The lost harmony of the human mind can be restored

I am now at Amma's ashram in Kerala.  Kerala is the state or province.  The nearest city is Kollam.

Amma's official name is Mata Amritananadamayi.  The long name of this ashram is Mata Amritananadamayi Math and Mission Trust.  The short name is Amritapuri.

mata = mother (sanskrit)
amrita = immortal (sanskrit)
ananda = bliss (sanskrit)
mayi = myself (sanskrit)
math = a Hindu monastic institution
mission = as in missionary station
trust = in India, a non-profit organization
puri = city (sanskrit)

This is Amma's childhood home, now expanded to house thousands of people.  Amma is not here right now.  She tours the world nine months out of the year.  I believe she also has an ashram near San Francisco.  Many of my SoCal friends have seen her.  I have never seen her, but I have learned so much about her now that I think I am going to change my itinerary and stay here long enough to meet her.  She arrives in December.

Amma's charitable programs are quite impressive.  Here near the ashram she has built AIMS hospital, one of the largest in India, and also several schools and universities including a business school, an engineering school and a medical school.  Her groups respond to hurricanes and tsunamis and earthquakes and have built more than 20,000 homes for disaster victims.


I have been here not quite a week.  It took about five days to acclimate so that I could appreciate the beauty.  My room, shared with two others, is on the 12th floor.  The Arabian Sea spreads out to the west, and in other directions I look out across a sea of palm trees as far as I can see.  On the east is what they call the backwater.  In the US we would call it an inland coastal waterway.  I see a half-dozen colorful merchant boats, a high pedestrian bridge connecting our strip of land to the mainland, and a man poling a boat across with one passenger who was too lazy to walk across the bridge.

The ashram costs $5 per day for the shared room, including three meals.  There is also a juice bar, an Indian cafe, and a western cafe where I can buy spaghetti or a peanut butter cookie.  In addition to the $5, I'm expected to work one or two hours every day.  My chore is flat-cleaning, like a maid, after people have checked out.  And I also do some gardening at the Ecology Center.

From her Biography:

Dedicate everything to god and he will look after you.

An aspirant should not take part in marriage ceremonies or funerals. At the former, everyone will be thinking of the marriage, which is bondage. At the later, the grief is about the loss of a mortal being. In both cases, the participants are dwelling on the non-eternal. These thought waves will be harmful to a seeker. The worldly vibrations will enter the subconscious mind. The seeker will become restless for unreal things.

Ganga:  Devotion is not at all intellectually satisfying. To follow the path of devotion shows a certain weakness. Why all these emotional expressions like weeping and singing? I cannot do that. Sri Ramana never prescribed the path of devotion. He would only prescribe the Path of Knowledge. I prefer the Path of Knowledge as it appeals to the intellect. It is more convincing.
Amma:  Did you read all the writings by and about Sri Ramana? If not, then please do so, for there are many works which are full of devotion. In fact, he himself was an embodiment of devotion to Lord Arunachala. Even the mere mention of that name would bring tears of divine love to his eyes. Devotion is not an indication of mental weakness as you seem to think. It is perceiving god in all beings equally; it is pure love of selfless existence. Son, you should cultivate love within yourself.

From Awaken Children Vol 2:

The lost harmony of the human mind can be restored only through a selfless attitude supported by prayer, meditation and chanting of mantras. First, the human mind should be harmonized, then the harmony of nature will spontaneously take place. Where there is concentration, there is harmony.

Somerset Maughm met Sri Ramana Maharshi

In January 1938 Somerset Maugham, the British novelist, visited Sri Ramanashram for a few hours. The brief contact he had with Bhagavan inspired Maugham so much, he decided to use him as the model for a fictional Guru in The Razor's Edge, a novel of his that was published a few years later in 1944. Maugham also wrote a non-fiction account of his visit in an essay entitled 'The Saint', which was published twenty years after the event in 1958. The following account, which is taken from this essay, records Maugham's impressions of this meeting with Bhagavan.

http://davidgodman.org/rteach/smaugham.shtml

Arundhati Roy

Fiction and non-fiction are only different techniques of story-telling. For reasons I don't fully understand, fiction dances out of me.  And non-fiction is wrenched out by the aching, broken world I wake up to every morning.

                                     - Arundhati Roy, Come September Speech (1:30)

When the rest of the world wants to know what the US Government is up to, we turn to

• Noam Chomsky, 
• Edward Said, 
• Howard Zinn, 
• Edward S Herman, 
• Amy Goodman, 
• Michael Albert, 
• Chalmers Johnson, 
• William Blume, and 
• Anthony Arnove, 

to tell us what's really going on.

                                     - Arundhati Roy, Come September Speech (7:15)

Love and Death in Bali

"I have looked about me and I cannot believe there is a country on earth as beautiful as Bali.  I cannot give it away to foreigners or sell it.  I cannot and I may not.  What would they make of it once it was in their hands?  They do not know our gods and they do not understand the laws by which mankind must live.  They would pull down the temples, and the gods would forsake out island, and soon it would become as barren and ugly as the deserts of China.  They would grow sugar-cane, not as our peasants do, just enough to sweeten their food, and for their children to enjoy; they would cover the whole country with sugar in large buildings, until the villages stank of it, and they would take the sugar away in great steamers to change it into money.  They would plant ugly trees in rows and draw rubber from them; they would lay the sawahs to waste and cut down the beautiful palms and fruit trees to make room for their homes.  They would turn our peasants into slaves and brutes, and leave them no time for cock fights and festivals and music and dancing.  And our women would have to cover their breasts as if they were whores, and no one would wear flowers in their hair any more or bring offerings to the temples.  And they would squeeze the joy from the hearts of our children, and tear the patience and tolerance and gentleness from their natures, and make them bitter and unkind and discontented, as the white men are themselves."

                     - spoken by Alit, the prince, in Love and Death in Bali, by Vicki Baum

Solar works financially now

Danny Kennedy, previously environmental activist, now founder of Sungevity:

 “Think about it this way. We’re killing people in foreign lands in order to extract 200-million-year-old sunlight. Then we burn it . . . in order to boil water to create steam to drive a turbine to generate electricity. We frack our own backyards and pollute our rivers, or we blow up our mountaintops just miles from our nation’s capital for an hour of electricity, when we could just take what’s falling free from the sky.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/12/magazine/the-secret-to-solar-power.html?pagewanted=1&_r=1&smid=fb-share

Organic Disinfectant

http://frugallysustainable.com/2011/10/all-natural-antimicrobialdisinfecting/

Herbal Antimicrobial Spray

-1 part Lavender
-1 part Thyme
-1 part Sage
-1 part Mint
-1 part Rosemary

Directions

1. Fill 1 quart jar with equal parts of fresh herbs, or 1/2 full with dried herbs. Then cover withorganic, raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar.

2. Let mixture marinate for at least 6 weeks. Strain.

3. Pour herbal infused vinegar into gallon jug and fill jug with distilled water to dilute. Transfer into spray bottle for use.

4. Use mixture on all hard surfaces (cutting boards, door handles, counter tops, etc.) for disinfecting purposes. Simply spray on and let air dry.

While waiting for your Herbal Antimicrobial Spray to marinate, whip up this concoction for a very effective alternative.

All-Natural Disinfecting Spray

-1 cup distilled water
-20 drops lavender essential oil
-20 drops of thyme or eucalyptus essential oil
-10 drops tea tree oil

*Find high-quality essential oils here…
Directions: Mix all ingredients into a spray bottle and use as a disinfectant on all hard s

Balian healers

Every village has at least four Balians. There are about 8,000 practicing in Bali, which has about four times as many Balians as doctors.

What can you expect when you consult a Balian? Your experience will be very public, with all the other clients watching avidly.  The healer may make magic, create fire, use mudrahs, draw patterns on your body, spit wads of chewed herbs on your skin, apply scented oils, poke you with sharp sticks and/or give you a deep tissue massage or manipulation that will be very painful indeed. 

Real Balians receive their gifts from a spirit, based on Bali Hindu philosophy. They credit this spirit with giving them their gift of healing. Others through a very long intensive study and initiation from a well-known healer(s) or High Priest(esses). They are the Balinese equivalent of a “doctor”, who has to follow an etiquette and moral code, which is not that different than the modern doctor.

http://www.baliadvertiser.biz/articles/greenspeak/2010/healers.html

http://www.balihealers.com/

you create your own dream

You create your own dream around you and unless you become awake you will continue to dream...

But right now whatsoever you see is not the truth, it is a projected lie...

Once you come out of your private dreams, it is there. It has been always there. Once your eyes are clear, a sudden illumination -- suddenly you are overflooded with beauty, grandeur and grace...

                                               -- OSHO

http://www.messagefrommasters.com/Enlightenment/Osho_Enlightenment.htm

new rig

I recently purchased a motorscooter and surfboard.  Previously I was renting.  The scooter is a 2007 Yamaha Mio I purchased from a private party in Ubud for 7.5 million rupiah.  The surfboard rack was custom made and installed by a welder in Kuta for 300,000 rupiah.  After much looking at the shops in Kuta, I purchased the surfboard, a 7'0" x 21" x 2-1/2" mini-mal, 10 years old, from a local guy hanging out beside the Nirmala Supermarket here in Balangan, for 2.3 million rupiah.  The brand logo on the board says Byron Bay Surfboards, and the shaper's name, Palu, is on the back.  The next day, I bumped into Palu himself at my warung.  He says, "I made that board."

Duck dive

Two surfers duck dive under a wave at Teahupo'o in Tahiti.
From Dana Brown: Step into Liquid.

Co-Housing Senior Co-Housing

Co-Housing Senior Co-Housing
Video of Silver Sage Village Community in Boulder

Surfing at Pantai Balangan

Subak

Bali's water irrigation system, a marvel of engineering nominated for UNESCO world heritage status, is inter-connected with Bali's social, government and religion systems.

"It is tangible reflection of the original Balinese ideas and beliefs which roots essentially in Tri Hita Karana concept, that is the awareness of the need to always maintain the harmonious relationship between God, Human, and Nature in daily life."

http://whc.unesco.org/en/tentativelists/5100/

http://www.frogsongvilla.com/2012/05/balis-rice-irrigation-system-entered.html

http://www.baliadvertiser.biz/articles/bali_explorer/2011/jatiluwih.html

Yes, money CAN buy happiness

TED Talk, Michael Norton
http://www.ted.com/talks/michael_norton_how_to_buy_happiness.html

by spending it on someone else.

Positive Psychology

Shawn Achor:
http://www.ted.com/talks/shawn_achor_the_happy_secret_to_better_work.html

Retrain the brain.
Begin each day with:

• 3 new gratitudes
• journal a positive experience
• exercise
• meditation
• conscious act of kindness

Pride and Prejudice

Download for free at Project Gutenberg: http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/1342.

Pride is the place where I'm trying to cover up a perceived weakness.  A prejudice manifests when I see that weakness reflected back to me in some other person.  When I forgive that person for that weakness, I have forgiven myself, and the whole scene dissolves.

If you are at peace, you are living in the present.

If you are depressed, you are living in the past.
If you are anxious, you are living in the future.
If you are at peace, you are living in the present.

let your soul be your pilot

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WGdV_niLcVk

http://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/sting/letyoursoulbeyourpilot.html


Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
He'll guide you well

When you're down and they're counting
When your secrets all found out
When your troubles take to mounting
When the map you have leads you to doubt
When there's no information
And the compass turns to nowhere that you know well

Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
He'll guide you well

When the doctors failed to heal you
When no medicine chest can make you well
When no counsel leads to comfort
When there are no more lies they can tell
No more useless information
And the compass spins
The compass spins between heaven and hell

Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
He'll guide you well

And your eyes turn towards the window pane
To the lights upon the hill
The distance seems so strange to you now
And the dark room seems so still

Let your pain be my sorrow
Let your tears be my tears too
Let your courage be my model
That the north you find will be true
When there's no information
And the compass turns to nowhere that you know well

Let your soul be your pilot
Let your soul guide you
Let your soul guide you
Let your soul guide you upon your way...

Balangan goes off

I am staying in Balangan.  Balangan is on the west coast of the Bukit Peninsula, one of several beaches between Jembaran and Uluwatu.

Today the surf is huge, double and triple overhead. The swell arrived during the night, generated by a storm in the South Pacific three days ago. Since first light, you can count between ten and twenty surfers in the water. After a surf session, the surfers come in to eat and rest at the Indah Warung.

This warung is run by Wayan and her husband Ketut. It is raised on stilts about three meters above the beach, looking out over the water, with its back against the cliff. The warung is about 10 meters wide, and one long table runs the entire width of the restaurant. A row of twelve chairs is arranged behind this table, where patrons can sit and watch the surf action while they eat. Behind this table is a step up and a second table, then a stairs up to a third level and another table. Behind that is the kitchen and three rooms.  I have rented one of those rooms for the next six weeks.

The table is covered with a green vinyl cloth. Five baskets are on the table. Each basket contains salt, ketchup, salty soy sauce, sweet soy sauce and hot sauce. Beside each basket is a menu and a box of napkins. The wood posts that hold the roof up are wrapped with a yellow cloth.

trust in life

"Ah, Davidson, woe to the man whose heart has not learned while young to hope, to love, and to put its trust in life."
                         - Joseph Conrad, Victory / An Island Tale

Mark Boyle lives without money

"Ecological destruction, factory farms, destroying the oceans, sweat shops, deforestation - this all stems from our delusion that we are separate from nature. We are very disconnected from what we consume. We no longer have an appreciation for the embodied energy, embodied destruction and suffering that goes into every stage of the supply chain of the things we buy. The tool that enabled this disconnection is money. If we all had to grow our own food, we wouldn't waste 1/3 of it as we do today in the UK. If we had to make our own tables and chairs, we wouldn't chuck them out the moment we decided to change the decor. Until we reconnect with what we consume, all these problems will continue because we're not getting to the root of the problem, which is our separation from nature, and our separation from what we consume."
                                                - Mark Boyle

Mark's website.
http://justfortheloveofit.org/

More on youtube

a spiritual delight

When thought dwells on person, place or thing,
you are functioning in the dream.
When your thoughts unite in spiritual contemplation,
every person, place, or thing becomes a spiritual delight.

                                   - Joel Goldsmith, The Infinite Way

Amed

In March, I found myself in the village of Purwakerth, just east of Amed, and part of the Amed Beach area, a 20 km long strip of resorts, hotels, and homestays, noted mostly for diving and snorkeling.  My room was one of two in a modest homestay, the closest of the two to the beach.  In fact it was only about 20 meters from the water.

As I sat on the bed, leaning back against the headboard, I looked up from my laptop computer, and let my gaze go through the open double doors and onto the porch, white tiled, with two chairs and a small table.  Tall windows on either side of the doors expand the view.

Surrounding the porch is a small garden, tenderly manicured.  Most of the plants are green, but some are a dark red and look like purple basil.  Another has yellow-green leaves and small white flowers.  Along the sea-side edge of the garden, a low concrete slab six feet across runs the length of the property, keeping the beach sand out of the garden area.  One tree rises from an earth-filled hole in the slab, and in the shade of the tree is a beach shower. It's one step up from the beach onto the slab to the shower to wash off the salt water and sand before entering the garden.

On the left of the garden is a small warung, or rather, what had originally been intended as a warung, but is now used only to serve breakfast to the guests.  The seating area contains three tables and a counter and is open on three sides.  The fourth side is an enclosed kitchen.  A horizontal window opens so food dishes can be passed through.

Past the garden, a line of fishing boats are pulled up onto the sand.  Just inside the beach is a flat grassy area used for making salt, and also for evening soccer games.  Another four hundred meters beyond, more dwellings and trees are visible.

Above it all, partially shrouded in clouds, Mount Agung hangs in the sky, a giant pyramid.  This volcano dominates the eastern corner of Bali.

Clouds form around all the islands.  The overcast creates cool and moisture and protects the inhabitants from the equatorial sun.  The higher the island, the thicker the clouds.  At 300 meters, Mount Agung almost always collects clouds around itself.  You have to view it many times to see the whole mountain.  Sometimes only the base is visible. Other times only the top peeks out above the cloud cover.  Often the right shoulder is visible, because that is closest to the sea where the wind sweeps the sky clear.

The place is run by Suni, his wife Wayan, and their two daughters, Eka and Dewi.  Son Komong is too young to help much.  He spends his time mostly fishing from the beach.

Suni's family lives in a separate house back about 50 meters farther inland.  Another family owns the empty plot of land between Suni's house and the homestay.  Suni's mother bought this land to create the homestay and warung for Suni and his family to run.  Perhaps that's why it's called Mama Homestay.

Suni is a fisherman.  He gave up fishing a few years ago because there are no more fish.  He has a longline with 200 hooks on it.  There was a time when he could tow this line behind his boat for an hour and a half and come home with 200 Mackeral.  Now they're all gone.  One of Suni's brothers still goes out fishing every day and often comes home with only one fish.

Suni also used to fish for tuna by using a kite.  They would fly the kite from the boat, with the line, hook and bait attached to the tail of the kite.  As the boat skimmed over the water, the man flying the kite would pump the kite string to make the bait jump up and down on the surface of the water.  The tuna would leap three feet out of the water to snag the bait out of mid-air.  Tuna often follow dolphins.  Why?  Not know for certain.  Perhaps the dolphins offer protection from the sharks.

The tables and chairs in the warung, on the porch, and in the guest rooms were all made by Sunni.  He uses local hardwoods and hand tools.  No power tools, no nails, and no glue.  He carves joints, drills a hole with a hand drill, and inserts a bamboo dowel.

Suni, Dewi, and Eka are all on salary, paid by Suni's mother.  Suni does the maintenance, and Dewi and Eka serve as front-desk staff.  Dewi, age 13, takes the morning shift and makes breakfast.  Eka, age 15, takes the afternoon shift.  Very rarely she sells a drink to a guest.  Mostly she just sits in the warung area and does her homework.  Both girls attend school, Eka from 9 to 1, Dewi from 1 to 5.  The Indonesian school system follows the European pattern as it was put it place by the Dutch during the colonial period.  Attendance is required through Junior High.  High school is optional, and there is a fee.  Suni is debating whether he can afford to send his girls to high school. Suni's wife, Wayan, is sometimes seen in the mornings sweeping the garden area with a broom.

The guest next door is named Roma.  She's a polish girl, a movie director, most recently living in London.  She lays on the beach in a bikini.  Embarrassed to be reading one of the Twilight books.

pilot fish

I went snorkeling today and this little guy swam along with me like a pilot fish.  He was about six inches long, white and gray, with a bright yellow tail.  He was with me for at least 30 minutes and I only lost him when I crawled out onto the shore.  He was like a little friend.

Medewi Beach

Medewi Beach.  They tell me everyone is this village is from one family, originally from Java, all Muslim. We are getting farther west on Bali now, closer to Java, and there is a higher percentage of Muslims here.

The main attraction here is the surf.  There are surf spots all along the southern coast.  The beaches are black sand and often rocky.  Rivers and canals dump fresh water into the ocean after it has traveled many kilometers and irrigated many terraced rice fields.  And so the ocean water near the shore is muddy and not good for snorkeling.

On my way here I stopped at Echo Beach in Canggu.  Similarly good surf conditions.  Canggu has gotten built-up and busy and touristy.  A beach-front jammed with Aussie BBQ joints.

Medewi is a quiet and rustic village. I saw a woman repairing a fishing net by hand, hundreds of square feet of net laid out across her lap, making tiny knots in the thin strings.

Photos

Balian Beach

A rustic surf spot on the southwest coast.  This video opens with Ketut bringing his cow back from getting a drink in the Balian River, just where the river dumps its muddy water into the Indian Ocean.  Ketut is a gnarly surf dude, nature boy, and entrepreneur.  He runs a warung on the beach, and a primitive homestay just up the road.

While motorbiking up that road, I passed a 70-year-old woman with a basket on her head, topless, wearing only a sarong around her waist.  I read later that traditionally in Bali, showing the thighs was considered immodest, uncovering the breasts was not.  Isn't it interesting how humans organize themselves into groups and make up rules about what is right and wrong.

Bukit Peninsula

I spent four days on the Bukit Peninsula.  Visited the famous Uluwatu Temple and the Uluwatu surf beach.  Also Padang-Padang, Bingin, and Balangan beaches.  These are among several beaches on a line between Jimbaran and Uluwatu.  Balangan was my favorite.  The others were over-built.

I stayed two nights in a rented house in Balangan village, and another two nights in room in a warung right on the beach.  The building was all bamboo and raised up on poles.  At high tide the waves roll up underneath.

The beaches are white sand, lots of coral, great snorkeling and great surfing.  Most of the breaks are for advanced surfers, but Balangan has room for beginners.

nothing is good

Let go of judgement. Nothing is good or bad.
I have been implementing this by judging everything good. "It's all good."
It's easy to let go of bad, but now I must let go of good also. Nothing is good or bad.
Why do I want to do this? Because I seek peace, and I believe letting go of judgement is key to gaining peace. And peace is good. Whoa! If peace is neither good nor bad, then why should I seek it, so why should I let go of judgement?  A circular contradiction.  Typical!

I already know the answer to this. It is a contradiction only in the world of logic, and there are many other worlds beside logic.

Sanur

Sanur was a big crowded beach city.  I spent one night and skedaddled.  I was there on a Sunday, and evidently Sunday mornings and evenings all the locals come to the beach to play and socialize.  That evening the beach was jammed with Indonesians.  I walked 4 km down the beach sidewalk, past one restaurant after another.

Gili Air

I stayed on Gili Air for two days and fell in love with snorkeling.  I was looking for surf, but found snorkeling.  I was on the south shore of the island.  There is a shelf so the water is two or three feet deep for about a half mile out.  Then it suddenly drops to twenty or thirty feet deep.  That's where the surf breaks.  I swam out there snorkeling and it was just so beautiful.  This was my third day of snorkeling, the first two being at Hidden Beach in Padang Bai, and I was by now relaxed and comfortable, and I could have stayed out there swimming forever.

Snorkeling is also a great companion to surfing.  The shape of the bottom determines the shape of the wave.

Surf in Indonesia is always on the south side of the islands because the swell is coming from the Indian Ocean.  The wind generally blows from west to east during the rainy season, November to April, and the opposite direction during the dry season, May to October.  Surfers like an offshore breeze, so they surf the southeast side of Bali during the rainy season, and the southwest side during the dry season.

The only business on Gili Air is the tourist bungalos around the perimeter of the island.  All food and supplies have to be brought over by boat.  And there are few choices of where to eat, so little price competition.  I found everything expensive, at least double what you would pay on the mainland.

I managed to find rooms within my budget, but only by forgoing quality.  My first room, the door lock did not work.  So I moved to a second room and while taking a shower the shower nozzel broke off in my hand.  These things could not be fixed right away because someone would have to take a boat to the mainland to get parts.

I had a plasic bag of peanuts in my pants pocket.  During the night a rat ate through the pants and the bag and ate all the peanuts.  The pants were laying on my bed.  I don't know if this happened during the night while I was asleep on the bed, or during the daytime while I was out.  At least I was not wearing the pants at the time.

More pictures and movies at Picasa

Kuningen

Kuningen, the last day of Galugan, visiting family and friends, going to temple.
Photos at Picasa

good or bad

...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so.
                                                                      - Shakespear, Hamlet

Local friends

Wayan, Dewa, and Rojes.

Galugan

The town of Ubud is decorated with panjars for Galugan.

Photos and videos at Picasa

Gunung Kawa non-tourist

Wayan showed me this area up the same river valley from the more well-known Gunung Kawa.

Pictures at Picasa

Gunung Kawa

Ancient temples carved out of the rock wall of the river valley.  Popular tourist spot.

More pictures

Cremation

A major priest died in Ubud and they held a procession and ceremony for his cremation. Several hundred people walked about a mile following the parade to the temple grounds where the cremation took place. This clip opens as men have carried the priest's casket up a stair to place it on a portable tower, one of four "parade floats": a white bull, a black bull, and two towers. When we got to the temple grounds, they moved the body of the deceased out of his casket and into the white bull. The priests ministered to the body for a long while and then they closed up the bull statue and lit it on fire. They also burned the black bull and I don't know what was inside there.

I let the camera roll for long periods to capture the music. There are four orchestras participating, each from a different temple. They play drums, cymbals, and gongs. They are rigged to walk in the parade, and indeed they sound like a marching band to me.  They continued playing in the temple grounds, taking turns. There is a shot of a marching band at 2:37 minutes in, and a different orchestra, seated in the temple grounds, at 5:07.

to improve humanhood

The advancing student will gradually relinquish his attempts to improve humanhood or to improve beliefs in order that the truth of spiritual existence may unfold in his consciousness.

- Joel S. Goldsmith. The Infinite Way (pp. 66-67). Kindle Edition.

Navigational statues

When I'm on my motorbike I never know where the hell I am. There are only two street signs for every street, one at each end. So I'm learning that these statues are built as navigational aides on the major intersections.
navigational statues

The Pirate Bay press release on SOPA

The Pirate Bay press release on SOPA:

...our rules are very similar to the founding ideas of the USA. We fight for freedom of speech. We see all people as equal. We believe that the public, not the elite, should rule the nation. We believe that laws should be created to serve the public, not the rich corporations.

...The Pirate Bay is truly an international community. The team is spread all over the globe - but we've stayed out of the USA... Why the US government want the american people to be fed with trash is beyond our imagination but we hope that you will stop them, before we all drown.

...The reason they are always complaining about "pirates" today is simple. We've done what they did... We've proven that their existence in their current form is no longer needed.

http://static.thepiratebay.org/legal/sopa.txt

Kopi Luwak

Kopi Luwak.  In Indonesian, kopi means "coffee", and luwak means "gullible tourist".  I went to this coffee farm yesterday.  I followed a winding gravel path through the jungle, though looking closely, most of the jungle plants were planted in rows, and along the path were labels like in a solarium.  They grow coffee beans, vanilla beans, and cacao beans.  They also grow lemons, lemon grass, ginger, and ginseng, and they use all these to make coffees and teas for export, all organic.

The piece de resistance is the kopi luwak.  A special expert picks the best of the Bali coffee beans.  This expert is a mongoose.  The mongoose is a coffee connoisseur.  Give him a bowl of Bali coffee beans and he will eat only the best ones.  These chosen beans travel through the mongoose, the digestive tract removes the fruit of the bean and the seed portion comes out the other end where it is reharvested, cleaned and roasted, and sold for an obscenely premium price.  Here at the the farm it was $5 a cup and it was delicious.

By the way, did you know, there are 6000 species of coffee.  Some coffee beans are male and some are female.  The males have a stronger flavor.

Balinese coffee is ground fine and made like hot chocolate.  No filter or press or perk.  Just pour hot water into a cup with a spoonful of ground coffee and stir.  Umm.

the ways of truth and love have always won

"When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it--always."
Mahatma Gandhi

Buzz cut

After six weeks in Bali I needed a haircut.  So I selected the cheapest beauty salon I could find, also with the cutest proprietor, and asked can you cut my hair, I get a buzz cut with a number 3 foot.  She says yes, and proudly pulls the electric clipper out of the drawer to show it to me.  It's from Thailand.  She says the person who is expert on the clipper will be here later on.  Come back at 2.

So I come back at 2 and she's in the other room giving a massage.  I was met instead by a twelve-year-old boy and his younger sister.  They invited me in, offered me a place to sit, put the apron around my neck.  I thought oh this is nice they are prepping me and the barber will be here soon.  But nope, the twelve-year-old is the barber.  I had to help him get the foot on the clipper.  Had he ever done this before?  Good lord.  I held my breath and let him do it.  Actually I think it looks pretty good.  And for a dollar fifty, it fits my budget.  I'll probably go back.  We're all good friends now.

gecko

I've never seen this guy.  I hear him at night.  He's up above my ceiling somewhere.  He does this about every 40 minutes through the night.  He starts with an introductory tapping, and then he says gecko eight or nine times.  At least some people think it sounds like he's saying "gek koooo".  One night it sounded to me like he was sneezing, "a chooo".  Mostly though it sounds to me like a Donald Duck version of "fuk youuu".

Street festival dance performance

On New Years Eve I was wandering around and found a street festival.  A man explained to me, as near as I can understand, it was to commemorate the new pavement of the street, and also to celebrate the New Year.

There was an orchestra of 14 men, seated on the ground, playing drums, gamelans and flutes.  Three females danced, one at a time.  This was traditional Balinese dancing, which is derived from Hindu forms, with the fascinating body postures, hand positions, eye and head movements, and facial expressions.  It was a fun, neighborhood event.  Each woman danced for awhile and then went into the audience to pick a male partner to dance with, to the uproarious laughter of the crowd.  One dancer picked a westerner to join her, yes, yours truly.

It appeared to be a potluck.  Women kept showing up with additional plates of food which were laid out on two tables.  I was invited multiple times to dig in.

Fireworks were going off all over town all night and they reached a crescendo at midnight, which I viewed from the three-story rooftop restaurant, Black Beach.