Geographical journeys and a historical journey

Many people in recent years have taken themselves off to far-away mountains or forests and brought back with them ideas of how to solve the problems they left behind them, equally illuminating whether they stem from the Buddha, Lao Tse or a Venezuelan forest tribe.

My personal journey has been along the other dimension - staying firmly rooted in the Western cultural tradition but making a similar journey, in time rather than space, finding practical wisdom and liberating ideas in the writings of teachers from times long-forgotten for most people... A lot of what was taught and thought in earlier times is well left behind us, but every 'yes' means a 'no' to its alternative, and there's a real risk of throwing the baby out with the bath water if we don't look carefully at what we reject in our strive for modernity and progress.