Hermits

When I was in school a teacher asked, 

"What would you like to be when you grow up?"

I said,

"A hermit."

The teacher responded,

"I don't think you understand the question".

To which I answered,

"I don't think you understand hermits".

I'm not a hermit. I think I could be. A sociable hermit, if such a thing exists.

I have lots of questions.

Can one be a hermit with someone else? Because I really like Linda. She's kind of a hermit, too. 

If two hermits come together, do they cease to be hermits? If so, what are they then?

Is "hermit community" an oxymoron? 

How would hermits unite and change the world?

Can one sort of be a hermit, or is that like sort of being pregnant?

Is there a hermit registry or association, or do you just wing it on your own?

Were Herman's Hermits really hermits, or was that just a marketing thing?

Are more people than ever becoming hermits due to the unliveability of modern society, and if so, how would we tell?

Perhaps some time spent in solitude in a cabin in the woods would help provide some answers to those and many other questions. 

I would be willing to give it a try.

“Progress isn't achieved by preachers or guardians of morality, but by madmen, hermits, heretics, dreamers, rebels and sceptics”  

― Stephen Fry

Reclusion

All my life I have yearned for true reclusion,

Days on end sought wonders beyond this world:

Here old peasants enter their fields at dawn,

And mountain monks return to their temples at night.

Clear sounds come from pine-shaded springs,

Mossy walls filled with ancient truths.

I will lodge on this mountain forever,

I and the world are done with each other.

Meng Hao-jan

In a world that equates a quality life with extreme busyness, the relentless pursuit of more money and stuff, and a full social calendar, it is odd to suggest anything else, like a quiet, simple and minimal life.

A life lived outside of the noisy and frenetic city. 

Where one works only enough to satisfy basic needs and intellectual curiosity, without the craving for more.

A life where one might not read the latest news, rarely travel far from home, never go out for entertainment, and instead spend a lot of time in nature.

It seems odd to suggest only staying in touch with a few friends and family members, instead of planning one's whole life around such things.

Not going to the gym, but taking one's exercise by going for long walks.

Eschewing restaurants and take out and eating simple foods grown and made by your own hands.

Seldom buying anything, and working at minimizing possessions instead of the more mainstream pursuit of maximizing them.

Disregarding most of popular culture, and not knowing the latest shows and movies.

Striving to be in bed by 8:30 every night, and up by 5:00 every morning.

To argue this in today's modern, technological maelstrom of mayhem may seem like insanity to a regular member of such a society.

But I have always yearned for more reclusion, and the more I get, the happier I am.

I am done with this modern age. I find it distasteful and unhealthy.

And I don't think that's crazy. 

Rather, a yearning for more solitude seems to me to be a rational reaction to a sick and ailing world.

Reclusion is the antidote. 

It's self-preservation.

There are wonders aplenty to be had here.

"I really am a recluse. I just enjoy watching the wind blow through the trees. In America someone who sits around and does that is at the bottom of the ladder, but in Japan, say, someone who goes up into the mountains is accorded great respect. I guess I am somewhere in between. I enjoy reclusion: it clears my mind."

— Robert M. Pirsig

Nothing To Steal

Ryōkan Taigu (1758 – 1831) was a quiet and unconventional Sōtō Zen Buddhist monk who lived much of his life as a hermit. 

He is remembered for his poetry and calligraphy, which present the essence of Zen life.

Ryōkan spent much of his life living in a hut at the base of a mountain. His poetry is simple and inspired by nature.

One evening a thief visited Ryōkan's hut only to discover there was nothing to steal.

Ryōkan returned unexpectedly and caught him. 

"You have come a long way to visit me," he told the prowler, "and you should not return empty-handed. Please take my clothes as a gift." 

The thief was bewildered. He took the clothes and slunk away. 

Ryōkan sat naked, watching the moon. 

"Poor fellow," he mused, "I wish I could have given him this beautiful moon." 

This story made me ponder that it is healthy to acknowledge the precious things in my life that no thief can steal.

These are the things I cherish the most.

Revenge of the Hermits

 

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"From Lao–tse and the Buddha, St. Anthony and the early Celtic hermits, through Rousseau, Thoreau, Ruskin, and up to the present day, certain gifted persons have shown a vocation for living alone and apart, finding in simplicity and attention to nature a spiritual space to be explored and rejoiced in." - source

Revenge of the Hermits is the new Revenge of the Nerds. 

Today, the long maligned hermit class is taking their rightful place in the world as the anti-system survivors that they are.

I have always looked up to these independent folks that are brave enough to reject a sick society and have a go on their own.

Often close to nature, and surely with a large garden, the hermit makes a life of living. 

Such an existence is bare and raw and real. It is a self-sufficient life, relying only on ones wits and skills. 

I consider it to be quite an accomplishment when so many today would (will) perish if stores ever ran out of food, or if the electric goes off, or if pharmaceuticals ever stopped flowing, or if there aren't enough doctors and nurses to administer to the people suffering the ill effects of living a modern consumer life.

Do hermits away from it all get COVID? No, partly because they aren't subjected to the relentless propaganda used to keep people dumb and dependent and with wallets open.

While relying on food they have grown and procured themselves from nature around them, do hermits get sick at all?

One man who lived the solitary life in the woods for 27 years said he did not spend a second in all that time bored or lonely. Or at the doctor's office. Quite the opposite.

"I felt utterly and intricately connected to everything else in the world. It was difficult for me to tell where my body ended, and the woods began. I felt this utter communion with nature and with the outside world."

When the consumer/pathocratic machine breaks, and wheezes it final dirty breathe, the hermit will wander in from the wilderness to witness the carnage. 

They will know they have been vindicated.

Shaking their shaggy head, they will turn around and head right back to the peace of the hermitage, lovingly embraced by Mother Nature.

Introverts are owning Peak Crisis. 

We are rocking the lockdowns (ongoing for free-thinkers), and the best way to avoid getting sick is avoiding people who are sick.

It is also good to avoid a society that is sick, as much as that is possible these days. You don't need to be a misanthropist to see that.

It's the revenge of the hermits, solitaries, and recluses. 

And let's not forget the curmudgeons.

I am cheering them all on.

 

Pre and Post-Pandemic

Wanted: wilderness hermitage (like this one in the valley behind my home).

Pre-Pandemic

- watch sun rise

- make and enjoy good food

- don’t believe the oligarchs and their politicians

- cherish the company of my life partner

- commune with Nature

- fight The Man

- sit quietly, do nothing
- keep my constant friend, Death, away a while longer

- watch sun set

Post-Pandemic

- watch sun rise

- make and enjoy good food

- don’t believe the oligarchs and their politicians

- cherish the company of my life partner

- commune with Nature

- fight The Man

- sit quietly, do nothing
- keep my constant friend, Death, away a while longer
- watch sun set

Alone And Undistracted

 Anne LaBastille knew what it meant to be alone and undistracted.

You don't need to live isolated in the wilderness to be alone and undistracted, like Anne LaBastille did in the Andirondack Mountains of NY. But it helps. She loved her cabin as her place for "refuge, quiet, and as a peaceful place to write and contemplate". 

A lot of people would find that attractive today, but perhaps not for too long. Even LaBastille was a part time hermit, engaging in a full life outside her mountain retreat. Perhaps it was the amount of time she spent with a lack of distractions that allowed her to be as involved as she was.

Never before has being distracted while with others been so easy, and solitude so out of favour. Too much connectedness. Too many screens, apps, devices, phones, movies, shows, games, and an expanding universe of virtual realities to choose from. When does it stop?

When are we ever alone and undistracted?

Crowds and distractions are hallmarks of modern life. Consumer entertainment is everywhere, in your face 25/8. It is normal to spend long periods of time as part of actual and/or virtual crowds or groups, sharing distractions through entertainments and other illusions.

A 1996 Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll indicated 31% of U.S. residents wanted more time to themselves, whereas only 6% wanted less (Crossen, 1996).

Humans have important biological needs for attachment, affiliation, and sociality. But we also harbour yearnings to spend time alone. Just like being with others is good for us, spending time alone and undistracted also has positive benefits.


Benefits of Solitude 

- wards off potential perils of over stimulation, a very real threat in these days of infinite choice and content

- can result in decreased self-consciousness

- enables freedom of choice with respect to thoughts and actions one finds intrinsically interesting

- the mind may be better attuned to, or more likely to generate, daydreams, shifting emotions, and novel thoughts and associations that contribute to creativity

- sets the stage for self-examination, reconceptualization of one's self, and coming to terms with change

- is a precondition for enlightenment



Being in solitude is a common spiritual practice across time and traditions. Just ask Moses, Jesus, Mohammed, and the Buddha about solitude, and they will tell you what wonders they discovered. You must admit, that is a pretty good endorsement.

You do not need to be a spiritual leader, or wilderness hermit, to gain the benefits of a little solitude now and again. You just have to remember to make it happen. It may be beneficial to set aside some time each day to practise quiet listening in solitude.

It can be done inside, or outside. In the city, or in nature. Still or moving. At home, or away.

Do not try to force anything and do not give yourself a hard time if you are not able to do what you hoped. Do what you can to make time to be alone and undistracted, and most importantly, be kind to yourself in the process.

Bring that kindness into the interactions you have with all life. Authentic experiences of solitude will ultimately bear fruit in greater kindness and compassion toward ourselves, others, and the planet.