of sharing.
Silo’s Message was something new to everyone but the ambit that was created made me think there was something uniting us that we didn’t know yet.
The ceremony we shared increased the experience of this different “frequency” which can unite persons who never saw each other before.
After the ceremonies, the situation was even more animated because Jonturk came with a friend from Alaska who lived half of his life in the States and the other half in Spain. A while later and Ana, Eduardo’s daughter who now lives in Istanbul, also came. In the end we were two Italians, two Spaniards, two Brazilians, two Turks and a boy from Alaska who was there for the first time!!
In this circumstance I lived an experience of mundialization and I perceived the great difference there is between Ankara and Istanbul, because yes, one can talk of trying to divulge the Message in Turkey thinking about the situation taking form in Ankara, but the same does not go for Istanbul, because Istanbul is not Turkey, but a point of union between the most different ethnic groups and cultures of the whole world.
Taking part in this experience made me think that if we manage to open a Park close to Istanbul, it will not be the Turkish Park but the Park of the world!!!
 Thank you very much and a very big hug to all,
Manuela

Monday, November 5th in Ankara

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We started this day by resolving to go out and meet the citizens of Ankara. I wanted to go back to the Park, close to the salita. After Turkish coffee and equipped with our calling cards and invitations (with the game we mentioned yesterday) we treaded all of the Park’s paths. We tried to “feel” and went out to meet the small couples sitting on the benches and the youths. The language barrier makes things comical, we find our new friends a little destabilized and their probably asking themselves what does it mean to do an “inner asking” and especially what is a great need... But the smiles and laughter which often end these chance encounters and these improbable dialogues between these two Frenchmen who speak little English and these Turks who only use their language. Even those who understand us, find this meeting a little mysterious and unusual, since not many people stop us to ask “who am I?” and “where am I going?”

These meeting are truly joyous since Silo’s Message is a gift... We don’t know what they do with them, but I always tell myself that one day maybe they will remember that we tried to blow in their hearts the dancing spark, full of life, which animates it.

This experience brought us, little by little, to imagine new tries and put together a plan. The brilliant images and enthusiasm are a sign which pushes us to put it in march. We immediately went to Babil Cafe to have a salep and ask to do another ceremony. We hurry to do an invitation to a Ceremony which “This has been good for others, comforting for us, and inspiring for our lives… Greetings to everyone immersed in this current of well-being, which has been strengthened by the best wishes of all those present…” We create these small invitations, invite our friends and we divulge it on facebook and couchsurfing… Another little wave which we will try to help grow tomorrow.

What we love, is to share directly with new people, walk all the time and continue to “feel”. Just letting go to the discovery of the city, its inhabitants... its marvels: a moment of quiet and meditation at the mosque and them the joyous and crowded animation of a fruit and vegetable market at night. This beginning of the trip is a rich and multifaceted experience, but there is always something that, for me, unites all these moments and meetings: It is the Love of Life, humanity and the spirit..

Big HugMonday, November 5th in Ankara
Denis




photos Istanbul 5 november

Hola amigos
here some photos of yersterday meeting in Istanbul Salita
and of the tour in "Tartar Barrios" of Istanbul today






big hug
Tommaso

The day of November 3, 2012 (Denis testimony)

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After a day travelling, plane, stopover, plane… plus seven hours by bus to arrive in Ankara, the time for us (Christophe and myself) to be awed by Istanbul, a giant city. After two hours in a traffic jam, through the bus windows, the houses and buildings… I see the lit windows, of the people living behind this urban landscape with their hopes and sufferings. Like other friends before us, we have come to offer a gift, subtle and sweet…  Will they listen to this distant sound ?


It is half past midnight, we arrived in Ankara and our friends (Eduardo, Manuela and Tommaso) are waiting for us. We went on this impromptu trip to Ankara because there will be a presentation of the Book of the Message, we didn’t want to miss the date and wanted to serve the message. We crossed the city by minibus at night and on foot and I remember these places and the first friends I met here more than 18 months ago. We were welcomed at the house-Salita by the tasty dishes prepared by Yuksel, always careful of being hospitable, and Huseyin, historical messenger.



After a restoring night, we really want to discover the place where the presentation will take place. We discovered Babil Café, where not only the Salep is sweet. (It is a hot drink, creamy, made of mile and an orchid flour, sprinkled with cinnamon). It is a space consecrated to books and photographs, where students come and are at ease. This place invites us to experience going to all the tables for our first experiences of the “game of the message”. We invite people to pick a card, but first we ask them to make a deep asking and that they ask for their greatest need. When they choose the card they read: “Here it tells how the non-meaning of life can be converted into meaning and fulfillment” and on the other side the sentences of the Path or the Principles where they might find an answer to their questions.

Book presentation at Babil Café
   

When we want to do beautiful things, we have a strange sensation with time: it flies… And we arrived to the time of the presentation. Eduardo made us a small surprise, he proposed (to Christoph and me) we sit behind the table to make a presentation of Silo’s Message, with the complicity of Hülya, who speaks perfect French and translates us. We can present what is, before anything, an Experience… But how can we describe our inner world, and this light, this force which grows together with the Experience? So, after having given our testimony, groups were formed to interchange. We formed a group with our translator who becomes a simple person who is aware of the loneliness this world of beliefs closes us in and who tries, like us, to catch the hope Silo’s Message gives us.  

The evening ends with a Service and Well Being ceremony, with these new persons who are so beautiful and dear, I hardly know… In that moment, I feel a unity being born, like a wave who will project itself much further than this small space of Babil Café… Already, the owner of the café, is pasting a card of the game at the entrance, because it proclaims the spirit of the café “Here it tells…” and wanted to do the ceremonies again. At the end, it was enough to look at Tommaso’s photos, we can find joy, colors, eyes full of light. It is not a trick but the representation of the experience of the message, untellable, as a matter of fact, but revealing what is deepest and most beautiful inside of us.


photos of Friday November 2 and Saturday 3

Here some photos of these two greatest days.
The saturday we had a Silo's Message Book présentation in the Babil cafe. 
Closed with two ceremonies (office and well being)


3 November

2 November





Pictures made by Tommaso, 01112012, in Istanbul and Ankara



Hola amigos, I send some photos of the first days

Here I feel a good atmosphere between the people
and I feel the "need" to stay together sharing a kind of reletion
I met very different people that stay well together

Turkey is very different from Europe, and also Istanbul and Ankara seems very different
but it is only my first two days here..

big hug
Tommaso

1 November 2012

(leer en español) 
Hello friends,

Today very early in the morning, at 3:00 a.m. we went to Boğa to pick up Manuela and Tommaso who arrived to support spreading Silo’s Message in Turkey.
We met with Hüseyin in the salita-house and we had tea before he left for Ankara where he had to work. His bus left at 5:00 a.m.
In the morning we strolled through the neighborhood since Tommaso didn’t know it and we met Canan, the artist, in the little street where she lives. She was having tea with a friend, so we joined them and talked for a while. There we agreed to do a ceremony Sunday at 6:00 p.m.  with Canan and her friend Ismail and some friends of theirs, Jönturk would also join us, as well as some other friends we invited.
The trip to Ankara was very pleasant, we talked and invited friends from Ankara to the presentation at Babil Cafe on Saturday at 5:00 p.m. We had sent information to the press on the night before, like Yüksel asked us to do.
On arriving at the salita, we were joined by Yüksel, Hüseyin, Handan and together with Tommaso and Manuela we did a Service and a Well Being, as Handan and Yüksel asked us to do.
Then we celebrated with a cake which Yüksel baked in the kitchen (helva) and had tea and talked until midnight.
So it was a day of travelling, time well used, all along in the company of friends.
Tomorrow we will go to the Spanish-speaking table where we agreed to meet with some people we had met there last time and we will invite them to the book presentation on Saturday.
I am sending some pictures to illustrate these comments.
A big hug,
Eduardo