Pray Dance Play

PRAY

Seven AM Day 4, found us all gathered at Gaia Oasis temple in our traditional attire, learning how to pray Balinese style, in the way that everyone here does each morning with offerings of flowers, food, water and prayers in the temples that all have in their homes.

The photo shows the outer temple where we sat on cushions while our guide Eta entered in and gave flowers, water and rice to the three smaller temples inside, then to the outer guardian temple and the entrance. Then as we sat with a lighted incense stick in the ground before us and a little banana leaf packet with a handful of flowers for each of us, we accompanied his Sanskrit chanting by first raising an empty hand above our heads, then with a white or yellow flower and then placing it behind our right ear. Then we raised a multicolored flower and placed it in our hair. Then a gathering of several flowers which also went to our hair. One last prayer with our hands empty. This was followed by him sprinkling each of us with water and placed a few grains of rice on our foreheads and chest, easily sticking there due to our perpetual state of sweating, which has mostly become not so noticeable. Then we concluded with all of us chanting together Om shanti shanti shanti Om. All of it blessing our coming day for balance within the natural rhythms of the world.

DANCE
Mid morning we gathered in the seminar center, all very open-air (no air conditioning here anywhere) and met Ida, a master dance teacher in her late 70s and a master gamelan teacher who taught us in the afternoon, along with a lovely 21 year old dancer who trains with Ida. After demonstrating some of the basic movements of hands, feet and body, they helped us all have a chance to practice and especially to appreciate why children start learning the dance at 3-4 years of age. What may look easy is in fact extremely challenging, we can all attest to. However, We now know how to send a message of power to anyone with a glance of our eyes, a raising of eyebrow, tipping of the head, and raising of the shoulders. Dance is part of the religious life here, a fundamental of spiritual training that everyone learns and considers vital.

PLAY
Afternoon we traveled by car for 5 minutes to the community cultural center, this day a gamelan studio, as well as a badminton court. So while we chimed away on our various percussive instruments, a group of 6 boys played badminton in the background. Again, we are in humble admiration for the artistry, precision and completely foreign to Western ears sound of the Balinese gamelan orchestra. Our rhythmic beating of the various instruments blended into a sound of harmony at some points so that we had a direct taste of the artistry of our teachers.  Video clip below of one of the demonstrations by our teachers.