Eveline Ullmer and Peter Zipser are students of Zentatsu Richard Baker who spend half time in Bali and half in their native Germany. They recently returned. We had a charming morning together. Here's an email they just sent out from their sanctuary on the north side of the island.
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Hallo dear friends
may we share some impressions with you?
Tiny moments of our everyday life in our bali hermitage.
Its dry season. Time of the falling leaves and getting warmer and warmer.
We already fully recovered from a tenacious summerflu. tired, quickly exhausted and always with headache, so feelings and perception remain easily stuck, entangle within all what doesn’t go so well, stuck within concerns and difficulties.
so we had to practice
the big broom:
Sweep away the dry leaves.
no expectations,
not comparing,
no ideas
Stars dropping from the sky. Quiet peaceful garden.
Step by step by step by step the naked feet find the way through the garden.
The very first sunlight creeping into the zendo through the narrow chinks in the bamboo wall.The bells, the mokogyo, our voices
Sitting on the outdoor bale porch at study time, our teachers voice from lecture on the computer is as loud as the bumblebee buzzing in buddha’s flowers.
Little friend, the limping dove on the warm shale stone slabs opens its wing towards the sun.
A swarm of tiny moskitos dances up an down in front of the fan palm.
Our shy fish in the pond flipping so incredibly gently staying in place.
Smelling Incense- the very sweet heavy Balinese odeur around and our familiar johof sandalwood. Caressing the hurting knees.
Ooh - an unknown song? A new bird in our garden? ... or a telephone in the ricefield?
Cooking rice on our solar cooker
Crushing creaky cardamom pods in the mortar and inhaling the spicy fragrance, deeply filling my lungs with it.
Digging my feet in the hot sand.
Children's voices, laughters in the murmur of the sea
My body floating on the waves. Water and air equally warm.
Slow motions in <bottomless calmness> being heaven and ocean
Cashews are ripe. the tree is full of shiny red bells.
Intense sweet smell over long distance. We cook a puree from the tasty fruits.
Sun and heat in the face, mild seabreeze
Always barefoot . . . meeting
feeling tickling grass, stone slabs, gravel.
Salty sweatdrops on my lips.
The sound of tractor plows in the wetlands beside the river.
a swarm of bees has ensconced itself in our wooden electrical box.
The striped bronzeback viper catched a frog.
O o o o o o ooo cool drops on the naked skin. The first tender rain here since half a year.
27 rain droplets - and that was it already ? Very dry season. Mountains of dry leafs.
Bouginvilleas bloom profusely even throughout the driest brushwood.
Carefully watered day after day, our garden is lush green.
Tailorbirds trill.
Dogs barking. Night falls so quickly!
And what is this rattling noise in the darkness
from right to left across our stone path? A snail shell !!. .?
A snail so loudly clattering?? And so fast?
Aah, look, the shell is inhabited by a hermitcrab!
The fresh crescent on the western evening sky.
Thin Silver bowl, exactly balanced lying on his back
Keeping the dim dark ball. Granting refuge
Just as the mudra of our hands.
All the best of this time to you
Love and take care!
Eveline and Peter
