The path of struggle is the only path worth following

I’ve been reading and writing about Thich Nhat Hanh’s journal ‘Fragrant Palm Leaves.’ This is the third entry. The previous entries can be read here, for part one, and here for part you guessed it two.

Photo courtesy of Parallax Press

It’s August 1962, the Soviet Union is performing nuclear tests at Novaya Zemlya, Ray Charles has top 10 hits on both sides of the Atlantic and Hanh is reflecting on the enormous effort and time it takes for change to take root, grow and emerge. A timeless insight that, it being timeless and all, might also ease one’s frustrated spirit in current times where change is happening fast enough seemingly nowhere. Check out this site to gain some perspective on turbulent times (not that it‘s a competition…). Seeing all those major events, knowing what is to come, makes studying and really stepping into history such a fascinating and mysterious rush.

Anyway, back to 1962, back to Hanh:

‘One cannot expect too much too soon’

For eight years, we tried to speak about the need for a humanistic Buddhism and a unified Buddhist church in Vietnam that could respond to the needs of the people. We sowed those seeds against steep odds, and while waiting for them to take root, we endured false accusations, hatred, deception, and intolerance. Still we refused to give up hope.

Now some of those seeds have begun to grow. As discontent with the political regime is growing, the idea of a Buddhism for the people is taking shape. We couldn’t imagine then how deeply our ideas would take root, especially in central Vietnam. One afternoon while accompanying Nhu Hue and Nhu Van on a visit to a poor hamlet in Quang Nam, I heard a mother singing one of Tam Kien’s protest songs to lullaby her child to sleep! I wanted to weep.

Of course, one cannot expect too much too soon.

Casting off the old skin is not something a culture does overnight or without resistance. The fear of challenge is often accompanied by a subservient mentality. And if there is subservience, culture is not true culture, just a tool for controlling others. Hardships and conflicts caused by challenges to the old cannot be avoided. That is why the path of struggle is the only path worth following.

Interestingly enough (to me, at least), this last paragraph can also be read as somewhat of a guideline for personal transformation:

Casting off the old skin is not something a culture does overnight or without resistance.

Replace ‘culture’ with ‘person’ and it fits quite neatly. Or: it really doesn’t fit quite neatly, for the skin is old, and what’s underneath cannot breathe through it. However, the old skin has served you well in the past and it gives (the illusion of) security, so why give that up? Is that new skin all that great? Sure, it promises new and fresh experiences, but how to be sure? This whole changing skin business will not happen without some good old resistance.

The fear of challenge is often accompanied by a subservient mentality. And if there is subservience, culture is not true culture, just a tool for controlling others.

Subservient. You know the feeling and you know what it looks like. Hunched shoulders, subverted eyes. Not seeing what is there. Not wanting to see what is there. Fear. Fear makes you look and turn away, makes you subservient. Unless we pay attention, we are slaves to our old mentality, we are controlled by our old patterns of doing things: our old culture.

If culture isn’t in a constant state of renewal it becomes stale for it doesn’t grow naturally with change. This doesn’t mean we should ditch everything ‘old’: holding on to tradition that keeps us rooted and connected to our past is essential to actual, healthy growth: a tree without roots, after all, cannot live. However, a culture forever choosing security and stale tradition over progress, thereby strangling renewal, will never evolve: a tree without new branches shall not grow (as this song - previously heard on Thich Nhat Hanh‘s tree post - so eloquently explains):

Hardships and conflicts caused by challenges to the old cannot be avoided. That is why the path of struggle is the only path worth following.

The only path worth following is struggle? Shit.

Why?

Returning to that whole business of casting off the old skin. Why give that skin up? This question comes from a place of fear of the big unknown: there is no way of really knowing if the new skin will be able to bear the sunlight. How to decide if it is in fact time to give up the old?

In the end, I think, it’s not really a question of deciding to give anything up. It’s not even a question of wanting to give it up. In fact, you have nothing to do with it. It is out of your control.

The new skin is ready even as the old skin is holding on. This creates tension, itching, irritation, conflict. Conflict brings suffering. Suffering, in this way, makes us look at ourselves with renewed focus. It brings attention to exactly those areas in life where there’s conflict. Oftentimes, this is where renewal starts. Something new wants to be born, something old is in the way. This isn’t even a bad thing, it is just what happens naturally, all the time. It is the essence of change, and change is the only constant there is. Only by really looking at it and accepting it, does this natural process continue. Humans have this strange ability to stop their own natural development.

So, there is a choice then. Or you decide to look away from your suffering and thus become subservient to your old culture, your old skin. Renewal ends, life becomes more stale every day, but you maintain a certain amount of superficial comfort with the added bonus of the illusion of safety.

Or, you take the pain head-on and take the conscious step to free yourself from the stale parts of your own cultured being. Hardships and conflicts are ahead, no doubt. There are farewells to be said, habits to be buried. You have to face your demons, look at your shadow, and shine a light at the dark dungeons of your own psyche. It’s no picnic. This is the ‘challenge to the old.’ Escaping a prison can make for a good movie, but it definitely makes for a good life. The escape to freedom may lead you through mud and shit-smelling foulness, and yet it is the only path worth following, for it brings you to…

And here then, the escape scene of one of the most famous movies ever made.

Part One:

Interestingly enough, in this second part, the last lines by Red, the narrator, are:

A man nobody ever laid eyes on before, strolled into the main National Bank. Until that moment, he didn’t exist. Except on paper.

Part Two:

Renewal at its finest. He had to escape a prison, crawl 500 yards through the sewer, but there he was: a man nobody laid eyes on before, a man that until that moment didn’t exist, except in the mind, except potentially. If you free yourself from your own prison, you come out of it renewed, reborn. The same face, a similar manner, but somehow different, as if closer to yourself. An old skin shed, the new one nearer to your essence. It may take some struggle, but hey…

Hardships and conflicts caused by challenges to the old cannot be avoided. That is why the path of struggle is the only path worth following.

Thich Nhat Hanh returns to Tu Hieu Pagoda, his root temple in Huế. Photo by Paul Davis

-

PS I’m reading ‘Tuesdays with Morrie’ now and this is what Morrie Schwartz has to say about culture:

You have to be strong enough to say if the culture doesn’t work, don’t buy it. Create your own.

Additional Reading:

Here is an interesting article on Hanh’s life.

Click here if you want to receive my letter of news with updates on my writing and projects.

we must be like the trees

In this post, trees! Trees in philosophical musings, trees in songs, trees in books and poems. Trees all around. I guess this post is a forest.

If you want to receive a somewhat regular update on these writings (no more than twice a month), you can sign up to my letter of news here.

trees

On December 21st 1962, Thich Nhat Hanh is in New York. It’s brutally cold and the streets are white with snow. His native Vietnam is further away than ever. Outside nothing but bare trees. He looks again, and then, a new perspective opens up:

bare trees

Tenderness filled my heart. I understood deeply that, like animals, trees are sentient beings that need to prepare for their future. Not so long ago, the same trees offered cool shade to the rows of houses, but now they stood austere and stripped, ready to endure another long winter. Their bony arms printed stark patterns on the gray sky, the same sky that was hidden not so long ago, by their foliage.

When icy winter comes, it is unforgiving to all things young, tender, and insecure. One must grow beyond youthful uncertainty to survive. Maturity and determinations are necessary. Seeing the courageous, solid way that trees prepare for winter helps me appreciate the lessons I’ve learned. Our homeland is about to pass through a devastating storm. The oppressive regime, relying on force to satisfy its greed, has caused too many injustices. Discontent is increasing, driving many people to join the National Liberation Front. The regime’s injustice, oppression, and corruption feed the opposition every day. (…) The storm will break at any moment. We can’t hide our heads in the sand. We must be like the trees. We must dispel all indifference and uncertainty, and be ready to face the storm. We cannot remain attached to our youthful innocence. We must strengthen ourselves for the coming test.

A few things come to mind:

tree support group

1.

The final lines can be read as a counterpoint to the lines of Yeats’s poem ‘The Second Coming’:

Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world, The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere The ceremony of innocence is drowned; The best lack all conviction, while the worst Are full of passionate intensity.

Yes, the blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and yes innocence is drowned. But Hanh flips the last lines: the best must strengthen themselves for this coming test; we must dispel all indifference and uncertainty, and be ready to face the storm - like old sturdy trees at the top of a mountain. We must be like trees.

To be fair to Yeats, in the second part of his poem he does write that ‘Surely some revelation is at hand’ - so hopeless, he was not. I think. Read and see for yourselves - the poem is right here.

some ducks

2.

When icy winter comes, it is unforgiving to all things young, tender, and insecure.

One could look at one’s life as seasonal: every 21 years counts as one season. First, spring, of course. A glorious 21 year long spring. Starting out as a supple but very tender sprout, slowly building towards a gangly teenager. Then, thank God, summer comes. Again, for some 21 years. More growth, sunnily building towards something resembling an adult. Time then, to come to fruition. You’re 42 and the leaves are beginning to turn, there’s no going back now: it’s autumn. If you’re lucky, it starts with an Indian Summer. Then, finally, the clock strikes 63, and after weathering many storms, you are ready for winter. However, it is no longer unforgiving, for you aren’t young, tender and insecure anymore. At least, that’s the theory. But. You have time. If you’re under 63 that is. Just look at the trees in winter and understand:

One must grow beyond youthful uncertainty to survive. Maturity and determinations are necessary. Seeing the courageous, solid way that trees prepare for winter helps me appreciate the lessons I’ve learned.

trees enjoying the september sun

3.

Time for an Irish poem:

Trees

BY JOYCE KILMER

I think that I shall never see A poem lovely as a tree.

A tree whose hungry mouth is prest Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast; A tree that looks at God all day, And lifts her leafy arms to pray; A tree that may in Summer wear A nest of robins in her hair; Upon whose bosom snow has lain; Who intimately lives with rain. Poems are made by fools like me, But only God can make a tree.

-

Lovely poem! But not quite as lovely as a tree. Let’s look at a lovely (Burmese) tree:

lovely burmese roots (of a tree) - ‘a tree whose hungry mouth is prest, against the earth’s sweet flowing breast‘

4.

Here is some tree-inspired music.

and

5.

To finish, read the Overstory by Richard Powers. I thought it was fantastic.

no

sorry

one more.

6.

for these final musings

mirror both man and tree with who and which we started.

The man, this time, is Satish Kumar,

the words are from his book ‘no destination’,

written while on a pilgrimage:

(if you want to get to know Satish a bit more, I recorded a podcast with him once, listen here)

Satish Kumar (and a tree)

Sometimes I came across a tree that seemed like a Buddha or a Jesus: loving, compassionate, still, unambiguous, enlightened, in eternal meditation, giving pleasure to a pilgrim, shade to a cow, berries to a bird, beauty to its surroundings, health to its neighbors, branches for the fire, leaves to the soil, asking nothing in return, in total harmony with the wind and the rain. How much I can learn from a tree! The tree is my church, the tree is my temple, the tree is my mantra, the tree is my poem and my prayer.’

a tree in harmony with some stones

a mountaintop shows the truth

Photograph by Matthew Moore

On December 23, 1962, Vietnamese Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh’s writes in his journal:

Even if it destroys you, you must hold to the truth. I knew early on that finding truth is not the same as finding happiness. You aspire to see the truth, but once you have seen it, you cannot avoid suffering. Otherwise, you’ve seen nothing at all. You are still hostage to arbitrary conventions set up by others. People judge themselves and each other based on standards that are not their own. In fact, such standards are mere wishful thinking, borrowed from public opinion and common viewpoints. One thing is judged as good and another as bad, one thing virtuous and another evil, one thing true and another false. But when the criteria used to arrive at judgments are not your own, they are not the truth.

Truth cannot be borrowed. It can only be experienced directly.

(…)

Our actions will be based on our own understanding, and we will follow only those rules we have tested through our own direct experience. We will discard false rules and conventions of the current social order. But we have to expect that society will turn on us with a vengeance. Human history is filled with the tragedies caused by that vengeance. History teaches that we die if we oppose the system, yet many individuals continue to challenge the darkness, despite that danger in doing so. Those who pursue the truth are members of the community of truth seekers and reformers throughout time and space. They do not resign themselves to a collective fate that offers no laurels.

(…)

But we have to stand up for the truth. We cannot just gather moss like an old stone or assume a false self, once we see the truth.

In 1967, Martin Luther King Jr. urged the Nobel Prize committee to honor “this gentle monk from Vietnam” Edward Kitch—AP

One of those pursuing and speaking the truth, probably like no other during that time, was Martin Luther King, Jr. Five days after Hahn muses about truth in his journal, King delivers a speech in Oakland, where he expands on themes that would later be part of his ‘I have a Dream’ speech the next year. In that same gathering he also inspires a certain Bobby Seale, who will later co-found the Black Panthers, to get involved with the social rights movement. Five years later, it seems King knew that society would soon turn on him ‘with a vengeance.’ But… “it really doesn’t matter with me know, because I’ve been to the mountaintop. I don’t mind… longevity has its place but I’m not concerned with that now…. I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land”

Watch the speech below. A speech he didn’t prepare beforehand. It would turn out to be his last. The next day he was shot and killed.

As Hanh writes, ‘History teaches that we die if we oppose the system, yet many individuals continue to challenge the darkness, despite that danger in doing so. Those who pursue the truth are members of the community of truth seekers and reformers throughout time and space. They do not resign themselves to a collective fate that offers no laurels.’

Hanh leading me to King, King inspiring Bobby Seale, connected and somehow still here, in a different time, different space…

Some background:

More on MLK’s last speech

His December 1962 speech in Oakland King

King even nominated Hanh for the Nobel Peace Prize in 1967

A longer excerpt from Hanh’s journal, ‘truth cannot be borrowed’:

Youth is a time for seeking truth. Years ago I wrote in my journal that even if it destroys you, you must hold to the truth. I knew early on that finding truth is not the same as finding happiness. You aspire to see the truth, but once you have seen it, you cannot avoid suffering. Otherwise, you’ve seen nothing at all. You are still hostage to arbitrary conventions set up by others. People judge themselves and each other based on standards that are not their own. In fact, such standards are mere wishful thinking, borrowed from public opinion and common viewpoints. One thing is judged as good and another as bad, one thing virtuous and another evil, one thing true and another false. But when the criteria used to arrive at judgments are not your own, they are not the truth.

Truth cannot be borrowed.

It can only be experienced directly. The fruit of exploration, suffering, and the direct encounter between one’s own spirit and reality - the reality of the present moment and the reality of ten thousand lifetimes. For each person, it is different. And it is different today than it was yesterday.

When we discover something to be true today through our own direct experience, we will see that our previous assumptions were wrong, or at least incomplete. Our new way of looking transcends yesterday’s desire, prejudices, narrow-mindedness, and habits. We see that to use the golden molds and emerald yardsticks of yesterday’s understanding is nothing less than slavery or imprisonment.

When we attain a new understanding of reality, it is impossible to accept things we know to be false. Our actions will be based on our own understanding, and we will follow only those rules we have tested through our own direct experience. We will discard false rules and conventions of the current social order. But we have to expect that society will turn on us with a vengeance. Human history is filled with the tragedies caused by that vengeance. History teaches that we die if we oppose the system, yet many individuals continue to challenge the darkness, despite that danger in doing so.

Those who pursue the truth are members of the community of truth seekers and reformers throughout time and space. they do not resign themselves to a collective fate that offers no laurels.(…) But we have to stand up for the truth. We cannot just gather moss like an old stone or assume a false self, once we see the truth.