Why travel? (written in Australia, Dec 2012)
26/12/2012, Sydney: the starting point of another journey. If my main purpose of leaving Sydney on this day two years ago was to escape emotional suffering, it has shifted to a rational regime. Or at least that's my hope.
Nothing is comparable to the emotional freedom we gain through physically removing ourselves from a place of burden. Yet travelling brings more than a way out. We soon become thunderstruck by the sublimity of the natural sceneries, by the beauty in each culture, and above all, by the naivety we possessed yesterday. Starting with an almost pathetic reason, through my journeys, I have gained profound realisations beyond my imagination.
The distortion of countries and cities presented in the media is a good reason for travelling, although it applies to only people who want to know about places. I believe that regardless of whether you have the will to learn about the world, travelling is a necessary mind-opener.
In recent weeks, I met Christians who "helped" me see the "cult" I got myself involved in, Chinese who indoctrinated me with the evilness of Dalai Lama, and relatives who tried to "cure" my forgiving perspective on Japan’s invasion of China. "You've been brainwashed!" they all said. Well, society itself is a brainwasher. Your current views are the product of the environment you've been surrounded by since your birth, especially your cultural/religious and educational backgrounds. My fourteen years in China have shaped a large part of me, yet the formation of my current value system occurred mainly in Australia, a Western society of free speech. It is too different from, say, the dark ambiance of the Cultural Revolution that had swallowed my grandparents.
I suppose the best we can do is to refine our views by gathering information from as many perspectives as we can. And travelling is one of the best ways of doing it. (Right, a key reason why I'm in science is that in a general setting, only information presented in a "humanly way" is accessible, regardless of how many views we're willing to absorb.)
Most of us start by being naive tourists. "Nice building!" was pretty much all I could say when taking a prolonged tour around Italy four years ago. Nevertheless, my impression of each city stayed with me. Through years of psychological growth, I became better at gaining insights into things and can now, retrospectively, understand more of what I had seen at the time.
Well, I'm ready for India. I'm ready for the grandeur of the Taj Mahal, the holiness of Varanasi, Bodhgaya, as well as the poverty and chaos. How many people live in poverty? How many people are you able to save? I'm not noble enough to dedicate all my time to benefiting the lives of others, though I'd be delighted if it ends up being a byproduct. I'm volunteering in Dharamshala to learn more about the Tibetan culture and their view of the world, and to enrich myself. I don't search for, or perhaps I should say there doesn't exist, a "correct" interpretation of historical events; I won't let thoughts concerning politics hinder my way.
So I'm now 22, and I call myself an experienced traveller in my age group. Yet I still fall from time to time. One can never be mature enough in this ever-changing society. There's always plenty to learn on our physical and inner journeys, as in any field of knowledge.
Seeing emus running across the vast scarlet land next to my train, I became aware of another layer of Australian beauty. Indeed, the layers add up upon each of my returns to the country. Of course, my point isn't anything specific about Australia. It's simply that travelling even enables you to see your country of residency from a different perspective.
Allow me to leave the ending out since the journey continues. ;)
