Sunday, February 18, 2007

6 days to go...

Several relatives and friends sent me good wishes for my trip.

I decided to take Eckart Tolle’s A New Earth with me. It seems appropriate to the purpose of my journey. And I already have some new ideas bubbling up for my next steps ahead.

That was this morning…. I arrived in Ubud around 11 at night, for the first time in the dark. Enjoyed nice flights on Singapore Airlines from Manila to Singapore and Singapore to Denpasar. Watched two interesting movies: The Good Year with Russell Crowe, set in the Provence, and an Italian movie The Days of Abandonment (Giorni dell’abbandano), set in Torino.

And I read the first chapters of Tolle’s book. It jibes with what I learned from other sources during the past year. I look forward to reading it more.

So what did I learn today? For most of the day, I was just relaxing on the journey. No specific lesson. But I was touched by Tolle’s message. He wrote about the beauty of flowers, that they call us to appreciate deeper consciousness, awakening. Normally we are preoccupied with form and matter. Because flowers are so delicate, they remind us of the world that has no form, they beckon us to see that world. Tolle wrote that “when you are alert and contemplate a flower, crystal, or bird without naming it mentally, it becomes a window for you into the formless.”

Well, a large heart of flowers was waiting for me on the bed tonight. The smell was delicate. I felt welcome.

Photograph: A floral welcome in Ubud.

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