How can we release expectations to fully experience a journey? Taoist master Casey Kochmer explains how “openness” is the key.
In December 2009, I had the pleasure of visiting the Big Island of Hawaii. I had come to learn about Taoism, and how to apply the concept of “flow,” the concept of releasing overt control for a more subtle variety.
As editor of BNT, I was also curious how the philosophy of Taoism can be applied to the journey itself. And so one afternoon near the end of my week trip, I sat down with Casey under the shade of the palm trees, and shot this interview. Enjoy!
Visit Casey’s website Personal Tao.
What do you think of Taoism and travel? Share your thoughts in the comments!
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5 Comments... join the discussion!
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Awesome- glad you enjoyed the interview! If you’re looking for more Taoism, Casey has a great book online here http://personaltao.com/tao/readonline.htm
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LOVE that. Live in the present. Totally easy to get lost in goals.
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Thank you for this interview! Taoism is the best lifestyle change I have ever made, and this just enforces some of the values in a travel sense- love it!! For those of you who this interview resonates with, look into reading an interpretation of the Tao te Ching- could change your life.
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This was such a nice video and a great point
I’ve been reading about and trying to put into practice Buddhism and Taoism for a little while now, and I found that on my last trip (which was short, just a week and a half) it really helped me to enjoy myself…the whole “point” of the trip was to take a scuba vacation and spend the week diving in Mexico with my best friend, and see Chichen Itza while I was there too. Well we took our first dive and I had some ear problems, it started to hurt a lot so I went to the doctor and he told me I’d arrived unaware that I had an ear infection. I couldn’t dive for the rest of the trip. Also I sort of left planning Chichen Itza until the last minute and ended up unable to go. Both of these things normally would have caused me a great deal of stress and worry, but this time I was able to stay relaxed and flexible. Okay, I can’t dive, I’ll just snorkel and do other things. Okay, no Chichen Itza, but I can go to some closer ruins to explore.Everything works out if you let it. If you stay flexible and adaptive to changes in plans, you’ll find yourself much more happy and able to enjoy things as they are
In regular life we’re happy if it’s sunny, happy if our job pays well, happy if we have lots of spare time; it’s all conditional. Once you learn to be happy without conditions, in any situations, once you can stop saying “I’m happy if..” or “I’m happy as long as…” then you can really experience life!
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