In the second of two contrasting ethnographic chapters, we enter the world of the Javanese village, with its surprisingly sophisticated mystical philosophy, its distinctive aesthetics, and its pacific and practical everyday morality. Unlike the intense, melodramatic emotional life of Nias, Java favours interiority and moderation. In a richly syncretic tradition with diverse linguistic roots, a range of meta-emotional concepts and practices - Indic, Sufi, orthodox Muslim, animist, pantheist - come into play. I explore the practicalities of living in a loosely organised but densely populated village among people with different religious orientations and political allegiances. In navigating the social labyrinth, emotions serve as social antennae, means of engagement or withdrawal, enabling people to place themselves and others in a fluid, relativistic field. The interlocking of embarrassment, shame, fear, reluctance, and specifically Javanese spatial emotions (pernah: feeling at home, comfortable in a situation), directs social relations and mediates social distinctions. The developmental background that nurtures this ethos is explored and clues found in childhood avoidance relationships; but a violent political history forms a constant admonitory backdrop.