"The mind is clear"

My friend is a local doctor in the village. He has a small room attached to his house where he takes private patients after his morning duty at the medical clinic. The door is open when he is there, and there are a few chairs to sit on. No waiting room, just the tiny clinic. And another open door from the opposite wall that is always open to his house. So while his wife was in her living room trying to arrange my wig for the gamelon performance, he was in there, taking care of an elderly woman that had come in. the doors remained open, she removed her clothes, he checked her, and meanwhile his daughter wanted to bring me a stool to sit on so she just walked into the clinic in the middle of the check-up and took the stool. When he was done, he just walked into the living room and joined in the hairdressing fun.

Later on when he was driving me back home on his motorbike he showed me a shortcut through the forest to get from my place to the sea. It cut right in front of the doorway of 2 banana leaf shacks. I told him that I don't feel comfortable invading peoples' privacy just so I can take a shortcut. He insisted that all the motorbikes come through too, and in bali it is acceptable to the people that you walk through their grounds to go somewhere. I told him that it seems to me that people don't have much privacy in bali. Adding how even the patient didn't have privacy with him checking her, with his daughter coming in and the doors open. His answer was short. "The mind is clear. The people undress and are taken care of." I didn't give much importance to his response. I understood this is how it is here, and that's all.

( I also remembered being at his house and trying on a new bra and blouse in their bedroom while his wife was getting dressed after her shower, placing a sanitary pad in her underpants while the whole family was talking with her by the open door. I felt I needed some privacy if my breasts were going to be exposed in front of her husband, and I wanted her to have some privacy taking care of her intimate matters! So I turned around, closed the door, got dressed, and we continued the conversation. When I closed the door I had an inner sensation like I just broke a taboo. In my western mind it was totally acceptable, but here I had a feeling that it was inappropriate, for some reason.)

But this morning I was remembering how I had done a quantum matrix healing on one of the gamelon women last night. It was done without any words since I don't speak enough Indonesian and she not enough English, so the healings are becoming quite "intuitive", to say the least! But when I finished it within a few minutes, feeling very clearly that a difference had been made, but not asking her if she felt anything, she turned to me and said that my energy works well for her body, and thanked me, feeling much better. I realized that all I was was a pipeline for the healing to pass through from some universal energy source to the pain in her body. I marveled at the miracle of it but also suddenly had an insight that this healing energy needs a venue to heal through, and that is my service…it cannot just do magic…it needs a channel to go through that connects the physical and the spiritual. I also thought that a kind of electric charge that I feel when I finish doing the qigong every morning, might be another type of transformation that is occurring from the earth, through my body, and to a higher source.

And then his words "the mind is clear" appeared. And I realized how this is how these people communicate amazing truths. "the mind is clear"….that is phenomenal! For them, the mind, is their heart. For us westerners, it is our brain. And the impact that statement had on me was very strong. Yes, if my heart is clean and clear, no ulterior motives, no perversity, no desires, no unsatisfied needs…just a clear heart….then, yes, you just get undressed in front of everyone and the doctor checks you. There is no inherent importance to any part of the human body over another part of skin! It is our imagination and education that have given them sexual intonations. And no need for secrecy.

Things seem to be very "clear" here. The daily sweeping in the morning and in the evening of an entire island, wherever people inhabit, is also an inner sweeping, and also an outer sweeping. The earth and paths and grounds are all swept, leaving a feeling of holiness and purity and respect. During the day it gets "dirtied" from the leaves, wrappers, flowers, but is purified again at sunset. I feel that over time, there is another layer of invisible existence that can be felt here, for respect, reverence, intention, sensitivity, awareness, that lies just beneath the childlike playfulness and laughter and teasing that go on constantly.

Even yesterday his three year old son came to my room to play on my gamelon. I set it down on the porch…he touched it a bit but not with enthusiasm. I decided I would demonstrate for him one of the tunes I know. He listened. He is very keen on gamelons and I wondered why he was not playing it. His attention wandered, or so I thought, and he pointed to my yoga mat that was against the wall. He began to unfold it and his father told him to put it back. I said it's okay that he unfold it. And the next thing I knew he had opened it up on the porch and placed the gamelon on it and then quickly sat himself down, straight backed, legs folded in a meditation position, and began to play. I looked at his father and smiled, and said "He's right!" The gamelon is a musical instrument, used in the temples, and deserves "respect"…and not just put on the floor of the porch. I realized that whether it is from a former incarnation or just an awareness for the underlying respect for people, places and things that he has absorbed in his short lifetime, it was touching.

When I place the offerings at the small temple here in the garden of the guesthouse, there are 2 altars. One is like a doll house, without walls, just 4 posts and a roof and floor. The other one is the same, but with walls and a front door that is open. There is nothing inside. Or rather, there is "space", but no objects inside. And when I stand in front of it twice a day, to give thanks, it always awakens a deep space within me. This morning when I stood there I thought that this really is like a clear mind…a place has been made for godliness to rest….no clutter, no objects, nothing unnecessary. "the mind is clear".