Philosophy Now Forum

What does it mean to wander? I ask because I noticed that word is apparently the meaning of the Buddhist "Samsara" and also the meaning the Hebrew "Land of Nod" (the place Cain went to after killing Abel). I doubt there is any real connection, but interesting nonetheless.

So what does it mean to wander?

Edit: I just now noticed that Land of Nod is a common expression when we talk of going to sleep, and if being a Buddha is being an "awaked one" then being a non-Buddha is being a "sleeping one."

To walk without a known or intended destination. Some wanderers are homeless; some are lost; some are on hiking holiday.
Cain went off by himself when he became an outcast, no longer welcome in his tribe. (The story probably refers to a split between two factions of the same tribe who were at odds - those who wanted to settle down and farm and the nomadic herders.)

The Nod of children's bedtime stories is probably just a pun, an accidental word in common between languages: to nod off = go to Nod.

I'm guessing that by context, a "wanderer" is "anyone not settled to the land." This refers to the fact of the development of civilization, especially through the function of settlements whether of farming or cities. The tribal experience before then were people who 'wandered' in this meaning to hunt and gather in yearly regular routes.

It also referenced the rejects of tribal and civil developments where such people, if they survived, had to depend on a world that began to own up everything. Those without this new landed ownership concept and had to compete against them. So their survival evolved to become traders, distributors, mercenaries, etc. These groups didn't necessarily organize until later.

The Jews in the Middle East were likely such and their lack of stability lead them to 'unionize' or collectively work together eventually to seek such a place. I believe that the original 'promised land' was Egypt, not Palestine, as indicated implicitly in Genesis.

Of old, wandering had connotations of suffering. eg. Cain's punishment, as well as the Wandering Jew legend, the Flying Dutchman, Odysseus, etc. This connotation also follows in Dharmic belief, samsara containing the cycle of rebirth, and the suffering it entails until one reaches nirvana/moksha/oblivion, leaving it behind.

To wander was never to reap a harvest, being divorced from the land. Yet that's what many holy men and monks do in ridding themselves of the material world, and moving from desire, which leads to suffering and rebirth.

Dalek Prime wrote:Of old, wandering had connotations of suffering. eg. Cain's punishment, as well as the Wandering Jew legend, the Flying Dutchman, Odysseus, etc. This connotation also follows in Dharmic belief, samsara containing the cycle of rebirth, and the suffering it entails until one reaches nirvana/moksha/oblivion, leaving it behind.

To wander was never to reap a harvest, being divorced from the land. Yet that's what many holy men and monks do in ridding themselves of the material world, and moving from desire, which leads to suffering and rebirth.

In this context, this still comes from the tribal lifestyle adapting to civilization. I don't know what you mean by "never to reap a harvest, divorced from the land." as I've never even heard of this. As a course in maturity, a male boy in most tribes all over the world would be tested for their capacity to survive as an adult. This was done by sending off the boy away from the protection of the tribe for some duration in the wilderness. But 'wandering' is a term used to imply being transient without roots or the stability of having a home with respect to the birth of civilization. Those like the ancient Jews were thought to be of this nature and the term, "Jew" (or Hebrew?), may have been just another term for "wanderer". Note how the term "jewel" hints at how the capacity of value as being transient and trade-worthy was a likely derivative based on this idea.

Jaded Sage wrote:What does it mean to wander?

You have an unusual mental problem if you ask us such basic question, just look up in the dictionary.

Scott Mayers wrote:

Dalek Prime wrote:Of old, wandering had connotations of suffering. eg. Cain's punishment, as well as the Wandering Jew legend, the Flying Dutchman, Odysseus, etc. This connotation also follows in Dharmic belief, samsara containing the cycle of rebirth, and the suffering it entails until one reaches nirvana/moksha/oblivion, leaving it behind.

To wander was never to reap a harvest, being divorced from the land. Yet that's what many holy men and monks do in ridding themselves of the material world, and moving from desire, which leads to suffering and rebirth.

In this context, this still comes from the tribal lifestyle adapting to civilization. I don't know what you mean by "never to reap a harvest, divorced from the land." as I've never even heard of this. As a course in maturity, a male boy in most tribes all over the world would be tested for their capacity to survive as an adult. This was done by sending off the boy away from the protection of the tribe for some duration in the wilderness. But 'wandering' is a term used to imply being transient without roots or the stability of having a home with respect to the birth of civilization. Those like the ancient Jews were thought to be of this nature and the term, "Jew" (or Hebrew?), may have been just another term for "wanderer". Note how the term "jewel" hints at how the capacity of value as being transient and trade-worthy was a likely derivative based on this idea.

That was part of Cain's punishment. To wander without attachment to the land, this never being able to witness his own harvest; to scavenge from the land. Land was everything back then. It was bounty.

Okay, I get you now.

....some of us consider ourselves of a STAR...some of us consider ourselves as RATS

...some of us gaze up and wonder.
...some of us look down and wander.

...but for the topic...definitely atomic

Fellow panentheist.
http://www.androcies.com

How about just going for a walk to see things and people ? And to simply notice what is there ?

Is a "flâneur" a wanderer or something else ?