the road is life

traveling to india..
yet again..
in less than a month..
(for a month)
the 27th of decembre..

now the intention of packing..
of course, the desire to travel lightly..
in body and in spirit..
bringing gifts to friends..
shoes for high-tailing it..
warmth and coolness
and...
as samuel johnson offers..
in traveling;
one must carry knowledge with them,
if one would bring home knowledge.
things i won't be taking include..
phone, laptop, plans and opinions..

i am heading to bodhgaya..
the holy site where the buddha sat and woke up..
often called vajrasana..the diamond throne..
it is believed that when the universe is finally destroyed,
this will be the last place to disappear
and the first place to re-form when the universe begins again.....

for my part, i travel not to go anywhere,
but to go.
i travel for travel's sake.
the great affair is to move;
to feel the needs and hitches of our life a little more nearly,
to get down off this feather-bed of civilization,
and to find the globe granite underfoot
and strewn with cutting flints.
~ robert louis stevenson

our battered suitcases were piled
on the sidewalk again;
we had longer ways to go.
but no matter, the road is life.
~ jack kerouac