From the Publisher

"This insightful guide shows readers how to make each vacation, adventure, and business trip a journey of self-discovery and an opportunity for personal growth. The author explains how travel may be viewed as both an outward exploration of unfamiliar geography, architecture, history, and foreign customs and an inner journey into self-identity and personal meaning. Currie advocates journaling as a way to give form and structure to thought and fleeting impressions, increasing our insights into unconscious motivations and impulses. He walks the reader through the entire process of effective journaling: selecting the appropriate journal and writing tools, organizing the journal into different sections, deciding upon the appropriate "spiritual touchstones," and structuring the writing process around eight Buddhist archetypes that offer specific skills for problem solving and spiritual progress.

"The author includes helpful anecdotes and examples from his own extensive travel experiences to guide the reader through the process, offering tips for planning trips, determining objectives, organizing and allocating time, budgeting, traveling with others, packing, staying healthy, and dealing with emergencies."

From Prominent Authors:

"A powerful passport to magical and meaningful travel." --Satish Kumar, Path Without Destination

"The Mindful Traveler is a masterful guide for anyone craving meaningful adventure. Poetic yet practical, it leads one to experience the full depth and richness of travel as a spiritual path." --Sonia Choquette, True Balance

"Chock-full of reminders to those who may want to follow in the footsteps of pious travelers walking to Jerusalem, Bodh Gaya, or Basho's Far Province... also instructive for ordinary travelers who only want to be more respectful and aware as they tread the back roads of Galway, Venice, or Gettysburg..." --Phil Cousineau, Art of Pilgrimage

From the Critics

"Jim Currie is an avid traveler. He approaches every journey with a sense of adventure, always open to the possibilities that only travel can bring. He brings with him on his journeys a Buddhist sensibility, and it is the wisdom of the Eastern religions that he returns to again and again. In The Mindful Traveler, he suggests ways for people to take the time to consider, to nurture really, a different approach than ... merely a source of escape.

"His methods include journal-keeping, mandala or spiritual-map drawing and visualization exercises, as well as a bevy of practical suggestions. Currie is of the strong opinion that travel can be transformed from mindless travel--that of mere tourism--to something deeper: mindful travel, or the way of the pilgrim. He provides a quick and efficient method for recording daily events and fleshing out significant moments and shows how anyone can use Buddhism and its principles to deepen our time away from home, whether it be for pleasure or business. 'Mindful travel awakens the senses,' he writes, and in this short book he offers plenty of examples." Chicago Tribune

"Using Buddhism as the basis, this unusual travel guide teaches the reader how to keep a travel journal. Currie, a well-traveled environmental scientist, believes that keeping a journal while traveling leads one to self-discovery and life contemplations and helps one to relive vacation memories more vividly when returning home. Currie begins by discussing the necessity of keeping a travel journal, the process for selecting a journal, and "the method" or suggested format for journal writing. Then, in a light-hearted and funny tone, Currie provides tips on travel dos and don'ts based on his own experiences. Touchstones or inspirational quotes taken from literature, Buddha, and even rock stars such as the Beatles are used to connect the chapters, while charts, tables, and cartoons help to illustrate Currie's main points in more detail. This insightful and comical book is a joy to read and should be added to all travel collections."--Booklist and the American Library Association:

Reader Reviews:

"This book'll be one of the most prized tools I carry in my backpack. I read The Mindful Traveler during my subway commute to Manhattan. Last week, on my way home to Brooklyn from the office, I finished it. I was struck by how much it has spoken to me and opened up new ways of thinking and approaching... well, everything.

"I bought the book at Barnes & Noble in Union Square one Friday night when I'd just finished deciding that I was going to shed most of my possessions and obligations and go traveling. It was a crisis of sorts, and I'd really reached a point of no return in terms of wanting to transform my life. I bought this book because it offered exactly what I was looking for: a travel guide for the inner-self, drawing on respected eastern philosophy but laced with humor and playfulness, practical tips, and a pretty doable-looking methodology... The book delivered exactly what it promised...and will be one of the most prized tools I carry in my backpack." -- HT, Media Producer (soon to be former rat), New York City

"This is a timely book, full of wonderful insights and practical advice. Jim Currie does his reader a service with his journal organization system and other down-to-earth time and hassle savers. What I like most of all, however, is the whole concept of the book, the truth that all of our travels are opportunities to expand the spirit and grow out of our accumulated baggage. Jim Currie has written a great guide to truly wise travel, getting to the heart of what makes taking a journey such a universal metaphor for living a conscious life--and he does so with wit and candor."--Liam Quirk (Bucks County, PA)

Orders: Major book stories or directly from Open Court Books: opencourt@caruspub.com or by calling toll-free 1-800-815-2280 From outside the U.S., you may call 1-603-924-7209.

If you would like to participate in "Where's Sydney?" contact: sydney@sydneysthumb.com. These versions of the book include a special template and log.