For those reading, this may come as a surprise, but I have recently moved to Bali and am now based just outside Canggu. I am designing a Mindful Leadership programme for an international university here, to help teach students how to integrate mindfulness-based practices into business leadership.
And while that is a most exciting prospect, there’s another reason altogether that I’ve come to Bali – to get back to the real roots of practice and the real roots of the dharma (teachings) and the Dao (way). Living in the urban metropolis of K.L, I felt like I really lost contact with who I was as a practitioner of the dharma. I was finding it harder and harder to integrate my inner practice into my outer environment. And over the two years I was there, I became more and more disconnected from my inner self and the needs of nourishment for that inner self. It was the classic story of doing good work for others, without listening to what I really needed inside.
And that can be the issue with working 9-5 in concrete jungles: you get good at ignoring those inner needs that provide nourishment for the body/mind. I know it’s a cliché, but I now can understand more why so many people suffer so much in big fast-paced cities.
I needed nourishment. And for me was to be closer to nature, moving more slowly, listening to the body’s needs more, and not working over-time all the time. Having gaps and space to breathe in and out. Recovering from what quickly became a burn-out lifestyle.
Although the Dao of Now is prefaced on integrating our practices into modern day, urban living, I could no longer do it. And I had to take a step back from that. I wanted to return to a more agrarian form of living, a village pace of life, and somewhere between hipster tourism, and traditional rice fields, Bali might just offer that space for me and the practice I’m committed to. This next blog series, like all my blog posts, is an investigation into documenting how I’ll integrate the "Dharma and Dao", into daily living here in Bali. And the good news: the Balinese are experts at it. So there are teachers all around, on every corner, practicing motorcycle meditation, or giving offerings and incense on door steps.
And so another adventure begins. And my bi-weekly posts and upcoming vlog, (see tea stall) hope to document that.
Deep bows,
Rem
