One of the things I love most about Bali are the water purification rituals.
Every day, Balinese people take part in this rite which involves being sprinkled with holy water, drinking it three times and then washing three times. It’s a simple, but powerful ritual to ward off spiritual and energetic gunk that has stuck to you. This could be from an angry confrontation, some evil spirits grabbing you, a bad dream or some bad thoughts or feelings you may be having about yourself or someone else.
Whatever it is, you can use this ritual to get rid of it…to let it go. We sometimes dismiss such rituals in the west, but they can be effective ways of first acknowledging that detritus is sticking to you and then dealing with it or simply letting it wash away.
The act of letting this junk go is what reminded me of Nirvana. And there is a link to the main point of this blog (Kindness, Compassion and Unconditional Love). Because these practices often require letting go of some useless stuff like anger, expectations, and keeping track of whose right and wrong. It’s impossible to be kind and compassionate if you’re pissed off at someone. In fact, the best marriage advice I ever heard was from a retired general we met in India who said: “Best thing for a good marriage is a sense of humor and a bad memory.”
The Balinese are practical folks. They get that everyday sprinkling of purification may not be enough if you’re experiencing some big problem. Sometimes the whole village needs to get cleansed from some bad stuff going around. All the villagers might load into the truck and vans and head over to a water temple like Tirta Empul to get clean from the bad energy of a neighborly dispute. I once witnessed a woman who had been possessed being taken to a temple by her family to be cleansed. The evil spirit writhed, twisted and fought against getting dunked into the holy water. It was like a scene from the Exorcist. The demon resisted and the lady flailed about until her husband dunked her in and she spit the evil thing out. Took about ten minutes in all, but she exited the water clean and free of what had possessed her.
Which makes me think about our country. Perhaps we all need a ritual cleanse. So haul yourself down to the beach or jump in a pool and wash that evil joojoo coming from DC and Mar A Lago off….at a safe distance of course. But get it off you…scrub well…maybe scream some of the frustration out…and then hit the streets to boot the devil out, so we can scrub the WH clean.
Sorry for the political moment…
Canti,
Pak Dave
