Soul Pilgrim: Nature, Ecology and the Spiritual Vision of Henry David Thoreau
Henry David Thoreau was a
pilgrim. A soul pilgrim whose saunterings
were an intentional spiritual exercise crucial to his understanding of God and his
prophetic work as a writer. Thoreau’s walks
were on holy ground. These pilgrimages
across nature from Canada to Cape Cod to New Hampshire and back to his home in
Concord, were enacted parables for poetic, imaginative soul work. This was a spiritual discipline he demanded
from himself and encouraged his readers to embark upon in earnest.
Thoreau’s comprehension of Nature as the visible
emanation of God was the theological framework which informed his worldview,
politics and spirituality. Hence, it was
fundamental to his writings and life as a visionary and prophet. His work called himself and others to demand
simplicity not as renunciation of self, but as living into existential
freedom. He advocated the beauty of
nature, not in condescending terms to evoke sentimentality, but to invoke
spiritual encounter, “… some grand, serene, immortal, infinitely encouraging,
though invisible companion and walk with him.” (Bloom, p.54)
Companionship with God in nature evidences the indisputable
holiness of nature. Nature is holy
because it is the incarnation of divinity.
Therefore, nature is elevated and no longer ancillary to human
experience. It is not a commodity for
humanity’s self-interest or leisure. All
the contrary, through nature, we discover the nature of our true selves, we are
holy. Thoreau’s green theology was an
apologia for communion with God, discovery of true personal identity and the
source of his prophetic witness calling humanity to inner reformation. Although his religion was personal, it was
his surrender to the solitude in the woods that brought meaning to his trek on
earth. These walks inspired his
imagination to access God in himself as much as he communed with God in cathedrals
of flora and fauna.
Thoreau’s writings were, and continue to be, misread
by many, including preeminent writers in America. As nature is crucial to comprehending Eastern
philosophical thought, Thoreau’s mind was influenced by the works of the
Bhagavad Gita as well as the Bible. The
deserts of the prophets, the rivers of the rishis and huckleberrying of
Thoreau, were pivotal expressions of this unique vision of green
spirituality. The invisible truths of
divinity were available to all by transcending the maya of reality by sauntering. Trekking lead to thinking which caused
meditation and to the transcendence of body to the true self in the life of the
mind. In short, to sojourn the mind of
God.
Daniel Medina 2015 ©
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