Meditation Out The Karzi Window - Discovering Moments Of
Magic And Mystery In The Strangest Of Places!
Showering with the ducks…
It’s about four o’clock in the afternoon, time
for a ‘mandi’ (the late afternoon Balinese shower
ritual) and I’ve had to go next door, as our government
provided (or, not provided) water is not working yet again.
Someone’s already using Kadek’s shower in the
compound behind ours (she has a well), so it’s time
to hop over the low, broken wall to next door, and borrow
the facilities there. A little grey breezeblock construction
awaits. The bathroom here is a small cubicle less than a metre
square, with a low corrugated iron roof. There’s no
door, just an opening. And no direct water supply –
there’s a ‘mandi bucket’ which is a light
blue tiled water tank, raised off the ground, about half a
metre cubed. A small window all around at eye level means
I get to peek out at my surroundings during my ablutions.
My husband appears, handsome in a sarong, and grinning broadly
with a flash of his white teeth. He takes a scoop that is
rather like a small plastic saucepan, and cheerfully slooshes
water through a special hole in the wall into the mandi bucket.
He passes the scoop through the window so I can use it to
throw water over myself, and have a shower ‘à
la Bali’.
The setup reminds me of the film ‘Chitty Chitty Bang
Bang’, where the wonderful bewhiskered old ‘Grandpa’
has a small quirky WC shed in the garden that is his main
operations centre and hangout (he ends up getting hoisted
to the heavens in it, by a dirigible, if you remember), and
I start to giggle.
What am I doing in this crazy place? It really is funny.
I drape a sarong over the gaping doorway (people are relaxed
about nudity here, and they are also extremely inquisitive
and have no ‘personal space’ boundaries –
so I think I’ll create a small boundary of my own here
for a moment!). Gadoingg! I crash my head on the roof, my
hair clip making a ringing sound on the corrugated tin. The
pitched roof is so low I’m having to shower with my
neck at a forty-five degree angle!
I pick up the scoop and start to sloosh water over myself.
Aargh!! It’s freezing. But nice. I’m hot and sweaty
from the strong sun today. Breathing slowly and deeply, I
peep out the window. Next door, a pretty, tan coloured cow
is standing in its byre, chewing cud. It’s a typically
feminine looking Balinese cow, with a delicate face and very
long eyelashes. It’s looking at me quizzically. Next
minute I know why - the cow takes a deep breath too, raises
its tail and… drops a large pile of dung –paaaarlaaap!
onto the ground. I enjoy the sound, and the simplicity and
earthiness of what’s going on.
Suddenly all the leaves outside seem incredibly green. The
hibiscus flowers with their long stamen fronds like butterfly
tongues are glowing red, like they’re on fire. And the
sky is so blue. Suddenly I feel very alive, and I start to
laugh. About twenty ducks scamper up ands start drinking the
water that is spilling out of the shower. ‘Tukka tukka
tukka tuk!’ They make a kind of squabbling sound as
they gargle in the water. Some are brown, and there are some
black ones with strange red and black protruberances on their
heads. Their tails are wagging and they’re really getting
excited. I enjoy their company. I’m starting to feel…
joyous, and at one with nature – showering in this crazy
little wonky too-low shed, surrounded by farm animals playing
in the mud. Watching the water sparkle on the ducks backs,
listening to the sound, splashing water over myself. It really
is a kind of heaven on earth!
- - -
The bathroom, in case you don’t know, is the ‘spiritual
centre’ of the house (according to ‘Feng Shui’,
the ancient Chinese art of organising physical space).
It’s a place I always go to when uncertain, or when
the jangling of my thoughts, or the chatter of other people,
makes me need a quiet space (maybe that’s why I empathise
so with ‘Grandpa’ from Chitty Chitty Bang Bang!
– the bathroom is my ‘day office’, too!)
I’m trying to describe, rather obliquely, how to create
space for magical mystical moments in one’s life. (Or,
how to appreciate the magic that is there already!) We are
all busy – maybe you make time for the occasional weeklong
‘meditation intensive’ – that’s great,
and will give you techniques you can use – though I
think it’s important to find ways of integrating the
spiritual into the every day, don’t you?
Meditation - what is it?
People usually think that meditation is about trying to get
your mind to be still, or stop thinking. This is silly! It
is also not possible! No, meditation is about finding a way
of observing, or witnessing your thoughts, and letting them
go. It really is very simple. (More on this in a minute).
Meditation in the bathroom mirror
Meditation in the bathroom mirror is very powerful (well,
it can be any mirror, but the bathroom is my favourite place,
and usually the only quiet place I can find!). Nostradamus
(he of the famous prophesies) was very keen on mirror meditation
and apparently received all his ‘channelled’ wisdom
that way. To try it, just sit or stand in front of the mirror.
Let your spine be straight as if a string is pulling you up
from the top of the head. Breathe slowly and evenly through
the nose. Gaze at your face. Keep breathing. Notice any thoughts
that come, and let them go. Keep breathing. If you find you’ve
gone back to thinking again, notice that, and just let the
thoughts go. Come back to breathing… Just continue like
that.
Don’t worry if your head disappears (mine often does!
It just kind of disappears into a dark space. I suppose it
is because the focus goes within). You may see different faces
appearing on your face. These are probably images of past
life faces that you have had. It’s eerily fascinating,
yet insightful and intriguing. Give it a try!
Here’s a Kundalini yoga meditation for you to try.
Sit a comfortable cross-legged position (if this is an oxymoron
for you, as it sometimes is for me, choose any alternate comfortable
pose, even sitting on a chair if you wish). The spine is straight.
Imagine you are being pulled up by a string from the top of
your head. The chin is tucked slightly (pull it in). The eyes
are closed and focused at the brow chakra (‘third eye’)
which is about two and a half centimetres above the bridge
of the nose. Breathing is through the nose throughout, the
mouth stays closed.
Inhale, focus at the third eye, exhale. Repeat. Now mentally
think the mantra ‘SAT’ as you inhale, and ‘NAM’
as you exhale. (Sat is like the English word ‘sat’
and ‘nam’ is like Viet Nam). Inhale SAT, exhale
NAM. (It means ‘truth is my name’ or ‘truth
is my identity’). Inhale SAT, witness any thoughts that
arise, let them go. Exhale NAM. Visualise the mantra flying
out through your third eye. Inhale SAT, witness any thoughts
that arise, let them go. Exhale NAM. Continue like this for
three, seven, or eleven minutes.
Do not beat yourself up if you forget the mantra, lose the
focus, and get caught up in thinking! This is very normal!
Merely witness your thoughts, notice them and let them go,
and return to the mantra and your breathing.
What meditation does, is provides a framework where the conscious
mind is given permission to ‘do its thing’ (ie
think) while YOU (that is, your soul, your higher or inner
self) get to witness the journey. It kind of gives your whole
system a break from the normal treadmill of life for a time.
What it teaches you, is that ‘you are not your thoughts’.
It helps you find the gap between experiencing and responding,
and gain objectivity and get a much higher and richer perspective.
If practised over time (even for just ten minutes a day)
you will find it starts to come naturally to you, and you
will gain a connection to ‘source’ – a link
to your inner wisdom and ‘knowing’ that is far
deeper, more meaningful, and more satisfying than ‘thinking,
thinking, thinking! (I like to keep a notebook by me while
meditating both to jot down thoughts that intrude (to help
clear them, and also, often they are quite useful and practical
reminders of things I need to do!) and of the deeper insights
that arise.
The breath
The breath is so important. SO important. Well, it’s
the first and the last thing we do in our lives, isn’t
it? We come in on an ‘in’ breath, and go out on
an ‘out’ breath. And so it is, throughout our
lives. Notice your breathing. Shallow breath means ‘not
participating’. The depth of your breathing denotes
the degree to which you are participating – in the situation,
your relationships, your life. Next time you feel uncertain,
just breathe more deeply. It’s simple yet profound and
will bring you back to the moment. Can’t hit the shuttlecock
in badminton? – Breathe! Not sure what to say? Breathe!
Breathing consciously makes everything flow.
Different kinds of breathing. Did you know we breathe predominantly
through one nostril at a time? Close each nostril in turn
and notice which one you are breathing through now. The left
nostril is the masculine, the sun. The right nostril is the
moon, the feminine. Our breath is always through one and then
the other, changing around roughly every four hours. How mysterious
and intricate are our inner processes, and how we take them
for granted!
There are many yoga meditations using different kinds of
breath. The Kundalini yoga ‘sitali pranayama’
focuses on sun/moon breathing and uses various forms of complicated
stepped inhalations, opening and closing nostrils with the
thumb, and so on, to emphasise various subtle states in the
body, mind and psyche. There’s Kundalini yoga at Tegun
Gallery, Hannoman St, Ubud.
My quick tantric sex tip (so easy and so good!). Simply synchronise
your breathing with your partner. You don’t need to
tell them about it, just do it. Either inhale and exhale together,
or you inhale while they exhale or vice versa. Simple yet
brilliant! It creates the space for you both to truly participate,
together in the moment (which is what it’s all about,
isn’t it?)
The Zen tradition includes some interesting and ‘impossible’
concepts and little stories called ‘koans’ which
are used as the focus for meditation. Because they are annoyingly
obtuse (or deceptively simple!) they nudge you into a different
mind ‘space’. For example: ‘What is the
sound of one hand clapping?’. Sometimes we need new
ways of thinking (or not thinking!) to solve a problem.
Chopping wood, carrying water
This is the ‘Zen’ take on meditation, which is
about really ‘being in the moment’. Only doing
ONE thing at a time, right NOW, and focusing only on that.
Avoiding ‘head trips’ and too much thinking, which
takes us out of our bodies and makes us forget to savour what
we are actually doing right now!
I remember a camping trip to Winchelsea (a pretty English
beach) with a bunch of friends, washing up in the morning
in a little red washing up bowl on the grass. The sky was
glittering blue, and I was just washing plates, washing plates,
making them really clean, enjoying the water. Can you make
your washing up magical? Can you really enjoy doing it, rather
than wishing you were somewhere else, doing something else?
It is this simplicity, this really partaking in the HERE and
NOW that can bring a lot of joy into one’s life.
There are no good or bad experiences, there are only experiences
This concept is about acceptance. So liberating! Many people
are ‘waiting for a time when their life is all ok’.
Waiting for a time when everything is perfect. Do you ever
describe a year as ‘a good year’ or ‘a bad
year’?
Consider this – there are no good or bad years. There
are only years. (Makes me giggle, just thinking about it!)
Imagine if you could just accept what was really happening,
just as it is. You don’t need to change it. You can
just relax, drop into it, allow it to happen. Phew, what a
relief! And, you could enjoy EVERY moment of your life! However
it is! What a gift! Think of all those hours you’ve
just won back! All the ones that were previous labelled ‘unhappy’
or ‘happy’ and packed away, can just be labelled
‘hours’!
Advanced students may try finding the joy in really difficult
moments. I think not many people understand this. For example
in the public hospital here with my husband following an unpleasant
accident, I found myself in an accident and emergency ward
which was like something out of MASH – an open corridor
with six or eight people lying around on beds, people constantly
walking through, lots of action, not much healing… mobile
phone squashed to my ear, trying to talk to a local medic,
endeavouring to work out the best place to take my husband
to, with my daughter screaming her head off at the same time...
yet somehow I still managed to kind of … enjoy it! Not
wanting to be in that very stressful situation, yet, being
able somehow to appreciate it. To appreciate being alive,
experiencing it, and even, viewing it with a kind of wry humour.
And again, a week spent in hospital recently with our daughter,
although very stressful at times, also yielded some beautiful,
lyrical and funny moments of being together as a family, which
were very sweet. (Perhaps the contrast enhances the sweetness…)
(She’s fine now, by the way.)
Can you really ‘milk’ the experience of being
alive? Can you take the juice of any moment, easy or difficult,
and really taste it?
Exercise: Eat an orange. Taste every mouthful from beginning
to end. If you forget to taste, notice that, and come back
to tasting. Continue until the orange is finished. Notice
how the experience was for you.
I hope you find some delicious tastes on your journey –
or anyway, that the experience of tasting, even when things
don’t taste good, is delicious!
NEXT ISSUE: The Yoga Of Motherhood. What it means to become
a parent – and what an opportunity for growth it is!
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
