Present Seeking

When was the last time you went for a vacation?

Maybe you went to a nice hill station, or beautiful beaches, a lovely vibrant city or a dense captivating jungle. Irrespective of where you visited, what exactly is travel and why we human are so much in love with it ? You talk to anyone, and more often than not the conversation is about how they visited this beautiful place with amazing culture, people and yes the food.

While walking on the street of Kyoto, this thought came to my mind. A huge part of travel is driven by food, people love to try different taste, smell and what not. I am not big on food, so I thought maybe I can't appreciate the travel much. However when you broaden this idea, it is very simple. Almost all of the travel we do is about satisfying the senses. It isn't really limited to a single sense of taste.

Those beautiful scenery, lightness of air, weather, sound of mountains or water waves.. and even interacting with new folks. They are all designed to stimulate our senses with newness. We like that freshness of these so much that most of us tend to look for newness sooner than later. Remember that friend who travelled 75 countries and counting ?

Nothing wrong in this, right? absolutely.

Here is the other aspect, when you compare it with something very different, that is the need to be intimate with multiple partners. Isn't is same as newness of sense perception or new experience that we crave? What we call as lust in social terms, isn't it nothing but the need for fresh, unique experiences?

It is just a man made idea that travel is considered highly desired and even applauded (oh that person is very well travelled), but the other aspect is considered taboo (how can you have more than one partner, that's horrible). Good or bad in society is almost always man made ideas.

However, what is the point overall, even if they are same desires. What can we learn from it? Well to me, the idea is boredom is the seed of every craving that we have. It doesn't matter whether that craving is socially accepted (travel) or not (sex). Ultimately it is the mind telling us, or rather driving us to strive for new experiences, so it can feel fulfilled for a while. The fulfilment we seek isn't that of senses, we long for deeper fulfilment, that's why it keeps coming back.

So maybe all of us are trying to satisfy our thirst for water by sleeping. In other words, we aren't aware of true cause of these cravings, rather we are just going by the distraction that we find most distracting and confusing it with fulfilment.

And as always, since no truth can be complete from one point of view.

How about we are longing something deeper and maybe finding a bit of it in either travel or sex or any new experience. Maybe we learn something about ourselves every time we taste a new dish - not just the flavors, but our capacity for appreciation, our ability to slow down and truly receive an experience. We might discover patience through understanding the chef's craft, or gratitude through recognizing the care in preparation.

Similarly, intimate experiences can teach us about vulnerability, presence, and our capacity for both giving and receiving. These experiences can offer glimpses of deeper connection, selflessness, and even timelessness.

So seeking new experiences isn't necessarily bad. The key question isn't just your initial motivation - are you running from boredom or seeking growth - but your awareness during the experience itself. Are you present enough to let it change you, or just consuming it to fill time? The same trip to Kyoto can be pure distraction or genuine transformation, depending on how consciously you engage with it.

So did I learn something from that trip? Absolutely and that's what this piece tries to capture. It is almost always about how deeply present we are, and maybe just maybe when we are completely present there is no craving for new experience.