Emerging Earth 2.0 - What changed & Why
The interest was strong and we had some amazing applications, but we noticed something; many wanted to join but found it out of budget and too much of a time commitment, especially local Indonesians.
We listened.
We retreated.
We redesigned.
Not the vision, but the container.
It's now a weekend. We've got a sliding pay scale and scholarships are available.
The teachers and the programme remain unchanged. Emerging Earth 2.0: shorter, more affordable, same heart.
Every problem this island faces is downstream of forgetting.
ABOUT
Facilitated by Dev Lewis with Diya Pinto and Made Masak
Emerging Earth is a 3-day co-living residency at Sari Devi in Bali, immersed in nature, held in community, grounded in practice.
You'll learn and practice indigenous Balinese philosophy to living in right relation with the land directly with local wisdom holders, community builders, foragers, farmers, and a keeper of the island's palm-leaf manuscripts.
You’ll participate in Futures-led creation, towards a regenerative vision for Bali and your own role.
You'll leave with a new community, and practice to live in right relation.
Hosted by Light Forest.
WHO THIS IS FOR
Your work is rooted in the earth — studying it, designing for it, fighting for it.
You want to support/help/contribute to Bali's future.
You've lived in Bali and want to learn and co-create with Balinese elders, farmers,
Tri Hita Karana wisdom holders.
You're very comfortable leading with intellect, but you sense it might be limiting as you chart your own path in a fast changing world.
SOUNDS EXCITING?
As someone working in climate and energy, Emerging Earth Residency allowed me to step outside the usual “business-as-usual” approaches. Practices like the Nature Wisdom Council created a powerful container to listen more deeply, not just intellectually, but relationally, to the natural world. I left with a renewed sense of clarity, and a more conscious way of engaging with the complex intersections of climate, capitalism, and societal systems.
Stanley Ng
New Energy Nexus Global Partnerships Director
THE EXPERIENCE
The residency follows the Balinese understanding of wellbeing, Tri Hita Karana, that a good life comes from three harmonies kept in balance: with the earth, with each other, and with spirit. At Emerging Earth Bali, move through all three, then turn them toward the future.
DAY
01
Harmony with the Earth
Foraging with Made Masak • Opening ceremony, intention-setting, personal story circles • Teaching by Guru Sugi
DAY
02
Harmony with Spirit
Morning Meditation • Teachings by Etha Widiyanto & Putu Bawa Usadi • Futures Imagination Session 1 • Nature Wisdom Council
DAY
03
Harmony with Community
Meditation • Futures Imagination Session 2 • Emergent Creation • Asks and Offers Market • Closing
EVERY DAY BEGINS WITH MEDITATION AND SOMATIC PRACTICE. SHARED MEALS AND CO-CREATED RITUALS WEAVE THROUGH THE WHOLE RESIDENCY.
WHO YOU'LL LEARN FROM
This residency is built around Balinese teachers who carry this knowledge in practice, not just in theory.
Guru Sugi Lanus
Sanskrit scholar and academic. Expert on Bali's Lontar (palm-leaf) manuscripts, on what the old texts say about the island's crises today, and its paths to regeneration.
Made Masak
Chef, forager, and food educator; founder of Mawija, a community kitchen preserving traditional Balinese food knowledge through foraging, fermentation, and communal cooking.
Etha Widiyanto
Etha has spent thirty years building Bali's ecological infrastructure through biodynamic farming practises and community building.
Putu Bawa Usadi
Artist and permaculture practitioner from West Bali, working across agroforestry, natural building, and food sovereignty.
WHAT YOU WILL LEAVE WITH
TRADITIONAL KNOWLEDGE
A grounded understanding of Balinese philosophy on living in right relationship with the land, from the people who carry it.
PRACTICES
Meditative, intuition, and futures practices. Things you can actually do to shift how you listen, how you think and work.
CONNECTION
Connection to a local Balinese community of wisdom holders and a translocal Light Forest community of people across public policy, planetary health, futures, spirituality, and more.
RELATIONSHIP TO EARTH
Muscle memory for a more alive relationship with the earth and intuitive mind.
EMERGENT POSSIBILITIES
And Emergent possibility such as formation of Bali focussed community.
WHERE YOU WILL STAY
Saridevi Ecolodge sits in the heart of Jatiluwih, Tabanan — surrounded by rice terraces that have been farmed the same way since the 9th century, and recognised by UNESCO as a World Cultural Heritage site.
Wooden cottages built from natural materials, each with its own open-air bathroom and terrace looking out over the terraces. Fresh mountain air. Simple, comfortable, nothing unnecessary.
The lodge is family-run. The food is homemade, traditional Balinese dishes, vegetarian and vegan options available, grown in their own garden on the property.
"Meeting people from completely different worlds and actually talking about healing and regeneration together with so much love and care — that doesn't happen in most rooms. For people whose job is changing the world, that pause isn't a luxury. It IS the work."
Sadia Hossain, Programmes, Partnerships & Systems
Participation
Participation in the workshop covers a shared room and all meals (breakfast, lunch, and dinner) for the full residency programme. It does not include transportation. If you need help arranging it, let us know.
Thanks to a small sponsorship from the Living Lightly Foundation, we can offer a sliding scale. Choose the tier that reflects your own means — we trust you to know what’s right.
We prioritise full scholarships for local Balinese participants, because this conversation cannot happen without them in the room.
We have a maximum cohort capacity of 12 participants in total, with a mix of local Balinese, Indonesians, Bali residents and visiting participants.
On reciprocity
If you’re joining on scholarship, we welcome an offering in return (not a requirement, an invitation). Some people document the residency (photo, film). Others come back afterward to teach a skill or host a session for the group.
A note on facilitation
These prices don’t cover fees for our three host facilitators’ time and energy. Donations after the residency are welcome, if you’re moved to give.
SLIDING SCALE
REGENERATING
IDR 8.900.000
This covers your own participation and contributes towards the scholarship fund for other applicants.
AT COST
IDR 5.500.000
Cost price for the residency.
SUPPORTED
IDR 2.700.000
50% scholarship (limited spots)*
FULL SCHOLARSHIP
100% scholarship (limited spots)*
*We prioritise full and half scholarships for Balinese and Indonesian participants.
FACILITATORS
DEV
Dev spent over a decade working across Rhode Island, Mumbai, Shanghai, Beijing, and Bangkok, recognised as an ‘expert’ in tech policy, geopolitics and China.He helped grow Digital Asia Hub, working with organisations like Google APAC, Konrad Adenauer Stiftung, and Berkman Klein at Harvard; wrote for Nesta and Berkman Klein, spoke at TEDx, GSMA Mobile Week, and Funding the Commons, and was cited in Bloomberg, Nikkei, and the South China Morning Post.
Eventually he arrived at a realisation: the roots of the problems ran deeper than any policy could reach. They lay in stories about who we truly are and our relationship with the earth. That recognition turned his attention inward.
He has sat in Vipassana retreats in the Thai Buddhist Forest tradition, studied Qigong and Daoist philosophy, and worked deeply with Byron Katie's The Work and A Course in Miracles with his teacher GD.
Today Dev is based in Chiang Mai. He hosts the Light Forest Podcast hosting conversations with changemakers exploring the root causes of planetary crisis. He co-founded digi-cnx, and serves as visiting researcher at Chiang Mai University's School of Public Policy, and builds learning journeys exploring how indigenous and spiritual ideas can inform modern solutions. He plays handpan and is learning to grow food and live in the right relationship with the earth.
DIYA
Diya lives in Bali with her family and three dogs. At fifteen, she began to perceive subtle energies, including auras and the emotional states of those around her. That same year, she took time away from school to live in Hampi, where she trained under actor and director Adil Hussain while living simply, close to the land.
That experience deepened her sensitivity to both the natural world and the inner lives of others. Since then, her path has moved through Bollywood, organic farming, illustration, photography, and design, each step informing her ongoing inquiry into perception and consciousness. She later met her teacher, GD, whose mentorship continues to shape her practice.
Diya believes that the most meaningful creative work emerges from stillness. She is currently exploring how healing, art, and design can come together in her work.
She is an intuitive healer trained in Jnana Kanda, a Balinese healing lineage taught by Guru Mangku Alit Ajna, and the author of The Woven Worlds, an unpublished children’s book that came to her in a dream.
MADE MASAK
I Dewa Ayu Made Sri Dwiastuti, known as Made Masak, is a chef, forager, and community food educator from Penatahan Village, Tabanan, Bali. Since 2017, she has focused on sustainable, plant-based cooking rooted in Balinese tradition, ethical foraging, and cultural preservation.
She is the founder of Mawija — a permaculture-based community kitchen that works with women, children, and elders to preserve traditional food knowledge through foraging, fermentation, and communal cooking.
She has collaborated with Potato Head Bali, Room4Dessert Academy, and Morin Resort, sharing indigenous ingredients and food traditions through workshops and ethical foraging experiences.
For Made, food is storytelling, healing, and a way to protect both culture and nature.
WORK THAT INSPIRES
From indigenous ways of knowing, particularly Tyson Yunkaporta's Five Ways of Thinking and Robin Wall Kimmerer's work on Re-story-ation.
From Planetary Health, we understand that human and ecological wellbeing cannot be separated. Healing has to happen at the level of relationship, not just policy.
From Futures Studies, we take the understanding that our work is less about knowing what comes next and more about freeing ourselves from the old stories that limit our capacity to imagine what can be.
From Geordan Shannon's Spaces of Care framework, we hold that how we gather matters as much as what we gather around. The container matters as much as the content.
