5. Nature
Grass and trees have the buddha nature. They are not different from me. If I could just be like the grass and the trees, I'd find the Way in no time. Men nowadays won't go the Way: point it out, and they curse it. A wounded sigh for these folks: paupers gone begging on a mountain of gold. "Hymn on the Way" by Zen master Guan Xiu (Kuan Hsiu), 832 - 912. Translated by J.P. Seaton. The Literary ReviewInterestingly, Christ's advice for escaping the stress of worry is to ponder nature - "Consider the ravens", "Consider how the lilies grow". Here again, though, we tend to skim these verses rather than plumb them. We perhaps treat the mention of "ravens" and "lilies" as no more than a couple of random nods in the direction of nature. As a memorandum that some time in the garden, or the odd "constitutional" walk in the park or country, can help soothe the troubled brow. We can surely venture deeper than this, though. Consider the ravens. They don't worry about tomorrow. Indeed, even less (one assumes) do they regret yesterday. Like all animals, they live in the "here and now". The lily is even less speculative. It waves its leaves about rather more slowly than the raven flaps its wings. I don't imagine for a moment that Christ was suggesting that we should not prepare for the future nor seek to mend the past. Or that we should habitually move like sloths. But I do imagine that when He gives advice, that advice is worth the deepest scrutiny. Is Christ signalling "gear-changes" in thought here which are available to humans, and that we could beneficially practice?
(cf "A time to cast away stones, And a time to gather stones... A time to keep silence, And a time to speak... A time of war, And a time of peace" ).
Different gears suit different driving conditions. Sometimes neutral is the appropriate position for the gear-stick. Revving in frustration at yet another red light may not be kind on the engine. Here is Christ's advice for coping with everyday stress - consider the (gear of?) ravens (cf Dooyeweerd's "sensitive"sphere (F/B), the realm of feeling/sentience/emotion, mentioned below). Consider the (gear of?) lilies (cf "biotic" sphere (F/B). This is not really so off the wall as it sounds at first. To sit and pat a pet dog, or stroke a cat, or talk to a budgie, involves rapport with the animal. Identification with the thought processes of the animal. Being on the animal's "wavelength". This practice is known to be de-stressing for the human. Tending house-plants likewise involves a therapeutic affinity with the plant. A focused attentiveness to the state of the plant. Zen of course also frequently alludes to rock and water (cf Dooyeweerd's "physical" sphere). Which of us has not done the equivalent of picking up a pebble from the beach or the river, and watching it change colour as it dried? This kind of practice goes on daily with no hangups over mystical baggage. People instinctively realize the benefits. It is just a short step to suggesting that perhaps to deliberately sit and gaze, mind in neutral (or "at ease", to use a military metaphor), at a house-plant (or office-plant) for a minute or two daily might help balance and condition our mental state. If we are stuck in the car at traffic lights when we are in a desperate hurry, can we learn to gaze for the duration at, for instance, that tree over there or that seagull wheeling overhead, slipping our mind (as well as the car) into calm neutral instead of "seeing red"?
We are supposed to be taking "every thought captive to obey Christ" (2 Cor 10:5) We are told that:
"Thou dost keep him in perfect peace whose mind is stayed on Thee" Isaiah 26:3
(The Amplified Version renders this:
"You will guard him and keep him in perfect and constant peace whose mind [both its inclination and its character] is stayed on You, because he commits himself to You, leans on You, and hopes confidently in You").
Here are a couple more verses in this vein -
"I saw the Lord always before me. He is at my right hand, that I should not be moved." (Psalm 16:8)
"This is the day that the Lord hath made. Let us rejoice and be glad in it." (Psalm 118:24)
This is the hour that the Lord hath made. This is the minute that the Lord hath made...This is the red light that the Lord hath made!
Inner equilibrium. Founded on the sovereign Lord, the Living God.
Inner equilibrium. Founded on the sovereign Lord, the Living God.
After the execution of John the Baptist, Christ seeks out physical and mental (de-stressing) space for Himself and the disciples –
The apostles gathered around Jesus and reported to him all they had done and taught. Then, because so many people were coming and going that they did not even have a chance to eat, he said to them, "Come with me by yourselves to a quiet place and get some rest." ... So they went away by themselves in a boat to a solitary place . (Mark 6:30-32)
A stressed person feels overwhelmed by circumstance. The problem is "in his/her face". In martial arts a central tenet is to nurture an inner equilibrium whatever the onslaught faced. The loss of that calm inner space is potentially fatal. Western pugilistics often seem more taken-up with an "external" "mechanical" power-struggle.
The "spatial" happens to be the second of Dooyeweerd's spheres, after the "numerical/quantative". Zen-based oriental art is highly aware of empty space. It is evident in ikebana, traditional Japanese flower-arrangement, for example. Each stem, leaf and blossom is allowed room to breathe and "speak". The single lily is more "consider"-able than a dense bouquet. The lily, like any other plant or tree, needs space to grow. Consider it. The sky above the earth speaks of space. Is space. The ravens fly in it. Without it they could not fly. There is a phenomenal amount of space out there. The galaxies spin in it. When we gaze up at night we can be awed by it. Calmed by it. Deep calls to deep in it. There seems to be a profound fundamental sense in which our thoughts as human beings are made possible (only?) by reference to the natural cosmos. The space of "Space" is analogous of our mental space. Are not our heads like unto planetariums? There is plenty of room - a universe of room - within our skulls, but we rarely glimpse that exhilarating fact.
As humans, we seem to need acquaintance with Nature to allow us to think at all. Our minds internalize our encounters with Nature and that engagement enables our thought. To again point out the demerits of pietism - if Christians did literally nothing but read the Bible, they could not understand the Bible, which ceaselessly refers to the world. The Bible therefore requires of its readers some degree of personal experience of living in the world, and living in the world is thus Biblically endorsed. The Bible is not pietistic. The parables of Christ also presuppose that his hearers have world-immersed lives. All God's revelation to us is anthropomorphic (cosmomorphic?). We can in fact comprehend nothing else. Christ as the True Man is Prophet, Priest and King of the Cosmos. The human mind (analogous of His Mind) functions as an interpretative matrix of the cosmos. The galaxies and supernovae, the terrestrial clouds, waters, mountains, flora and fauna somehow form the deep structures of our thought, the syntax of our wordless internal language. I have coincidentally just come across an apposite quote from Dogen, 1200-1253, Japanese founder of Soto-Zen:
The "spatial" happens to be the second of Dooyeweerd's spheres, after the "numerical/quantative". Zen-based oriental art is highly aware of empty space. It is evident in ikebana, traditional Japanese flower-arrangement, for example. Each stem, leaf and blossom is allowed room to breathe and "speak". The single lily is more "consider"-able than a dense bouquet. The lily, like any other plant or tree, needs space to grow. Consider it. The sky above the earth speaks of space. Is space. The ravens fly in it. Without it they could not fly. There is a phenomenal amount of space out there. The galaxies spin in it. When we gaze up at night we can be awed by it. Calmed by it. Deep calls to deep in it. There seems to be a profound fundamental sense in which our thoughts as human beings are made possible (only?) by reference to the natural cosmos. The space of "Space" is analogous of our mental space. Are not our heads like unto planetariums? There is plenty of room - a universe of room - within our skulls, but we rarely glimpse that exhilarating fact.
As humans, we seem to need acquaintance with Nature to allow us to think at all. Our minds internalize our encounters with Nature and that engagement enables our thought. To again point out the demerits of pietism - if Christians did literally nothing but read the Bible, they could not understand the Bible, which ceaselessly refers to the world. The Bible therefore requires of its readers some degree of personal experience of living in the world, and living in the world is thus Biblically endorsed. The Bible is not pietistic. The parables of Christ also presuppose that his hearers have world-immersed lives. All God's revelation to us is anthropomorphic (cosmomorphic?). We can in fact comprehend nothing else. Christ as the True Man is Prophet, Priest and King of the Cosmos. The human mind (analogous of His Mind) functions as an interpretative matrix of the cosmos. The galaxies and supernovae, the terrestrial clouds, waters, mountains, flora and fauna somehow form the deep structures of our thought, the syntax of our wordless internal language. I have coincidentally just come across an apposite quote from Dogen, 1200-1253, Japanese founder of Soto-Zen:
"I came to realize that mind is no other than mountains and rivers and the great wide earth, the sun and the moon and the stars."
Each plant, creature, rock, somehow informs (in-forms) and expresses (ex-presses) our thought. It is more than symbol and representation. It is far more literal (concretely actual) than that. To be human is to live and articulate, physically and thought-fully, in this medium. And the Christian has glimpsed that this "medium", (like that "Rock") is, in some real sense, "Christ". All bushes burn with Him and all ground is holy with Him. I am not at all talking the evolutionist pantheist language of a Teilhard de Chardin here. Nor suggesting any kind of pantheism. The Creation is not Christ in a pantheist sense. I am merely reiterating what Paul says in Romans 11:36, that
"From him and through him and to him are all things. To him be the glory forever! Amen".
That Christ is the meaning of all things. That He is the meaning of the heavens and the earth and all that in them is. That nothing exists which is not ultimately about Him. That the earth is
"full of the knowledge of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea"(Isaiah 11:9).
When you think about it, that Rock which accompanied Israel through the wilderness (1 Cor 10:4) was the True Promised Land, rather than Canaan. Christ is our Homeland too. Christ is our Universe. We are made in His image. In the new heavens and the new earth all that "is" shall explicitly refer to Him and extol Him (indeed it does so explicitly now also, but men "suppress the truth in unrighteousness" Romans 1:18). Let us consider (if we can get past the old-fashioned translation) the following pertininent - indeed remarkable - words of Calvin (a man unlikely to be accused of pantheism!):
Since the infinite wisdom of God is displayed in the admirable structure of heaven and earth, it is absolutely impossible to unfold The History of the Creation of the World in terms equal to its dignity. For while the measure of our capacity is too contracted to comprehend things of such magnitude, our tongue is equally incapable of giving a full and substantial account of them. As he, however, deserves praise, who, with modesty and reverence, applies himself to the consideration of the works of God, although he attain less than might be wished, so, if in this kind of employment, I endeavour to assist others according to the ability given to me, I trust that my service will be not less approved by pious men than accepted by God. I have chosen to premise this, for the sake not only of excusing myself, but of admonishing my readers, that if they sincerely wish to profit with me in meditating on the works of God, they must bring with them a sober, docile, mild, and humble spirit. We see, indeed, the world with our eyes, we tread the earth with our feet, we touch innumerable kinds of God's works with our hands, we inhale a sweet and pleasant fragrance from herbs and flowers, we enjoy boundless benefits; but in those very things of which we attain some knowledge, there dwells such an immensity of divine power, goodness, and wisdom, as absorbs all our senses. Therefore, let men be satisfied if they obtain only a moderate taste of them, suited to their capacity. And it becomes us so to press towards this mark during our whole life, that (even in extreme old age) we shall not repent of the progress we have made, if only we have advanced ever so little in our course...
I now return to the design of Moses, or rather of the Holy Spirit, who has spoken by his mouth. We know God, who is himself invisible, only through his works. Therefore, the Apostle elegantly styles the worlds, "ta me ek fainomenoon blepomena", as if one should say, "the manifestation of things not apparent," (Heb. 11: 3). This is the reason why the Lord, that he may invite us to the knowledge of himself, places the fabric of heaven and earth before our eyes, rendering himself, in a certain manner, manifest in them. For his eternal power and Godhead (as Paul says) are there exhibited, (Rom. 1: 20). And that declaration of David is most true, that the heavens, though without a tongue, are yet eloquent heralds of the glory of God, and that this most beautiful order of nature silently proclaims his admirable wisdom, (Ps. 19: 1). This is the more diligently to be observed, because so few pursue the right method of knowing God, while the greater part adhere to the creatures without any consideration of the Creator himself. For men are commonly subject to these two extremes; namely, that some, forgetful of God, apply the whole force of their mind to the consideration of nature; and others, overlooking the works of God, aspire with a foolish and insane curiosity to inquire into his Essence. Both labour in vain. To be so occupied in the investigation of the secrets of nature, as never to turn the eyes to its Author, is a most perverted study; and to enjoy everything in nature without acknowledging the Author of the benefit, is the basest ingratitude. Therefore, they who assume to be philosophers without Religion, and who, by speculating, so act as to remove God and all sense of piety far from them, will one day feel the force of the expression of Paul, related by Luke, that God has never left himself without witness, (Acts 14: 17). For they shall not be permitted to escape with impunity because they have been deaf and insensible to testimonies so illustrious. And, in truth, it is the part of culpable ignorance, never to see God, who everywhere gives signs of his presence. But if mockers now escape by their cavils, hereafter their terrible destruction will bear witness that they were ignorant of God, only because they were willingly and maliciously blinded. As for those who proudly soar above the world to seek God in his unveiled essence, it is impossible but that at length they should entangle themselves in a multitude of absurd figments. For God--by other means invisible--(as we have already said) clothes himself, so to speak, with the image of the world in which he would present himself to our contemplation. They who will not deign to behold him thus magnificently arrayed in the incomparable vesture of the heavens and the earth, afterwards suffer the just punishment of their proud contempt in their own ravings. Therefore, as soon as the name of God sounds in our ears, or the thought of him occurs to our minds, let us also clothe him with this most beautiful ornament; finally, let the world become our school if we desire rightly to know God.(Calvin, Commentary on Genesis, Argument)
Correct me if I'm wrong, but is Jean Calvin not in fact doing the "Zen-master" bit here and sternly slapping us out of ungrounded abstract reverie and back to that which is concrete? Yet crucially, this does not imply for Calvin the embracing of any kind of reductionist materialism. Precisely not so. For Calvin it is in the material cosmos, and only in the material cosmos, that we encounter God (to be sure, the Scriptures are given as "eye-glasses" through which to view the cosmos with greater accuracy, as Calvin elsewhere teaches, but the point holds). Can we let that astounding fact sink in? Let us re-read Calvin's last few sentences all the more carefully:
As for those who proudly soar above the world to seek God in his unveiled essence, it is impossible but that at length they should entangle themselves in a multitude of absurd figments. For God--by other means invisible--(as we have already said) clothes himself, so to speak, with the image of the world in which he would present himself to our contemplation. They who will not deign to behold him thus magnificently arrayed in the incomparable vesture of the heavens and the earth, afterwards suffer the just punishment of their proud contempt in their own ravings. Therefore, as soon as the name of God sounds in our ears, or the thought of him occurs to our minds, let us also clothe him with this most beautiful ornament; finally, let the world become our school if we desire rightly to know God.
Thus from a Calvinist point of view, our rationality and speech are not blank phenomena in a blank evolutionist cosmos. Our thoughts and words are not mere biochemical "white noise" - they are analogous of the eternal and infinite Logos. Our bodies are analogous of His body in Whose image we are made. The universe, with its vast space, is analogous of Him. And therefore of us, who are made in His image. The space of the universe is a glimpse of the space of the freedom for which Christ has set us free. He is True Space. True Room-to-Breathe. True Freedom.
"If the Son makes you free, you will be free indeed." (John 8:36)
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