This land

Outside the ancient monastery, timeless silence weaves through this living land. Cloaking towering mountains. Gliding across barren deserts. Flooding hidden valleys. Descending upon deserted villages. Everything, everywhere, mystically wrapped in a blanket of absolute quiet. Ladhak’s soundlessness, like an invisible spirit, spirals towards the cobalt blue canopy. The blinding sun silently glares down. Burnished light and searing heat cascading onto the eternal quiet of this lonely landscape. And, silence flows past the dark storms within me.

This madness

Desperate. And restless………………like a lonely scavenger I prowl aimlessly along the outskirts of the sleeping village. The mud huts, hunched against the cold darkness, offer shelter and rare comfort. The warmth of human voices, a much desired refuge from my nomadic loneliness. The thought of food and sleep a delicious temptation! But, I am too far gone for that. Strange madness rapes my soul. And, I long for the stillness that’s forsaken me. As the clear night sky starts to light up I slowly retrace my steps back to the monastery.

Alchi ...

The lonely night is no longer dense and foreboding. The glowing darkness hums like the receding echo of a prayer gong. Life, fleeting and invisible, floats everywhere. The musky aroma, of butter lamps and incense sticks, doesn’t taint the air that I breathe. The stuffiness of man made temples, of shut doors and bolted windows, vanished forever. The passing of time, the urgency of age old rituals, the nervous fear of poisonous mortals, the futility of chants and hymns, the choking of senses, the evils of mankind, all dispelled. Every wound cleansed and healed.