Transcendentalism Waking Up to Life and Living

¶ … Transcendentalism

Waking Up to Life and Living Deliberately:

A Close Reading of "Where I Lived and What I Lived for" in Thoreau's Walden

During the 1830's in Concord, Massachusetts, a group of literary men and women set out to redefine the common philosophy of American culture. The reigning philosophy was based on the traditions of John Locke and his "materialists." However, for Henry David Thoreau and the others who were a part of this literary group, a new way of thinking was in order. While Lockean theory held that everyone was a blank slate -- tabula rasa, and that men were made up of their outside experiences and education (Geldard 10), there was another idea -- that each person had the inherent capability of answering life's most metaphysical questions; the only thing a person has to do is tap into them. Transcendentalism was thus born from this form of thought and Walden has been hailed as the sacred text of Transcendentalism (Geldard 94).

The fundamental tenets of Transcendentalism consisted of ways in which the human could "tap into" their highest consciousness, which could be achieved through self-reliance, solitary meditation, communion with nature, the didactic reasoning of the Greeks, and the Eastern spiritual idea of finding a god from within (these latter two being known also as the Perennial Philosophy) (Geldard 9). In Walden, Thoreau documents his attempts at the execution of these tenets of Transcendentalism. The piece recounts Thoreau's journey to a piece of relatively desolate land where he spends two years, two months and two days living an "examined life" of simplicity, independence, magnanimity, and trust (Geldard 96). His sojourn to nature places his writings in the transcendental ideals, particularly in its adherence to an Eastern spirituality that is inherent in their philosophy. This idea is quite apparent the section of Walden, "Where I Lived and What I Lived For." Thoreau illustrates the transcendental adherence to the Perennial Philosophy and its Eastern Religious complexity; this is evident specifically through his focus on higher consciousness through contemplation.

Thoreau's Walden shows the transcendentalist author yearning to live life deliberately. For Thoreau, the trappings of life in Concord during the 19th century made a man feel as if he were sleepwalking through life. This idea of "sleepwalking" through life is the opposite of living deliberately in that it symbolizes man going through his daily routine in the hopes of living tomorrow. But what if there isn't a tomorrow? What did life mean then? Thoreau believed that in order to live life deliberately, one had to do away with all the superfluous trappings and find purpose. In Walden, Thoreau is inspiring people to wake up to life and find meaning in their daily lives. By going to the woods to live deliberately, Thoreau is showing the separation of man from society and depicting man as a part of nature.

In Thoreau's aforementioned passage, Thoreau was stating a real concern about where he was going to live, yet he also has a more Transcendental concern -- the meaning of life. He wants to live in nature, commune with it, so that he can understand more of the world through nature. He has a very big concern that if he doesn't do this, he is going to die not knowing the truth, and this could be the worst possible thing for him. He is prepared for whatever he finds in nature -- whether good or bad. If it is bad, then he is happy to have found this out, but if it is good, then he will know this goodness firsthand. Essentially, either way he makes out, he is better off for knowing and for really having lived.

"I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately…" (Thoreau 85). This first sentence is important because Thoreau is saying that by living deliberately, he is living the way that he wants to live, not the way that anyone else or society thinks that he should live. It is his life and he wants to live it the way he wants. At a much higher plane, Thoreau is also saying that living deliberately is something that many would like to do, but it is nearly impossible to do because none of us came to life deliberately -- that is, nobody came to this life saying, "I want to live." Life is something that just happens to us all whether we want it or not. He knows that being alive is something that doesn't happen deliberately, but we can choose to live our lives with deliberateness after we are already in the world. This is what he is seeking.

He wishes to live deliberately, "to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived. I did not wish to live what was not life, living is so dear; nor did I want to practice resignation until it was quite necessary" (Thoreau 85). Thoreau is saying that by getting all that doesn't matter out of the way, by going back to only the essentials -- nature -- he will be able to find the truth. He understands that life is very precious and so if he can get rid of that which is not purposeful to life -- the material goods and possessions -- and find what is, he will figure out how to live. He says that he doesn't want to resign until it is necessary. This means that he doesn't want to not live until he cannot live anymore. By staying away from nature and the truth that lies in nature, he is essentially not living. Why would he choose to not live while he is still alive? Death will bring that in time and until that time he wants to live.

By going into the woods, Thoreau is proving to himself what is important in this temporal world. By removing himself from Concord, he reduces the materiality around him and he is able to embrace more of the Eastern tradition of communing with nature in order to find a higher sense of self. Thoreau's passage is so impactful because he is acknowledging that people who live in a world of material possessions aren't really living because they are living for that which is not real. When one is not living deliberately -- with purpose -- then they are just reacting to that which happens around them. In essence, they become just a piece of a machine that keeps the temporal world going. By simply going along in the world without stopping to think what it would mean to live deliberately, people are merely surviving from day-to-day, which breeds the hope that there will be a time one day to actually live. This is how many people live in our society. "If I work at the high-paying job today even though I dislike it, one day I will be able to afford to live on a tropical island." It is this kind of attitude, the attitude of not living in the here and now with purpose that keeps people dead inside. Thoreau was adamant about living in the here and now and getting away from the superfluous in life.