Let us imagine the most beautiful place we can imagine – it could be a place you have actually been to or a place from your own imagination. The moment the scenery appears, your mind would already be enjoying the rest there. However, we soon realize that it is just an illusion. Similarly, this might happen, too: you get to some place without any expectation but you feel the scenery you are looking is like a dream. It is the situation where you feel the reality is like an illusion.
I have experienced it in Nice, France. The scenery was so beautiful that the shabby appearance of a backpacker seemed shameful.
I carelessly lay at the beach and fell asleep. I had a real sweet nap and woke up. Probably because of the atmosphere of the beach or because I was too tired from the travel, the scenery I caught after waking up was ‘heaven.’ But then, a thought struck me; ‘Is it reality? Am I dreaming?’ The moment I thought it was unrealistically beautiful, the reality became an illusion.
During the entire stay in Nice, I felt like I was dreaming. I even had the greed that I didn’t want to lose this feeling. While I was greedy, I couldn’t entirely enjoy the beautiful scenery. I then realized as I even started to feel pain: the world exists as it is and it is my mind that goes back and forth.
While traveling alone, you get to pay attention to the sound of your inner thoughts. You get to clearly see your view points while reacting to the world and the standard for which you judge the world. As I stayed alone in a quiet place, I realized that my mind was much noisier than I thought. In particular, when my mind was exposed to pure nature, I deemed it as rubbish.
As you might feel from these pictures, it is not easy to synchronize your mind with the silence of nature. If you have a noisy mind, would you say that you are really resting even though you might be in the world’s best holiday destination?
The true rest is when your mind is really resting. If your mind stays still like the infinite emptiness and is in a quiet and peaceful state, you will always be resting no matter where you are in the world. Then, you don’t need to buy expensive flights to find the best spots on Earth. If so, right here right now would also heaven – the place where your mind really rests.
If you are choosing which city you would go to escape from your daily life even now, why don’t you reflect on your mind by yourself? Rest is when your mind really rests. If you can see that your mind will stay noisy even at a quiet vacation spot, I recommend you to empty out your mind first. When you are ready to take up the world with that emptied mind, it is not too late at all to leave for your vacation. You would see and feel many more things. You will get to travel the real ‘heaven.’
