putu told me yesterday that tonight is "full moon", which means that we get to put lacey looking offerings made from the light yellow palm leaves instead of the usual triangular green banana leaves. and we get to wear our temple clothes when we make the offering. and i also choose the more expensive sweet lotus incense for full moon offerings too. i told her i would need palm leaves in order to make the little offerings, but she suggested she just buy them for me at the market, ready made, 10 for $1 since it is easier. i agreed. but yesterday evening when i was preparing the daily offerings i realized i needed more than i had bought and so i went out into the garden to pick some banana leaf and flowers and make a few more besides the ones i had bought. until now i had usually made them myself each day at the previous resort, with the abundance of flowers that were there and the kind gardener that always made me a bundle of banana leaves. but since i arrived this time at my own house, and there weren't many flowers around, it seemed easier to just buy them ready made by one of the neighbor women.
as i added another 4 of my own to the large silver tray of offerings, i saw how much i loved making them, how creative it was, and how my heart went into each of them, unlike the ready made ones that i just took out of the plastic bag and placed on the tray. i realized that if i am already giving offerings to god every evening, i would like to also have that deeper intention embedded in the offering that i myself have prepared, and i was grateful to have recognized the difference it makes for me.
the whole ritual can take even an hour or more, since i shower,get dressed, pick the leaves and flowers, prepare them, and then go to each place that is important for me to make a blessing. it had started with one on the table, one on the well, one in front of the house, and on the big tree, and the temple, and from those 5 it has turned into 10 over the past 3 days! each time someone tells me of another place that it is important to place an offering, and when i try it, i see they are right. so when putu said it is important to place one in my bedroom, and in my meditation room, and at the temple next door, and then gede told me that the big tree in the back yard is very special and should also have one, i saw that i was quickly enlarging my area of focus....and time spent on the offerings.
whenever i choose to take on another balinese behavior, i try it out to see how it feels for me. if it rings true, fine, i continue, if not, then i let it go. what usually happens is that each time, i discover how even more magical it becomes, instead of being overwhelmed or burdened by the time and energy involved. that is what happened this evening.
the evening offering is given in the same way as we would light shabbat candles....as the sun is setting at the height of the tree tops. in bali you can do it even later, but that is when everyone settles in back at home, cleans up, washes up, and the air fills up with incense and children are inside and all. i showered balinese style (put some water in a big plastic tub and poured 2 cups of boiled water to warm it up and had my plastic scooper in hand to pour it over me, soap up, and then pour warm water again to wash off the soap, and all in the open air shower. i like it....its simple and i love saving natural resources.
after setting out the offerings in layers on the silver tray, i chose the lotus incense sticks and lite them and began placing the offering near my bed. even just lighting the incense in the house made it smell so nice. and as i walked from room to room and outside in the front, and out back, and over to the sea, the sticks of sweet incense filled the air. just as i turned towards the direction of the temple after placing one on the huge tree trunk that hangs over the shoreline, and i was daydreaming about how touching it is for me to make up my own prayers with each offering, choosing words that express the fullness of the full moon and fulfilling our full potential, and the round perfection of gods creation, suddenly i saw the full moon that had just risen over the sea. it nearly pushed me over by surprise. and i just marveled at the synchronicity of it all..how just as i am walking to the east towards the last offerings at the temple, we meet face to face, me and that huge full moon....and i am grateful for this opportunity to relate to God/Nature in such a direct way.
later, as i went in and out of the house, i kept getting a whiff of the lotus scent still in the air surrounding my house, and i saw how each time it entered my body it brought me such joy. this is the scent i had smelled each time the neighbor children had put offerings at the resort and that made me feel such reverence. and now my entire surroundings, inside and outside of the villa were embraced in this sweetness and i realized another layer of the beauty that seems to reside over this island where each day everyone does this around their homes. kind of like the feeling of shabbat in israel, just that here it is everyday.
No comments:
Post a Comment