"In Islam, and especially among the Sufi Orders, siyahat or 'errance' - the action or rhythm of walking - was used as a technique for dissolving the attachments of the world and allowing men to lose themselves in God.
The aim of a dervish was to become a 'dead man walking' : one whose body stays alive on the earth yet whose soul is already in Heaven. A Sufi manual, the Kashf-al-Mahjub, says that, towards the end of his journey, the dervish becomes the Way not the wayfarer, i.e. a place over which something is passing, not a traveller following his own free will."
*****
"Arkady, to whom I mentioned this, said it was quite similar to an Aboriginal concept, 'Many men afterwards become country, in that place, Ancestors.'
By spending his whole life walking and singing his Ancestor's Songline, a man eventually became the track, the Ancestor and the song."
From 'The Songlines' by Bruce Chatwin (Thanks Claire!)
