Seven months in this settling down thing. Seven months since we moved to the far north-eastern New South Wales, Australia. Rainbow Region, that’s what our area has been dubbed. Very apt, I’d say, as it has been colonised by flower power people since the 70s. So seven months of being around like-minded folks who are both eco-conscious and spiritual. How has it been?

Mystical, to say the least.

Daily strolls by the beach and by the river (both just less than two hundred metres from our house) plus occasional hinterland explorations have allowed me to recuperate from the stress of backpacking with a baby-toddler-child (she basically grew up ‘on the road’) for five years. These spontaneous, uncomplicated solo jaunts paved the way for my journey back to spirituality. A journey back to Buddhism.

When I was a college senior, I took up Asian Religions as one of my electives. The professor who taught the subject was one of my mentors in life. He introduced me to Buddhism, which I made a documentary about (Buddhism in the Philippines) for a project. I got fascinated with its principles. Buddhism is way more complex than the memes (with Buddha or yoga photos) we always see on our social media feed. It is not just karma and reincarnation and nirvana. There’s The Way of Inquiry, The Four Noble Truths, and The Eightfold Path and so much more… In which I kinda got lost back then. Consequently, I slowly drifted away from its teachings.

Meeting Master Jing Hui

Living in a spiritual intentional community with inhabitants from all walks of life, I get to learn something new — mostly cabbalistic — each day. I’ve come across the preachings of Master Jing Hui though a video shared to me recently. Master Jing Hui tirelessly worked to revive Buddhism within China. He wanted to break down the walls between devotion to Buddhist ideology and modern living, which basically means making Buddhism more “current”, more applicable to our daily lives. One of his principles that struck me most is “appreciating every grain of rice” which is something that Filipino parents would teach their kids. Something I have taught my daughter Luna. As is taught in Buddhism, Master Jing Hui reminded people to apply a calm, cool, and collected attitude to all things in life. No, I did not meet him personally. But it does feel like it, kinda how Buddhists feel like they’ve met Buddha when they’ve “seen the light”.

In my current search for inner peace, his words have resonated in me. My community has taught me to emanate and share positive energy because everyone deserves it, and so I felt the need to share this now. I’m happy to say that I am in a good place, literally and figuratively. I hope you find yourself in a good place too.