There’s a fond misconception that words lie. They don’t. Words are completely innocent of all wrongdoing. Even the shitty ones ( such as ‘irregardless’). This is mostly true because words are not sentient and have no free will to do anything at all, especially something as intellectually complex as to comprehend the meaning of truth and to express its opposite. It takes years for humans to learn how to do that despite the fact that we fart (which was the original reason for the very first lie). Watch this kid try to lie.

See? It’s tough. First you have to grasp the concept of “Mommy,” then you have to understand “Chocolate,” then you have to understand “private property.” Then you have to understand, “Screw Mommy, I’m eating her damn chocolate because she was dumb enough to turn her back on her Snickers bar.” Words can’t do that. They can only have that done to them, and that can only happen when words are shared.

Yeah, that’s when it gets weird; when you have to share your words with other people. As long as your words are just in your head, there’s no trouble whatsoever. But once you have to tell someone something, then you have to trust that they know what you mean when you say “I want Chocolate,” or “let’s get dinner,” or “Let’s go climb a mountain.” The wise among us will always ask, “What kind of chocolate?”, or “What would you like to have for dinner and when?”, and “What exactly do you mean by ‘Mountain’?” We have learned from experience there is room for interpretation.

Because, after climbing up and down one of the Pyrenees, when someone says the word “Mountain” to me, it will mean something different for me than it used to. More seriously, for a man who has dated many women and enjoyed his efforts, the passive mention of the word “sex” brings smiles and Warm Puppy feelings. The same utterance to a survivor of sexual assault will freeze the mind and harden the heart. Same word, different ears hearing it. Nobody is lying, nobody is wrong. Different opinions, difference experiences, different views.

This is the other part of the Buddhist teaching about “Views.” All of that confusion between thought and word, all of that subjectivity, all of that mis-interpretation, all of that strife that occurs when two people cannot agree on the definition of ‘freedom’, are all due to Wrong Views, and all views are wrong (eventually).

Buddhist teachers use the term Views a lot, and they do not like them. On the surface, this is bizarre, as the very person saying they don’t believe in views seems to have a very Buddhist View of things. There’s a whole one-eighth of the Eight Fold path called “Right View,” right? Right! And as you smugly tell the Monk that, they will then agree with you, but they would replace the word “bizarre” with the word “Dharma.” Here’s how Thich Nhat Hanh translates Dharma (from the oath for a Bhodhishattva in the Mahayana tradition ) to describe the correct view about Views:

Nonattachment to Views
[We will be] aware of the suffering created by attachment to views and wrong perceptions, we are determined to avoid being narrow-minded and bound to present views. We are committed to learning and practicing nonattachment to views and being open to others’ experiences and insights in order to benefit from the collective wisdom. We are aware that the knowledge we presently possess is not changeless, absolute truth. Insight is revealed through the practice of compassionate listening, deep looking, and letting go of notions rather than through the accumulation of intellectual knowledge. Truth is found in life, and we will observe life within and around us in every moment, ready to learn throughout our lives.

This is deep stuff, and it’s not something that is fully presented to students until some prep work is done. It has to be admitted that on the surface it sounds like total bullshit. You can hear the stereotype Hippie cliche, his accent reeking of patchouli oil whilst chastising society, “Hey, man, I don’t waste my mind with any of those Views, man. Opinions only cloud the perceptions, Dude. I’m trying to free my mind from all that Groupthink, Man. . . . You wanna take a hit?”

But Buddhists do not replace “Views” with nihilism or libertine-ism. Buddhists are also not misanthropes, wildly hating and despising worldly ways: we call that “Aversion,” and it is a danger we are taught to be aware of as we rid ourselves of its opposite, “Attachment.” In street terms, you can’t love it, and you can’t hate it, you just gotta live with it. But it’s really the Non Attachment, the action, that matters. It’s not letting your happiness and peace of mind be dictated by the fact that it’s not just a mountain, but that a mountain that has to be 8,789 feet above sea level, covered in pine trees and have Julie Andrews singing on its grassy slopes for it to be a Mountain. Non attachment is essential, because as a Buddhist, the very last step before entering Nirvana is to dis-attach from your desire to enter Nirvana. Yeah, really. That’s the actual teaching of the Buddha. Kinda messed up, right?

I think the best way to think about it is the transformation of the spiritual process from Noun to Verb. Things are not the point, what is done with the Thing is. And it doesn’t matter what the Thing might be. Our Verb, our actions, must be in charge of our minds and process; not the things, the Nouns, themselves.

The Schoolhouse Rock Sutra! Can you Dig it?

A lot of what I felt, and was going to feel, trudging up and down the Pilgrim trail were thoughts brought from other places, previous conceptions about what Up means and what Down meant. What the Top of the Mountain meant, what The Bottom of the Valley meant. What achieving a goal meant, what failing to achieve a goal meant. Views. Views and opinions about things. What’s right and what’s wrong, what’s Good and what’s Bad. And lemme tellya, exhaustion is a great aid in ridding one of superfluous Views. Tired feet will encourage non-attachment better than a two-hour sitting with the Dalai Lama.

My big fear with the non-attachment to views was about my perception of beauty, my sense of wonder. I thought I would lose that feeling, but that doesn’t happen. All that space left emptied from attachment thoughts have been filled with nothing but positive things. That lovely ability we have, to be moved, to feel, to transcend this dust of us: that is our true self, that is where our baseline is, our zero bubble, our valley and our mountain.

I want to close with some Views. 36 Views of Mount Fuji, by Hokusai, to be exact. Alla’y’all have seen at least one of these, the Wave, which was one of the 36 prints Hokusai finished and first published as a collection in 1832. Each one is a view of Mt Fuji, and each one is different. I hope you can take some time to sit with them. And let me know what you think about all this. I’d love to hear your views. 😉

Buen Camino.

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