08.09.2024 Traveler’s Mind   I recently flew to Scotland to embark on a literary pilgrimage. Despite my chronic travel bug, it was my first time venturing beyond North America since the pandemic began. During orientation at the program I was attending in Edinburgh, we were each asked what drew us there. I was excited about the program’s theme and faculty, but my response was more about wanting an excuse to travel, explaining how this trip was an effort to reconnect to my pre-2020 self. I was surprised to discover how much this sentiment resonated with my peers; we were collectively in a phase of recovery and reconnection. Of course, this yearning isn’t exclusive to the COVID era. I recently stumbled across a Georgia O’Keeffe quote extracted from a 1933 letter: “I have done nothing all summer but wait for myself to be myself again.” But it’s made me reflect on the transformative powers of travel and how it helps us tap into our truest selves. Being in foreign environments — and therefore out of our routines — often propels us to be fully present. Unburdened by our typical daily duties, we easily slip into a sense of wonder and appreciation for our surroundings. The experience of being a foreigner in a new environment also fosters feelings of surrender, humility, reflection, compassion, and respect. At the same time, I’m fully aware that the ability to travel is a privilege. What’s more, I’m realizing that the therapeutic and spiritual perks associated with travel aren’t geoblocked. Similar feelings of joy, awe, introspection, and openness can be accessed while staying put — traveling just facilitates them. Exposure to and immersion in different cultures is wonderful, but traveling is sometimes more about a state of mind than the destination. For this Weekend Reader, I’ve chosen three pieces that may not feel immediately related, but I believe are synergistic. Editor-in-chief Melvin McLeod’s interview with Pico Iyer highlights the joys of travel. Meanwhile, Mark Coleman explores how the natural world offers an opportunity to wake up, and Santiago Santai Jiménez reveals how groundlessness and letting go are key to nurturing a beginner’s mind — something akin to a traveler’s eyes. Knowing that different routes can lead to the same place, the latter two pieces suggest how we might evoke some delights and insights that Iyer speaks of no matter where we are. Bon voyage! — Sandi Rankaduwa, Assistant Editor, Lion’s Roar An Interview with Pico Iyer, The Contemplative Traveler   For writer Pico Iyer, travel is a spiritual experience that shakes up our usual certainties and connects us to a richer, vaster world. Iyer talks with editor-in-chief Melvin McLeod about his book, The Half Known Life: In Search of Paradise, and his eclectic contemplative practice. Pico Iyer: I’ve always seen travel as a means of transformation. Part of its beauty involves not just leaving your home, but leaving far behind your habits and the self that you recognize at home. When you’re in a foreign place, you can’t define yourself in the ways you’re used to, and therefore there’s a chance to become a slightly different self. I’m always seeking out those places that will overturn my assumptions, push me beyond what I think I know, and send me back a slightly different person from the one who left home. Of course, one doesn’t have to physically travel to be liberated from oneself, but it’s certainly a shortcut. If we’re in the streets of Varanasi, we can’t orient ourselves in familiar ways and we’re freed from our illusions of knowledge and of control. ADVERTISEMENT Awake in the Wild   Whether we’re in a pristine rainforest or our own backyard, says Mark Coleman, nature is always available to deepen our mindfulness. No matter where I’ve traveled, I’ve received valuable teachings along the way. I’ve learned how nature allows for mindfulness to develop effortlessly and spontaneously. I’ve witnessed in myself and others how contact with the natural world brings a sense of peace, greater perspective, profound joy and wonder, and a deeper connection with life in all its forms. Being in nature in a contemplative way, especially when we are alone, provides the perfect arena to explore our mind and our interrelationship with the world. The Groundless Path   Santiago Santai Jiménez reflects on how embracing groundlessness and impermanence can help us experience richness in daily life. But for me, meditation came naturally — I just didn’t have a word for it. I remember coming home from school, tossing my tight black shoes and heavy bag full of books to the side, and just lying face up on my bed, eyes closed, doing nothing. It didn’t seem like anything special; I was literally doing nothing. Or you could say that I was deeply letting myself and everything else just be. In fact, since I didn’t have a word for it when someone would ask what I was doing, I would say, “I’m just being.” Even though it didn’t seem like anything extraordinary from the outside, for me, this feeling of just being was permeated by a sense of deep connection, as if my body was merging with the whole universe, with no fixed boundaries between me and everything else, giving me a profound sense of being “at home.” LION’S ROAR PROMOTION