Why am I leaving for India?
To educate the microbiome by exposure to the macrobiome.
And what is that, but the ultimate journey?
Let us go to the heartland
the home of the Gita's sacred science of God-Realization
And learn there
what is meant when stated
Be Ye Therefore Perfect.
The first flight, to Doha, Qatar, leaves Tiotiakhe at 9pm feb 26.
5am Qatar, 730am Kochi.
We fly east to meet the sunrise.
Shanthi asks me: How are you?
I tell her
I'm leaving behind everything
I've ever known
All the sights
All the smells
All the folks, but you.
On the plane, she reads my first book.
So strange, to see my words
silently singing on the middle-eastern
tarmac on our way to Bharat.
What can I possibly say?
Do words do it justice?
"Travel for the ultimate purpose"
said 列子 Liezi, some 2000 years hence
in the Classique du vide parfait
And what is ultimate?
Dao. God.
Maybe I should be more explicit.
The voice of the sick heretical longing
for a world beyond
the most narrow.
Apocalypsis rose up to meet me in 2019-2020
I have been orienting my life around the quest
to know god since march 2020. Right about March 15th.
Perhaps I am ripe.
Orienting my life around my faith has led me here.
On a place headed for the Indian subcontinent.
Part of me is scrambling to escape this situation.
It is showing me scenes of tantrum,
of the aircraft turning back,
of panic.
Generally, I feel calm.
At peace, excited.
Off to adventure!
The goal is Truth. Lofty?
Perhaps. I pray for discernment
for help; for love.
The vedas have a word for this:
satchitananda.
I do not believe that I am perfect.
Only a rough hewn stone
polished over (how many?) liftetimes.
Feb 27
we're still flying
somewhere about eastern europe
430AM Montreal time.
Managed a couple hours of sleep
managed to go pee
4200/6400km done to Doha.
Practicing sitting
Got up and did some small neigong
Déjà only 4h30min left till landing
We flew to meet the dawn
moving east at this speed
collapses the days.
Instead of 12 hours
nearly 20 will have passed on board.
Onscreen, the flight dashboard shows landmark contexts
so we an know our mapped relationship to earth
We've just passed Cluj-Napoca
The screen compass points to varying cities,
and, always, to Mecca.
I cannot publicly speak to god,
but I can publicly offer my work to them.
I cannot advertise my faith for profit,
but I can name it as a primordial part of my life.
Transparent.
As the descent begins
I borrow Shanthi's headset and listen
to Sheik Abdul Basit Abdul Samat
recite the first verses of the Qur'an.
I understand none of the Arabic
but his song of devotion is one I understand.
An in-flight PSA logistically interrupts the speaking.
On screen of this airplane seat-back tablet
The world's entertainment is available here,
and so is the word of the prophet,
direct to my ear through these tinny
Qatar Air heaphones.
Now, an advertisement for Doha,
and its commitment to cybernetic futures.
A baby wails,
Rilke's Malte meditated on death
and we continue to descend
tuned into prayers
Arabic and Sanskrit
Qu'ran and Archana
(Books on the plane: The Sermon On The Mount According To Vedanta, and Les carnets de Malte Laurids Brigge)
When I say I long for god
I mean I long for myself
All I do I do for god
All I speak I speak for them
and all I my love is already theirs.
The mid-day desert sun
reflects off the bird's wings
touches my face through the viewport
and I feel heat unlike any I've ever known.
All I know now, is change.
