Christmas gifts at Jiwa Damai

We are all searching. We travel around the world, we talk to people, we experience new situations, we learn and we do all these things in order to make peace with ourselves, with our heart, in order to align with our potential.

AtJiwa Damaiwe received a different gift this Christmas: knowledge. Dr. Margret Rueffler invited the interns, volunteers, staff and friends for a one-day seminar on Heart-Self Intelligence.

Hearth Self Intelligence Seminar 1

We could describe it in carefully crafted words on a blog post but it is something one can only experience it if one allows its heart to do so. Come visit us, you’ll understand why! Or find out more about our internship programthat individually guides our participants on their path to self-development while completing their project.

Hearth Self Intelligence Seminar 2

More photos on Jiwa Damai Facebook Page.

Hearth Self Intelligence Seminar 3

Tropical Christmas at Jiwa Damai

No matter how far, how hot or how different it may be from where you usually celebrate it, as soon as the last week of the year approaches you start longing for Christmas. So even if you are in the tropical parts of the planet, as we are here, at Jiwa Damai, in sunny Bali, there are still things you can do to calm that wish of a white Christmas.

But since we’re pretty short on snow and Christmas trees, we’ve got our decorations on another beautiful tree, just close to the place we’ll have our Christmas dinner, almost as, or even better than in a colder climate.

Tropical Chrstiams - Jiwa Damai

Christmas it’s great in itself, who said you have to be freezing to enjoy it!

Tropical Chrstimas at Jiwa Damai

But we are in Bali and each year we also celebrate the Galungan - Kuningan. Therefore, our interns, volunteers and staff have prepared also a Balinese Penjor. Here are some pictures.

Volunteers and interns at Jiwa Damai

Find out more about the Balinese celebration here.

Volunteers and interns at Jiwa Damai 2

See more photos on our Facebook Page! 

Hats and boots

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Garden hats and boots are ready and waiting for being used in our #organic gardens. Since we are so close to the equator, hats are a must in the garden. The sun comes straight from above and one needs protection

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Our Logo

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The hand holding the flower is the logo of Lagu Damai foundation and Jiwa Damai Agro. It represents giving of a flower by a gentle hand. At the same time gentle and strong.

Rice fields

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A short 10 minutes walk from our #Jiwa#permaculture retreat center you can observe the various steps of planting the rice paddies. Once harvested, the ducks will take over to eat all critters and then the area is set under water for a while. The fields crops is rotated every so often.  All is planted and harvested by hand. Some of the areas have already transferred back to #organic approaches.

Open House Buffet

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buffet

The #Jiwa Damai buffet found great resonance. For the veggies we had several dishes, vegetarian curry, beans, our #organic garden salad, tempeh manice, and fruit. For the others and especially our balinese guests, love the babi guling (balinesian porc), fish sateh, chicken sateh and chicken curry, followed by the sumptuous tangerines from Kintamani, now in full season.

Open House Swimming

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During our once a year open house for all friends and the #Jiwa Damai team, we open the pool at 11 am. While the adults were mostly watching, the kids were trying their first contacts with water and seemingly enjoyed it.

House temple

The #Jiwa#Damai Team was invited to visit the ceremony of this particular house temple.

Each Balinese compound owns and takes great care of the family temple.The ceremony was a very important one. One which happens every 30 years only. So it was a big ceremony.Nyoman, our

Jiwa Damai team member had already taken leave a month before to be able to prepare adequately for this important day. Aside form the many offerings (including ritual sacrifice of many animals) all was wrapped in beautiful golden and white colors.

Every balinese compound has it own house temple. The #Jiwa#Damai Team was invited to visit the ceremony of this particular house temple.

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Organic and raw food

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Our kitchen is presently experimenting with  #raw#foods  . A wonderful fresh fruit smoothie combination of banana, papaya and watermelon, a plate with zucchini spaghetti, guacamole and raw tomato sauce.

Breakfast consisted of Jiwa Damai #organic fruit, banana, guava, and our coconut crisps and almonds, complimented by a stuffed date.

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Ceremonial wear

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Damai Permaculture agro and Her you see our local #Jiwa# center team in their beautiful ceremonial outfits. The elegance and beauty is truly remarkable. This dressing up was on the occasion of visiting a colleague having a house ceremony.