Removing himself from what an overdeveloped society has made of language, literature, and a life of the mind, the author finds in Africa Nature stripping away his veils of ignorance, and in Indonesia Spirit shining through the veil of Nature. The Javanese have a proverb: "Life is a pause on a journey towards a cup of tea." This book honors the gifts of the pause, however unexpected and alarming -- they may include the visit of a god or goddess (not always to be explained or explained away by recourse to Jungian archetypes) posing a dilemma for the (supposedly) rational intellect. Yet Pandora's box contains more wisdom than the adherents of postmodernism and its offshoots could ever hope to find, even if they could begin to care about or look for it. Bearing the grit of dust prepares one for bearing the grace of devas. .