"Pay Attention" I was told, at 6am by our guide, Agung Rai as we walked through the rice fields of Ubud, Indonesia. In the excitement of travel and acclimating to a new place and reality you can always miss things. "Listen" he said... and the words of Joni Mitchell's Woodstock "And we've got to get ourselves back to the garden" came to my mind as I heard water, birds, roosters, ducks and dogs.
It all starts with the waters systems, from 300 BC, that rival any engineering feat I have ever seen, and then you add the villagers who farm the rice which sustains them, whose children see every day where their sustenance comes from, who take great pride in their homes, constantly cleaning, brooming and honoring their family temples... (from mud huts to more elaborate stone compounds) watching their mothers and fathers and grandparents working the soil, flooding the paddies, feeding their ducks in the paddies on the leftover rice from the previous harvest and then naturally fertilizing the paddies with the duck droppings, then flooding, pulling and plowing this fertile wet soil with the cows that they don't kill because they work to help make the rice, to the painstaking planting of individual rice clusters, (imagine hair plugs) and then the natural dance of growth and defense from nature's predators to the harvest and drying and then and only then eating. Add the myriad offerings, ceremonies, festivals and celebrations and what you get is family. They celebrate birth, a three month old's first time where their feet touch the ground, harvests, rice, weddings and yes, death. They pray in silence so that everyone is welcome to pray to whomever they want to. When they cut down a tree, they plant a new one to honor the one cut down. They work in small community units, Bangars... remember the political jokes levied about Obama's community organizing background... Agung Rai talked about our Western belief in reality, Sakala. He spoke of his belief in Niskala, the unseen, the intangible and then he dropped the big one..." When things are bad, share with others."
"Pay Attention" he said. As I stood at the highest point in the farmland of Indonesia watching the sun come up there in the distance were the cell towers. Dotted every visual ten feet and of course forever ruining the vista. The buzz and drone of the motorbikes which are ubiquitous in Bali and the trash which was what I brought back as my "How am I changed by my trip and what am I going to do differently?" After seeing the amount of trash I decided (I know better late than never) to not buy anymore plastic bottles of water, drinks etc." I asked him about why there was such attention to home village beauty and care and such widespread trash and plastic and he said:
"You have to teach the young people one thing at a time." The pulls away from that culture is even happening in the villages of Bali.
"Pay Attention... Life, is not mathematical," he said. Back here at home I am seeing his words play out every day. Iran's nascent revolution is not mathematical. Jon and Kate-is-enough and the obscenity that is children on reality TV is not mathematical. Raising children is not mathematical. Being married is not mathematical. Even rice, simple rice and how it is farmed is not mathematical. It is intangible. Unknown...
Our children need to see us all work hard. To take care of our home environments and the environment around us. Obama's message of family unity and gardening is fundamental to continuing these village legacies. Hilary Clinton wrote: It Takes a Village. I was lucky enough to see this first hand, only because of the generosity of Agung Rai's time and patience and deep love for what he understands IS the fundamental connection we all make. Families. Working together. Interconnected. Interdependent. Natural. Beautiful. Breathtaking.
PAY ATTENTION!
In the book that I wrote about the constant competition that our children face every day; Is There Really a Human Race? a mother answers her son's query with these words.
Sometimes it's better not to go fast. There are beautiful sights to be seen when you're last. Shouldn't it be that you just try your best and that's more important than beating the rest? Shouldn't it be looking back at the end that you judge your own race by the help that you lend? So, take what's inside you and make big, bold choices and for those who can't speak for themselves, use bold voices and make friends and love well, bring art to this place and make the world better for the whole human race.
Agung Rai runs a foundation to bring village children into art classes and offers them free of charge. If you get a chance and are in Ubud, Indonesia check out ARMA, The Agung Rai Museum of Art and take a tour with Agung Rai into the heart of the art... the farms and villages and rice fields where the water flows and the art begins.
At least I have my memories of growing up on the farm where the night skies were indeed a sight to behold.
"She had finally discovered the answer to the problem of work and life, which was to give up the former and share the latter with as many people as possible."
"Going Loco" Lynn Truss
As you know, American Indidans had a different view of the world, after killing an animal for food they thanked the animal for it's life..for the sacrifice it made so that the Indian could survive.
And up until relatively recently...about 40 years ago, the American Indian could look up at night and see a vast number of stars, meteor showers, comets and The Aurora Borealis, as well as a few other things....
Today, most of us can not see these sights....not that the Universe has gone away...but that we have decided wastefully, to light the night sky so that we have replaced the beauty God created with our own feeble and non creative light.
We forget that God, is not only found in The Bible, but his works also....
Though maybe, there is something that can be learnt about life, from math.
1+1 = 2
But 1+1 = 10
An apparent anathema.
Though nevertheless affirmable.
The matter merely being dependant, on the rendition being revered as reality.
9 x 6 = 42
And don't forget your towell.
and 1 + 1 still equals 2
if you were trying to say 1 + 0, then,
1 + 0 still equals only 1
So what is the point of this?
This waters system works because it is "mathematical".
As for our children, they are behind in the global competition because they do not understand the "mathematical".
Life's wonders are not limited to the fuzzy and undefinable, scientific advancement for the good of all men and the thrill of scientific discovery are often very "mathematical".
You set up a false dichotomy between what you valuable/beautiful/spiritual and "mathematical", but in truth many of the wonders you are speaking of are founded on mathematical relationships (e.g. the configuration of colors in a sunset).
Our brain uses mathematics implictly even if we don't know it at the time.
Oh, Great Goddess and Great Spirit for they are all part of CH'I , let me always be aware that the web that connects each to me weaves its tapestry throughout my being uniting me with all for separateness is an illusion and all things are CH'I and may I always rest content in the arms of the unfolding universe.
Ohm Great Goddess and Great Spirit for they are all part of CH'I, empty my vessel and remove all fear, doubt, anger, hate, grudges and cynicism so that you may fill me completely with your spirit and vision of a humanity that will embrace a spirituality that holds all things sacred so that the healing of humanity and the earth may begin.
Oh, Great Goddess and Great Spirit for they are all part of CH'I, thank you for guiding me thus far on my life's journey. Guide me this day spiritually, mentally, physically and emotionally that I may be in tune with thee and learn the lessons thou has to teach me that I may know the harmony, unity, wholeness and inconnectedness of all things in thy seamless web of life where everything belongs and there is nothing lost and becoming, transformation, regeneration, recreation, mutation, evolution and change is the way of all things.
Oh, Great Goddess and Great Spirit for they are all part of CH'I, let me always be aware that you are always above me, within me, surrounding me and engulfing me and there are no barriers, separations or boundaries in the realm of CH'I in harmony of yin and yang.
Oh, Great Goddess and Great Spirit for they are all part of CH'I, may I always be aware that I am my own work: I am the canvas, I am the paint, I am the artist....and only to the extent that I prepare myself may I receive thy abundant blessings that I may be a blessing to others and may I always be aware that we are all prisoners of preconditioning and only through self cultivation, self discipline and meditation may we break free of that prison so that we may grow in enlightenment and find our spiritual path.
As they got out of their car, they began cleaning their car's interior by throwing out McDonalds bags and cups onto the street. In broad day light, with people who live in the neighborhood watching. After they finished cleaned, the mother waved to her friend who was standing outside watching and waiting to greet her. No one seemed to mind one bit.
I just moved to this neighborhood, but I have seen children playing on streets littered with trash. It is especially heart wrenching to see the adults setting a bad example for the kids.