Bali - the peace of wild things.

In the morning, just before the light came, we sat in the grey dark on our cushions above the surging sea. What beauty, the vast sea set out before us, the quiet, the peace. The invitation is to a deep part within ourselves, but rarely met.

Rilke says 

'when we win it's with the small things,

and triumph itself makes us small.

What is extraordinary and eternal does not want to be bent by us.'

(The Man watching. Trans Robert Bly)

We are affected by so much: endless noise; empty conversations; aimless days with no one noticing. Walking into nature brings us home to ourselves—a silencing balm.

This was where our day started, in reverence to what was bigger than us, beholding, awakening, hearing our longing, encountering the peace of wild things. 

We were always within spaces that were blessed every day. Agung ( such a wild, firey thing) just there, sometimes present, often hidden. 

All of us there, committed to this practice, the awakening of ourselves into our lives.

The yoga practice followed, un-knitting and re-knitting the mind, body, breath, always a work of art and love. 

Spaces that are blessed become sacred places. There are probably no spaces that are not sacred, but by our absence we make them so.  The intention of the place too may hinder the upliftment of the human being. I believe we know a place that is not blessed—the edge is darker. 

There is a harmony of blessedness, it speaks to the sacred silent part of ourselves. 

Bali blesses everything. After the Bali bombing, the Balinese became even more diligent, believing that they may have been in part a cause of what happened.

Can we truly flourish without this regard for the sacred?

No, of course not. It makes for anxiety, and so an endless filling up, looking for solutions for unhappiness, or things to do to distract, or something of interest to feel alive. Nothing wrong—this is what moves us forward as humans, but it is sad that we get lost, uprooted, not knowing our job.

Placing a flower in a vase, sweeping dust and leaves away, an arranging and ordering of our spaces brings a harmony to it, and the act of doing this lets us share in this settling. 

A daily practice brings orientation, we are ordered by doing it. It is not about attaining something, or even being challenged, but working with ourselves, coming home. 

Retreating gives the taste of this wholeness, a memory of what this feels like: silence, focus, containment, structure. Rest.

To be by yourself away from family and commitments, to inhabit your space, to do just one thing, having the structure and support to do this is not a luxury, but a necessity. Bringing wholeness, presence, to the living, is a lifetime journey. 

I am deeply moved by my work as a chaplain in the prison. On the exterior plane, the inmates have no freedom and choice.  But some find an inner freedom,  acknowledging that it is the lack of the privledge of choice that is the opportunity to take hold of themselves. They make use of the situation and gain such wisdom in living that I am blown away. 

What then is real justice? 

A simple example is to know your job, and to know what is not. 

These boys teach me.  My job as a chaplain is not to do the work of the officers: to boss or have agendas with the inmates. My job is something very other. I offer a very different space for them, An inmate pointed this out to me. He has been in prison for forty years. He says when you do the work of an officer you take the space away  from the inmate that a chaplain gives, and that space is our lifeline, our dignity as human, beyond crime and punishment.

A teacher shares these qualities, to give the space to the student to find out how to do things within themselves. To enliven and feed the curiosity, To become more honest and awake, not shamed or made dependent or even secure. To learn to live on the knife-edge of learning.

Georgia O'Keefe said something similar about living as an artist, she had 'to walk the knife's edge', risking between failure on either side, and doing what she wanted as a creative person.