One of last evenings we spent with Khun, firstly at a concert, and then eating Thai dinner, and talking about almost everything. Most inspiriting were the fragments about his self-development and the way he went through to become who he is now – not only successful businessman, but above all committed activist who understands reality and is ready to work for a better world. One of the things that kept me most was the word “mind”. Khun used it many times speaking about development, decisions, values. However, while saying the word “mind” Khun pointed out … his heart.
Some time ago I thought about this more deeply during a conversation with Ada. It was the first time I realized that “mind” is connected with brain only in European culture. For people in the part of the world in which we are now mind has nothing to do with the brain. It is our inner self, separate from both the emotions and thoughts. It guides our decisions, our lifes.
One of the reasons why we started our trip from Asia, is because we want to find other ways of discovering reality than thinking. In Europe, we give great importance to it, but if you think about it, our brain can be as wrong as emotions and instincts (or maybe even more). When we rationalize reality, often (always?) we distort it and at the same time we tend to ignore elements which go beyond logic. Emotions, body, behavior – there are so many other ways of understanding. What my body tells me, how my emotions react, how people behave can be much more important than our rational assessment. Understanding that is probably still only a step to enlightenment. However strange the word enlightenment sounds, that’s in fact what I’m looking for. Experience, insight, deeper understanding of myself and thanks to that of other people. It is my personal goal for our journey.