At the beach in Sanur with my husband Putu and our small
daughter Cahya. The sea is a rich shimmering cobalt blue,
little sea-horse waves breaking over the reef. White sand,
children playing happily with buckets and spades. Mums and
dads walking or sunbathing on wooden slatted sunbeds. It is
very quiet. Hardly any tourists around now. Yet, tranquil,
peaceful. Life does go on, even in the face of recent tragedy.
Though the whole island is sad. Virtually every shop and home
on the island is flying the wide red and white stripe of the
Indonesian flag, suspended on bamboo, at half-mast, outside
their front doors.
We have just come from the British Consulate in Bali, which
is sensibly located in a bar/restaurant called The Cat and
Fiddle‚ in Sanur. It’s a welcoming and pleasingly
informal location for an official government office, much
nicer than the usual nameless halls, and even has a good menu.
I suppose us British are experienced in creating a comfortable
home from home‚ in far-flung places (legacy of The Empire‚
and all that).
Although it’s just a few days after the bombing, friendly
faces beckon us in and our routine yet necessary visa enquiry
is quickly and efficiently dealt with, despite the ongoing
emergency situation.
A sombre discussion about transporting bodies is going on
at the next table. Yet the atmosphere is one of quiet calm
and efficiency. Astonishingly, there is not even any heaviness‚
around it feels light. Quite remarkable and a credit to the
people in charge. Since the bombing, they’ve been open
from 8am to 12 midnight and they have had many harrowing decisions
to make. They must be under considerable strain, and exhausted.
Yet the calm quiet, grace, even, of the staff here is really
inspiring. It makes me proud to be British, actually.
We complete our visa application and then there happens to
be a meeting at the Radisson Hotel, Sanur, for British and
Irish nationals. Everyone is staying, which is encouraging.
No fleeing, buying into the fear, here.
What is the point?
How can we make sense of this tragedy? Let’s look back
for a moment on something that at least we now have a year’s
distance from, the September 11th disaster.
What was the point of the 9/11 disaster? Leaving aside the
obvious human suffering if you will forgive me for doing that,
for a moment, I would like to look at what happened as a kind
of message. What did it mean? Why did Spirit‚ (God,
the powers that be, the Universe, whatever you want to call
it) cause it to happen? If you do believe in any kind of power
or design behind what goes on in the world, then surely an
event of this magnitude, and one which affected pretty much
every corner of the globe, must be highly significant?
I believe 9/11 was a massive wake up call. On the positive
side (please forgive me for saying that) it created a focus
for people all over the world to think about what they want
the world to be like. Do we want to be at war with each other?
Do we want to hate each other, blame each other? It that what
we want to choose? Or do we want to love ourselves and each
other and choose to create a peaceful world?
9/11 certainly caused a massive debate on the subject of
peace‚ all around the world. Emails flew around the
internet. Petitions for peace were signed. Campaigns were
started. Governments and leaders were lobbied.
And then what happened? Continued stirrings for war from
George Bush and Saddam Hussein. Which if you are buying into
all the negative stories in the press, buying into the fear,
you are actually fuelling the problem. Don’t give it
your energy. Don’t buy into it. Focus on creating something
positive (even if it is only your own positive thoughts. Which
actually, are the most powerful things you can create).
We should be grateful that 9/11 has roughly shaken us all
awake, catapulting us out of our mundane everyday stories‚
and petty worries for a moment. For a moment, the whole world
looked up from it’s normal pattern and went eh? That’s
a rare thing. Let’s not lose that. We need to take that
chance now to change the world, which begins with how we relate
to one another, every day.
Tragedy
Life is so fragile. A rose, soft pink, so fresh and lovely
with a morning dewdrop glistening, is made all the more beautiful
because we know that in a day or so it will be a shrivelled
brown mass of papery dead petals dropping silently one by
one to the earth.
Tragedy comes to us all, in varying degrees. And we take
it in different ways. Handle it well or badly, according to
our nature at the time. Sometimes we recover quite quickly,
sometimes it takes years.
We lose a love, or a beloved parent dies in awful circumstances,
or we suffer injury or illness. Sometimes though, tragedy
comes in dreadful ways to many people at once, and this is
what happened last Saturday night in a chilling bomb attack
on a crowded nightclub, designed to kill and injure as many
people as possible. The bomb created a massive ripple effect
that reaches far further than several blocks of buildings
in shattered Legian, Kuta. It has shattered lives, causing
far reaching effects that will take many people, in many countries,
years to recover from.
My heart goes out to those who have lost loved ones in the
Bali bombing, to those who are left behind, to those who are
busy healing, to those who are struggling with the many consequences.
I am so sad for you, and for all of us.
Although, thank God, I have never been involved in a disaster
such as this, I got my wake-up‚ call, too, (like many
other people it was a Universal theme, at the time) not long
after the September 11th disaster, when my husband was badly
beaten up. Envisioning sending our young daughter to her grandparents
for an indeterminate period, packing in tears, no medical
insurance, shoving my laptop and jewellery stock into a bag,
imagining selling it on the street in Bangkok to raise money
for Putu’s treatment. Not fun.
In a strange way though, I know that what happens is always
for a reason, and I have always learned just what I needed
from my experiences, somehow especially the most difficult
ones.
That which we survive, makes us stronger. True, though we
must still keep our hearts open, too.
So, why did the bomb happen in Bali? Another wake-up call.
Spirit telling us that not enough of us have got the message
yet. We must change, and now.
Revenge is sweet
What I have to say next is difficult to say. It’s actually
a plea for an enlighted form of peace and a change in the
way we look at things.
There’s nothing more reassuring that blaming other people.
Saying it’s all their fault. Makes us feel all comfortable
and vindicated. But for me, this just isn’t on. Even
(this may shock you, please bear with me a moment) when it
comes to terrorists. I can’t feel anything but pity
for terrorists. They are people who have so lost it. They
are so desperately outside of society doing such dreadful
and drastic things. How must they feel? And what has driven
them to do it in the first place? Usually terrorism is motivated
out of desperation. Repressed people who don’t have
a voice who turn to the most desolate means, with the most
appalling consequences for all of us. Or they are literally
out of their minds.
A challenging thing I am going to ask you to consider is
rather than just dumping all the darkness and blame on the
terrorists, seeking revenge, etc, is to invite you to just
open to considering for a moment that we all create this world
that we live in. We all have a part to play in it. We are
responsible for what goes on in our world. The terrorists
are our lost brothers. We have to bring them back. I completely
understand feelings of rage and horror and degradation and
the desire for retribution and revenge. Like all humans, I
too have suffered my share of tragedy. Yet, we must try to
rise above it. See the bigger picture. Grow up, actually.
As long as we see the problem as being out there, someone
else’s fault, rather than in here‚ in our hearts
and minds (where we have complete ability to change it) then
we render ourselves powerless. Take responsibility, now, for
what is going on. Extend a hand to your brothers/sisters.
Realise that we are all connected, we are all part of the
same stuff. Anything that hurts someone else, hurts us too.
We need to get ourselves to a higher perspective. Rise above
our individual stories‚ and patterns, and find a way
of seeing the bigger picture of the world, and our larger
part in it.
As I’m writing this, John Lennon’s husky voice
singing Imagine‚ comes on the radio. How perfect.
So what can we do? How can we be different? How can we begin
to make the world a better place, for everyone?
Sharing
“ Imagine no possessions I wonder if you can? No need
for greed or hunger. A brotherhood of man. Imagine all the
people, sharing all the world”.
Balinese people are great at sharing. Every child in Bali
is brought up to give and share their possesions with others.
Parents make a kind of begging sign, one hand slapped open-palmed
on top of the other, and say minta‚ which means request!
Asking for the child’s toy, sweets, food, whatever.
This is done so often that children here learn how to give
to others as a matter of course.
It is a very beautiful thing and surprising how even young
children in Bali will usually give up their possessions willingly
when asked (and will even volunteer them without being asked).
A far cry from our Western ways. Don’t we often try
to cling on to things, not give them away at any price? What
is this feeling of lack‚ of there not being enough‚
that makes us feel we have to clutch and grasp at our things
like haggard old beggars? Curious isn’t it when we have
so much, and people like the Balinese often have so little?
Do we all harbour the belief that there is never enough‚
in the West? Do YOU have that belief? And if so, how does
it make you act?
Let’s open up to the power of sharing. Giving for no
reason. Just give from the thought that there is plenty for
all of us, and that whatever you give, will come back to you,
manifold, in various ways. (This is a Universal law. Whatever
you release, creates space for more to come to you. So you
never need fear lack if you are a giver).
What to give? Oh, offer a friend a bite of your sandwich,
clear out some stuff you don‚t need and
give it to a charity (thrift) shop (like the Bali Hati one
in Ubud). Get creative about giving. What don’t you
need? What is cluttering up your life that would delight somebody
else? Give it away, and enjoy feeling lighter. Give a smile
to everyone you see on the street. Keep smiling for long enough,
and I promise you, even the grumpiest face will eventually
crack and give a toothy grin back to you!
Are you part of the problem, or part of the solution?
It’s time to start looking at things differently. It’s
time to stop blaming and start taking responsibility. It’s
time to stop giving energy to negative things. Why listen
to the (bad) news that is projected at us from all angles?
Yes, ok, listen, if you are going to do something about it,
but if you’re not, why ply your body and soul with darkness?
What goes in, comes out. Why not fill your heart with light
instead of the dark negativity that is put out by much of
the world’s press?
One of the things that most made me want to leave England
was the torpid rubbish printed in the newspapers every day.
And every day, many people pore over it, take it as the gospel
truth, imbibe it, drink it in thirstily, and use it as their
daily life guide. Unfortunately, much of it is drivel, much
of it is generated for the self-serving needs of personalities‚
politicians‚ etc. And vast quantities of it is INCREDIBLY
NEGATIVE.
Buying into that darkness and negativity only fuels the problem.
For example, if you start believing all Moslems are wicked
and evil and scary‚ as a result of something you have
read in a newspaper, then what effect is that going to have
on the world? What if thousands, or millions of people start
thinking like that? What do you suppose is likely to happen?
Fear, fear, fear and war. We MUST begin to focus on creating
positive beliefs for ourselves that will contribute to the
Earth’s good. For example, why not choose to believe
that the vast majority of Moslems want peace? The way out
of our fear (which is what then generates hatred and divisions)
is to choose positive beliefs and thoughts.
We create our reality
We create our reality from our thoughts. Even scientists
now agree that bits of matter (electrons) in seemingly disparate
locations around the world, seem to know instantly what each
other are doing. It seems that our idea of their separateness
is an illusion. Our consciousness, what we think and believe,
literally ripples out into the world, affecting everything
around us.
A Cornucupia of Beliefs
On an inner level, our beliefs affect us enormously, because
they colour our entire perspective of what we notice around
us. For example, if you believe everybody is unhelpful‚
you will most likely be immune to the many hands that are
no doubt extended towards you with offers of assistance!
Everything that happens on the planet ripples out from what
we believe, too.
When we unconsciously take on board whatever our parents
told us, or the unconsidered tenets of religion, or the beliefs
set up due to a single experience we had, we risk operating
out of an inappropriate instruction set, like an out-of-date
computer. We go round and round the same old programs‚
when actually, we need to get off the merry-go-round, break
the pattern, choose something different.
Help with feeling safe
A liberating belief to have is I can choose my beliefs! I
make it a regular habit to scribble down what I believe in
various areas, and then have a spring clean of some of the
surprisingly junky outdated beliefs that sometimes appear!
I then create and choose new, positive beliefs.
For example, my current beliefs about feeling safe‚
are: “I create my own safety” “It is safe
for me, even when there is danger around” “It
is safe to be me” “I am conscious of potential
danger and I know I can quickly take any necessary steps to
protect myself and others” “I am competent and
I can handle whatever happens” my feeling of safety
comes from within. The world is generally a safe place for
me.
What are your beliefs about feeling safe? Do you agree with
all of them? Do they serve you now?
Finally
Peace comes from a sense of peace within, being comfortable
and at peace‚ with yourself and who you are. A willingness
to look within, doing the inner work.
Loving others begins with first loving ourselves.
Sharing comes from choosing to believe that there is enough
for all of us. A feeling of safety comes from choosing to
believe that we are safe.
A feeling of humanity comes from including everyone, loving
everyone, encompassing everyone, however lost, no matter what
or who they are.
Let’s create this, now, together.
“ You may say I’m a dreamer, but I’m not
the only one. I hope one day you’ll join us and the
world will be as one”.
NEXT ISSUE: A Million Miles From Here Part III - Kylie
Jeli Lala created the Ashram of Spiritual Jewellery and Art‚
at no. 1, Sukma St., Tebesaya, Ubud, with her husband, Putu
S. She has studied yoga and many other spiritual practices
for more than ten years. She writes As a life-long artist,
I’ve been exploring my inner world since I was a child.
In this column, I will share some of my personal experiences
and spiritual methods hopefully, you’ll find this interesting,
and maybe it will give some ideas for your own journey.
Jeli welcomes comments and may be contacted on:
Email: jelila@jelila.com
Website: www.jelila.com or www.imagine-retreats.com
