The one thing I don't get or resonate with is travel and people who love to go places. I clearly do not have the "travel bug" and don't understand those who do until I came across these sentences during my morning study. I am re-reading a fine book titled The Art of Disappearing: The Buddha's Path To Lasting Joy by Ajahn Brahm; Here's his insight about why so many people have an incessant desire to travel, travel travel:
"The mind thinks that the next experience will be interesting or useful. Its' this lack of contentment that drive people;s lives, making them them wander all over the world,. What are they searching for? Look carefully and you'll see that wherever your go, things are essentially the same. The trees are the same and so are people. Why go to see the Great Wall of China? It's no big deal - walls are just walls. Or you take an expensive ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. But a view is just a view. Why do people want to do these things? Often it's just something more to do - and wanting the next things gives us a sense of who we are. We seek our identity in always going on to the next thing. There is an old metaphor that describes life as a journey and meditation as the stopping of that journey. By stopping and sitting down somewhere and focusing on the breath, you can overcome the inclination of the mind to always want to go somewhere else."
"The mind thinks that the next experience will be interesting or useful. Its' this lack of contentment that drive people;s lives, making them them wander all over the world,. What are they searching for? Look carefully and you'll see that wherever your go, things are essentially the same. The trees are the same and so are people. Why go to see the Great Wall of China? It's no big deal - walls are just walls. Or you take an expensive ride to the top of the Eiffel Tower. But a view is just a view. Why do people want to do these things? Often it's just something more to do - and wanting the next things gives us a sense of who we are. We seek our identity in always going on to the next thing. There is an old metaphor that describes life as a journey and meditation as the stopping of that journey. By stopping and sitting down somewhere and focusing on the breath, you can overcome the inclination of the mind to always want to go somewhere else."
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