I feel inclined to take issue with Thich Nhat Hahn’s overly benevolent attitude regarding an individual’s roots as re-presented by parents, ancestors and traditions.
“Without roots, we cannot be happy. If we return home and touch the wondrous jewels that are there in our traditions — blood and spiritual — we can become whole.”
But surely the jewels may not always be present and may not always be wondrous when they are present. If there are right roots there must also be wrong roots. Parenting can be more or less wondrous and in either case it tends to be transmitted through the generations.
“Our body and many of the seeds we carry in our consciousness are actually our parents. They did not transmit anything less than themselves — seeds of suffering, happiness, and talent, many of which they received from their ancestors.”
“We cannot escape the fact that we are a continuation of our parents and our ancestors. To be angry at our parents is to be angry at ourselves. To reconcile with our father and mother is to make peace with ourselves.”
I was not close to my parents. After I left home at eighteen I did not have much contact with them. I did my filial duty (eg bought them a house) but there was very little emotional attachment. Sometimes when I notice negative moods and intuitions there is a feeling that they have their roots in how I was parented. But that does not normally elicit anger and thus the need for reconciliation.
I am aware of the partisan patriarchy of priests and politicians and of the reification of wrong roots. I have anarchic leanings. I am deeply suspicious of the good and great who are my elders and betters. Behind the benign smiles there often lurks selfishness, greed and exploitation. Talking heads with silver tongues monopolise the media and bolster the hegemonic effectiveness of elegant power.
“According to the Buddha, most of our suffering is caused by wrong perceptions … Each of us has habit energies that cause us difficulties … In Buddhism, we describe consciousness in terms of “seeds” — seeds of peace, joy, and happiness, and seeds of war, anger, despair, and hatred. All of these are in us.”
Some seeds will be hard wired by nature and some learned from nurture. Thoughts and feelings will have neural correlates. Thanks to neural plasticity the seeds can be selectively changed. So free will still has a role to play.
“The practice is to arrive home in each moment, to touch the peace and joy that are within us, and to open our eyes to the wonders of life around us — the blue sky, the sunset, the eyes of our beloved. When we do this, we experience real happiness.”
We can open our eyes to the wonders of life but these can be more or less pleasing.
Thich reckons that most of our suffering is caused by wrong perceptions and that without roots, we cannot be happy. I reckon that there can be both rooted unhappiness and rootless happiness.
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