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Note by the author
It is not often that one’s life can change when traveling.
After meeting a monk who taught meditation techniques as summarised in the Visuddhi Magga – Path of Purification written by Bhadantācariya Buddhaghosa c. AD430 – I made notes about my experiences with watercolour in my sketchbook rather than using words.
These notes were later used to make the documentary Sketch of an Excellent Man and became the foundation for discoveries about meditation practiced in Europe from the 6th century BC: I recognised my drawings on Celtic coins minted around 50 BC – 500 years after the Buddha.
Notes from my sketchbook: perception of the 6th sense that appears as light with good concentration when practicing meditation techniques described in the 1,500-years-old text: Visuddhi Magga, Path of Purification.
Drawings © Setti Wessels
Training as an architect: skills to conceptualise and do long-term projects
After graduating in 1985 as an architect I worked in Johannesburg in South Africa. My first project as project leader was to build the first dedicated library in Soweto. Traveling alone to do site visits during dangerous times I felt no fear, as I knew it was a good thing to do. The economy crashed, after running my own small construction company during the difficult political transition I decided to “go traveling for a year”. When friends asked why I wanted to leave when I had so much to offer to help rebuild the country, my answer was direct and without any hesitation. Money and power would be the main themes for years to come and that “I had something to do” – even though I did not know what it was.
Studying Art in London and Amsterdam
Studying art at Camberwell College in London the Foundation Course of 1994/95 was a great eye-opener, after specialising in sculpture I decided to do another year at the lesser known Morley College to do painting. An offer of a place at the famous Central Saint Martins School of Art followed, but my first choice was the Rietveld Academy in Amsterdam where I completed the course in 1999 (Painting and drawing). My final examination project was a mixed media installation: in darkness and using special lighting horse images made from tar, burnt sugar and wax were juxtaposed to illustrate the fragility of the main theme: “Macht en Machteloosheid” (Power and Powerlessness).
Yoga and Indian Philosophy, Buddhist sites and a cave in Nepal
A choice to emigrate caused stress, a lot of yoga followed and completing two yoga teacher’s training courses included a first formal introduction into Indian philosophy. The first 10 days Goenka Vipassanā course in Belgium in 2004 caused a radical life change: my concentration was very good and the awareness that peace was a real option that one could choose for, that one could cultivate in a conscious way, was the inspiration to travel to India to visit the Buddhist sites. I ended up spending 5 months in a Tibetan village high up in the Himalaya Mountains in Nepal, sitting my first 10 days self-course alone in a cave at 3,000 metres, outside the edge of the habitable world.
The Buddha’s original system of meditation in Myanmar
My heart was deeply connected to the original teachings in Myanmar, my only wish was to visit the country, I went on a painting trip – it was kamma-in-action. After I met a monk who taught the Four Great Elements meditation technique, my concentration was strong and the groundwork was done for the discoveries that were to follow about Lost Links of Buddhism in Europe. A choice had to be made – I left my stunning apartment in Amsterdam to dedicate more time to meditation, the meditation documentary “Sketch of an Excellent Man” followed. It was translated into several languages and having to paste the text blocks into the video editing software again and again for Chinese, Thai, Sinhalese etcetera, the result was that the numbers that formed the basic structure of the meditation system as taught by the Buddha became solidly engraved in my memory.
Numbers of the meditation system in Europe: were Greek philosophers meditators?
These same numbers appeared on objects in Europe. During many years of casual research I could recognise my own meditation experiences (made as watercolour drawings in my sketchbook) on Celtic coins minted around 50 BC, 500 years after the Buddha’s lifetime. Having to wait in a hotel in Bangkok for a new passport gave time enough to download and read Plato’s dialogues. The supposedly difficult ones (Parmenides, Philebus – on the Greater Good) were the easiest to understand, because Plato described meditation techniques, even directly naming the particles, the space and qualities of the Four Great Elements that can be seen during deep concentration. His cave simile was a description of the 6th sense that “lived in a cave in the heart”, as described by the Buddha in the Dhammapada. Were the Greek philosophers actually meditators…?
Corrupted histories in Europe: the hidden 6th sense
The exploration continued for several years, the surprising results are now available on this website. Because I was not born in Europe my eyes were fresh, I was not attached to any identity or blinded by conventions or prejudice, but critical of one-sided manipulation, as can be found in the corrupted texts from antiquity – fake news is not a modern phenomenon. My eyes, trained as an architect and fine-tuned through many years of art studies, saw numbers on abstract objects – and those numbers were the same as the numbers used in the meditation system as taught by the Buddha. The stunning abstract objects that were a mystery to scholars in Europe turned out to be meditation diagrams, that could be seen and analysed with a keen eye and some basic knowledge of Buddhist theory. There was something fundamentally wrong with the way European history was interpreted, because the objects themselves told a clear and independent story that was separate from modern culture: people knew about the 6th sense and meditated from the 6th century BC until the final objects were made in the 12-13th century, a period of 1,700 years.
Were the Celts and Vikings meditators?
Instead of the violent histories of Celts who reportedly “tied severed heads with ropes to their horses”, their coins were meditation diagrams to illustrate the 6th sense, heads that represent concentration (hadaya vatthu & bhavanga mind element) hovered above a horse that personified an ascetic life of observation, as taught by the Buddha. The Vikings were not killers, but the last ones who protected the meditation techniques with their “swords of wisdom” before the practices disappeared from collective memory. The main lesson that I learnt growing up in South Africa is that knowledge makes a difference – people must know the truth so that they can make informed choices for themselves. My own concentration suffered greatly, but if my eyes could see and my mind could know the meaning of these objects filled with an inner power, how could I be silent and keep the discoveries to myself?
An aspiration for peace in the future
If people know that peace instead of violence was once the preferred social norm in Europe they can choose – based on an appropriate awareness to make good quality choices in the difficult years ahead, choices with less emphasis on profit. The Buddha predicted that his teachings of peace will be in the world for 5,000 years or more, we still have nearly half left, there is still hope as we have not yet run out of good supporting kamma. To consume excessively is shallow and empty, to collectively arrange society with an emphasis on collective inner happiness is still a viable and balanced option. To support a life of generosity and goodwill towards all beings, to take care of our environment aiming at sustainable development rather than profit is easier than people think. To aim at inner happiness it is not “foreign import for the woke”, but part of the original foundations of European culture – for “the Greater Good” – to quote philosopher Socrates.
Setti Wessels
Myanmar 2023
In support of the 2,500-years-old meditation techniques still taught in the world.
Notes from my sketchbook after meeting a meditation teacher who still taught the techniques described in 2,500-year-old Pali text, summarised in the Visuddhimagga
PERCEPTION practice of Four Great Elements Meditation technique when the body’s solidity dissolves into particles and space
Drawings © Setti Wessels
Notes from my sketchbook: painting turned into an exploration of my own mind, the 6th sense
Drawings © Setti Wessels
My own eye: observation of 4 elements to see and analyse particles and space
Drawings © Setti Wessels
With practice of the Four Great Elements meditation technique – earth, water, fire, air – eventually the solid body-mind collapses into particles, kalāpas, in space, which are analysed systematically: analysis of rūpa in Pali.
Drawings © Setti Wessels
In support of the 2,500-years-old meditation techniques still taught in the world