Antidotes to extraction. Inspiration for regeneration.
The 30-Day Initiatives
Issue 03 — TAKSU 30-Day Initiatives · Bali 2026 · The real prototype is the way of working together.
The Film · Open Here
Film OneStart here. Three minutes inside the experiment — the questions, the voices, and the moment the exhale began.
I
The Journey4 min
Ten learnings from the first two weeks of building together
Leadership showed up differently in every group. The goal wasn't to compare who made the most, but to surface what each team learned about working together, leading themselves, and leading each other.
Plate IV · Bhakti MargaTwo weeks of building together — five teams, five very different realities. No group ahead. No group behind.
Moving Together
Go to the source before you advise
You cannot build a relationship with a place, person, or problem from a distance.
Experience is not yet action
Being moved by a vision is only the beginning. The next question is: What is mine to do?
Inspiration needs structure
Without clarity around roles, commitments, meetings, and next steps, even good intentions dissipate.
Self-organization is not the absence of leadership
It requires more leadership from everyone: noticing what needs to happen, stepping forward, asking for help, and communicating when you cannot continue.
Leadership is distributed
When one person steps back, another can step forward. The group becomes stronger when leadership is not attached to a title.
Momentum is not evenly distributed
Some people move quickly, some need more clarity, some discover they cannot continue. All of that becomes workable when it is communicated.
The goal is not perfect communication
The goal is enough trust to notice when something has been missed and bring it back into the conversation.
The real breakthrough is often relational
The work moves when the right people find one another.
The initiatives are not separate
One project's needs can become another project's opportunity.
The real prototype is the way of working together
The five initiatives are the visible experiment. Underneath them, something else is being tested.
"We're learning how to become the kind of people — and the kind of community network — that can build the future together."
When people feel seen, valued, needed and connected, they become capable of more.
The Film · Thirty Days Later
Film TwoLearn what happened for each initiative. Thirty days later.
Initiative One
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"Bring Back the Light"
Pak Wayan Wardika · Taro
A living model for regenerative farming in Taro, where restoring soil health and firefly habitats can also create better livelihoods for farmers.
Status: Taro village visit completed. Film in scripting.
FilmPhotosPress
Initiative Two
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"Common Sense Market"
Yeni Aspini · Tabanan
A farmer-led initiative building the infrastructure, skills, and opportunities needed to make agriculture a viable future for the next generation.
Status: Pitch deck live and circulating. First full sync held.
Story
Initiative Three
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"Village Waste to Value"
Made Janur Yasa
A community-led model turning Bali's waste crisis into local value through village recycling, composting, education, and economic opportunity.
Status: Funding secured. School pilot in Tabanan filming.
FilmPhotosUpdate
Initiative Four
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"Om Unity Village"
Pak ZanZan · Sudaji
A vision to transform Sudaji into a living model of organic, regenerative community where environmental restoration, education, culture, and livelihood reinforce one another.
A village-based enterprise using Bali's ancient relationship with spices to create livelihoods, strengthen local tourism, and keep prosperity within the community.
Status: Site visit done. Website and brand foundations building.
DeckPhotosStory
Tap any initiative to open its thirty-day story — and whatever film, photographs or deck it has
With Gratitude
Thank you to Lumina Sanctuary for providing such a beautiful and intimate space for our Bhakti Marga 30 Day Reveal. It was the perfect location to deep dive into what it takes to co-create a shared vision.
On July 4th, 2026, sixty-seven people gathered at Akasha New Earth Haven, Ubud — Balinese leaders, international entrepreneurs, developers, creatives and changemakers. Within a few hours, five volunteer working groups had self-organized around five real Balinese initiatives to see what was possible in thirty days.
Plate ISixty-seven people. Two panels. One question beneath everything: what are we willing to build together — and who are we willing to become to build it?
The Gathering
Story One · The Wound Becomes the Gift
The girl who was bullied for farming came back to serve what she once fled
Yeni Aspini grew up in a farming family and was bullied for it. She left her village at sixteen. Years later, her husband told her: "You should be proud of where you come from." That sentence rewired everything. She returned — not to escape the wound, but to transform it. Today she is building a farmer learning centre and the Common Sense Market, creating pathways for the next generation of Balinese farmers.
Her message: the thing that shamed you is the thing that can serve others.
Story Two · Tawamasi
"You are me. I am you."
When tourism collapsed in 2020, Made Janur Yasa saw his village drowning in two things: a need for rice and an excess of plastic. He created a simple exchange — bring plastic, receive rice. He self-funded the first week. The philosophy behind it was ancient: Tawamasi — "You are me. I am you." Not charity. Recognition. The programme now reaches multiple villages and has processed tonnes of waste.
His philosophy: knowledge is rumor until you put it into action.
With Gratitude
We returned to Akasha New Earth Haven, Ubud. Its beauty, energy, and generosity once again set the tone for everything that followed. To the owners and staff: thank you. The space held us, and we felt it — again.
Distilled from both panels. Open the ones that call to you.
Plate IIDeep listening — the posture beneath every signal.
Voices from the Room
Kerstin Duell named three words that became a through-line for the day: presence, posture, patience. Trust is not declared — it is demonstrated through showing up consistently, holding space without agenda, and remaining when things get difficult. In Bali, this means learning to be present before trying to lead.
"You cannot build trust through promises. You build it through presence." — Kerstin Duell
Sophie Digby spoke about narrative — the difference between stories that honor complexity and stories that flatten it. Real trust requires recognizing what is unseen: the labour behind a community, the history beneath a landscape, the silence that holds more truth than speech. Her insight reframed trust as an act of perception, not just relationship.
Swaady Martin offered a reframe that silenced the room. Trust is not something you build toward — it is something you embody. When the instinct is to run from difficulty, the deeper invitation is to go further in. Trust is not a strategy. It becomes your beingness.
"When you want to run, go deeper. Trust becomes your beingness." — Swaady Martin
Made Janur Yasa’s philosophy, lived through the Tawamasi programme. When tourism collapsed and his village needed rice, he did not wait for funding or permission. He created a plastic-for-rice exchange and self-funded the first week. The knowledge that community could self-organize was rumor until he put it into motion.
Zanzan named his four pillars: Create, Commit, Consistent, Collaborate. But beneath all of them sits spirit — without it, the work has no life force. His village of Sudaji became the number one eco-village in Bali not through strategy, but through spirit expressed as daily practice.
"Come first. Listen. Then act." — Zanzan
Wayan Wardika used the firefly as metaphor: a signal that can only be seen when the surrounding noise is reduced. In conservation, in community building, in any regenerative work — the signal exists. But it is drowned by noise. Communication is not about volume. It is about clarity, timing, and the courage to signal in the dark.
“Sometimes the work of building the future begins with the humility to say: I don't have the answers yet. But I am willing to find out.”
— Estela Magic
TAKSU, Imaginal Salons create the conditions for people to find shared purpose and create more together than they could alone — cultivating an ecology of regeneration grounded in right relationship and reciprocity.
What This Is
Balinese wisdom and global perspectives do not compete. They strengthen one another.
Artists meet entrepreneurs. Village leaders meet technologists. People with resources meet people with deep local roots.
Trust becomes the foundation for collaboration, generosity strengthens the whole, and meaningful relationships become the fertile ground from which ideas, ventures, and solutions emerge.
Tri Hita Karana
Unity Through Uniqueness
We face parallel crises: of intimacy and trust, of capacity and burnout, and of imagination itself. Siloed brilliance will not solve them. So we gather as imaginal cells. We dissolve the old forms. We reconnect. We rebuild faster, together, in real time with spirit (the unseen / divine), people (community & relationships), and nature (land & environment).
Parahyangan · Pawongan · Palemahan
i.
Nature — Fireflies & Farming
Wardika's firefly conservation. Yeni's farmer learning centre. Janur's composting. The initiatives anchored in Palemahan — harmony with the natural world.
ii.
People — Village & Enterprise
Zanzan's Om Unity Village. Pak Dewa's spice enterprise. The initiatives anchored in Pawongan — harmony among people, community before master plan.
iii.
Spirit — Taksu as Practice
The living principle beneath all five initiatives. Not strategy. Not planning. The willingness to become available to something larger than yourself.
Moments of Connection
"Our ancestors didn't need a big book. Just three things. During this life, while we are still breathing, doing the right thing, and you will return in a good way."
— OM ZanZan
Tri Kaya ParisudhaThe traditional Balinese "Law of Three": Think good things. Say good things. Do good things.
These are not glamorous roles. They are the roles that make everything else possible. If you feel called to serve the work rather than just attend it, this is your door.
LogisticsOwn the physical experience — venue, flow, timing.
DocumentationTrack initiatives and commitments. Build the ecosystem's memory.
Visual storytellingOne dedicated eye on the day, capturing moments intentionally.
CommunicationsThe connective tissue between gatherings.
Initiative supportJoin one of the five initiatives and help it move.
Door Two
Nominate a voice for Salon Three
We are actively looking for featured voices — for upcoming salons and for Antidotes & Inspiration itself. If you know someone already living these principles — building regeneratively, leading relationally, creating with cultural intelligence — tell us.
Pass this forward only to someone you would genuinely vouch for.
Bring Back the Light
Pak Wayan Wardika · Taro Village
A living model for regenerative farming in Taro, where restoring soil health and firefly habitats can also create better livelihoods for farmers.
You can only understand so much about a place through descriptions, photos, and conversation. So the group went to Taro. They received a temple blessing and permission. They met the resident scientist. They walked the land. And they experienced the return of the fireflies firsthand.
That visit changed the quality of the work. The initiative stopped being an idea the group was supporting from a distance and became a place, a story, an ecosystem, and a set of real relationships they were now accountable to.
From there, the work began to take shape. A visual story asset is being created to help communicate the vision. A two-to-three minute film is now moving from concept into scripting, storyboarding, and visual development. Weekly check-ins are being established. Members are taking ownership of the process.
One member challenged the call to action in the script, asking whether it clearly communicated what is genuinely new about the work. That moment matters — because collaboration is not consensus for its own sake. It is the willingness to care enough about the work to make it better.
"Collaboration becomes powerful when people stop waiting for someone else to hold the whole thing together."
Light Already in Motion · Conservation
The man bringing fireflies back to Bali — one generation at a time
Wayan grew up collecting fireflies in Taro. By the time he was an adult, they were disappearing. Scientists told him his generation might be the last to see them. He learned why: fireflies communicate through light — each species with its own frequency, signal, and pattern. When artificial light floods the environment, they can no longer find one another. Their one language is drowned in noise.
Wayan closed his family's camping ground to breed fireflies. He failed for years. Yet he kept going. In 2024, he released fireflies for the first time. Today, visitors don't just come to see the fireflies — they encounter the life of the family protecting them. A father collecting sap. A sister making pancakes. An actual Balinese family that chose to turn down the noise.
"I believe, like any relationship in the world, communication is the key."
A farmer-led initiative building the infrastructure, skills, and opportunities needed to make agriculture a viable future for the next generation.
Some initiatives moved quickly into visible action. The Common Sense team took longer to find its rhythm. That is worth naming honestly. Busy lives, different locations, different working styles, and different expectations were coming together. Finding a shared rhythm required adjustment, discernment, and leadership.
Collaboration does not always begin with everyone immediately aligned. Sometimes the first work is learning how to become a group. Aaron has been quietly persistent in coordinating across schedules and locations, helping bring the group together for its first full sync.
Meanwhile, the pitch deck is now live and circulating. That matters. A vision that lives only in the mind of its founder can be difficult for others to enter. The deck is beginning to give the project a form that people can understand, support, and contribute to.
And the urgency is real. With water scarcity and increasing pressure on farmers, the question is not whether regenerative agriculture matters. The question is whether the infrastructure to support it can be built before the window narrows further.
"Sometimes progress is not a dramatic breakthrough. Sometimes it is the first moment when the right people finally find one another."
Where it stands
✦Put on hold until October
Village Waste to Value
Made Janur Yasa
A community-led model turning Bali's waste crisis into local value through village recycling, composting, education, and economic opportunity.
School PilotOne school, two composting pits, one filmed pilot — the trust seed.
The story is what happens when a community begins to self-organize. It's messy. Leadership shifts. Communication breaks down. People discover what they can actually commit to. And that isn't failure — it's the work.
A field trip to the proposed composting site is being organized. Funding has been secured for a videographer to document the work. A new school partnership in Tabanan is taking shape around a composting and education pilot. When the original group lead stepped back, Todd stepped forward — working alongside ZanZan and Om Unity Bali, he drafted an Expression of Interest that connects the project to Sudaji's existing village context and track record.
One initiative began reinforcing another. The ecosystem began to connect.
The group also received some genuinely valuable hard questions this week — about funding at scale, staffing, and what happens after the pilot ends. Rather than overpromising, the team responded with real clarity: this is intentionally starting small. One school, two composting pits, one filmed pilot, one crowdfunding launch. A "trust seed" to learn from before scaling.
"When one person steps forward, momentum can reconnect the whole ecosystem."
The Technical Thread
✦Raised bin — ~15cm above ground instead of a traditional pit, because pits waterlog in the Bali climate and rot organics instead of composting them.
✦Thermoplastic tile — avoids the termite and mold/crack issues that wood and concrete run into here.
✦Open question — the structural frame must hold wet compost's weight; mixed plastic alone may not be strong enough. A polymer-sand composite is being researched.
Expression of InterestClean Up Bali — progress update after the first pilot school.
Photographs
Where it stands
✦Funding — secured toward the pilot and for documentation
✦School partnership — first pilot complete at SMPN 3 Selemadeg Timur, filmed on site
✦Cross-initiative — ZanZan looped into a related "Clean Up Bali" effort
Om Unity Village
Pak ZanZan · Sudaji
A vision to transform Sudaji into a living model of organic, regenerative community where environmental restoration, education, culture, and livelihood reinforce one another.
Rice terraces and stream below the village hillside, Sudaji.
This group understood something early: you cannot build a relationship with a place from a distance. Descriptions can introduce you. Photos can inspire you. A conversation can open a door. But at a certain point, you have to cross the threshold.
Ten practitioners traveled to Om Unity Village and sat in circle with ZanZan as he shared his story directly. Two members stayed overnight. They hiked four and a half hours to a sacred waterfall. They experienced the land. And from that experience, new possibilities are already emerging — including a social media offer and a hospitality connection linked to ZanZan's community training work.
ZanZan's satisfaction rating for the week was a 10. Not because everything was completed. Because people were moving forward together.
But the visit also revealed something important about collaboration. Being inspired by a vision is not the same as understanding how to help build it. Some members have been moving forward with energy. Others have remained quieter or are still finding their place. That is not a failure of the vision. It is part of the work of turning a powerful experience into collective action.
"A place can move you deeply and still leave you asking: what exactly is mine to do now?"
✦Ten practitioners — traveled to the village and sat in circle
✦Overnight programme — active, including the sacred waterfall hike
✦Next — translating what was felt on the ground into clear roles and clear ways to contribute
Village Tourism & Balinese Spice
Pak Dewa Gede Darmawan
A village-based enterprise using Bali's ancient relationship with spices to create livelihoods, strengthen local tourism, and keep prosperity within the community.
The spice makers, seated together after a morning's work.
This team moved quickly from vision into the details. They visited Pak Dewa's site. They gathered raw content. They began building the foundations for a website and social media presence. And then they did something equally important: they worked through the real questions that turn a beautiful idea into something that can actually sustain a family and a community — content mix, pricing, packaging, positioning, margins, quality.
People are stepping forward where their particular gifts are strongest. Others are creating the structures to turn those contributions into accountability: clarifying commitments, documenting next steps, and making sure momentum does not depend on one person carrying everything.
That does not mean every communication has landed perfectly. One request for support was overlooked — a reminder that even a group with strong energy and good intentions can still miss something important when communication is moving quickly. The lesson is not to communicate perfectly. It is to create enough trust that when something is missed, it can be named and brought back into the conversation.
Beneath the business strategy, a deeper story also emerged. The spices were originally created by Dewa and Ayu's parents so they could taste home while working on cruise ships, months away from their families. The product was born from longing — from the desire to carry home with you.
"This is my mission. To help my community. To help my mother and the many women in my village who ever felt unsure."
The tour itself is not a spice garden. It is a village walk — a family temple, an offering being made, a wood-fired kitchen, a shared meal on banana leaf. The spice is what the village eats and sells; the tour is how a visitor is let into the life around it.
