Travel, a way to enlightenment: an existentialist and educational approach in the eastern and western transcultural content

This thesis applies outdoor pedagogic and Eastern philosophies to categorise and explain the self-development and enlightenment, which emerges from long-term budget travellers’ journeys. The research focuses on an individual scale rather than a social scale regarding the outcomes of the journey. The research undertakes, through a qualitative approach, to attain transcultural content by interviewing both an Easterner and a Westerner. They are youths and took their journey when they faced graduation from university. Empiricism and authenticity from the practice of travelling are emphasised in both outdoor education and the oriental philosophies of Daoism and Buddhism; being on the road can contribute the first hand and sensory involvement learning process, which is vanishing in contemporary society due to technology development. An important enlightenment from the journey mainly comes from the liminal space, through the way in which confrontation with the unknown breaks existing routines and allows people to think about themselves; therefore, the questions of I emerge. Bildung, the German tradition of self-cultivation, emphasises “Who I can be”. Moreover, the Daoist principle "let individuls be who they are", and “self is non self” in Buddhism both highlight the importance of knowing self as the way leading to enlightenment. At the end of the thesis, the author tries to explain the transcultural content with different modes: the braid of life, the picture of gestalt and fractal geometry. A transcultural approach should be complementary rather than contradictive between different cultures