hiking to the waterfall

When we arrived at the small four car parking lot of the waterfall, we gathered in a circle and were given an exercise of walking up to the waterfall in silence and connecting with our heart chakra or with our star point (a point above our heads). All 20 of us started up the gently winding narrow path to the waterfall. There was running water in a narrow canal along the path, gurgling and swirling along, sometimes on our right and sometimes on our left. As soon as I tried to feel what it means to walk while I am in my heart chakra I was shocked. What had been beautiful nature until that moment suddenly became magnified beauty of the tip of a leaf, the center of a flower, the shape of a mango, the sunshine on a leaf, a branch bending, a vine twisting. Each object became erotic, sensuous, and brilliant in its color and even more 3 dimensional. I suddenly understood that this is the place that I take my photographs of nature. But I had never realized that the nature apparently opens up my heart chakra which enables me to suddenly see things with different eyes… The eyes of my heart.

Now I was curious what it meant to continue to walk while connecting with my star point, way above my head. Another shock. Suddenly instead of being the observer observing the magnificence of Mother Nature, I was nature! Instead of looking at nature, I was inside it. The immediate surroundings suddenly enveloped me into them and expanded to include quite a large circumference of trees, plants, walls, sky, earth….everything became one, I became the foaming water rushing through the canal. My body could become the sap of the tree along with the tree trunk. There was no longer any separation of me and nature. Ilona had described the star point as a place where there is no longer duality, but that was just words to me…and now when I was inside nature, and at one with it, I suddenly understood her words. .

The rest of the half hour walk up to the waterfall was a succession of experiences of going between the open heart chakra, and the star point and marveling at them both, and also taking "breathers" to just be lazy and be walking "like always"…unconsciously, even though I always thought it was conscious. I now understood that this is the place where artists and poets create from. I wondered if this was truly an option of living your life constantly from here and that it is just a matter of training the attention. In any case it made for a very special walk through this slice of Balinese nature.

Other than the lush greenery of trees and plants and flowers, there were a handful of little huts or bamboo shacks here and there at the end of little stone paths. Along the winding path were small old altars, nestled in nature. At one point there were two strong young men shoveling earth in order to level out a terrace to plant banana plants or some other fruit giving plant. There was something about the way one was shoveling that made me stop to watch him. Each time he would gently push the shovel along the earth in order to lift up a quantity and then gracefully threw it over his right shoulder about 3 meters behind him to a higher terrace, as his body and eyes followed the earth and stones as they landed. Once they landed "in place" he turned around and lifted up another shovelful of earth gently, with no sign of effort. As I watched him swerve his body along with the movement of the shovel over his shoulder it seemed like he was using his presence to be with the earth and stones and energetically place them exactly where he wanted them to be on the higher terrace, filling in the area that had been designated with stones. By doing so he also created a gentle rhythm of shoveling...nowhere to go, nothing to do…just to be at one with what he was doing. It caught my eye since I had noticed that I had been stubbing my right toe day after day. Usually being quite connected with my body I was surprised to see that my intuitive sense of distances and heights of steps had gone off sync. I wondered why, and when I did a slow reverse of my actions I saw that each time it happened I had been in the future; checking something out; if the mattress I am going to sit down on has been cleaned today, if there is room at the table for me, if if….so instead of just being in the moment with the step I was taking, I was doubting the perfection of the next moment.

Together with this observation I noticed that whenever I spoke with any of the Balinese, they would stop what they were doing and just listen to me, or answer me, without multi tasking. They seem to just be in the present. Their brains are not geared anywhere in the future. There is nowhere to go, nothing to do, so their movements are slow and measured and kind of in a flow with nature. No rushing, no hurrying, no sudden or surprise movements….just slow, now now now…whatever that may be.

The next now moment was when I noticed a man was standing on the two poles of the top of his bamboo ladder, past the last rungs, and was tying a rope onto the trunk of the papaya tree that had grown a very tall and thick trunk on the steep slope of the mountain below his house. There he was, with his little bamboo ladder leaned against the papaya tree throwing the rope to a family member by the house, so that he would tie that end onto something solid so that the man on the ladder could chop down the top of the tree, I guess so that his little bamboo ladder would then be tall enough to pick the papayas, instead of them being up so high! After it was tied, he took his big rounded knife that had been in his hand all this time, made a few deep chops at an angle on his side of the trunk, lowered himself down the ladder a bit, and then quietly called to the other person to pull, and within a second, the tall papaya tree had been felled, with a minimum of to do. The wood would be used for cooking the food, and that was that.

The next image that caught my eye was an old woman lying on a white plastic sack on the ground underneath the trees, with her head leaning against a huge flat rock that was at a 30 degree angle, and was a perfect "pillow" to sleep on. I stood and looked at her, there in the middle of the forest, asleep, and wondered if she may even be dead, and if anyone would know, or find her….her thin frail body, alone, on the rock. On my way back down from the waterfall she was no longer there, but in her place, was an old man, also asleep…so I realized this must be a "known" spot for a midday rest, with that inviting pillow rock, and cool shade underneath the tall trees. And further on I passed a woman holding about 10 big bamboo poles tied in a bundle on her head, barefoot, and realized this was the old woman from the forest, with her red t-shirt on her way home or whatever.

As I was making my way up the path to the waterfall I could hear the music of a bamboo chime. A tune was being played out. My first thoughts were that when I get to the waterfall it is going to be a big tourist trap, selling all kinds of souvenirs, including the bamboo chime that is being played so beautifully, in order to get the tourists to buy it. But as the music rang out in the forest I came closer to it and saw that it was coming from a small tin roofed, open square cement platform with 3 sides having walls made of a piece of material in order to have some privacy. As a young woman and small boy left the path I was on and walked into the forest I could see this was their home, and the father was the one playing the lovely Balinese repetitive music. Again, I just stood there, enjoying the wonderful breeze that blew through this little opening in the forest, making it the perfect place to build your hut. At least for me! The young father continued to play the never-ending melody again and again. And I wondered if it actually is a kind of meditative practice to be able to play it again and again without ever stopping or making a mistake.

Passing more altars I finally came to the waterfall, with its own sacred altar spot and the beautiful strong powerful water crashing down from high above, with greenery on all sides of the high narrow cliff. Three of the people from my group were in various positions in the pool of cool rain water that was pounding down on them from above. I looked at the little temple and regretted that I hadn't thought to bring a sarong and sash and offering here. So I just stood for a moment, respecting the sacredness of the place, and then walked closer to the waterfall and felt the mist. After debating in my head whether or not to try and keep my balance on the stones in the water leading to the waterfall I decided to be very careful and chance it. I had just seen how a lovely woman had followed a path through the mud and rocks and it seemed a little more feasible. I am usually not one to be afraid, but with repeated incidents of being impulsive and thinking I am 24 when I am 59, and then hurting myself on adventure treks, I decided to pace myself very slow, and also to ask one of the men that had been in the waterfall and was now making his way back, if he would just sit nearby so if I needed help I could ask him.. And yes, I made it there and back without slipping, and even had a few moments underneath the strong force of water from the falls, which was lovely.

When I returned to my place by the little temple, I was surprised to see two young 20 year old boys, giving offerings there with incense and a small flower offering. Afterwards they went and sat on a rock, as if waiting for all of us tourists to finish our fun there. I wanted to understand their intentions so I walked over to them in order to ask them if they speak English. Barefoot, I had another 2 steps to go, and one of them suddenly pointed to the thin tree branch that was right where I was about to place my foot. I knew it was there, but had no regard for it and thought I would just step on it. When they pointed it out I was surprised, since they so rarely interfere with what people are doing. So I side stepped it. I asked them if they speak English, but they said no, so I returned to sit on a stone at a distance and pondered what had just happened. I wondered if they were concerned about my foot being hurt from the branch, or the branch being hurt from my foot! I tried to translate it into western terms. I thought that maybe it was like us seeing a cat sitting on the floor and someone is about to step on it, oblivious to the fact that it is alive and may hurt them, and why step on something? Yeah…why? Laziness? Rushing? Ahead of myself wanting to ask them if they speak English instead of just "walking" over to them?

After we had all been in the water and were gathered in a closing circle together, they entered the waterfall alone, for a few minutes, and then left back down the slope on their motorbike. Just wanted to cool off at the falls probably, and would never think of doing that without first offering thanks to God for the falls. It touched me deeply to realize that they do not take without first asking and giving thanks. Nothing is taken for granted.

We ended our visit at the fall by holding hands in a circle. We began by singing OM in an "OM blanket" where each person sang at his own pitch for however long he wanted until we all became one and ended in silence. Then we blessed the water, all water all over the world, along with blessing the water inside of us too, and praying that it all be clean and healing and no longer polluted.

As we walked back down to return home, the man who had been cutting the papaya tree, was now carrying an entire stem of bananas on his shoulder up the mountain; food for his family. And further down the path, just as I was wondering whether I was alone and had enough privacy to try and put my bra on without anyone coming along the path after having taken off my bathing suit, I suddenly see a man, standing in the canal, up to his knees, from the back, naked, washing his pants…and chuckled to myself how ridiculous I was to be concerned about that, since here he is, sure he is invisible now as he washes his clothes naked in the water. So simple.

This was Les….such a very special place, so quiet, no rubbish anywhere, nothing touristy , just a quiet tribute to mother nature in the north of bail with a small old wooden sign in the shape of an arrow with a nail in it on a tree trunk and someone printed the words: water fal (with one "l" )

The feeling at the end of the time in nature with the glimpses into the life of these villagers was that they truly are keepers of the earth…they have no other agenda. Enough shelter and food and water, maybe a cow, and gently caring for their surroundings, in peace and with a smile on their faces.