Reflections of Spiritual Ideas - Essay

Reflections of Spiritual Ideas

Desert Solitaire: A Season in the Wilderness is Edward Abbey’s narrative of his inner voice while he was working as a park ranger at Arches National Monument in Utah. It is written in straight-forward speaking from his uncompromising viewpoint, yet it contains significant spiritual ideas in both A World Of Idears and English romantic Poetry reflected in Buddha’s “Meditation,” Bacon’s “The Four Idols,” Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave,” Blake’s paradox of “The Songs of 'Innocence' and 'Experience'.” From this point of view, college students should read this book because it has the profound value of various spiritual ideas which can lead them to find the right direction for their future. Furthermore, they can reach their final destination of the good.

 

Abbey, primarily, sets his narrative’s tone on the way of Buddha’s “Meditation.” In “The First Morning” and “Solitaire,” he sets up a scene similar to Buddha’s progressive steps of meditation while dwelling solitary in the desert. He states, “Like a god, like an ogre? The personification of the natural is exactly the tendency I wish to suppress in myself, to eliminate for good” (7). This idea flashes across into Buddha’s twenty-eight advantages of meditation, which states “secluded meditation guards him who meditates, lengthens his life, gives him strength, and shuts out faults; it removes ill fame, and leads to good repute; … and it bestows all the benefits of an ascetic life” (Gautama 648-649). It shows once a person restrains from his senses and obtains full awareness of nature through solitary meditation, he will ultimately attain mindfulness, enlightenment. Abbey wants to eliminate his possessive mind from the environment where cultural apparatus are overwhelming and gain absolute freedom from primitive nature where fundamental existence powerfully sustains him.

 

As Abbey speaks of nature as if he is a part of it, he creates allusions implying Bacon’s “The Four Idols” and Plato’s “The Allegory of the Cave.” In “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and The National Parks,” Abbey debates with people who emphasize the words “provide for the enjoyment” (59). This quote promptly points out Bacon’s "The Idols of the Marketplace." Abbey states that “they will not discover the treasures of the national parks and will never escape the stress and turmoil of the urban-suburban complexes” (64). The quote exhibits, the Idols of the Marketplace, false notions which Bacon states, “words plainly force and overrule the understanding, and throw all into confusion and lead men away into numberless empty controversies and idle fancies” (Bacon 427). Abbey’s concern is that Industrial Tourism develops the National Park for people’s pleasure, yet it ends up with tourists becoming victims of the system. The same way implying the spiritual ideas shows in “Cowboys and Indians.” When Abbey sees old Roy’s miserliness, he slightly shows his provocation arousing from classic philosophical lore of Plato. He states, “Our life on earth is but the shadow of a higher life” (111). It indicates Plato’s allegory which states that "[People] see only their own shadows, or the shadows of one another, which the fire throws on the opposite wall of the [cave]" (Plato 316). Abbey indicates people who are attached with the material world can not see the spiritual world, which nature provides the ideals.

 

Consistently, however, throughout this narrative Abbey encounters contradictions of realities, which depicts the same purport of Blake’s paradox. In “Polemic: Industrial Tourism and the National Parks,” Abbey suggests, “No more cars in national parks” because “they are holy places” (65). Contrarily in “Episodes and Visions,” he strongly opposes, “I am convinced now that the desert has no heart, that is presents a riddle which has no answer and that the riddle itself is an illusion created by some limitation or exaggeration of the displaced human consciousness” (304). Abbey reveals his statements conflict, just like Blake, who once blissfully manifests the benevolent God, states “Little Lamb. God bless thee!” (“The Lamb” 4), yet he bitterly denies the Almighty God and subsequently states, “Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” (“The Tyger” 7). Abbey has the same rage as Blake’s against the reckless industrialism. Likewise, in “Down the River” Abbey exposes the beauty of the Colorado River and its environs through the last voyage. It can never be recovered or seen because of the reservoir from building the dam, because of men’s greed. Abbey leads to appreciate the beauty of nature, yet he admonishes to indiscreet industrialism which always exists with so-called “civilization.”

 

With Abbey’s reflections of spiritual ideas, college students should read this book. They will have full contentment from this book, not only perceiving his insight of various perspectives and creative allusions, but also comprehending his intentions of paradox and the reflections of spiritual ideas. As a visual symbolic imagery of paradox, Abbey remarks, “My juniper, though still fruitful and full of vigor, is at the same time partly dead” (32). Abbey intentionally gives the clue to go upon and lures the readers into his profound philosophical cognizance. Desert Solitaire is an excellent resource for students.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

 

Abbey, Edward. Desert Solitaire: A season in the Wilderness.

            New York: Ballantine Books, 1971.xxxx

Appelbaum, Stanley. English Romantic Poetry, An Anthology. 3rd ed.

            Mineola: Dover, 1996.

Bacon, Francis. “The Four Idols.” Jacobus 417-433. 

Blake, William. “Songs of Innocence: The Lamb.” Appelbaum 4.

Blake, William. “Songs of Experience: The Tyger.” Appelbaum 7.

Jacobus, Lee A. A World of Ideas. 6th ed. New York: St. Martin’s, 

            2002.

Gautama, Siddhartha. “The Buddha Meditation: The Path to

            Enlightenment.” Jacobus 645-663.

Plato. “The Allegory of the Cave.” Jacobus 313-325.