Sage in the wilderness...

[strawdog65]

Hello,

 

This is my first time posting a new topic and I am very new to this forum.

 

I have a philosophical question.

 

If you were able to live the life of a sage in the wilderness like was possible

2500-3000 years ago, would you do it? If yes, why? And if No why not?

 

I have often contemplated what it must have been like to wander with little

to no possessions and learn Taoism in its most natural and uninhibited state.

 

I would say yes. The appeal of being in true harmony with nature, unencumbered

by the demands of our present upside down society, draws to me as a moth to a flame.

 

I look forward to reading your responses!

 

Tao is truth.

Edited November 15, 2010 by strawdog65

[Marblehead]

Although the thought is very attractive I would have to say no. I enjoy doing things, creating things, destroying things, planting flowers just to see them die the next season so I have to pull them up and plant new ones.

 

The travelling would be great as I do love to travel but I don't know if I would enjoy all the walking that would be required.

[thelerner]

It takes a special temperament to live the ascetic life of a hermit. I don't think most people could handle it long term with its hunger, cold and loneliness. Other people cause our problems, but without them we're at a loss.

 

Thankfully you don't have to go full tilt. There are vispasanna programs that run a week, month or year. There are monasteries of different sorts, long term camping.

 

Once my kids are older I'd like to spend some time alone in the wilderness, start at a 10 days and work up. Course thats what Burning Man is for, except for the alone part.

 

Michael

[strawdog65]

Thanks for your heartfelt responses!

 

I think it would be very hard indeed to cut oneself

off from the society we have all been raised into.

 

In this way I am curiously envious of the incredible

insight and determination of the ancients.

 

 

Tao is truth

[trailmaker]

It takes a special temperament to live the ascetic life of a hermit. I don't think most people could handle it long term with its hunger, cold and loneliness. Other people cause our problems, but without them we're at a loss.

 

Thankfully you don't have to go full tilt. There are vispasanna programs that run a week, month or year. There are monasteries of different sorts, long term camping.

 

Once my kids are older I'd like to spend some time alone in the wilderness, start at a 10 days and work up. Course thats what Burning Man is for, except for the alone part.

 

Michael

 

That sounds good - 10 days in the wilderness will let you know how much of it you want for starters.

 

I live in relative solitude in a cabin in the woods on Fitzpatrick Mountain, Nova Scotia - going to the grocery store is quite a different outing...glad I can tune to TTB when I feel like it...

[Taomeow]

Yes to the wilderness, no to being a hermit -- one doesn't necessarily entail the other! I did several month-long wilderness trips with a group of people kayaking in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Lithuania, going with the flow of rivers that make their course through forested, very sparsely inhabited areas. I would live like that, absolutely. Rowing 8 hours a day, making fire, setting up tents, cooking, foraging, fishing, running into adventures, exploring, learning about the edible and medicinal wild stuff hands on, watching the stars, gaining skills, "carrying water chopping wood," not a second of boredom. Never missed anything civilized except for a hot bath -- if I lived in the wilderness permanently, I would make some primitive arrangements to have that and I'd be good to go.

 

But then a stint in the Peruvian rain forest convinced me that there's different degrees of "wild" a civilized person can get used to. It was way too wild. I felt overwhelmed and intimidated. The sheer noise of life, at night, is deafening, much louder than in a metropolis! A bit much... of everything. Don't know if I would be brave enough to make that into a lifestyle. But a European forest... anytime. (Not an American one, there's hardly anything to eat there!)

[suninmyeyes]

I have stayed in wilderness for longer periods of time and would do it again.

It is not romantic as it may sound(think worst case scenario:mud,wet,leeches,...cold,bears in the area..),but still it is so special

 

I love my urban jungle too,she is wild and beutiful and thought me a lot.

[Taomeow]

I have stayed in wilderness for longer periods of time and would do it again.

It is not romantic as it may sound(think worst case scenario:mud,wet,leeches,...cold,bears in the area..),but still it is so special

 

I love my urban jungle too,she is wild and beutiful and thought me a lot.

 

Eastern Europe rocks!

 

Let's see... cold, check (sometimes); mud, check (much of the time if you're kayaking); wet, check (often); leeches, check (but skills, check too: salt on the bastard!), bears, check (also cows mistaken for bears -- a herd of bears! -- terrifying... and they ate my bathing suit off a clothes line...) and, yes, special.

[strawdog65]

Yes, we are truly in a urban jungle.

 

I miss the time I spent in California living

at a present day hippie commune.

 

We lived simply.

We recycled everything that was recyclable. We ate

a total lacto-ovo diet and prepared all of our own

meals. There was a sense of commitment and purpose

to life.

 

I think it was then that I caught my very first

"glimpse" of the true way. I just did not know it

at the time.

 

I guess the sage question is a bit unfair...

Maybe it just my sub-consciousness urging me to

spend more time stopping to smell the roses, to

inhale deeply and let go and just BE.

 

The sage in the wilderness is US, for the wild

exists within each one of us.

 

I shall endeavour to listen to the stillness

and connect with nature more often.

 

Thanks for all your responses!

 

Tao is Love

[suninmyeyes]

Eastern Europe rocks!

 

 

Yes !

lol a heard of "bears" eating your bathing suit.

I am actually researching options these days for summer months.

Any especially nice area in ex Russia that stayed in your memory and you would reccomend?

Edited November 15, 2010 by suninmyeyes

[trailmaker]

Right - I love my cabin-cave in the woods, and have enjoyed a couple of city apartment-caves.

 

But I like life in the woods better. Very basic to start, and you find what you need on the way...

[goonis38]

Hi there,

I am pretty new also, nice to met you...

Well my Grandma was born in 1905, and raised me for the most part. Life was hard back then. She new how take a plant and boil it and make medicine, her own eye drops and everything.

She came to this part of West Texas before it was settled. They came over in wagon's. She would show me this X on her leg where she stepped off the wagon and a rattle snake got her.

They even made there own soup from pig fat, I believe she said. used wash boards or a rocks to wash there cloths... They worked hard. Had like 10 children, for hands to help with the cattle driving.

Also she had her baby's by herself sometimes if there was no one to help... This is only two generations away...

I don't want to ever have to live that way. I like room service, and all this pampering... At the same time I'm an Army brat, and if it came down to it. I wouldn't be totally helpless... Wow thats something to think about and as you say respect the people of the old days... They where very strong... Melanie

[Aetherous]

Like others, I would prefer to live very close to nature (it'd be nice to have a cabin in the woods), yet be a part of society. My ideal environment would be a forest that's a couple of miles outside of a decent sized city. I would take a break from real life to go look at the wildlife...in the city! People are nuts. It's fun there.

 

I don't think living in a cave is living in harmony with nature. As humans we require comfort, and we have brains to use mother nature to suit us.

 

Well, I think we have brains...however we've strayed from our mother and live prepackaged lives these days.

 

Being indoors all of the time is actually a big problem for our health, I believe.

[Taomeow]

Yes !

lol a heard of "bears" eating your bathing suit.

I am actually researching options these days for summer months.

Any especially nice area in ex Russia that stayed in your memory and you would reccomend?

 

Of course -- what are you looking for? Describe your landscape of choice and I'll tell you where to find it!

 

One place far, far away feels very special to me -- Altai, Siberia... I was very little when I lived there, so I have no memories of the place I could put into words... but I have pictures in the family album that fascinate me no end. Especially the ones where my father is climbing Mount Belukha, in the year I was born. Archeologists and researchers of Buddhist history assert that Belukha (which goes by many names, being the "navel" of Altai with the history of many peoples revolving around it) is Sumeru, the central peak of Shambala (Shangri-la). You can probably find a lot of information and pictures online, see if it appeals... if not, I'll find something closer that might!

[Mal]

[C T]

Since this is an invitation to philosophize, i would suggest that true harmony and peace lies in the ability to be cool with whatever conditions are on the outside, which happens to be nothing more than a reflection of what we mostly feel inside, anyway. If we are cool on the inside, then the sage-ness is there already... no matter where we are, this sage-ness will be present. Without this inner feeling, its hard to envisage that a person could live in peace for an extended period away from the usual distractions of the lifestyle that one has already been used to.

 

Speaking of being okay inside, i am reminded of the saying - One can take CowTao away from the pastures, but one cannot take the pastures away from CowTao.. ..... or something like this.

 

Tranquility can very much be a mental condition. Yes, outer tranquility can sometimes lend opportunities to hone the inner scapes of the mind. Such familiarizations, using the outer to tame or pacify the inner, can often yield the much needed space so that one gradually sees the weaving of one in to the other. Should such a merger be successful, then outer conditions will cease to be something to escape from. The need to do so would have become rather insignificant, and it becomes almost tedious to even contemplate any attempt to be anywhere other than where one Is.

[Listener]

I don't think I could handle living in the wilderness as an ascetic. However, I would like to spend more time in nature.

[goldisheavy]

Hello,

 

This is my first time posting a new topic and I am very new to this forum.

 

I have a philosophical question.

 

If you were able to live the life of a sage in the wilderness like was possible

2500-3000 years ago, would you do it? If yes, why? And if No why not?

 

This is still very much possible. You need to have a *lot* of survival knowledge to do it well. It would help if someone showed you the ropes before you did it on your own. You'd probably want to do minimal trade for tools like knives and hatchets, unless you enjoy spending countless hours knapping your own flint knives.

 

But yes, it's very much possible. In fact, if you know how to live in the wilderness, you are more or less free of the law. You can squat on practically any land and not get caught, plus there is a ton of land which is uninhabited (whether the land is claimed or not, is irrelevant). For example, vast swaths of Siberia are uninhabited and the Russian government only reaches into those lands in theory but not in practice. The same of true for lots of Alaskan wilderness.

 

There are some downsides, like the cold, but also upsides, because the weather keeps the fools away from the location. Plus, in a place like Alaska there are no poisonous snakes, which helps. I bet it's easier to live in Alaska than it is in say Amazon.

 

I have often contemplated what it must have been like to wander with little

to no possessions and learn Taoism in its most natural and uninhibited state.

 

I would say yes. The appeal of being in true harmony with nature, unencumbered

by the demands of our present upside down society, draws to me as a moth to a flame.

 

I look forward to reading your responses!

 

Tao is truth.

 

You can't really "just" do it, but if you take survival classes, then practice by going out in the wilderness, fist for a weekend, then for a few days at a time, then for a week, then a month and so on, you can do it. Read survival books.

[manitou]

There's a part of me that craves living like a monk in a little room with a dirt floor and only a cup and plate to my name. I know I must have been one previously. I would drink in spirit all day. Why don't I do this? Maybe I will one day after some other situations have resolved.

[suninmyeyes]

Of course -- what are you looking for? Describe your landscape of choice and I'll tell you where to find it!

 

One place far, far away feels very special to me -- Altai, Siberia... I was very little when I lived there, so I have no memories of the place I could put into words... but I have pictures in the family album that fascinate me no end. Especially the ones where my father is climbing Mount Belukha, in the year I was born. Archeologists and researchers of Buddhist history assert that Belukha (which goes by many names, being the "navel" of Altai with the history of many peoples revolving around it) is Sumeru, the central peak of Shambala (Shangri-la). You can probably find a lot of information and pictures online, see if it appeals... if not, I'll find something closer that might!

Just googeld for a while and Belukha looks absolutley amazing!I am in love.

Funnily enough I was looking into Altai mountains ,but was wondering where to go exactly,waiting for a lead..and this came just as a sort of pointer,so thank you.

 

Altai are meant to be also a spiritual retreat place for Kazakhstani muslims since ages from one side and Chinese/Mongolians from another side of the mountains.Nice place to be born..

Will do lots of research.Fun:)

[strawdog65]

I thank you all for such interesting responses.

 

On more realistic reflection, and outright dislike

of being cold and wet (especially at the same time!)

I would say the wandering sage life probably wouldn't

work for me, not unless it's in a very mild climate!

 

I do however love the idea of being a sage in the wilderness

of wherever we may presently be. Just navigating the trials

of everyday existence is it's own kind of wilderness!

 

Afterall, Taoist principles have helped me to stay much more

centered and calm, when before I would be giving in to the

emotional response purely out of habit.

 

So, let us all be considered Sage's of our own domain!

(I can just hear the Seinfield jokes flying now!)

 

 

Peace to all

[NeiChuan]

Hm well I like the cold, and my privacy.

 

I think I'd like the woods, and or mountains.