Feature: Ecstatic Experience in Eden

By Surf Reyes, contributor

LightShare Digest No. 2, July-September, 2005, pp. 67-72

NOT long after our plant sculptures, were gild­ed with a golden lining. My heart was overflowing with joy beholding such awesome beauty.e gained altitude, I watched the dawn slowly creep into the deep blue darkness as a crescent of ember glow defining the earth’s horizon. Soon the burst of golden sun emerged, and the sleeping dark clouds, like hanging pieces of backlit sculptures, were gild­ed with a golden lining. My heart was overflowing with joy beholding such awesome beauty.

Still I felt a hole in my wholeness. I wished my love were there to share the mira­cle of God’s living painting.

From the airport we were brought to Eden, a mountain resort owned by Chito and Fe Ayala. We were a group of four women and two men.

The other guy was Bob Basa, our US- based professional jazz guitar­ist friend. The women were the sisters Meiling and Lory, and their cousin Ciay, and a close friend, Gigi. We were kindred souls from innumerable life­times past and future. From Eden we were supposed to be brought to Buenavista, the Aya­las’ island resort, but Fe insist­ed on giving us a guided tour of Eden before we proceeded to the beach.

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We were all senses awake to the

awesome miracle

of God’s liv­ing words!

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We filled up two golf carts and drove together around the nature paradise. I’ve never seen such diversity of plants and trees in one place. There were so many varieties of beautiful flowers. We also went to where they had a wide collection of exotic birds and we stopped to look at each one. The amazing colors and designs made them look like large flying flowers.

We would stop at nature shrines in this nature temple, and Fe would name each tree, plant, and flower.

And we were not limited to a visual feast, for in other places, this high priest­ess of the temple of Eden asked each one of us to pick up leaves of different plants to smell; in other places we picked leaves to taste. While all around was the sound of singing birds, gurg­ling brooks, the sound of giant bamboo swinging with the wind.

We were all senses aw­ake to the awesome miracle of God’s liv­ing words! We thanked Fe for a truly spiritual experience. There is nothing like the purity of nature to touch one’s soul and feel God’s presence in all that awesome beauty.

With my feet caressing soft fine sand, and thoughts of my love running to and fro, I watch the waves play tag along the shore turning white fringes of froth as they come and go. A colorful peacock prances by, then flies onto the thatched roof of the hut behind. Regally poised against the blue sky, he sings a lonely call to his loved one. It is sunset and the golden sun, peeking through the dark cloudy veil, reflects a shim­mering orange tail, that cuts the blue sea in two. A boat silently sails into view. I am in love with sunsets and twilights that make me soar into magical flights, across the splashes of contrasting colors, shifting in the sky, then dying like embers. And soon, as I wrote in a song, “The golden sun dipped into the wrinkled sea, turning the darkness on.” And in the death of day, the night is born, pulsing with angelic fireflies in its womb of black velvet skies. I make wishes as stars streak light when they fall, while my heart sings a lonely peacock's call.

After spending Holy Week at the beach, most of the guests, including the friends I came with, left for Manila on Saturday and Easter Sunday. I decided to go back to Eden for at least another day before my return flight. Back in Eden, I asked to be brought by shuttle to the place they called Shang­ri-la. Along the way I stopped to observe a sleek brown deer roaming freely on the steep sides of a na­tur­al gorge. I soon reached Shang­ri-La where Fe’s house sprawled com­fortably on a leveled plateau on top of a hill.

Floating along serendipity's flow, I found myself at the edge of a plateau, close to the gilded edge of day. I stood on top of a stairway, that led 18 steps down to a flat ledge, cov­ered with a wealth of green grass, lined with flower bushes at the edge. Beyond and be neath, were crowds of trees, branches a-sway, waving at me with hands of leaves. While further away, levels of hillside greenery turned more bluish gray, as they marched to a misty valley, etched with roofs, like patterned ply. Still further beyond was the sea, that in the mist, merged with the sky.

I soon went down the stone steps lingering on each level, on the way to the grassy ledge, where pine trees lined the stretch, each like a towering sentinel. On the last step curl­ed a sprawl of low bush with hundreds of tiny flowers pret­ty purple. I was a child en­chanted, pulled to gently ca­ress with my hand their joyful faces. “I love you.” I repeat­edly chanted, with scented smiles they responded. I no­ticed a small yellow butterfly with black edging that around me flitted, and a gray one with pink traces, as the flying flo­wers flirted with the tiny pur­ple petaled faces.

I chose my spot on the grass and then sat and medi­tated with eyes wide open, fully present in each moment born of eternity, feeling my oneness with all the life that sur­rounded me. Suddenly, on my right hand, which clasped my left in a prayer pose, I saw a small gray butterfly alight, so close to my nose. An in­tricate pattern of cream and white flecked her tiny gray wings where, near the tail fringe, was a tiny black dot surrounded by rings of stark red orange.

As black as shiny grease, her head had four white lines, and antennae quivering in the breeze. I am awed by God's designs! “I love you!” to her I oft repeated, and like a lovely ballerina she pirouetted, in halting steps of her tiny feet, as she slowly turned to me to greet. She struggled a little with the winds, that buffeted her tiny sailboat wings, but regally stood her ground. Everything faded all around, as we held hands for an eternity. Then she flew away and left me.

But she lives in my heart forever, as everything and everyone I have ever loved, as will all the beauty I am meant to discover. I knew that Fe kept a secret garden in Shangri-la and I sought to find it. I started walking up a trail on a hill beside her house.

neath, were crowds of trees, branches a-sway, waving at me with hands of leaves. While further away, levels of hillside greenery turned more bluish gray, as they marched to a misty valley, etched with roofs, like patterned ply. Still further beyond was the sea, that in the mist, merged with the sky.

I soon went down the stone steps lingering on each level, on the way to the grassy ledge, where pine trees lined the stretch, each like a towering sentinel. On the last step curl­ed a sprawl of low bush with hundreds of tiny flowers pret­ty purple. I was a child en­chanted, pulled to gently ca­ress with my hand their joyful faces. “I love you.” I repeat­edly chanted, with scented smiles they responded. I no­ticed a small yellow butterfly with black edging that around me flitted, and a gray one with pink traces, as the flying flo­wers flirted with the tiny pur­ple petaled faces.

I chose my spot on the grass and then sat and medi­tated with eyes wide open, fully present in each moment born of eternity, feeling my oneness with all the life that sur­rounded me. Suddenly, on my right hand, which clasped my left in a prayer pose, I saw a small gray butterfly alight, so close to my nose. An in­tricate pattern of cream and white flecked her tiny gray wings where, near the tail fringe, was a tiny black dot surrounded by rings of stark red orange.

As black as shiny grease, her head had four white lines, and antennae quivering in the breeze. I am awed by God's designs! “I love you!” to her I oft repeated, and like a lovely ballerina she pirouetted, in halting steps of her tiny feet, as she slowly turned to me to greet. She struggled a little with the winds, that buffeted her tiny sailboat wings, but regally stood her ground. Everything faded all around, as we held hands for an eternity. Then she flew away and left me.

But she lives in my heart forever, as everything and everyone I have ever loved, as will all the beauty I am meant to discover. I knew that Fe kept a secret garden in Shangri-la and I sought to find it. I started walking up a trail on a hill beside her house.

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How creative

the Great Designer is!

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Guided by the spirit of Eden, I sought to find Fe's secret garden. Up a hill, I started walking on a trail that led to some pebbled roads, where lodges sat like toads. A peacock, pure white from its head to its long flowing tail, crossed the road and melted into the lush of green bushes. I searched along a narrow trail, my ear following the mantric murmur of distant flowing water, when all of a sudden, I realized I had stumbled into Fe's fabled secret garden.

Under giant umbrellas, white as the clouds, tiered cir­cular rows of potted begonias sat like colorful crowds in the tiny amphitheaters. Joyful was the greeting between us! The unique design in each drew my focus. Like wings of giant moths, the leaves of the dif­ferent varieties were like wa­tercolor paintings, or spe­cially hand-dyed cloths.

It never fails to mesmerize me, how creative the Great De­sign­er is!

I moved on and discovered a mound, with a thick fur of small green leaves sprinkled with hundreds of tiny flowers, smiling in many different co­lors. Beneath a communion of plants I found a pump’s metal mouth partly hidden, through which water flowed down to a large jade basin. The overflow of water poured down to a rock ledge, and flowed like a mini river that turned into a tiny waterfall at the rock’s edge.

The gurgling water further flowed, like a brook through a small gorge, to a circular pool where the sun glowed. Plants and flowers all around, sprout­ed wildly from the lush grass. My heart was naked to the sound of birds singing their unique melodies, bathing my feelings to soothe. And in the space of the sounds of nature was the sweet sound of pure silence, the sound of soul.

Only that which arises from, or exists within, this silence is the truth.

In the silence of soul, the inner Sunrise filled me with its holy breathing light, “Feel in your heart where all are one, where meets the moon and the sun. Every plant and tree, every flower, each leaf and blade of grass, every butterfly, every winged creature soaring in the sky, each rock, pebble and grain of soil and sand, every legged living thing walking on land, each star and planet, fairy, angel and saint: in the wholeness of all Creation, each and every part, join toge­ther at a point in your heart.”

With my heart fully open in meditation, I was in holy com­munion with all of Cre­ation. I walked around fully present in His Presence, reach­ing out to feel each rock, ev­ery tree, everything I could touch, and said audibly, “I love you” to all, as tears of joy flowed as tiny rivers down my earthly face, as around every­thing a golden light glowed.

Eden touched my soul and made me whole. In the womb of Mother Eden, I was reborn of the awareness of the one­ness of all.

As I once wrote beholding a glorious sunrise:

Sa paliwanag ng bukang-liwayway,

Nagising ako sa pagkakaugnay-ugnay

At kabuuan ng Sanlikha.

Sa tunay na paliwanag pala’y

di kailangan ng salita.Sa paliwanag ng bukang-liwayway,

Nagising ako sa pagkakaugnay-ugnay

At kabuuan ng Sanlikha.

Sa tunay na paliwanag pala’y

di kailangan ng salita.

In the overflowing of love, I reached out to share with kindred souls with this text message, “I am so
in love…I am right now alone in Fe’s secret garden.  I am in Holy Communion… with the whole universe. 
I am ‘allone’ (all one / alone).”

Reluctantly, I soon left for the airport to fly back to Ma­nila, but I brought Eden fully alive in my heart.
Waiting for the plane, I sent another text message to my family and friends, my kindred souls:

Isa lang ang buhay na walang hanggan,
Na tumutuhog sa lahat ng sanlibutan.

Ako ay ikaw, ikaw ay ako,

Isang buhay lang tayo.