Article 2

we're willfully taken in: & the train, traveling from Western to Eastern Thrace, sweeps clear of the mountains of Bulgaria; & then the land's flung wide, so that the fields, hills, & sky go uninterrupted; & whenever stopped, more villagers of the same stock as the fields, hills, & sky they step out of step on; & over something like steady quiet hooves, we continue to a station well within old Stamboul's sea-clawed walls.

With a still collected mind, I can't but help notice the monkey. He's grown accustomed to my being here; and I'm somewhat surprised. But when have I ever sat alone? I show him a mudra and how to meditate; and he even tries. But his posture's not so good.

With hardly a nudge, and she's already headed where intended. And it's the same with all the other directions, and in whichever terrain. I sometimes wonder if it is me who's being led. They say in the Buddha realms, the ground is level and embedded with lapis; and with this steed, even mountains are.