A Humble Introduction

James Redfields notion in The Celestine Prophecy about the non existence of coincidence is indeed a truth, and that kind of cosmic message was also the one guided my childhood in an old  Village, North Bali, Indonesia. The idea (the non-existence of coincidence) encouraged my quest to reveal meanings within most of life's details.

Whenever a tree comes into vision I contemplate that the tree is not only beautiful because of its green, but because it grows toward the light in gratitude. Gazing at a wide ocean generating comprehension that an ocean is not gentle merely by its blue, but also because it accepts anything comes without any resistance. Sunrise is not only warm but also inspires about life that supposed to progress from darkness to light. Smiling to the full moon is perhaps an awkward thing for common children, but I did it many times. It was later during the days of adulthood that I understand how full moon is an actually symbol of enlightenment. The case is about the same with star gazing. I was convinced that they are more than planets ornamenting the sky for I often heard that they symbolize the bright lights of the enlightened.

That was my childhood in Tajun village. Calm, peaceful, silence, enlightening. When I begun knowing how to read, I thought that the peacefulness of Bali is merely a result of tourism industrys effort in making it more marketable. Evidently, Balinese elders have plenty of teachings about peace they are trying to bequeath to the next generations. In a more comprehensible universal language, the teachings can be summarized as the following:

The ground: Rwa Bhineda (the all encompassing purity)

The path: Bhakti Yoga (the path of love and devotion)

The fruition: Parama Shanti (the ultimate peace)

Rwa Bhineda

Without any intention to judge different approaches are wrong, Balinese elders comprehend God in a quite unique way. While in many places God is positioned as the direct opponent of the devil, in Bali God and evil are not a pair of battling dichotomy. Dewa ya kala ya (the presence of both the divine and the evil aspects), is how Balinese elders explain the basic substance of humankind. In a more profound way, the philosophy of Rwa Bhineda synthesizes all dualities into one perfect unity. Similar to the duality of day and night. Day exists because of the presence of the night, and both have their own purpose. Daytime is for laboring and praying while nighttime is for resting. Losing one of them means loosing both.

This is perhaps the one that makes Balinese custom in the matter of offering is a bit unique. Whereas in many places offerings are served only for heavenly beings, Balinese elders provide foods to the inhabitants of all the low realms. This means an obvious admittance that saintliness is not the opposite of wickedness. The dwellers of the heavenly realms are not the enemies of those belong to the underworld. In Tantric language this is termed as the all encompassing purity.

With this kind of starting point, a wanderer may undertake a boundless, buoyant, and bright spiritual journey, particularly because it is not burdened with arguments and quarrels (devil God, mara - Buddha, unholy - holy, wrong - right, fail - success, rebuke - praise, etc.). In Tantric language, all are Buddhas. For the Sufis, all are Gods. Heed the message of Tulku Urgyen Rinpoche in Vajra Speech: Someone who has pacified and purified the obstructing force of ego-fixation enjoys the elixir of Vajrayana teachings.

Bhakti Yoga

With the foundation of the all encompassing purity, Balinese elders teach to do everything (praying, working, dancing, crafting, maintaining household) with the spirit of devotion (bhakti). Therefore some fellows in the West translate Bhakti Yoga as the path of love and devotion.

There is no need to worry about understanding in the initial steps, no need to discriminate right - wrong, and there is also no need to determine the direction of the journey. The significant matter is to do everything with devotion. Therefore, if the Balinese people are asked about the meaning of their offerings, more then half will admit that they do not know. Even so, still they perform it with an amazing spirit of devotion.

There are numerous sequences of rituals in Bali. There are a lot of ceremonies related to humans life since the birth until the death of a person. There are also great numbers of rituals related to the buta, ancestors, gods, until the unimaginable beings, all are so many. However, there is one thing impossible be bargained in all of them that is to conduct the ritual with the spirit of devotion.

Perhaps that is the reason why there are so many Balinese find happiness by performing rituals. Borrowing the opinion of many writers, happiness is the journey. There are certainly result, output, and destination, yet, in the spirit of love and devotion, the journey itself is also the destination.

Parama Shanti

As how will be discussed more elaborately in the following contemplations, there are many activities (ceremonies, speaking, praying, greeting) performed by Balinese people in order to gain peacefulness.

A ceremony is concluded with Parama Shanti (the ultimate peace) by pronouncing the word shanti three times before the participants leave the site. A ritual is arranged so that it is started with emptiness (as a symbol of the ultimate peace) and also concluded with emptiness. The end of every conversation is also marked by uttering the word shanti three times.

This manner presents a vivid inspiration that, whatever happens in life, whatever conducted in life, always maintain a peaceful heart in performing all activities. Perhaps that is why Balinese elders refer to God as Hyang Embang (The Ultimate Silence), and celebrate every coming of the new year with Nyepi (the silence day) when people stop doing most of worldly routines (speaking, working, praying, etc.). While the absolute aspect of Embang is silence, since emptiness provides space to all to grow, then the relative aspect is compassion.

A Triggering Conclusion

With this kind of objects to be contemplated, actually Balinese elders bequeath abundant spiritual legacies. One among the heritages worth to be deeply comprehended is that Balinese people ritual (Panca Sembah) is started with emptiness and also concluded with emptiness. This certainly presents a clear illustration that everything starts from emptiness and ended with emptiness. And it is definitely not an emptiness which is without meaning. Since the path taken is Bhakti Yoga, thus emptiness here is the one which is embraced with compassion. In the perspective of a Tantra master, it is that: the true shunyata is karuna (the true emptiness is compassion).