Tropical Getaway in Bali - Part Two

"So what can we do about the craziness of the world"
"Nothing." Ketut laughed, but with a dose of kindness. "This is nature of world. This is destiny. Worry about your craziness only - make you in peace."
- Eat Prey Love 

I mentioned in previous posts that I wanted my second Weekly Challenge to be Meditate every day for 1 hour. I realise now that this was a pretty ambitious task, not really having spent too much time doing meditation and also being on holidays with all the distractions.  

I did try a couple of times. One attempt was thwarted by sheer sleepiness. Not realising how much I needed to just give myself a break - my head kept nodding and rolling before I even noticed I had drifted off.

The second time was literally chased back inside by a teeny-tiny bat!! I had gotten myself all settled, looking rather like a tipi wrapped up in a blanket to hide from the mozzies, I closed my eyes and tried to settle into a mantra when I was suddenly aware of something zoooooooming back and forth over my head. I opened my eyes, but it had gone.. so I tried to regain focus, but then there is was again!

A little bit worried at this point so I sat in stillness with my eyes open - there it WAS!! A little bat. It would go out into the trees at the back of the yard and then zoom in right above my head and back out.

Not having had any of my vaccinations before coming to Bali, I freaked out and ran inside.

Of course I started beating myself up - can't even focus to meditate, only week 2 of my challenges and I had already failed. During the day I was reading Eat, Prey, Love and I came across the quote that I started this blog with today. It really struck a chord with me.

I had noticed how hard it can be to enjoy your holiday when surrounded by so many tourists of different cultural backgrounds and beliefs and everybody wanting to make their own vacation the best it can be, sometimes people can come across as rude or belligerent in trying to achieve this for themselves and their families, but I realised you can either get swept up in a flurry of negativity and let it ruin your holiday or can just let it go and focus on your own behaviour.

So, I decided that for this week I would instead focus on this one little idea all week. With the hopes of bringing this feeling back to Sydney. And even just practising it once or twice you realise how good it feels to not spend the next hour complaining because someone pushed in front of you at the exhibit, but instead to just let it go and to instead by mindful of other people around you.

Also Balinese temperament makes this easier to achieve, they come across as incredibly easy going not vengeful or aggressive. As one of our drivers, also called Ketut (this would be mind-blowingly coincidental if I didn't know that 'Ketut' just means 'Number 4 Child') spoke to us about the thing that makes Hinduism a wonderful religion to him is the fact that you are supposed to practise giving, rather than just taking or asking for something. Little offerings are put out the front of shops and taken to temples several times throughout the day.

Ketut incidentally also things this is what keeps Bali safe from natural disasters - of which Indonesia had earthquake, volcano eruption AND tsunami all in the one week whilst we were over there. Bali didn't get effected by any of it. Anyway, I digress...

It was a really nice feeling to practice especially when sometimes my family (myself very much included) can all get swept up in reactionary, emotional responses to (often unintentional) negetive energy. And this response can be just as bad, if not worse, than whatever it was that upset you in the first place.

So this one I will definitely be putting practice, now that I am back in Sydney. I think we would all be a lot happier working on our own "craziness" rather than focusing on what other people should or shouldn't be doing. And I haven't given up on the idea of making meditation a weekly challenge either, I think attending the local Satsang a few more times and a bit more self-education. Soon to come.