“NATURE”: AN EAST ASIAN VIEW

Review: •3 meanings of “nature”•4 ways of conceiving of “nature”•Buddhism: 3 characteristics of existence

I.Nature as process

II.Nature as interrelationships

III.Natural as action based on true inner nature.

Review: two main meanings of “nature” in Western culture

Dualistic: nature as what is not created, controlled, or changed by humans (nature as opposed to humans or culture).

Monistic: nature as everything in the phenomenal world (nature as opposed to the supernatural).

“Nature” & “natural” in East Asian culture

Adverbial: Nature refers to one’s true inner nature, and

“natural” refers to acting on that true nature (thus “adverbial”).

Everything has its true nature: animals, plants, water, rocks.

Most humans do not act on their true nature because it is clouded by will, reason, desires, & distinctions.

Review: Four major ways of conceiving of “nature”

1. Collection

2. Web of relationships

3. Process

4. Gaia

Review: The three characteristics of reality

in Buddhism

Radical interrelatednessChange, impermanenceNon-self

I. NATURE AS PROCESS

1. The turning of the seasons.

2. The inevitable passing away of things.

3. Creative, chaotic, beautiful change.

4. The process of things coming into being

1. The turning of the seasons

We are always within a particular season, which is always temporary and in the process of becoming another season.

Each season has its own distinctive characteristics.

Animals, plants, people, and human cultural activities co-exist as parts of the turning seasons.

“Another Spring”

The seasons revolve and the years change

With no assistance or supervision.

The moon, without taking thought,

Moves in its cycle, full, crescent, and full.

The white moon enters the heart of the river;

The air is drugged with azalea blossoms;

Deep in the night a pine cone falls;

Our campfire dies out in the empty mountains.

The sharp stars flicker in the tremulous branches;

The lake is black, bottomless in the crystalline night;

High in the sky the Northern Crown

Is cut in half by the dim summit of a snow peak.

O heart, heart, so singularly

Intransigent and corruptible,

Here we lie entranced by the starlit water,

And moments that should each last forever

Slide unconsciously by us like water.

--Kenneth Rexroth

2. The passing away of things Mujō: impermanence. Aware: a bittersweet sorrow at the transience of

beauty. Various forms

Passing away of seasonsSteady aging of beautyThe rise and fall of gloryThe imminence of sudden death and destruction

. . . Believe in all those fugitive

Compounds of nature, all doomed

To waste away and go out.

Always be true to these things.

They are all there is. . . .

--Kenneth Rexroth

3. The unpredictable creative and beautiful changes of nature

The unpredictable (“chaotic”) changes from moment to moment that are beautiful and spontaneously skillful like a cosmic artist.

The “Creative” (zōka)

4. The process of things coming into being

“Nonbeing”: a creative, formless dimension of reality beyond space and time, beyond our senses and intellect.

Things arise into form and then disappear again like waves rising from the ocean and then falling away.

II. NATURE AS WEB OF RELATIONSHIPS

1. A metaphysics of interrelatedness.

2. Dynamic interrelationships.

3. Ideal: fulfill one’s niche; fit harmoniously into the system.

1. A metaphysics of interrelatedness

The Western ecological view as metaphysics: the universe is fundamentally a net of relationships and a dynamic system of mutual conditioning.

Interrelatedness is primary, distinctness secondary: our distinctness is our unique set of interrelationships.

“Interbeing”: each of us “interexists” with others.

2. Dynamic interrelatedness

The system is dynamic and ever-changing. Individuals: everyone’s set of relationships

changes from moment to moment. Whole: each moment is a new web of

interdependence.

“Spring”

There are no images here

In the solitude, only

The night and its stars which are

Relationships rather than

Images. Shifting darkness,

Strains of feeling, lines of force,

Webs of thoughts, no images,

Only night and time aging

The night in its darkness, just

Motion in space in the dark.

It is a night full of darkness,

And space, and stars, and the hours

Going by, and time going by,

And the night growing old, and all

The webs, and nets, of relationships

Changing, and it is Spring night

In Provence, here where I am,

And under the half moon the almond

Buds are ready to burst. . . .

--Kenneth Rexroth

THE COMMUNAL CHARACTER OF LIFE

All things share these aspects of change: people, plants & animals,

mountains & rivers. We are all part of one system.

So…

3. Ideal: deeply fitting in

One’s social and spiritual goal is to fulfill one’s particular niche in the system. This is human fulfillment.

Such a fitting-in grounds one in the universe; you find your place rather than impose your desires.

The overriding goal is the harmony of the system (not self-benefit or justice)

III. THE NATURAL: THAT WHICH ACTS

ACCORDING TO ITS NATURE

An “adverbial” concept of nature.

All things have an inner nature. To act according to your inner nature is to be natural.

Humans tend to act on their desires or intentional will rather than their inner nature.

This causes inner disharmony, anxiety, and clumsiness.

It also causes outer disharmony: social disorder.

The ideal is to act spontaneously out our true nature.

However, this requires great discipline of spiritual practice over long periods of time.

The same is true of other living things. To see the true nature of a pine tree, we need to see an old tree buffeted by cliff winds. Or we need to train it in order to reveal its true nature.