dewa

dewa is a "driver" here in ubud...that means that he stands outside hotels or restaurants and hopes that someone will need a ride, and tthat way he can earn some money,.,, a friend from the sacred circularities hoola hoop retreat last year met him as she walked out of a restaurant, and since then he has become the "favored driver:" for many of us...since she is such a friendly and interesting swiss woman she started up a conversation with him and it turned out that he just drives in order to help support himself and his parents that live together in ubud, but he is actually an artist; painter and sculptor...last year we went to the famous monkey forest with him so he could show us these huge dragons that he had carved from cement, which is a popular way of carving here in bali.

this time when we returned for our second sacred circularities hoola hoop workshop dewa was our driver again for excursions and airport transport and was also invited to hoop with us one night and to the tribal arts fair that we had one afternoon. he brought a smallish (60 x 60) canvas that was painted in shades of blues with an OM written in sanscrit in the middle.it was very beautiful...it turns out that he is part of an ashram and has been painting pictures of buddhas and other hindu gods and symbols and meditative images for the past couple of years.

we went to see his studio the other day. he is very humble and quiet and very nice. he is usually painting on canvases the size of a door and said that black and white are the preferred tones for sacred paintings but gold/bronze shade can also be added and he is experimenting with that lately, after having gone through a red period also...the huge meditative heads of buddha were beautiful. after seeing the studio we went up another flight of stairs to see his temple area and meditation room. as we looked out from the little porch he pointed out the soccer field next door where some men were putting things back into place after having used it for a cremation the other day.there were rice fields scattered below us, and the complex arrangement of all the family compounds back to back, and together with that, when you are in a family compound, like i am at the moment, it is as if nothing else exists...a world unto itself with many many small buildings some for family temple altars, some for sleeping, a communal kitchen, a bathroom, and interspersed among all the close buildings facing in all directions are lovely gardens with orchids and palm trees and tons of blossoming bushes and trees...so lovely and interesting.

to get to dewas place we had parked the car on a main road, and walked along a very narrow cement path with water rushing alongside in a canal, winding its way past all the little closed gate entryways until we reached his, and then you walk through the archway and you are in a whole other world that you didn't even know existed from the main road...that is bali...layers and layers of life inside, under around, together,

after we saw his lingum/yoni altar that he built for his meditation practice, with dragons on the sides, and all white in a tiny room, we then left for his ashram. my friend felt that it is only proper to get to know the entire person, and not just use him for transporting us, but also to see his studio and ashram. she had also asked him if he knows how indigo dye is made, and he said they have indigo flowers growing at the ashram! it was a half hour drive until we reached a small entrance with a little sign saying ashram. there he showed us around the place, where they teach yoga, have kids activities, organic gardens with rice, basil and many other spices and flowers. but no indigo,,,he had been mistaken...

again, as you walk through the gateway, you have no idea that you will be walking on and on thru so many caves and temples and rooms and streams and meditation huts.

the 4 of us were led through the temple area by dewa, as he explained how they pray each evening. he taught us the song and dance they sing as they first cleanse themselves in the spring water before entering the temple area. we could see all of the artistic carvings and paintings he has done for the temple along with other members. as we walked around the temple praying to the nandini cow statue, and then to durga and then to ganesha inside a cave, he explained the symbolism of each of the images. ganesha being the symbol of wisdom and so when he bends down on the ground and kisses the feet of the elephant sculpture it is in order to show humility, a lowering of the ego, before wisdom. hiding behind ganeshas right leg was the image of a big rat! me and my rats! when i asked him what that was, he said that it represents "doubt" which is like a rat that peeks in and scuttles around when no one is looking but you can see it sometimes coming or leaving. later we arrived at the images of guru which were placed in 4 directions symbolizing the need to disseminate the teachings of enlightenment to the whole world now...

i found it very interesting because it contains all the same elements as the kabbalah that i study.. so it doesn't really matter if i am visiting his ashram, or at a mayan calendar reading describing the role of the "world bridgers" or the "solar dragons" ...they are all speaking about the present need for everyone to connect to the higher worlds and the need for us all to awake to our higher purpose of unity and love.

i shared these thoughts with dewa. he had never heard of the kabbalah.but it was a good feeling to know that we are all striving for the same goal. i told him about the book Mount Analogue by rene dumal, and how there are many paths to the Truth, and that the important thing is that we are all walking it in the way that rings true for us.

our visit, which we thought would be an hour or two turned into a much longer trip and my friend suddenly said that we have to leave now. i was so impressed how laid back everyone was until now..no one rushed anyone, or tried to speed things up we wandered along through the studio and ashram...and i just went along wtih them all...and suddenly it was almost sunset and we had to go and just as we were about to exit the ashram we passed by a woman collecting the seeds from the basil plants. dewa introduced here as the gardener, and my friend who had been searching bali in hopes of discovering the secret ingredients for indigo dye, asked the woman if maybe she knew how it is made. and the woman laughed and said she just finished planting tons of seeds to sprout indigo plants for the ashram. my friend wanted them for her friend who is in senegal and trying to get hold of the dye for indigo. we laughed about the synchronicity of it all, on her last day in bali, as she suddenly announced that we must go back home now, and that is how we met the woman that could give her the indigo seeds, catching her just as she was walking out of the ashram....that is typical here in bali...all the time...numerous stories like that.