Keutut said he could answer my question with a picture. He showed me a sketch he'd drawn once during a meditation. It was an androgynous human figure, standing up, hands clasped in prayer. But this figure had four legs, and no head. Where the head should have been, there was only a wild foliage of ferns and flowers. There was a small, smiling face drawn over the heart.
"To find the balance you want," Ketut spoke through his translator, "this is what you must become. You must keep your feet grounded so firmly on the earth that it's like you have four legs, instead of two. That way, you can stay in the world. But you must stop looking at the world through your head. You must look through your heart, instead. That way, you will know God."
This is a passage from the book, Eat Pray Love by Elizabeth Gilbert when she met with a medicine man in Indonesia. I think it is a wonderful picture and explanation of something that I also struggle with.
Where is the balance between living your life for God and enjoying earthly pleasures, between devotion to God and devotion to yourself. I am far from the best Christian, I know this. I am too selfish and still very immature. I know the growth and changes I need to make in my life but I have failed to do so.
I guess, according to Ketut (which by the way would be so awesome to meet a medicine man like Ketut and for this and many other reasons I am completely jealous of Elizabeth Gilbert), I need to stay grounded while looking at the world through my heart instead of my head. Duly noted and applied... next step?
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