Making my own canang sari

In Bali, the place I have the pleasure of being at this moment in time, there is the practice of making offerings known as 'canang sari' three times per day...

It is basically a ritual of giving back what has been given to you by the Gods. It is a sharing that is not based upon fear, but on gratitude to the richness of life. Offering appeases the spirits and brings prosperity and good health to the family. It is a duty and an honour at the same time, and in Balinese perspective a very natural and almost logical thing to maintain a good relationship between people and spirits....Essentially all things have a place and all relations between elements are ultimately what life and death are about. The smallest gestures have an impact and throughout time, maintaining a balanced relationship with spirits, people and nature is the key. So next time you stumble upon an offering tray, remember that it may seem like a small thing but the whole cosmos is related to it, so it's best not to step on it.

How simple it would be to enact this gratitude to the richness of life in our daily lives. Gratitude is so easily misplaced in the harried existences we live. It is my resolution to take home this simple practice to my daily life to outwardly express my gratitude rather than simply taking everything for granted ( I have taken to the habit of expressing gratitude every time I flush my toilet! What a joyous gift this machine is to a happy home!). 

I will make my canang sari from what I have at hand - incense, flowers, water, food - it doesn't matter so much. The act of enacting gratitude is what signals your intention to the Universe to live a joy-filled life.

Aha!

Beneath the hard, ego-driven exterior resides your enLIGHTened truth. Greater than any fear, sweeter than any addiction, more real than any thing you see with your eyes. Breath it into being through the temple that is your Earthly being. Bring the physical body into balance and the Soul will start to sing with gratitude and awakening.

Happiness

Are you happy?

What a question. Have you taken an inventory lately? Checks and balances on the happy/unhappy scale? Are all the boxes ticked in the 'must-do' list of creating happiness? And yet, still the moments of happiness sit with you for such a short time before something, anything, comes along to snatch it away.

Why is happiness so ephemeral, so fleeting?

Perhaps all that is needed is a shift in perspective. Happiness is a gift you can only give to yourself. Intending your actions to create happiness for others, or even waiting upon others' actions to bring you happiness, are both redundant means to being happy.

Happiness is a gift you can only give yourself. And how do you do that? There is but one way to gift yourself with happiness in a manner that is not fleeting. To know happiness from the moment your eyes open to the minute you fall asleep (and most likely in your dreams) is to be full of gratitude for your life exactly as it is. To be overflowing with thanks for the opportunity of your life. Can you do that? It is a practice of discipline and focus. It is a state of mind. But do not doubt that it is from this state of mind that the riches of the Universe are drawn towards you. Gratitude is the lubricant of the Soul and only when it is flowing can all that is yours be drawn towards you.

As Chin-Ning Chu states in her book Secrets of the Rainmaker, "Next time when people ask you, 'Are you happy?' answer, 'Yes, I am happy, even when I am not happy.' Be unlike most people who live in such a way that even when they are happy, they are unhappy."

Give yourself permission to know happiness. It is a mental state. It is a gift given to the Self. Be that gift through gratitude for all that you are in this very moment.