Readier Than Ever
A New Reality Beyond the Emerald of the Equator Awaits Me Now
The music is by:
Louie Austen, a classically trained bar and jazz crooner from Vienna, Austria.
John Pattern, an American musician and psychotherapist with Ram Dass, an influential spiritual teacher, psychologist, and author.
Hans Zimmer, a German composer and record producer, celebrated for his groundbreaking work in film scoring.
Beyond the steady tick of linear time, Southeast Asia offers a fascinating kaleidoscope of temporal alternatives. With its Buddhist calendar, Thailand greeted me with the year 2551, only for Malaysia and Sumatra to fling me back to 1439 in their conservative Islamic enclaves. Now, Java propels me forward to 1951 in its traditional calendar—a system that compresses a year into 210 days and divides it into five-day weeks.
As if the chaos of temporal shifts wasn’t enough, just two blocks from the Surabaya Gubeng train station, Surabaya-Gubeng hosts the Tab Capsule Hotel, where long-distance space travellers can take refuge in futuristic hibernation capsules. With a swipe of our magnetic cards, we found ourselves docked at capsules 2015-04R and 2015-05R last night. Another swipe hurled us into a 23rd-century reality—where the lines between time, space, and sleep blurred into something entirely unexpected.
EPILOGUE: AIRBORNE
Here at Terminal 1 of Juanda International Airport, I pause before boarding to thank you, Indonesia —for your warm-hearted people, your midday heat that melts into a soothing evening chill, for your unbeatable price-to-value ratio, and so much more.
I promise to return, for I’ve only glimpsed six of your 18,307 islands and scaled none of your seventy-six volcanoes. There is still so much for us to do together. If fate brings me back to your tortured emerald shores, I’ll gladly stumble through an awkward Selamat Pagi into your radiant smile.
Now, beyond Terminal 1 of Juanda International Airport, gliding between Java's patchwork of rice paddies and Madura’s southern coastline, it dawns on me: fifty-eight days ago, at nearly this hour, I stepped into cell no. 44 in male dormitory no. 2. That marked the beginning of a month-long inward journey, soon followed by another month of relaxed drift across Southeast Asia’s lands and waters. Just fifteen minutes ago, as we rose from the runway, the dual project found its point of detachment.
“Then comes a moment
of feeling the wings you’ve grown,
lifting”**
I’ve had a chance to taste many wines—to gaze into thousands of souls to bond with or not, to embrace or reject countless places, to absorb or deflect colours, to resonate with or resist sounds, to be enriched or untouched by fragrances, and to touch or ignore innumerable objects. Now, I’ve come to realise that
❈
Every object, every being,
is a jar full of delight.
❈
So I aspire to
❈
be a connoisseur,
and taste with caution.
❈
I understand that
❈
any wine will get you high,
❈
but I must
❈
judge like a king, and choose the purest,
the ones unadulterated with fear,
or some urgency about “what’s needed.”
❈
And so, I shall
❈
drink the wine that moves me
as a camel moves when it’s been untied,
and is just ambling about.***
❈
Engaging with the external world—granting space to each of its elements, whether good or bad—has been as challenging as it has been enthralling. Where now is that radiant fledgling, carefully nurtured within the sheltered confines of the monastery? Has it truly endured the test of foreign frequencies? My name, identity number, skin, bones and mental filters seem intact. Yet, do I truly grasp where I stand within the vast, intricate pattern of my mandala?
My morning meditation in capsule 2015-04R left me with the same weightless clarity I felt when stepping beyond monastery walls. This journey feels like the first step in channeling the radiant light that broke through ”La Noche Oscura del Alma.”
What new reality awaits me beyond The Emerald of the Equator****? It could be difficult, easy, or both. It may be changeable like English weather—showered by sudden storms, only to be warmed by clear, sunny skies. Or it might bask in the warmth of sunlight, only to be cooled by passing storms. Whatever it is, bring it on, my dear world. I’m readier than ever.
Acta est fabula.
* ”Unfold Your Own Myth” cf. Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi, HarperOne, 2004.
** The phrase "Emerald of the Equator" is commonly used to describe Indonesia. The line is inspired by the song.
*** ”The Many Wines” cf. Coleman Barks, The Essential Rumi, HarperOne, 2004.
This essay concludes the long series of posts related to Other Eyes for Johnny Rocco. Next week, I’ll share a playlist of songs that made their way into the final version of the book—then I’ll be taking a well-deserved, extended break.
And remember my dear subscriber that whatever’s been published before, can be found in the archives.