WHERE EVER YOU GO, THERE YOU ARE
These days what soothes me the most is reading Osho and I wanted to share a passage below which really spoke to me and may speak to other travel seekers.
I’m leaving again soon to embark on new adventures and therefore I’m feeling the usual fears and doubts and sadnesses. Only the more I do this the better I get at handling these emotions because I am able to remind myself how amazing the adventures have turned out to be in the past.
But there’s something I’ve learned greatly throughout all my travels (and what my mom likes to remind me of every chance she gets) which is: wherever you go, there you are. I love traveling. I refer to myself as a travel addict. But lately the pressing questions on my mind are: am I traveling because I simply love it, or am I traveling to outrun something? And, everything I’m seeing and doing, is it just skimming the surface or affecting me inwardly? Because inner change and knowledge is what I’m desperately seeking, and I hope I’m not just running in circles, bored, or simply distracting myself as Osho warns.
I really do love my life of travel and adventure and if I could do anything for the rest of my life this would be it – travel, take photos, and blog. But some days I think I would be just as happy in a home in the country with a family, never venturing any further than my own front porch. Supposedly without stirring abroad, one can know the whole world, and, the further one goes, the less one knows. I get the inner meanings of these sayings, I really do, but this craving for change and the unknown really has a hold on me. I really do feel like an addict, always in search of the next rush. There is a hidden reason behind every addiction. What is mine?
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– Osho –
You can change the clothes, your job, the town, everything outside, but nothing changes inside. And in changing these things much energy and time is wasted. The deep urge is for inner change. People go on changing their jobs, their house, their wife, their husband, but really they want to change themselves. But that seems almost impossible. They may not have felt directly what their desire is and they go on projecting. They say, ’If I change this then things will be better.’ They never are, because it is you, finally, who decides the mood, the climate of your being. The space in which you live is you and everything else is secondary.
… Nothing is wrong in seeing so many countries, but remember, this is not going to help. If you are in contact with yourself, go on travelling; there is no problem in it. But don’t hope that anything is going to come out of it. Enjoy it… it is fun… but don’t think that you are going to become centred, liberated through it. And remember always, it may be a way of distracting yourself.
You may be basically bored with yourself, so when you have been in a town for a few days or a few weeks, you feel finished and that you have seen everything. Now the desire arises to go somewhere else. This gives you a thrill, a sensation – a new town, new people, new food, new climate. After a few days the sensation dies and everything becomes old. Again you have to be on the move.
Remember it should not be an escape from yourself; otherwise it is okay. Go on searching your inner being, because unless you have found the inner country you will not feel satisfied. And once you have found that, wherever you are, you are surrounded in bliss. You carry your paradise around you… it is part of your being. By and by you will start feeling that there is no point in unnecessary wandering here and there because the real scene is inside. So always remember that the outside world is beautiful, but don’t be caught there, because the real beauty is waiting inside. Go on travelling if you enjoy it, but take it as fun. Continue travelling inwards… that is the real pilgrimage.