Ever since I arrived to Bali I was struck by the way they walk. It is a bit of a generalization to say "they", but it is pretty common amongst them all. So I have watched and watched and tried to figure it out….to no avail. I thought that maybe it is because the women carry offerings balanced on their heads, so maybe that is the reason they seem to walk so tall and proud. So I tried to carry offerings on my head in order to sense what is different. I could feel how it demanded of me to keep my attention above my head, as if there were strings connecting me like a marionette to the puppeteers hand above me. But it was not that, because the men also walk in that way, and the children, and they are not carrying offerings on their heads.
Then I thought that maybe it was because they are praying in ceremonies all the time and being blessed with holy water on the top of their head, where the crown chakra is, and maybe because that is "open" it influences the way they walk, as if weightless, even if they are carrying a bucket of water or a 25 kilo sack of rice on their head and walking a few kilometers.
The resort has a dirt path in front of it, which many devotees walk past as they come from the village to the temple next door. The wall separating the path and the resort is at the exact height of most of the people, so often when we are sitting and having a meal; it looks as if an offering or a bundle of long grasses for the cow are just floating above the wall, since we don't see the persons' body because of the wall. Even when big Auntie comes each day at dusk with her incense sticks and tray of flower offerings, she looks as if she is gliding along at a perfectly calm rhythmic and even pace. She comes along the path, enters the gate, goes to the back inner temple, and comes round to the main bale, and then out again through the gate to place offerings along the wall and path too. There are no sudden movements, there are no rushing or itching or swatting mosquitoes or an ant away, or anything…just a kind of flow of an inner peace and simplicity.
When I too began to walk that same path twice a day placing the offerings, I thought I would magically begin to walk like them, if I was holding a tray of flower offerings in my left hand at shoulder level. But day after day I sense how my movements have nothing to do with theirs. We are walking the same path and doing the same thing, but with a totally different presence. One of the guests mentioned to me that when I walk my glance is downwards, and why not lift up my head. And so I tried to observe that, and see what is behind these two gestures. I saw that I was quite concerned about where I was stepping all the time; not wanting to slip on wet pavement, or twist my foot on the stones on the beach, or step on a frog, or in a puddle, so I was looking downwards. As I began to raise my head I saw that it was possible to also be cautious and also to keep my head straight and that it certainly makes a difference of one's view of the world and thoughts, if your head is looking upwards or downwards.
But again, what I had sensed with the Balinese seemed miles apart from how I sensed myself. What could it be? How does that old fishermen's silhouette at dawn out at sea on his boat, exhume such strength and power and presence? How does that little two year old boy sitting cross legged on the table eating his dinner with his perfectly straight back and quiet inner peace, learn to be in his body like this? How do their efforts seem so effortless and in a flow whether they are doing something delicate or strenuous, whether squatted and cutting the grass with big shears, or walking along the narrow rim of the fishing boat as it rocks on the waves and they walk from one end to the other, without losing their balance or a beat?
I had a conversation with one Balinese that shared an enlightening thought; that if they are pressured by a coach or overbearing boss or criticism and being judged, the result can never be positive, good. Only if they are working from their heart, happy and at their pace, can their work bring the best results.
I continued watching them every day; the gardener, the massagist, the chef, the housecleaning staff, the driver, the waterman, the priests, the children, the fishermen, the teachers, the garbage collectors, the dancers, the musicians, the old, the young, the rich, the poor, the pregnant, going to work, coming from work, going to the temple, returning, and other than for a few exceptional circumstances, it all just flowed in a peaceful measured posture.
Then this morning I was in an introspective mood, just being, looking out into space, empty inside, just being. Suddenly the answer appeared before my very eyes! I was looking at the 30 year old housecleaner as he walked from the kitchen along the path to a room, and suddenly I realized that he was walking from his heart! His whole stance was centered there. Not in his head, not in his limbs, not in his shoulders, not in his neck, but from his heart. And he just walked. A moment later the gardener walked along the same path, and I continued to sense a glow from his heart too, as he just walked, tall, straight, quietly, unrushed, from his heart. Just walked. He wasn't "already" in his next task, he wasn't in his head figuring out things, and he just walked from his heart.
I had studied different types of movements and dancing, in my lifetime of almost 60 years. I like movement, I like to sense my body and to be in my body, whether doing sacred dancing, or belly dancing, or hoola hooping, or tai chi. I remembered that when I was studying eurythmics, a type of movement developed by Rudolph Steiner for the harmonious development of man, the center of gravity was meant to be in our chest….that was where we were being led from. I remember the first time I felt that, what a difference it makes to do the same movement in space from there, rather than from my stomach, or shoulders. So today, when I suddenly "saw" a glow from their hearts and realized the secret of their movements, I had to laugh, how we had to be taught to move from this place, while the Balinese do it naturally.
It is just another puzzle piece in this mystery of life here in Bali that keeps pointing to a culture of people that are very present and apparently content in the now, with their bare necessities, and their constant laugh and smile, in spite of what appears to be happening on the outside. While sharing this thought with a new guest here, he told me that on the way to the resort he witnessed a small accident between two motorbikes that collided, and as each driver got off the bike to deal with the situation, they both looked at their bikes, smiled, that there was no real damage, smiled at each other, and got back on them and continued along their way. It seems to work from the inside out too….that if you are coming from an open heart, as you walk in the world, things are peaceful and full of love and giving. There is an awareness of something greater that fills the heart and that makes "success" and "material things" shallow compared to an inner richness and space that is their center of gravity, and the place from which they walk in their life.
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