Feb 13 2008
4 Widen your horizons
“A spoon of salt in a cup of water can be unbearable whereas a spoon of salt in a lake goes unnoticed” The Buddha
Life’s always dishing out spoons of salt whether they come in the form of terrorist threats or your annoying neighbour.
Our reaction to these circumstances is, however, not predetermined by “life” but our own breadth of experience.
I recently read an interview with Barrack Obama that homed in on his background. Being part muslim as well as born outside of the US raises some interesting dilemmas for America’s future role in the Middle East should he win the Presidency.
No doubt Obama’s life experience will equip him with a breadth of understanding not afforded to your average died-in-the-wool Republican. Such experiences allow us to empathise with others different to ourselves.
When the mind is closed, as the cup and any brittle structure it is less resistant to stress or change. A brick building will not last a long time in Tokyo. Similalry our happiness derives from our ability to understand others and overcome nature’s emotional earthquakes.
Perhaps one of the greatest ways to broaden one’s mind is travel.
In this sense I don’t mean package holidays or coach tours I mean experiencing the culture head on. In Vikram Seth’s “From Heaven’s Lake”, the author recalls and laments the passing of train travel in the modern age replaced by the sanitized airplane that cocoons its passengers from the very contact that makes the time spent rewarding.
Travel has given me many unforgettable experiences. Maoist freedom fighters on the foothills of the Nepalese Himalayas were decent hardworking people who like the rest of us wanted a better life for their children, supported Manchester United and smoked Marlboro. Muslims wherever I went from Egypt to Indonesia were not fanatical terrorists but some of the most welcoming people you’ll meet. They loved to talk, haggle and generally enjoy the moment.
Having lived abroad I feel more aware of the pressures facing those in similar situation. We take so many thing for granted. In my first 3 months living in Tokyo I lost 5kg because you just don’t know what to eat or where to easily buy it. The experience widens your horizons and I guess equips you better to deal with seeing situations from the other person’s perspective.
Perhaps most importantly travel teaches you about yourself and your own constructs of identity. Being “British” is merely a construct, a fact you slowly realize when you live in a world where it is merely a curiosity rather than you identity.
Happiness is, as Matthieu Ricard says dependent on others. Compassion towards others based on a deep understanding is the root of this happiness.
