Bali

Bali's mountains, seen from the North-East

Bali. There is nowhere like it on Earth.

It’s no coincidence that many spiritual temples in the world are located on mountain tops. High spiritual presences need physical anchorage to land here on Earth, and the solidity of mountain rock provides the perfect substratum. Volcanic mountains with their subterranean fire, are even better.

The topography of Bali is exceptionally well suited to this, with a magnificent chain of volcanic mountains stretching across the centre of the island from east to west.

Many hundreds of years ago, men of great vision arrived in Bali and founded temples on the slopes of these mountains. Four temples were built on the main compass points, four temples on the mid-compass points, and a huge Mother temple at the centre with shrines connected to all the other temples. If you see these Sad Khayangan temples on a map you’ll find that the temple locations are energetically rather than geographically precise, but if you visit the temples, you can really feel the way they hold the energy of the whole island.

Balinese temple shrines

Over time this has evolved into a matrix of over 20,000 temples, covering the entire island, and a huge extended matrix of smaller temples in family homes, containing shrines linked to the village temples, which are connected to the major temples, which in turn are connected to the Mother temple. It is through this matrix system that each Balinese person has direct access on a daily basis to high spiritual presences that most westerners never encounter in their entire lifetime, and it is this tangible relationship with the gods that gives the Balinese their uniquely spiritual way of life.

You can see it in everything they do, from the way they eat (all food is offered to the gods before consuming it) to the way they sleep (they all sleep with their heads pointing in the direction of the sacred mountains). Through an endless procession of daily rituals and annual ceremonies, a constant devotional dialogue with the presences is maintained.

And it works. Even though they have few material possessions and many live at subsistence level, never knowing where their next meal is coming from, there is a joy that shines out of the hearts of Balinese people that can be seen in their eyes, their laughter and their smiles. This joy comes from the deep level of spiritual connection that every person has, from young to old, from peasant to prince.

Balinese children

Visiting Bali is like walking into a paradise where a highly developed spiritual way of life can be found right alongside all the western technologies and creature comforts of luxury hotels. There is no spiritual community on Earth that is so accessible or so welcoming to westerners than this.

I have spent the last 16 years there, learning how to access high levels of spiritual connection in my own life, and how to take this beyond Bali to the West. Even spending a short time in this remarkable culture is a totally revitalizing experience. It awakens a part of us that remembers how life can be.

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To balance my recent blog about litter in Bali here's a photo taken yesterday, showing a village road adorned with beautiful penjors. 

It's the women's job to make all the millions of daily offerings in Bali but once every 210 days, according to the Pawukon calendar, there is a huge island-wide ceremony spanning 10 days, from Galungan to Kuningan, and it is the men's job to make the penjors. They are placed along the roadside, outside every home and property on the island. Made of a bamboo pole lavishly decorated with coconut leaf ornaments, flowers, fruit and cloth decorations, the penjor is said to symbolize Bali's most sacred mountain, Mount Agung, and the decorations are an expression of the people's gratitude to the gods for agricultural blessings.

Something I've never read in any guide book or heard any Balinese person mention is the wonderful etheric cleansing effect of walking through such an arch. Although this knowledge seems to have been lost now, I'm sure it was known and understood at the time this ritual first began. Each person's etheric is swept clean as they walk to the temple with their offerings for the gods. Bali has a wealth of such practices, preserved in its vibrant spiritual traditions.

This photo was taken at a quiet time of day, late in the afternoon, but at this time of year all 3 million Balinese Hindus actively participate in a series of ceremonies, bringing all the island's temples to life. The roads are usually a hive of activity. And no, I didn't photoshop the road. Apart from whatever it is lying on the left hand side there (a fallen offering?), it really was free of litter!

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A question I am always asked by groups who come to Bali (usually on the next-to-last-day of the course, when they just can't contain themselves any longer) is why is there so much litter in Bali? The Balinese have such a natural feng shui ability when it comes to architecture and landscaping, so how is it they can comfortably live with litter all over the place, such as this little pile I saw beside the road on my morning walk today? -->

Well, first of all, the groups I bring to Bali see more litter than other groups because I take them to rural areas many other visitors never go to. If you stay in the main tourist areas, they make an effort to keep the streets clean. But in the villages (and in highly populated cities), it's true there is a problem.

One day when I was travelling around Bali with a Balinese driver, I asked him about this. As we were driving along, I asked, "What do you see?"

"I see trees,' he replied. "Banana trees and coconut trees."

"What else?"

"People, dogs, chickens, houses, cars, motor bikes, temples, goats, rice fields, mountains..."

The list continued as we travelled along but he never mentioned any of the litter strewn on either side of the road.

Finally I asked, "What do you see on the ground?"

He looked around and said, in his broken English, "I see pretty."

"Pretty?"

"Yes, pretty colours. Nice looking. More interesting than banana leaf."

I adjusted my stance from Western to Balinese and was suddenly able to see it as he did. We have a very astral way of looking. Our vision jars when we see objects we perceive as not belonging in a natural environment. But for the Balinese, who are much more etherically based, they see litter as pleasing to the eye, adding colour and variety of texture. Blissfully uneducated to the health risks of litter, they happily live with it, considering it an enhancement of the environment rather than an eyesore.

If you go back a few decades, there were no packaged goods, plastic bags or plastic bottles in Bali. They would wrap their food in a banana leaf to keep it fresh, eat it off the banana leaf with their fingers, and then throw the leaf over their shoulder, where it would easily biodegrade in a matter of weeks in the tropical humidity. But modern packaging and tourism has changed that a lot and the education they receive hasn't kept up-to-date.

Thankfully there are now some western people who have instigated 'clean up Bali' projects, such as the 'Say No To Plastic!' campaign that was launched last month in Ubud, a tourist area in the centre of the island. But in the villages, the problem continues, and in the highly urbanized areas, it's chronic. 

So this is the explanation I give to people who ask, and while I still don't condone the practice of littering, it does help to understand why they do it. In the hotel I built in Bali it was a constant battle for years to teach the staff to keep the gardens and pathways litter-free, because at heart they really didn't see the need. They still think of cleaning up litter as assuaging western neuroticism, bless 'em, but they do it because they like to keep us happy.

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Teaching workshops in Bali is always a very special experience for me because purification ceremonies are a complete way of life in this unique spiritual culture. The Balinese methods of Space Clearing are very different to the ceremony I've developed for western usage but the people all understand the concept, and they practice many of the same principles in their own way. This provides a very supportive environment for my classes.

This year I've created a new Spiritual Journey course, and I just finished teaching it for the first time. I've noticed over the years that the people who travel all the way to Bali to study with me are looking for a deeper level of engagement instead of offering a series of workshops and giving the option for people to take a day here and a day there, this time I made it into a 4-day experience where everyone would be on board from start to finish. It made such a difference that I think I'll make this the standard format from now on when I teach here.

It was a lovely group, consisting of 26 people - 6 from Australia, 6 from the US, 7 from Japan and the rest from Austria, Taiwan, the Philippines, Singapore, Sweden, South Africa and Slovenia. As one person commented, "I've rarely (if ever) met such an interesting group of people. Each seemed to have an interesting story or insight to share." Another person said, "There was a sweet and beautiful connection between the group of people and I will always feel connected to them."

Each morning began with meditation/connection practices before breakfast. The group's meditation experience ranged from none at all to 40 years, and it was challenging to structure it so that each person received from it what they needed but I feel it worked very well. Many people commented in their feedback that this had been a highpoint of the course for them.

Other highpoints were the mandala ceremony, the Balinese gong performance, the female temple singer (incredible voice!), the night practices, the trips to sacred sites, and the practicals of the workshops (learning how to do offerings, altar design, energy sensing, etc).

 
This happy photo was taken on the last day. The course was so successful I've decided to offer it again in early December 2007.

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This blog begins on the first morning of a 3-week visit to my home in Bali.

Space Clearing is a complete way of life here on this beautiful island, which has often been called the purification centre of the planet. I've learnt so many things in the 16 years I've lived here that wisdoms from Bali are liberally sprinkled throughout my workshops, books and articles, and no doubt will feature in this blog too.

Having spent a lot of time in Sydney this year, my etheric has had to make some adjustments to living in the West. I had forgotten just how etherically blissful it is here. I'm not exactly sure whether a part of my etheric shuts down when I'm in the West or a special part of my etheric activates when I'm here in Bali, but whatever it is, the contrast is remarkable.

For anyone reading this who is not sure what I mean by etheric, I'm talking about the subtle body of energy we all have that is sometimes referred to as ‘chi' or life force energy. At its most basic level, it's the part of us that feels energised at the beginning of the day and depleted and tired towards the end of the day. Medical science can't measure it but we can certainly feel it. I've spent many years of my life awakening and developing my etheric body so that it has its own know-how and intelligence. It's foundational to many of my space clearing skills.

So here in Bali, where the land is drenched in ethericity and just about everyone has a degree of etheric know-how, it's not surprising that it's possible to experience levels that are rarely felt in the West.

Take the sweet chirpings of early morning birdsong in my garden. A dawn chorus sounds wonderful anywhere in the world but here it has a special quality. I don't just experience it as sound; I also feel it in the outer layers of my etheric, like tiny kisses in my energy. Sometimes on a still morning like today, it's so quintessentially vibrant that I receive the sounds in my energy more like incandescent starbursts, bordering on orgasmic (yes, I'm still talking about birdsong).

What's so different about birdsong in Bali is that the whole island is presenced. The 20,000 public temples and millions of private shrines that are all maintained on a daily basis make it the most vibrant spiritual culture and sacred space I've found anywhere on Earth, and it's this that the birds express in their song. Being very sensitive, they feel the land energies rise up through their bodies, and the sounds that we hear are what spills joyfully out of their beaks. Imagine what it feels like to have so much high level energy passing through you that you make such sounds!

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