once we had all arrived at the sea for the cleansing ceremony, everyone just kind of schmoozed around, having something to drink or eat until things were organized and the actual ceremony would begin (with over a 1000 people, not a simple task). ketut invited me for a cup of water, while others were buying all kinds of homemade soups and rice meals cooked on the spot and served in plastic bowls that were later rinsed in a bucket of water one after the other...typical asian dish washing practice, recycling!
i noticed that the little temple next to my resort, which happened to be the center for this celebration, had the gate opened and i decided to take the opportunity that i am in temple clothing and the gate is open, to enter inside and get a close up view and feel of the small place that radiates female energy whenever i go past it everyday. but how to get to it, since the grounds in front of it were covered from side to side and front to back with some 200 people sitting on their tongs next to each other like sardines...hmmm...what an opportunity but how to do it?
so i stood there for a moment thinking how i would maneuver myself, when suddenly i noticed there were some balinese women with offerings on their heads doing exactly that, so i can just follow their bee line?! i thought....and was wrong...when i saw them doing it, it looked so simple, so quick, so flowing, so natural, and then suddenly i found myself feeling like the jolly green giant stomping on all of these delicate balinese men women children and infants, with not the slightest idea of where to place my foot as it hung in the air, balancing myself on the one that i did manage to put down somewhere, but what now??! constantly turning around to apologize for kicking someone, or stepping on someones sarong, or bumping someones shoulder, and not a soul budged for me! they just continued to sit still....
i managed to reach the little gate, take a quick look around, saw that there was actually a hidden well that had been uncovered and revealed in honor of the ceremony and from where they took the sacred water for the cleansing...nice surprise...and then decided to go back out and listen to the gamelons...
so, hmm...back through them all, but how?? ugh,,,with barely enough width to place my big foot between the rows and rows of people that now had their backs to me, so they didn't even know i was trying to get through! clomped my way through them and decided not to do that again! i went to sit in a more open space near the gamelon band. just as i placed my tongs on the ground and sat down near a little bamboo fence on my own, i heard someone call my name, and it was mitha, the 13 year old that i tutor in english! i laughed again at the synchronicity of it all....how in the world, among over 1000 people, did i end up sitting right on the other side of the divider next to her and her sister, who later shared their flowers so that i could go through the hindu prayer motions of clasped hands on the third eye or above the head, each time with a different color of flower...and me changing the words to suit my own prayer, which i am certain had the same meaning as theirs.
as i sat there for the cleansing ceremony, listening to the gamelons, tons of people were passing me and it turned out i had sat down quite close to the entrance of an unofficial urinal....and what was fascinating was to watch how all these balinese made their way through all of us seated devotees, so simply! and suddenly i realized what they were doing, that i had never given much value to until now; as they stepped from row to row in between the people they bent at the waist slightly and placed their right hand at an angle in front of them close to their thigh, as if they were "slicing through" the crowds....amazing!! this gesture of humbleness towards those seated, along with a very clear intention of their outstretched hand had a kind of invisible energy to it that just parted a path for them, regardless of whether they were in front or behind the seated people...no need for "excuse me"'s or tapping people on the shoulder to make room, or apologizing ...just that same invisible ego that makes them invisible but full of strength and intention. what a nice lesson. and i realize that without having gone through the opposite experience, i would not have had the inner need to recognize and appreciate the power that rests in their way of doing it.
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