Dear chhori (daughter in Nepali),
So, one day I decided to travel to the East from Kathmandu, alone. Packed one bag with a little bit of clothes, one laptop bag, and an acoustic nylon guitar, and off I went. Not without asking you of course :).
I was so excited that for the first time in my life, I woke up at 4:30AM on my own, with no alarm. Funny, how the body responds to the thirst of spiritual freedom chhori.
Traveling alone is such a blessing. If you want to experience the abstract concept called “freedom” concretely, travel alone, and you will experience what freedom is, but you have to be absolutely alone and present chhori.
For example, if I am traveling alone but I’m constantly making business deals on the phone, or constantly reporting to my family, or constantly documenting the experience, posting it online, and waiting for/thinking about responses from elsewhere then I’m not traveling alone. In my book, I’m not even traveling.
Being just physically alone is not alone enough. For me it is something bigger. It is about the freedom to seek, who you are. Genuine independence comes from within, not from with-out, if you know what I mean. So you have to be alone physically, mentally, and emotionally, so that you can be honestly present where you are.
If traveling alone is not an option then travel with someone you trust enough to just be yourself, and who can be a mirror for your self-reflection.
It is about being so free from within that you have the ability to be a 100% present wherever you are. I always try to be 100% present wherever I am, with full attention and awareness, and it is not that easy. There are many things in life that demand your attention within your awareness, because we are interdependent beings - interdependent with others, context, and nature.
Through the years I’ve found that not everyone does it, because being honestly present where you are for a sustained period of time, is not easy. There are many distractions for people in the world right now, especially in the urban fast life. There is so much noise and perceived lack of time, that people have stopped realizing who they are, and are they even present or not.
How do you know that? One way is to look whether their eyes and body are with you during the conversation. People these days are constantly on their phones, or looking elsewhere when talking or listening to you without realizing that they are not even recognizing the existence of the person in front of them. It is also starting to get normalized in the current urbanity.
What they fail to realize is that they have just offended the person in front of them. They realize it later when it happens to them - how it feels being judged negatively, and being dismissed from the conversation.
This realization in me makes me alert to be present wherever I am, with whoever I am. Just knowing what is happening in a conversation is not enough. Some people do it without being aware, but once you’re aware and if you still do it is hypocrisy. And, I try to minimize as much hypocrisy I can from within first, and then in my actions.
Traveling to nature helps you have internal conversations with you like this one. To the mountains, rivers, forests and such, because they are just there, as a witness to your presence.
So to feel spiritual freedom, travel alone. BUT, to be spiritually present, be a hundred percent connected to wherever you are without any distractions of internal stories that arise from your past or future.
- Be where you are, aware and attentive - honest presence
- Listen with everything you have - compassion
- Speak only if it’s more beautiful than silence (Imam Ali/Arabic Proverb) - authentic interaction
Perhaps one day, when you travel somewhere far away, you will discover that the real journey was never the distance — but the awareness and attention you carried with you.