Animism
I've been reading a book on animism recently. Well, it isn't actually about animism, but the author gets it in that kind of 'bone-deep' kind of way that very few European-descended Pagans do. The book is Silence by the Vietnamese Zen Buddhist monk Thich Nhat Hanh, and it has proven to be one of the best books I have ever read on animism in my life.
I've seen a lot of modern (mostly European-descended) Pagans and Witches claim to be animist over the past couple of years, but for the most part their animism feels like an affectation to me. If anything, animism is something that seems to have become trendy.
Thich Nhat Hanh probably doesn't see himself as an animist, and yet it shines through in his musings on how the trees on the banks of a river would feel if the sound of the river were to suddenly stop. It's there in the way he talks about acquiring a bell for practice - it is not simply a thing that is bought, but invited to come home with you. It's in every mindful footstep in the natural world, every nourishing breath and consideration of the ancestors who make up your body. It's a plate of food eaten after contemplation of how your food came from the earth to your kitchen, and eventually your plate.
It's simple, but it's also far more nuanced and mature than many of the renewed animisms of the West.
For Thich Nhat Hanh, we exist in a state of interbeing with everything else. This in my opinion, is a necessary foundation for animistic belief. When you consider yourself to exist as part of a wider tapestry and truly believe it rather than simply paying it lip service, then why wouldn't you take seriously the thoughts and impressions of the other sentient beings with whom you share this existence?
This is what I believe I see in Thich Nhat Hanh's writing. This is what I believe is shining through. I also believe that this is what is missing from our attempts at an animistic revival. As children of neoliberalism, an ideology that prizes the individual, I think we try to live our animisms in our own little bubbles, and in doing so, miss a large piece of *why* we might be animist in the first place. Instead, we simply make ourselves the the center of existence for a wider range of sentient beings than we would otherwise (at least in our heads).
The one thing we do get right though, is that animism is about relationship. We just don't go far enough with the consideration of what that means and how far it goes.
Animism isn't a label that we can simply adopt. It's an entire worldview of (as Thich Nhat Hanh would say) interbeing and relationship, and as such, is completely counter to the cultures in which most of us were raised.
There is a lot of baggage to unpack here. And if we're going to be realistic, animism is more of an aspiration for the majority of us than a label we can meaningfully take. But in the meantime, I'm grateful for old Buddhist monks with gentle words and a gift for revealing the world.
I've seen a lot of modern (mostly European-descended) Pagans and Witches claim to be animist over the past couple of years, but for the most part their animism feels like an affectation to me. If anything, animism is something that seems to have become trendy.
Thich Nhat Hanh probably doesn't see himself as an animist, and yet it shines through in his musings on how the trees on the banks of a river would feel if the sound of the river were to suddenly stop. It's there in the way he talks about acquiring a bell for practice - it is not simply a thing that is bought, but invited to come home with you. It's in every mindful footstep in the natural world, every nourishing breath and consideration of the ancestors who make up your body. It's a plate of food eaten after contemplation of how your food came from the earth to your kitchen, and eventually your plate.
It's simple, but it's also far more nuanced and mature than many of the renewed animisms of the West.
For Thich Nhat Hanh, we exist in a state of interbeing with everything else. This in my opinion, is a necessary foundation for animistic belief. When you consider yourself to exist as part of a wider tapestry and truly believe it rather than simply paying it lip service, then why wouldn't you take seriously the thoughts and impressions of the other sentient beings with whom you share this existence?
This is what I believe I see in Thich Nhat Hanh's writing. This is what I believe is shining through. I also believe that this is what is missing from our attempts at an animistic revival. As children of neoliberalism, an ideology that prizes the individual, I think we try to live our animisms in our own little bubbles, and in doing so, miss a large piece of *why* we might be animist in the first place. Instead, we simply make ourselves the the center of existence for a wider range of sentient beings than we would otherwise (at least in our heads).
The one thing we do get right though, is that animism is about relationship. We just don't go far enough with the consideration of what that means and how far it goes.
Animism isn't a label that we can simply adopt. It's an entire worldview of (as Thich Nhat Hanh would say) interbeing and relationship, and as such, is completely counter to the cultures in which most of us were raised.
There is a lot of baggage to unpack here. And if we're going to be realistic, animism is more of an aspiration for the majority of us than a label we can meaningfully take. But in the meantime, I'm grateful for old Buddhist monks with gentle words and a gift for revealing the world.
Thank you. This may be the book I've been searching for.
ReplyDeleteWonserful thank you for sharing your insight.
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