Songs of the Soul

A young Balinese deeply touched the hearts when asking: “what happens with the Balinese?”. On the island itself there are some people who are no longer feel at home (in some cases, even after became a corpse one was still harmed). Outside  Bali - remember the story of Balinuraga village in Lampung Indonesia in 2012 and early 2013 touching events in Sumbawa Indonesia - Balinese was pursued, expelled, some fled to the forest out of fear, and some even died because of others attack. With tears drop, the young man asked, where then the Balinese should take shelter?

Suffering is Softening

Religious historian Karen Armstrong researched the human search for God for four thousand years, and wrote up the results in the book titled History of the God. In the first golden age - in which the human heart is still clean crisp - a holy person conversing directly with God. Abraham and Moses, Arjune in Hinduism are all in direct dialogue with God. But in this age (axial age) all saints are softened by suffering.

Mahatma Gandhi was shot, Jesus Christ was crucified, Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, Nelson Mandela was imprisoned for 27 years, His Holiness the Dalai Lama lost Tibet when he was still a teenager, Thich Nhat Hanh been expelled from Vietnam. That's why, when Prince Siddhartha firstly went out of the palace, the secret teacher gave the first and the most important lesson: "dukkha" (suffering). So back to the story of sadness that has engulfed many Balinese, suffering is not a punishment from God, nor the temptation of Satan, but sandpaper that softening the heart. As was taught by many realized Teachers of the past,  all spiritual awakening is preceded by the dark nights of the soul. And the main sign in the dark night of the soul is suffering.

Similar to lifting heavy weights at the gym, the muscles of the body will be stronger and healthier. Similar thing happen to mental muscles. Suffering that is experienced by sincere and diligent heart strengthens mental muscles later. A meditation student once asked the relationship between the depth of meditation and karma. In the story of a lot of people who are diligent on the path of meditation, meditation made bad karma come when we are ready. At a deeper level, even when one committed  a lot of murder ( for example Angulimala, one of the direct disciple of Lord Buddha), deep meditation that is combined with the blessing of Guru made Angulimala just was stoned. In the deepest level (for example the most admired yogi of Tibet Jetsun Milarepa), deep meditation practice that met Guru's blessings made even mistakes of killing many people could be purified. More than purified, the enlightened Milarepa attained great spiritual realization. Through these stories look bright, suffering - in the hands of a diligent, sincere disciples - is beautifully transformed into an awakening path. This happens because meditation make mind wider and wider. Till one day, when one attained enlightenment mind can be as wide as space. This space like mind could accommodate all kind of karma. As a result of it, karma has no effect at all. This is what many deep meditation practitioners called as “boundless capacity to suffer”. In the context of suffering, suffering helps much in widening the mind. Especially because suffering  - when it is experienced as opportunity to repay karmic debt -  increase one’s capacity to be more tolerance. Above all, suffering makes one misses deep spirituality and blessing of the Guru as well. In the stories of great people like Mother Teresa , Nelson Mandela and HH Dalai Lama, suffering is more than just softening, suffering made the enlightened heart even blossoming.

Well-Nourished Soul

In the soul that has been well-nourished by suffering, then life shows a different face. Working as an example, for the soul is undernourished (full of complain, protest, never satisfied) life is a series of dull compulsion. In the experience of some people work even made them sick and diseased. For the well-nourished soul (who is sincere, diligent, full of gratitude), work is the immanent God which is being transformed into  immanent God. Farmers cultivate and process land (God) into fruits (God). Merchants distribute fruits (God) to consumers (God). When done in the spirit of happiness - because happiness is the best form of worship - work  is one of the best kind of devotion.

In the deep cultivation of meditation like this, one  is able to listen a beautiful message like this: "Similar to flower, the language of the enlightened so touching, because language is the fragrance of soul". The language of enlightened beings is so touching (smooth, polite, lovely) because language is a fragrance that is sprinkled from the depths of soul.

Balinese elders was also cautiously in using language. Especially because language of media, leaders, parents (their role model, their body language, the word choice, conformance with the place and time), co-create life. So when there was a teenager in Bali who is so concerned with the sadness of Balinese and then became angry, the inner teacher whispering: "hold the opinion loosely". Particularly because the most dangerous seed of violence is not derived from religious and racial differences, but because a person is being gripped by his/her own opinion. Thus loosening grip of opinion is an important task in this day and age. The suggestion, no matter what job someone is done just be a compassionate witness. Like a message in guided meditation: “thoughts and feelings may appear and disappear in any form, right-wrong, happy-sad, good-bad, the  task of meditation is only one witness, witness, witness”. Once one is able to loose themselves from the grip of opinion, then it is possible  to give a gift of understanding to others.

Understand that the bad guys do not stand alone. There are parents who are still growing, there are schools that have not been arranged well, there are leaders who are stingy of providing role models, there are media reports of violence and hostility, there are tempting advertisements and other  toxic environment, all of which makes them so darkening. In the depth of understanding is visible, most bad guys are the "victim", not an actor. There is no bad guy who intended himself to be evil. For example, in an in-depth studies of the fundamentalists in many countries shows, fundamentalists assumed that they would be attacked. This is the result of the environment which is too competitive. Deeply learn from this finding, being angry to the attackers only justify their assumption that they will actually be attacked. As a result, then life would end up like fire extinguished by dry grass.

The most important lesson that emerged from here, understanding, compassion, friendship is what heals both the attacker and the attacked. With understanding, compassion, friendship we come to nourish the soul of society as well. Together in the end we sing the soul songs. Answering the touching questions on the very beginning of this paper about the soul shelter, through this way people are sheltering in the light that lies within the heart. As realized by many awakened masters of the past, under the light of the heart suffering is nothing just a soul singing of returning back home.