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Henry David Thoreau. Who was Thoreau?. Thoreau exerted a profound, enduring influence on American thought and letters.
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Who was Thoreau? • Thoreau exerted a profound, enduring influence on American thought and letters. • His famous experiment in living close to nature , and his equally famous night in jail to protest inhuman institution and an unjust war, are distilled in his best know works, Walden and Civil Disobedience
Thoreau was… • A philosopher and creative artist • A scientific originator • An anti-slavery activist • A contributor to community life
If a man does not keep peace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, how ever measured or far away…
He sat down beside a sparkling stream and plucked some purslane greens for lunch, scooping up pure water to slake his thirst. His coat was shabby, and he wore a tattered bag over one shoulder, but he had the poise and bearing of a man of culture, harmony, and great wisdom. Wild animals approached him, suddenly docile. He smiled gently and reaching into his bag, removed a book, some medicinal herbs and a flute. Seated on a rock, he began to play. Perhaps you know this man as Kwai Chang Caine of the 1970’s hit series Kung Fu. He is rather well known by another name…the real life Taoist of the American East…Henry David Thoreau…
Why should we care??? • Thoreau is arguably the most influential American writer in history in the development of the way we think about nature, conservation, wilderness, individualism, civil disobedience and challenging an unjust government. • If these sound like traditional Chinese or Taoist values, they are!
Thoreau was one of the first Westerners to study and absorb the teachings of the Chinese sages which were just beginning to appear in translation in European and American libraries…
Two streams of Chinese philosophy in Thoreau’s life… • Literary and philosophical influence of the Chinese classics • The impact of living closely and observantly to with nature, a practice dating back thousands of years among Chinese sages • While Thoreau did not knowingly or deliberately imitate these early conservationists of the East, he gained an almost identical understanding of simplicity, morality, and compassion.
“How thrilling a noble sentiment in the oldest books, - in Homer, the Zend-Avesta, or Confucius! It is a strain of music wafted down to us on the breeze of time, through the aisles of innumerable ages. By its very nobleness it is made near and audible to us.”
Books read by Thoreau • The Chinese Classical Work (The Four Books) • The Works of Confucius • Le Te Hio (The Great Learning) • Tao-Te-Ching • Les Livres sacres de l’Orient (Sacred books of the East)
“ 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…”
“The fastest way to travel is on foot”“The longer I have forgotten you, the more I remember you”
“There is nothing inorganic,” praising rocks and stones much like a Zen Buddhist, seeing them as part of the grand process and cycle that is life
Thoreau craved the wild, but he also yearned for and appreciated civilization…
Besides being an anti-slavery activist, he knew that true freedom begins in the heart of each individual. A person who is tied to a job he or she does not love is not free…
~ Thoreau gave up a teaching position rather than inflict corporal punishment on students and may have lost the woman he loved rather than to accept her father’s religious views…~Standing up for our inner truth may be painful, but at the end of the day, we know we have not betrayed the WAY and its power!
Thoreau sang and played the flute…once was found singing in a cave because the dampness felt nice on his voice…
People who attended his lectures often talked about laughing heartily at his many jabs at authority and cultural norms…but he took injustice seriously!!
Thoreau closed a chapter of Walden with a story by a Persian poet about the only tree that could be truly free… the Cyprus, because it produced nothing and was therefore free of the cyclical and tyrannical process of getting and spending…
Once pointed out a cobweb calling it a “fairy’s laced handkerchief to, then a very young Louisa May Alcott, whose father was a friend of his…
And finally… • Strive to become a shen, a fully realized being… • Cherish the present moment!!!
“What counts is the present moment – there’s nothing that requires a lot of time.”
Sources • HTTP://www.thoreau.eserver.org/Chinese.html • HTTP://www.thoreau.eserve.org/whowhy.html • HTTP://www.thoreau.eserver.org/quotes.html
