There’s always a very inconsiderable minority of these non-joiners. [...] But you will find that insecure societies are the most intolerant of those who are non-joiners. They are so unsure of the validity of their game rules that they say everyone must play. Now that’s a double-bind. You can’t say to a person you must play because what you’re saying is – you are required to do something which will be acceptable only if you do it voluntarily.
Alan Watts
Long ago I happened upon this teaching from Alan Watts – an Anglican priest, founding figure of Western Zen, and arguable Zen hermit – for whom I have attested admiration. He was specifically addressing the predicament of Buddhist hermits, but as was his habit, more basically referring to the universal status of free-range monks of all paths. Virtually all religions have them, though some meet us with greater grace than others. (I've been told that Zoroastrians, alone among major religions, have no hermits, but I might not believe it. It's possible they "have no hermits" in the same sense as Western Zen.)
Over the years I've returned to Watts' meditation on hermits and the Institution, and found it validating and insightful. Since fellow hermits and the hermit-curious rest here occasionally, I thought to spread the wealth.
(Photo courtesy of Ben Blennerhassett and Unsplash.com.)
(Fried eggs from real chickens, barbecued cheese curds, and salsa over steamed vegetables and brown rice. Why envy the immortal gods?)
Appearing also on My Corner of the World.
Everything happens for a reason, but the reason doesn't happen until everything happens.
(Earlier meditation here.)
Photo courtesy of Pixabay.com and a generous photographer.
(I don't know what species this is, as I tend to ignore LBMs [little brown mushrooms], because they're hard to identify and not edible. But whatever they are, they were blanketing the ground under some pines.
Palladius said, "One day when I was suffering from boredom I went to Abba Macarius and said, 'What shall I do? My thoughts afflict me, saying, "You are not making any progress, go away from here".' He said to me, 'Tell them, "For Christ's sake, I am guarding the walls"'."
The Paradise of the Desert Fathers
(Pictured: the Bodhi Tree, the huge old bigleaf [Acer grandiflora] I guarded while sitting my 100 Days on the Mountain.)
This Sunday, 29 October, is National Hermit Day. (I have no idea which nation declared this. The day commemorates an Irish saint, so I'd guess Ireland must at least be in. And since most of the websites about it are American, I'd guess they're in, too. Really, it seems more like International Hermit Day, unless, like Labour Day, various countries are feuding over what date it's observed.)
Anyway.
Judging by Internet sources, lots of people are writing about this, but not many are researching it.
This page, for example, manages to get just about everything wrong.
• The 29th is not St. Colman's Feast. (That would be the 27th.)
• A group of hermits is not called an "observance"; it's a skete. But at least the person who made that up knew what we are; he or she might have gone with a "grumpy" or a "Kaczynski" or some other synonym for antisocial.
• No mention of spiritual practice – the fundamental definition of a hermit.
This one does a better job, at least mentioning the religious nature of non-metaphorical hermits, but only after it says:
Hermits, by definition, are people who prefer seclusion to socialization.
Uh, no. Our actual motivation can be contemplated here.
Honourable mention to this site, which not only gets St. Colman's feast day right, but leans heavily on the religious origins of the word, going so far as to list two actual hermits (50% of the total) on their list of famous hermits.
Anyway.
I'm not sure what we should do on (Inter)National Hermit Day. A hermit parade on the high road would be pretty paltry, unless you happen to live near the Zhongnan Mountains. Pinching people not wearing sandals would involve a lot of people, and spread the most irritating of all the asinine North American St. Patrick's Day customs.
So bump that.
We might take a page from Bodhisattva Day and don some meaningful garment… if the whole thing about hermits weren't that we serve in civilian clothes, without exclusive robes or regalia.
So how about this: prepare a nice sesshin meal. While enjoying it, contemplate the worthiness of devoting your life to pursuing fundamental, extra-human truth. Recall that it's your right, neither alienable nor certifiable.
Rice and beans or a hearty ramen soup, maybe. A good cup of tea and a nice flavour plate on the side.
Eat in gratitude and appreciation for how delicious and filling it is, whether the dish earns others' praise or not.
It feeds and rehinges.
And that's a blessing worth celebrating.
(Photo courtesy of Wikimedia Commons and a generous photographer.)
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