The sacred nature of daily life in Bali

On Ritual (part 5) An inheritance from the old world

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In the 1930s, Margaret Mead went to live in Bali for a couple of years to study Balinese culture. She and fellow anthropologist (and later-husband-to-be!) Gregory Bateson set out to explore the role of culture in forming personality. Mead is one of my imaginal ancestors - one of the greats who forms part of my pantheon, so you can imagine how excited I was to be where she had been, and see what she saw.

Culture absolutely shapes personality.

When I first arrived in Bali, my prayer was for peace. It’s a little cliché, I know. But is there really anything more imperative? Elizabeth Gilbert called it “balance” in her novel. She was looking for her balance.

I didn’t set out on a spiritual quest that took me to search for some kind of peace in Bali. I went there, initially, for a visa run. And decided to turn it into a solo writing retreat to finalise my manuscript. And then, like all journeys, it became something else entirely. And as I wrote last week, I ended up meeting a Balinese healer who became my teacher and initiated me into the Balinese tradition.

I found my beloved Zorro, the Balinese puppy, abandoned on the street and spent a week that felt like a lifetime with him before finding him a loving Balinese home (in which, for those of you who have been following, he is very happy!)

The gifts from my time there will keep on giving. I prayed for peace, and I was given flowers and I was given thorns.

When I say peace, I suppose I mean an inner stability that is accessible more than it isn’t. I’m not so naive (anymore!) to think that inner peace is a lasting state. Unless we are a rose or an oak tree, it’s not.