Thoreau and Zen Buddhism

There was no strong, unquestionable evidence as to whether Thoreau had read Zen Buddhism during his encounters with the Eastern writings in his formative years. However, one could find some parallels between his philosophical thought and experiences and Zen Buddhism, if one were to make a close study. Fascinated by Mysticism of the East, Thoreau adapted many ideas in his life. Buddhism as a philosophy emphasizes the primacy of the spiritual and transcendental over the material and empirical. Zen Buddhism, a sect within Buddhism, focuses its attention on Buddha hood now, at this very moment, discarding all worship, prayer, rituals and images, thereby proving its nearness and accessibility to man, not through any medium but by one’s nature of transcendence and negation. This is indeed a great realization. The liberation in Zen implies one’s liberation from man-made laws, rules and authorities. Thoreau echoes similar views, his fundamental attitude towards ascension in spiritual sense and his assertion of individual freedom from all man-made authority and institutional beliefs and emphasis on intuition though emanate from his own deep convictions, are analogous to Zen Buddhisitic ideas.

For Thoreau liberation results from man’s adherence to one’s own laws that emanate from nature’s laws, which are devoid of, or free from, any man-made principles and laws. This may sound rather strange and mystifying for a common man, but for a man who is evolved spiritually, this remains the strong ground for peaceful and happy living. Similarly, at a higher level, man remains distinctly unique, trying to seek liberation not only for himself but in doing so, he establishes that inalienable eternal relationship between man and Nature and shows this as the only way for attaining bliss.

Liberation for Zen also requires that a person liberates self from normality, equilibrium or perfection. This means that for Zen Buddhists there are no techniques or standard rules in governing one’s life. Any order is disorder. Any pattern is chaos. They love spontaneity, simplicity and uncouthness. This they discover in Nature. So Nature is the eternal source of inspiration. Naturalness is embedded in Nature itself.  Hence, their life is not patterned, they believe everything should happen spontaneously, naturally, from the self, uninhibited by any ideas or preconceived motives and passions. This idea reflects in their art and music too, as much in their life. That is why, their paintings are full of uneven strokes and rugged lines that reflect simplicity, spontaneity, and naturalness. The use of black in various shades is an example for this simplicity and lack of polish. Zen aesthetics calls for less symmetry, parallelism, and fullness. Thoreua’s Walden is asymmetrical, irregular, unorganised in its structure, though he had taken eight years to publish it, during which he wrote and rewrote, edited and re-edited. Each chapter looks like a stroke, an independent unit having its own form and substance, delimited from the succeeding one like Zen Calligraphy, yet in totality, in the whole conception and execution, Thoreau proves his great craftsmanship. His sentences too sound calligraphic and epigrammatic, with condensed thoughts that soar into realm of true exalted poetry. Such sentences are: “Time is but the stream I go a fishing in.. I drink at it; but while I drink I see the sandy bottom and detect how shallow it is. Its thin current slides away, but eternity remains. I would drink deeper; fish in the sky, whose bottom is pebbly with stars.” “I would rather sit on a pumpkin and have it all to myself than be crowded on a velvet cushion.” “I long ago lost a hound, a bay horse, and a turtle-dove, and am still on their trail. Many are the travellers I have spoken concerning them, describing their tracks and what calls they answered to. I have met one or two who have heard the hound, and the tramp of the horse, and even seen the dove disappear behind a cloud, and they seemed as anxious to recover them as if they had lost them themselves.”

That Thoreau like Emerson accepts Nature as an engima is the attitude of Zen. Such an attitude clearly is conveyed in his Walden and A Week. Thoreau considered himself first and always naturalist or better the poet naturalist, not in empirical sense of collecting mere facts, but in a mystic way. His interest in the flora and fauns of his beloved Concord was not so much scientific as poetic. He would simply fall in love with a scrub oak, or a woodchuck or a prinxter flower or the mysterious night warbler. This love, this enthusiasm for nature flowed over into his writings, making him not only the first outstanding nature writer but also the greatest in American Literature. He was a poet and mystic, not a systematist or taxonomist. In 1853, when the Secretary of the Association for the Advancement of Science requested him to specify the branch of science in which he was specially interested, Thoreau bluntly recorded, “The fact is I am a mystic, a transcendentalist, and a natural philosopher to boot.” At times, he was for more than a naturalist. He was interested in life, life of all kinds, and its meaning and significance. For him, like a Zen, every thing in Nature is an embodiment of infinity and endowed with profundity.

Like a Zen, he approached Nature on its own terms, humanized it without indulging in the pathetic fallacy. Through his eyes Nature clearly. In Zen Buddhism Nature plays a crucial role, it is indispensable for self-realization, inseparable from man’s life. Nature forms an important part of man’s ground. Thoreau too believes strongly that Nature is essential to man. He says that man must derive his strength from his contact with the earth and with Nature. If man is deprived of that contact, he becomes weak physically, spiritually and morally. Communion with Nature constantly makes him strong spiritually. Mystics of all times and all religions have established this fundamental inalienable link by living close to Nature, or almost in solitude in Nature. Snap these ties, man is empty. Nature serves as a means to realize the Great Self. She is the treasure house of wisdom. Thoreau in every respect conformed to this principle laid down by sages and saints.

American transcendentalism and Zen Buddhism seem to have in their teaching similar manifestations about human life. Both philosophies teach us how to find peace of mind and happiness on earth. Early in his life, Thoreau himself was confronted with the question: “How shall I help myself?” He answered himself: “By withdrawing into a garret, and associating with spiders and mice, determining to meet myself  face to face sooner or later.” During the years with Emerson, he had read widely and pondered deeply on the meaning of human existence. On his return to Concord from New York after a brief stint towards the end of 1843 he declared: “ I trust that I shall never sell my birthright for a mess of pottage.” He yielded himself completely to the allure of the woods and fields and waters of the vicinity. He began to wear corduroy clothes, eat simply and frugally, and deny himself the indulgences in material culture. The shunning away from material incumberances gave him what he derived most-peace of mind and freedom – with which he probed into the nature of human existence and its meaning and significance. By labouring one day a week and turning the other six into a prolonged contemplation and meditation at Walden he reversed the biblical structure. He wrote in his Walden: “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die, discover that I had not lived.” In the true spirit of Zen Buddhism, he continued, “I wanted to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life, to live so sturdily and Spartan-like as to rout all that was not life, to cut a broad swath and shave close, to drive life into a corner, and reduce it to its lowest terms and if it proved to be mean, why then to get the whole and genuine meanness of it, and publish its meanness to the world; or if it were sublime, to know it by experience, and be able to give a true account of it in my next excursion.” This celebrated passage suggest nothing quixotic or altruistic in Thoreau’s experiment in solitude. “I thrive best on solitude,” he told in his Journal. Zen Buddhism agrees with this kind of bold teachings, for it believes that one’s model of life can be found by oneself in this strange, complex world rather than in religious dogma.

A Zen Buddhist says that one’s responsibility ultimately rests on self. From a Zen’s point of view, human beings can be happier by adhering to Nature’s laws than clinging to theirs or to the material world in extreme sense. Thoreau and other transcendentalists agree with the philosophy of Zen Buddhism. Emerson says: “I insist on yourself ; never imitate.” But Thoreau went a step further and demonstrated it in a practical way by living alone at Walden Pond. The transformation aided by reading extensively the Hindu spiritual literature had persisted in him till he died. He was in the spirit of Zen Buddhism an out and out “transcendental individualist.” Like a Zen Buddhism, Thoreau affirms a complete faith in man’s capacity to participate fully in real life and that life is what one makes here and now. Thoreau proved it, and we can unhesitatingly call him “a Sen monk”.

Zen’s doctrine of Satori calls for the follower to annihilate self to reach the state of mu-the state of nothingness. In Zen one must destroy not only individuality but God and image of any prophet or sage because it is only the self, no one else, that can deliver the person to the state of mu. Thoreau in conformity with this principle had lived like a Zen by discarding everything – state, church, Bible, dogma, custom, belief. Whether Thoreau had a complete annihilation and experienced the state of mu is a debatable one. But, certainly, he had achieved the near perfection of a Zen monk’s life, though Emerson on the contrary never destroyed God or individuality. Emerson believed not only in God but in on self. He was akin to a Vedantin. Thus Emerson’s self-reliance is opposed to Zen’s concept of state of Nothingness. Whatever the arguments might be, Thoreau and other transcendentalists had advocated a philosophy that was akin to the philosophy of Zen Buddhism in several respects.