The Useless Tree

Pico Iyer: Daoist Sage?

I just found this post by Pico Iyer on the NYT Happy Days blog.  The title pointed in a Daoist direction: "The Joy of Less."  He doesn't explicitly invoke the Daodejing or Zhuangzi but the spirit if clearly there:

I’m no Buddhist monk, and I can’t say I’m in love with renunciation in
itself, or traveling an hour or more to print out an article I’ve
written, or missing out on the N.B.A. Finals. But at some point, I
decided that, for me at least, happiness arose out of all I didn’t want
or need, not all I did. And it seemed quite useful to take a clear,
hard look at what really led to peace of mind or absorption (the
closest I’ve come to understanding happiness). Not having a car gives
me volumes not to think or worry about, and makes walks around the
neighborhood a daily adventure. Lacking a cell phone and high-speed
Internet, I have time to play ping-pong every evening, to write long
letters to old friends and to go shopping for my sweetheart (or to
track down old baubles for two kids who are now out in the world).

Must a modern day Daoist not have a car or a cell phone?  Perhaps not.  But Daoism would warn us away from becoming overly attached to such things.  They come, they go.  We may use them or not, but, whatever the case, the material things that surround us, the commodities and appliances, should not define us.  They are simply random experiences in our Way, nothing more than the pebbles beneath our feet or the leaves on the trees.

Iyer's concluding paragraph was nice:

If you’re the kind of person who prefers freedom to security, who feels
more comfortable in a small room than a large one and who finds that
happiness comes from matching your wants to your needs, then running to
stand still isn’t where your joy lies. In New York, a part of me was
always somewhere else, thinking of what a simple life in Japan might be
like. Now I’m there, I find that I almost never think of Rockefeller
Center or Park Avenue at all.

The "running to stand still" phrase brought passage 24 of the Daodejing to mind:

Stretch onto tiptoes and you never stand firm.  Hurry long strides and you never travel far.

Keep up self-reflection and you'll never be enlightened.  Keep up self-definition and you'll never be apparent.  Keep up self-promotion and you'll never be proverbial.  Keep up self-esteem and you'll never be perennial.

Travelers of the Way call such striving too much food and useless baggage.  Things may not all despise such striving but a master of the Way stays clear of it.

Maybe there's happiness there.

Sam Crane Avatar

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3 responses to “Pico Iyer: Daoist Sage?”

  1. Peony Avatar
    Peony

    Oh Sam, I loved this… and this is exactly how I think and feel about my own life in Japan.
    I cannot recall whether there is much about “happiness” per se in the ddj– is there? I don’t know, but I do think, as you suggest, both Iyer and Your quotes above are positing happiness as a cutting away of unnecessary distractions that get in the way of peace of mind or absorption (meaningful occupations etc)… what does the part about sel-esteem mean though? (Am wondering what the Chinese was for that english translation as it caught my attention)

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  2. Casey Kochmer Avatar
    Casey Kochmer

    Happiness is of the same coinage of sorrow.
    the joy of less is a path of release, that release isn’t to remove attachment per say but to live within your life unencumbered.
    For instance to say we do not want false pride doesn’t mean we live without pride… it means we live as human but without attachments that stoke up ego to false heights.
    So to keep self esteem is to understand our nature is to “hold to self truly”. Not projected in a false extended manner either. It’s our lot to be human, so be fully “Peony” to hold the “Peony” to fair self esteem… but not to push it over the edge into a definition that is beyond “Peony” either.
    Too many people make their definition to include the tools of their life, or accomplishments or their perceived failures even… but in fact we simply are as we are… That is true contentment and we then bloom as oneself truly balanced in esteem of our nature. Other wise the “peony” will remain an annual tied to cycles of the coinage of happiness (mentioned in my first line) and such… as compared to a perennial which eternally holds its nature simple as is and eternal and in proper esteem…

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  3. chriswaugh_bj Avatar
    chriswaugh_bj

    Another superb post. Why did I have to read it as I’m getting my breakfast and getting ready for work?
    Peony, “I cannot recall whether there is much about “happiness” per se in the ddj– is there?” I won’t comment on whether there is much about “happiness” in the ddj, I’ll leave that to the experts. But this post, your question and my life as it has been unfolding recently have reinforced my suspicion that us modern people have lost what happiness means. We’re surrounded by so much glitter and noise and distraction all telling us what we need to be happy that we’re no longer capable of understanding the pure, unadulterated happiness of sitting beside a small lake in a Norwegian wood high in the mountains by the Swedish border eating a fish that was caught two minutes before it was cooked, sipping coffee that was boiled over a fire of birch branches gathered from the forest floor.
    In other words, what Casey and Pico Iyer say.
    And now, I must breakfast and hurry off into the world of distractions.

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