Emerson and the Freedom from the Known

"If one wishes to know that which is truth, one must be totally free from all religions, from all conditioning, from all dogmas, from all beliefs, from all authority which makes one conform, which means, essentially, standing completely alone, and that is very arduous…" - Krishnamurti           

     

“Each philosopher, each bard, each actor, has only done for me, as by a delegate, what one day I can do for myself.” - Ralph Waldo Emerson

The most important theme I took away from Emerson’s essay “The American Scholar,” is the importance of discovering truth for ourselves, by ourselves, not by simply imitating those who came before us, but to stand on your own, as a light unto yourself.  That we must use the past, not as a crutch, but as inspiration and inspiration only.  For to imitate is regurgitate, and destroy all personal discovery and inquiry.  To come to a conclusion based on the past puts an end to your own curiosity and experimentation.  When one imitates, there is no searching, no inquiry that one must undergo because it is all done for you.  So, essentially this quote is about imitation versus authenticity.  Emerson rails against a certain kind of intellectual, the “bookworm” as we discussed in class, or, the person attached to literature as a kind of fetish.  The bookworm imitates what is read, idealizes it, but does not put it into practice.  The bookworm discovers nothing for themselves, they are stuck in the past, and nothing is new for them.  The “mind of the past” is another important theme of “The American Scholar.”  By this, Emerson is referring not only the wealth of literature, philosophy, and culture of the past, but the modern mind which is overshadowed and so crippled by these things.  No matter what we do, the great figures of the past, Shakespeare, Chaucer, among others, loom over the English writer, we must always live up to the standards of genius.  In order to do this, according to Emerson, we imitate genius, we emulate, we “Shakespearize,” but we ultimately have no genius for ourselves.  So the task of the true scholar is then, through a return to nature, a return to reality, to become free of the past and to seek to create for ourselves.  If the past has value, it is for inspiration, so that we may discover our own genius now.  This entire sentiment brings to mind a more modern day spiritual teacher name Krishnamurti. Krishnamurti once said, “We have all become good gramophone records.”  In other words, we all imitate, but few of us stand on our own.  So when Emerson says, “what one day I can do for myself, he is saying that in the end, you must discover the truth for yourself, only then should you accept it.               

The Buddha's Narrative

             

            Seeing as how it is one of the finest American films ever made, I at first I wanted to use The Big Lebowski as my narrative, but decided in the end to use something less silly. 

Because I am a practicing Buddhist, and an aspiring Buddhist teacher, I have decided to use a classic Buddhist story as my narrative-the life of the Buddha.  The life of the Buddha is a central story in the historical and cultural context of Buddhism, and a very interesting narrative in its own right.  There are many versions of this story as it is told and retold in many countries around the world.  I have attached here a general telling of it, there are many longer and more elaborated versions, such as Old Path, White Clouds by Thich Nat Hanh, but for my purposes here, the general story will do.

            The story itself is a classic narrative about a young man who leaves home, goes on a journey of self discovery and eventual returns home to tell his tale and become a teacher.  The basic narrative goes like this-Prince Gautama was raised in a palace in northern India in wealth and austerity, shielded from the outside world.  Sometime around his early twenties, Gautama finds himself disenchanted with life and decides to leave the palace in search of answers.  After leaving, he experiences what are called the four encounters, including meeting a decrepit old man who is dying and in great suffering.  The experience of encountering real suffering for the first time is traumatic and he decides to search further.  After this, he meets an ascetic who appears calm and serene, and after a period of time, decides to leave home and become a wandering acetic himself.  This early stage is comparable to the village in Rip Van Winkle, or stage A of the narrative journey.  He then goes off into the world and for six years practices ascetic disciplines under many different teachers.  This stage is comparable to the wilderness, nature, or stage B of the narrative, a place of transformation where the main character is forever changed.  During this time after six years of practice, he finds himself still unsatisfied and leaves again to go off on his own.  He sits under a tree and decides not to get up until his is awakened.  Long story short, through his own discoveries, he becomes awakened, enlightened and so transformed after a long journey of which there are many more and detailed descriptions.  This ends part B of the narrative.  He then returns to his ascetic friends and after delivering his first teaching, returns home to the palace.  This return home marks the last stage of the narrative, or A prime, where he returns home to find that it is not the village that has changed but only himself.  This is comparable to Young Goodman Brown when he returns to the village disenchanted after his encounters in the woods.  The Buddha’s narrative does not end there however, he leaves again, never to return, and spends the next forty years of his life traveling and teaching.

            I choose this narrative because it is of special relevance to me.  I of course could not do justice to this time honored story here, but perhaps it can at least call attention to it as a classic and culturally important narrative.  The life of the Buddha is told and retold in many countries, and unfortunately has become a bit of a cliché, but nonetheless, the story and the teachings it espouses, are still very relevant today.