The Art of Travel 7-9

-7-

CULTIVATE AN APPETITE FOR TRAVEL

By reading authentic 

travel writers, especially the poets, and by watching movies 

set in exotic locations, your appetite for travel will grow.

Knowledge of a place you will experience when you arrive,

but an appetite for travel, like any appetite must be constantly

nourished.

Poets convey more of the subjective experience of a place than do

geography books.Poets seduce you into slipping over the fence at 

midnight to take a look.

Films from the ouvre of visual bold directors can serve as

optic appetizers, then we are easily transported to foreign 

countries and strange planets without the need of a

passport.

Commentary: You have to keep the flame of wanderlust alight.That means staying interested in other cultures and countries. Writers are your window to these other worlds, not just travel writers i might add, the world of fiction has some great descriptions of places you haven't been to. I am always interested in film locations because if you see some place in a movie that you like, it just might become a future destination. Of course now we have the internet so you can be anywhere, at least in your head.

-8-

INSIDE YOUR HEART IS A RESTLESS PILGRIM

We think God waits for us at sacred sites around the world, in temples, in mosques,in synagogues and in churches, but God resides

in the heart, and therefore where ever you happen to be.

Commentary: Echoing a quote from Rumi as i recall, i am saying don't seek the sacred in edifice how ever magnificent, feel sacred inside yourself in your heart. Find God there.

There is however a powerful pull that many of us feel to go on a pilgrimage of some kind, its what draws us to sacred sites around the world, i know for me it has been the starting point of many a journey. A pilgrimage is as much about the journey as the final destination, which depending on where you are treking to can often be a dissapointing pile of old stones. The energy of many of these holy sites has dissapeared years ago. However there are still some sacred places that can give you a 'hit' of shakti if you are receptive.

-9-

TRAVEL IS A PARADOXICAL WAY TO LEARN ABOUT OURSELVES

We go out into the world to know what is already inside

of us.As above so below.What is outside is inside.

The perception of an outside objective world, is

a reflection of our inner awareness.

You see what you are.

Commentary:The last line 'You see what you are' is all about projection, its corollary - you can only perceive what you are aware of, is a comment about the nature of our nervous system. Bats, snakes and humans all see the world from a very different point of view, from a different slice of the electromagnetic spectrum.The sonic world of the bat is different from the thermal world of the snake and different to the mainly visual world of humans. The world is going to show you how you are wired. The trick is to perceive it AS IT IS, sans projection. When travel shows you that you will reconfigure who you think you are.