I decided to undergo a week quarantine after arriving in Manila because of the Philippine Government’s compulsory quarantine measures for all travelers coming from overseas. It’s surreal, disconcerting and psychologically challenging.
As I slowly adapt to a life confined within the four walls of a quarantine hotel room, I struggle to reconcile how much my reality has changed in just over a week.
Like many others across the globe, I am currently experiencing extreme restrictions on the freedom of movement I’m accustomed to.
Although what I am doing during quarantine is, not even close, but somehow, my memory fly to the habits of the ancient Javanese who did semedi/ samadhi/meditation.
For a Javanese, a semedi is an attempt to get suwung (emptiness), in order to know his true identity as well as enter into the Individual big universe, by an attitude sitting cross-legged, with heart and mind relax and quiet, tie the concentrations by regulating the breath slowly and constantly. Samadi is a form of an attitude of sumeleh (humility).
The similar tradition is also exist in northern Philippines, especially with the Igorot (indigenous peoples in the Cordillera mountain region) which are composed of several ethnolinguistic groups, all of whom keep, or have kept until recently, their traditional religion and way of life.
In the Igorot culture, lockdown/quarantine/stay-at-home is ubaya and ngilin. It is a time to rest, pause from your routine and busy life, an act of reprieve, a let off, maybe a cleansing rite after a bad incident, may also be a ritual of thanksgiving for abundance and life.
To encourage your days during quarantine, I suggest you to look for suwung, by doing semedi/ubaya/ngilin, to nurture peace of heart and mind.
