On Travel and Spirituality

On Travel and Spirituality

1.

It is perhaps a crude judgement on my part that those who are most religious and fanatic in their beliefs, seeking imaginary worlds rather that the real one, is a direct consequence of how little they have travelled. It is rare to find any deviation from their convictions, so one might assume that it is rare that they have deviated from anything at all.

To know about life one must see it in all its forms; the fact that no one can completely do this in his lifetime without meeting every single living thing is a testament to its variety, and also the variety of its interpretations and values. Even so, there still seems very few, albeit very well-trodden and very linear, supposed spiritual paths. These paths teach perhaps necessary moral doctrines, divine orders, such as that advocates should love their neighbor, because it is the only way they can love someone they have never met.

2.

Many great people claim to know much about the world while having never stepped outside the city they were born in (Kant for instance). Some rarely even go outside, perhaps preferring books, television, games or the internet as their source of experience, finding relative safety within purely rigid, purely binary, purely synthetic, purely lifeless worlds, where mental stimulation alone is sure to keep them busy. In extreme cases, some even retreat into their own minds, to imagine themselves exploring rather than actually exploring—maybe even to do away with exploration altogether—so that they may forgo the difficult task of getting up out of their preferred position of relaxation.

In all acts of stationary meditation and prayer, one learns mostly what the back of his eyelids looks like, or how to sit, how to kneel, how to lay down, how to calm, how to seek quiet of environment for quiet of mind, how to seek quite of mind for quiet environment—how to not experience. Meditation without movement is instead a desire to sleep; and it is no wonder that meditation and a good nights rest have the exact same health benefits. Seeking mindfulness involves first seeking an external world to be mindful of. The rest is seeking sleep, seeking not-seeking, rest, retirement, resignation—they call it bliss, divinity, nothingness, peace—the satiation of desire, idleness and a self-satisfying, self-gratifying, hedonistic affair with oneself. If one doesn’t get an adequate amount of sleep this method might be useful; but beyond that it is called laziness. Being able to rest isn’t necessarily a quest of the highest order. Even the most evil of people sleep well and dream.

3.

A spiritual path is never so linear and straight a line. Certainly it is never a point. Then why go straight? Why stop? Why not change directions?

4.

Spirituality requires movement. Braving spiritual valleys and mountains requires going through real ones. One cannot learn about oneself without putting oneself in different environments, different languages, experiencing new things, new cultures, new customs, new religions, new gods, new food, and the highly unconventional situations a wayward wanderer often finds himself in. To learn about oneself requires new scars, new memories, stories, experiences, variety, new perspectives, new peoples, and an affair with the rest of the world. True mindfulness is finding ourselves mindful not in in rest and relaxation, but out amongst our lives, neither here nor there for too long a time lest we become stagnant. Spirituality requires travel, not rest.

Because of the world’s vastness, it is sometimes difficult to see enough of it. Travelling around the world requires a certain resourcefulness. However, it is not difficult to go outside; it is not difficult to go down a different street, through a new neighbourhood, see things from a different perspective, express ourselves a different way, to broaden oneself instead of limit oneself. It is not difficult to talk to a stranger, to be around strangers, around different cultures and amongst fellow travellers. Every time we are unconventional, we are travelling in a sense, seeing new things with new eyes, training our creativity instead of suppressing it. Only in travel can mindfulness or meditation add to one’s own value—in applying it towards when we seek to be awake rather than when we seek to be asleep.

I couldn't agree more. I have never stayed in one place for very long, or in a single career, or with any specific group of friends. My life has been ever shifting, and i like it that way. I feel it has opened me up and allowed me to grow so much. Now my goal is to explore other countries and cultures outside of my own, which I am doing right now actually. It's been an amazingly spiritual experience discovering just how many new people I can connect with from another culture so quickly.

reply to post by Aphorism


Eloquent, beautiful and true!

I would rather be a wanderer and experience while moving and awake than to sleep it all away.

Thank you for sharing.

Aphorism
It is perhaps a crude judgement on my part that those who are most religious and fanatic in their beliefs, seeking imaginary worlds rather that the real one, is a direct consequence of how little they have travelled.

You're right - it is indeed crude.

In all acts of stationary meditation and prayer, one learns mostly what the back of his eyelids looks like, or how to sit, how to kneel, how to lay down, how to calm, how to seek quiet of environment for quiet of mind, how to seek quite of mind for quiet environment—how to not experience.

If that's what you think, then you're doing it wrong.

Spirituality requires travel, not rest.

Consciousness is non-local.

Spirituality requires heart, not cleverness.

Love will find a way to lovers whether they travel or not.

I say that as a well-traveled pilgrim.

reply to post by BlueMule


Everyone is conscious when awake.

Everyone has heart.

One doesn't need to go far to travel.

This is from a well travelled wanderer.

reply to post by MamaJ

Thank you for sharing.

My pleasure. Thank you for sharing with me.

Aphorism
reply to post by BlueMule

 

Everyone is conscious when awake.

Not really.

Everyone has heart.

Nope.

One doesn't need to go far to travel.

Well then what's the point of this thread. I can walk to the corner store and unravel all the mysteries of the universe on the way. There, I've traveled.

Great Post Op!

For me, being in many circles from childhood to now. Allows myself to ponder how many paths their are to choose from. Just sometimes it's nice to take a break from it all. Spiritually can become draining at times! Paths always have a time out to reflect on things; or one can say the roles of all are not there yet.

Most are told Spiritually is something Higher to be in, its the only way, you know the lines I hope! Only you come to a point in where you see everything yet to stop and grasp at the wonder of it all is draining. Of Course it's the walls you have so build up within that are falling down; or some who actually Tear at the walls, that are being stripped away.

It goes with the story about having a hole in your heart. Somehow you have to fill that hole at all cost! Though I never really understood it at the time, a friend once told me that no matter how much you fill that hole. There will always be a hole.

Lately, I walk a strange path. Uplifting and draining, although now I see its the actually Opening the hole in my Heart; or tearing down walls I've created in this lifetime; or many if some go that way. It's like that Evil song, Open up your Heart and let the Light shine in!

If your Heart was Opened, would not your Light Shine Outward? Why take Light when you can Actually Share Your Own? Walking down a Spiritual path strips down your Beliefs to the core of your Being. That take alot of work, well worth it if I may say so.

Yet somehow I feel lost, must be the next path I must walk. Life as I know it to be, tossed breaks from time to time. It knows it takes time for you to understand things at a different level. It also knows when it has to toss you into various situation when you do get to being Lazy.

Peace

reply to post by BlueMule

Well then what's the point of this thread. I can walk to the corner store and unravel all the mysteries of the universe on the way. There, I've traveled.

It sounds like you have a destination in mind but take the same way to get there. If that's how you wish to travel, you'll always see the same thing. Maybe you prefer to travel in your mind, to places where you can leave your body behind. One part of imagines it soars while the rest withers and sleeps.

The point of this thread is like the point of you replying to it. It's something to do.

reply to post by infoseeker26754


I agree. If spirituality was as easy as sitting down and seeking dreams we'd never get out of bed. But it could be used to more applicable means if we apply it to our everyday lives.

Aphorism
reply to post by infoseeker26754

 

I agree. If spirituality was as easy as sitting down and seeking dreams we'd never get out of bed. But it could be used to more applicable means if we apply it to our everyday lives.

It's not your place to measure and judge whether others have done enough or traveled enough or too little to be spiritual, or whether they have had easy spirituality or hard. Just worry about yourself and your costume spirituality.

Mediation means access to the Unconscious essentially. Ideologies in general have there differences but fundamentally that are also similar. In dreams as generally defined memory of events ends a few seconds after waking. In meditation ones retains the data as a memory.

That nature can be moral or immoral is only offered in relation to beings like ourselves. No one faults a lion for eating a Gazelle it has captured, if anything its an expression of survival.

How that translates in relation to Spirituality (despite ideology) translates very differently when related to an immortal soul.

As inherently survival ceases to be the issue.

In every culture there are people who if given authority will take advantage of it. But it is one thing to take advantage of scenarios that occur on Earth in reality. But it's another story when engaged in an activities related to transcendence.

In a prior post I presented what can be define as potentially a developmental issue, one that is inherent physically to the human condition.

One that can be replicated by any person in human history meaning it is a part of the growth process.

A part of all of nature not a toy for ones baser needs.

reply to post by Aphorism


Rather than comment on individual points in your OP, I instead ask a meager question; Have you ever considered that other people are not you, and just because your quest to find enlightenment wound along a different path than others, does that somehow make your path 'better?'

Just as people are both herd, and individual, so too must quests for truth be taken both as an individual and as a group-thought. One has to learn from without, I agree. But, to deny the self in your own wanderings and searchings for meaning and truth, is surely folly. To deny that which lies in the stillness of self-exploration from within, it to deny the waves of the sea, and the wind in your hair. To deny the very things you espoused! Life is duality my friend, in almost every aspect. If not every aspect. Man & Woman, Light & Dark, et cetera. I do not wish you discouragement my friend, merely a different view.

reply to post by BlueMule

It's not your place to measure and judge whether others have done enough or traveled enough or too little to be spiritual, or whether they have had easy spirituality or hard. Just worry about yourself and your costume spirituality.

I might have to ask you to do the same thing. It is not your place to measure and judge. Worry about your own spirituality.

reply to post by Chronogoblin

Have you ever considered that other people are not you, and just because your quest to find enlightenment wound along a different path than others, does that somehow make your path 'better?'

Have you sir?

reply to post by Aphorism




What in this thread are you defining "spirituality" as now?
Do you still mistakenly think that its your opinion?

Aphorism


It is perhaps a crude judgement on my part that those who are most religious and fanatic in their beliefs, seeking imaginary worlds rather that the real one, is a direct consequence of how little they have travelled.

Yes for sure its very crude( but don't even try to refine this one- throw it back its too small)
You think fanatics are fanatical just because they don't travel?
Religious people maintain there beliefs because they have not travelled?

"Wherever you go there you are."


To know about life one must know life.
Appearance is not life the appearance of diversity is not life.
How can you know life if you mistakenly think form is life and spirituality is opinion.

Aphorism
In extreme cases, some even retreat into their own minds, to imagine themselves exploring rather than actually exploring

When you thought up this balmy idea of a need for travel you were in your mind.
What good has all your travel done you if you still have not moved beyond your mind?

Aphorism
Meditation without movement is instead a desire to sleep; and it is no wonder that meditation and a good nights rest have the exact same health benefits. Being able to rest isn’t necessarily a quest of the highest order. Even the most evil of people sleep well and dream.

How is it that you know that most evil people sleep well and dream, do you know most of them?

Meditation without movement is not a desire to sleep.
Sleep does not have the same benefits as meditation.

Aphorism
Spirituality requires movement.

Why do you think spirituality requires movement?

reply to post by Aphorism


Won`t argue with you because in a way you are right. I can agree that experiencing vs reading about it or watching it or imagining it is totally different thing. But are they really? Depends on how your mind is open to see things as they are. If you can train yourself that in mind and heart you see, feel, touch, smell, taste and hear the same as in reality, then you are experiencing just like in reality.

So what is reality?

What if we are living in simulation and what you think you are experiencing in reality is just a process going in your mind or soul or essence? Did you ever ask yourself this question? So this spiritual path might be everything that happens to you in this life/simulation here on Earth...even if you travel alot or not at all, because it could be the external world you are talking about. It`s your own unique path.

If you are ready to broaden your mind and soul you might want to read a thread that I created...
www.abovetopsecret.com...

And just to clear this out. This is not me in your #2 statement. It`s me looking at the bigger picture

So basically if you would just leave #4 statement there and delete all others, you would be so right and would apply anywhere. Other # just show how far you must still travel on your spiritual path. And it`s not in the distance, it`s in the awareness.

Aphorism
reply to post by BlueMule

 

It's not your place to measure and judge whether others have done enough or traveled enough or too little to be spiritual, or whether they have had easy spirituality or hard. Just worry about yourself and your costume spirituality.

I might have to ask you to do the same thing.

Then again, you might not. Not if you realize first that its you trying to tell others what their personal spirituality requires, not me. A hermit in a cave all his life can reach heights a traveler can't. Would you barge into his cave and tell him that his spirituality doesn't meet your requirements? Or into a monetary to tell the monks that their spirituality is a costume?

Does your personal spirituality require you to tell other people about deficiencies you perceive in their spirituality? Or spirituality in general? Or to go on forums and try to sniff out hypocrites? Or what?

Aphorism
reply to post by BlueMule

 

It's not your place to measure and judge whether others have done enough or traveled enough or too little to be spiritual, or whether they have had easy spirituality or hard. Just worry about yourself and your costume spirituality.

I might have to ask you to do the same thing. It is not your place to measure and judge. Worry about your own spirituality.

It is relevant to point out that you made comments related to having an understanding of world cultures beyond your own.

You then commented about something being wrong so how did you measure this?

Looking at another society from the perspective of ones own has historically lead to all kinds of problems. Inherently only when one immerses themselves in other cultures and the meaning of there symbolism.

Does one then understand how there symbolism is referenced in their daily lives? What it means and why it is important to them? Only then does one begin to understand where they are coming from.

One can understand our world as a microcosm for everything. But one can also consider that in that regard, our ability in general to how, such a microcosm, relates to a reality, that is beyond the scope of our current comprehension.

Consider the human race from the perspective and analogy of four blind men approaching an elephant from different angles. Then describing individually their definition after having only inspecting that angle, are asked to describe an elephant.

Any thoughts?

In respect to "measurement", it is one thing to travel to Tibet and stay at a five star hotel and quite another to travel to a small village. There you secure a room with a family that has a room to spare. This during winter where the roads are so blocked that one is trapped their until Spring.

No electricity and everyone including you must do there share which is included in the arrangement for wintering in this village. In other words the fee you agree upon does not include food which you are willing to work for.

Then you will begin to understand that culture.

Any thoughts?