Ahava
Travel
about travelling
Today, somebody asked me, which countries i've have been travelling to and what was my favourite destination. This question lead me to think about why i love to travel.
It's actually quite simple:
- I'm curious, i like to discover. Discover other cultures, landscapes, kinds of living, people.
- The memories i have from my travels are something nobody can ever take away from me, they are in my heart and in my head, eternally.
- The experiences i've made during my travels made of me a rich person. Not in a material way, but, how can i say, maybe in a spiritual way. It made me more open, more tolerant. I've learned, and am still learning, a lot of things from other cultures, religions, ways of living. I've got a different view on many things, maybe i became also more objective towards certain topics.
I guess, that in every culture there are good and bad things. Sometimes something we, in our occidental culture, consider as bad, is considered the opposite in another culture. And this is hard to understand for us. Just one example: a few years ago i had the chance to assist at a funeral in Bali. The main religion in Bali is the buddism and dead people are burnt so their soul can go to the next "step" in order to attend in one of their future lives the nirwana. At the funeral the people were laughing, happy and smiling faces all over. The family and friends are not allowed to mourn the dead as it will not allow the soul to take off the body. There were quite a bunch of occidental / european tourists attending the funeral, all quite amazed about this attitude. Amazed, that the family allowed us to assist at the funeral, amazed about the fact that everything was happening in a happy atmosphere. But just go on the other side and you will understand: for them, death is happy event, the person has accomplished his life, a step to get to spiritual perfection, a step nearer to nirwana. For them it wasn't sad, they felt joy for the dead person.
And think a bit further: it is right that we would not accept a bus of tourists to assist at the funeral of a beloved person. We would be shocked when even asked the question!
So what i mainly learned from this, is that it only a matter of point of view, a matter from which / what side you look at something.
Just look at something simple: take a look on your sofa form different angles: it doesn't look the same from the front side compared to the backside.
