Bali My Love

It is still clear in our memory that 14 years ago, to put it more precisely on October 12th 2002, a terrorist bomb exploded for the first time in Bali. It happened one year after the most frightening terrorist bombing in this century occurred in the US. As clearly recorded in history, the twin towers of WTC in New York were attacked by terrorist aircraft's on September 11th 2001. If you notice the details, from the date of 11th to the date of 12th, from the month of September to October, from the year of 2001 to 2002.

Well-known psychologist Carl G. Jung concluded things like this have a great synchronicity (meaningful coincidence). It has been noted by the light of history, that the terrorist attack in the US were followed by firing countless bullets in Iraq and Afghanistan (in particular). It has been beautifully recorded in history, in Bali, there was not even a single small stone thrown to the house of non Balinese people.

Years after this terrifying event occurred, the result is much different. The violence that was created by the Americans soldiers in Iraq and Afghanistan gave birth to a new more frightening violence, namely ISIS, which attacked not only some other places, but also triggered a massive and very sad need for migration in some countries.

Bali was also deeply wounded by the terrorist attack. The Balinese also suffered for years afterwards with reduced numbers of tourists coming to Bali. Surprisingly, a few years later Bali was repeatedly awarded as 'the best tourist destination in the world' by world media. Years later an American lady searched for spiritual answers world wide. As has been well publicized through the best-selling book and popular movie titled "eat, pray, love", the findings of this American lady was very clear: the tasty food was found in Italy, the beautiful prayer was heard in India. But the touching love was found in the island of Bali.

After the intensive publications of the book and movie, Bali began to be known world wide as the island of love. Most deep spiritual seekers in Bali understand that the seeds of love actually have been planted for thousands of years by Balinese elders. Just as an example, while people elsewhere treat the lower creations as the devil, some even call them the enemy of God, in Bali people provide food for them. It is called a segehan. Balinese elders created houses for them. It is called penunggun karang.

It does not mean that the Balinese people worship the devil. Again it is not. But it is the perfect expression of unconditional love. To be frank, it is easy to worship the light. But only the brightest souls can see darkness as an evolving light. For that reason, the Balinese elder call the human soul a dewa ya kala ya. To put it simple, there is both darkness and light in human soul. Similar to full moon, both the dark part and the bright part are the same full moon.

As written extensively in many holy books, before the ninth Avatara (reincarnation of God according to Hindus scriptures) namely Lord Buddha experienced perfect enlightenment, he was totally attacked by the demon Mara. A spiritual friend who was a professor in Oxford University beautifully concluded the final seconds of Lord Buddha's enlightenment like this: "in the moment when Prince Siddharta embraced the demon Mara as part of himself, from that moment he was no longer Prince Siddharta, he was a Buddha" ,

The spiritual lesson is simple, as the flowing of night and day, darkness and light keep flowing inside. And in the time when someone can embrace both darkness and light inside using the same smile of mindfulness, by then there's a beautiful sun of silence rising within. Of course it is not the ordinary silence, but a silence that gave birth to a beautiful baby called unconditional love.

That is also the reason why Bali is the only island in the world which celebrate the new year with silence day. On the day of Nyepi (silence day), souls are invited to rediscover their true home called silence. In the language of Balinese elders, the true home is described as a pair of birds wings. The left wing is nyepi lan ngewindu (perfect silence), and the right wing is urip lan nguripi (to live entirely for the sake of the others, it is the other name of unconditional love).

And it still exists until today in the old villages in Bali like Pedawa in North Bali, the Balinese elders call God a Hyang Embang (the Supreme Silence). Like space which provides a place to anything and anyone to grow, the same thing happens to perfect silence. In the inner depths of Nyepi, there is nothing remains except the sincere willingness to share unconditional love. Frankly speaking, this is the true spirit that guarded the island of Bali on October 12th 2002. This is also the spirit that makes the world call Bali the island of love.

Author: Gede Prama.

Photo Courtesy: eatwelltraveloften.com.au

Proofread By: Kirsty Spence.