Moving Towards or Running From

“What brought you to Bali?” Maurus asks.

“I, well, I was, I wanted I…” launch into a too long story about needing respite from working too much, transitioning in my teaching, wondering what’s next, a breakup….”

“Are you moving away from something, or towards something?” he asks.

“I, well, I guess …both?” I say, not sure which.

“Because, moving away from something is out of fear, and moving towards something is done from love.”

We’ve been talking for awhile already, in fact, I have spent a combined total of 7 hours in the desa seni café _-really an indoor/outdoor joglo (an open aired structure with a four pillared inner area), participating in the most amazing satsangs.

7 hours.

Talkingswith various groups of people with topics ranging from enlightenment, to a shifting world consciousness, to ayahuasca, to pineal gland (of course), to boys, to business, to Avatar.

Yes, people here too are obsessed with Avatar. And no, I haven’t seen it yet.

Maurus is a delightful man from Sydney, whom I had noticed earlier in the day happily laying about in his sarong by the pool with a sublime grin on his face. I thought ,”this man is wealthy, this man is happy, this man knows something.”

Later, during my class in the yoga pavilion, he wandered down and sat ,not watching, but listening. “This man knows something,” I thought (Doing my best Ram Dass impersonation in my head).

Later, in the café, sharing conversation with him and Andree (another transitioning expat), the conversation meandered into Bali conjecture. A favorite end game topic that often includes everything. Like why, WHY does everyone seem to come here to get what they need, and leave completely transformed in one way or another.

“Bali,” Maurus says, “ is a node of the universe. People are often coming here in search of something, moving toward, or running away from something escaping.”

Well, that about sums it up. And this, he will later explain accounts for the positive light energies, the healers, the seekers, the visionaries, the green, recycling optimistic international community, yogis, meditators, creators, as well as the darker energies, the ruthless business people, the drug dealers, and double dealers, the black magic, the self absorbed hedonists .

Both exist, side by side on this tiny island, and somehow (another favorite topic of conjecture) this island tends to crash you up against the exact forces you need. I’m not sure if the honeymooners, tourists, two-week retreater get this far into it. I only, just now, in the last three days, turned a major corner myself, like the fever breaking, and all of a sudden the clouds parted and I’m in a different perch of consciousness.

Maurus , as it turns out is/was a business man- of the multi-house variety, I’m guessing from the things he’s not saying ,that he was stupid rich, “I used to lecture on business, and success, and do real-estate and investments until I threw a big typhoon in it…now I’m looking at abundance of a different kind…”

His mind is sharp and he catches all my references, which is refreshing , as does Andree, Thank you god, so hard to keep explaining who Ken Wilbur and Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche are…

Maurus writing a book about the game of life, and he speaks in simple power point ways: four steps, three tendencies, two ways- his mind understands the benefits of simplicity organization and maps. The exact inverse of the way Andree and I speak. He works to keep bringing us back to the point.

“I think enlightenment is a red herring..” he declares quite bluntly.

He goes on to explain his understanding of the purpose of life. Evolution. And because this is the purpose our purpose is creation. And thus we are compelled. We must, we absolutely are designed to create, and not only create but continuously reinvent and move forward.

“God wants to experience himself as other, it says in a Course on Miracles”

“The Kashmir Shaivites said that in the 10^th century” I say. I go on to explain to him the tantric cosmology. It turns out to be exactly what he’s intuited as the way universe works – Iccha, Jnana, Kriya .Will ,knowledge, action, compellingly combing to create the whole of creation in order for God to experience the totality of himself.

“We need align with that,” Maurus concludes.

I say, “Anusara.”

“I don’t know, “ I say, “If waking up is a red herring, I wonder how is someone to best express their purpose, their creation? Maybe seeing the big picture, the void, the everything is just halfway up the mountain. But knowing that, then create.”

It’s the classic vedantic verses tantric model, but I remember that in the morning.

“All you have to do, “ says Maurus “Is follow your heart, and that will lead you to your next creation.” And because he has a business background, he can bring in the most stunning references to evidence this.

“You know,there’s this example of Rupert Murdoch talking to a guy on an airplane that asks him, how did you do it, how did you create all that you have? Rupurt Murdoch looks at him and says, ‘I bet you, you’ve had to make two, maybe three important choices in your life: where to live, what to do for your career, who to marry,” The guy says, , “Yeah maybe two of those three,” Ruport Murdoch says, “And 50% of all your important decisions will work out. I have made two maybe three thousand such choices, 50% of which have worked out, and that is how I’ve created my life.”

“So, “Maurus concludes, “You’ve just got to create, because the logorithm of consciousness went from creating planets in 14 billion years, life in the last 2 million or so, an is exponentially speeding up. And it seems, it wishes to create to experience all the possibilities of itself, so if you create, at least 50% of those inventions will turn out.”

Apparently, that is exactly where Bali wanted me to be, to hear this, on this day, in this joglo, which I waited in for 7 hours, to have that piece of information delivered to my ears.