Good morning . Ah, coffee in the lobby. I am glad that my mind arrived yesterday to Bali with me. It was as if my body arrived first and parts of me arrived a bit later. I love the people here. They are very kind, and happy. We had a lesson yesterday on Balinese Hindu religion. Our teacher was a man of 70. His name is Dewa Nyoman Batuan. We read about a museum that offered classes and wanted to try to understand the essence of what was all around us. He was like a shaman and from his first word he had us like children with a good father. He said, "Because I talk to you, I make offering." He brought beautiful flowers and palm baskets and little palm faces. He said his prayers and sprinkled the offerings with water. Then he said, "Now, we can talk." He made sense of the world in an hour and a half. He is a painter. Balance. Finding the balance between the good in you and the bad in you. The good in the world and the bad. He said God is happy and God is laughter and thankfulness. In Bali you get food for your spirit and food for your mind, and food for body. In Bali they have ceremonies of thankfulness for everything. Your home, your car, your work, your family etc. Each family has a temple. When he described a ceremony for a car he said the materials come from God, we are thankful to have it to get from here to there. It is out of balance to think,I have the best car. That is not the purpose of the car. I love that!

Three things will make you happy. What you think, what you talk and what you do.

When the are honest and are balanced with each other you will be happy. He said if you think one thing and do another and talk another, you will not be happy.

When people strive for money and they work only for money, they forget they only live 100 years and they are earning enough money for 100 lifetimes. Ha.

He talked about life being a circle. Brahma: birth, Vishnu: Life, Sewah: death. You start as a dot and you end as a dot.

Today is the cremation ceremony. We have seen evidence of the preparations all over. Everyone is talking about it. We will see today!!!!!

The hotel is wonderful, the food is wonderful. We are most welcome and most people speak English.

They have rice patties(sp?) here, but evidently the more terraced ones are a little bit farther away.Oops, rice field pic was supposed to go here. Today is a good day for a cremation.