My Friend Arne Naess

In 2002 I read a simple online description about ‘Deep Ecology’. I was preparing a science unit on ecology for high school students and stumbled upon this philosophy that was to place a fork in the road and have me take the road less travelled.

Coincidence?

Fate?

Destiny?

Einstein would say there is no such thing as a coincidence. Maybe it was just the right place and the right time. To the people I describe this experience of my first encounter of deep ecology and recount how I was reading the words as if they were personally written for my soul, a few have remarked that it was simply that I was ready to experience those ideas and thoughts. My early teacher training provided me with many insights regarding human social and psychological development. A definite stand out theory was Howard Gardner’s multiple intelligence theory. Maybe it just was the developmental moment for me to experience those words and to develop my existentialist intelligence. From Howard Gardner himself,

“…there exists a multitude of intelligences, quite independent of each other; that each intelligence has its own strengths and constraints; that the mind is far from unencumbered at birth; and that it is unexpectedly difficult to teach things that go against early 'naive' theories of that challenge the natural lines of force within an intelligence and its matching domains.” (Gardner 1993: xxiii)

Deep ecology for me just made very good sense.

Deep Ecology gives permission for a human to connect to nature on a multitude of levels, transcending a shallow, light green experience of life, to the dark green depths of existence created by deep inquiry, deep experience and deep questioning.

Many environmentalists would say the disconnect between the Self and the environment along with our lifestyle choices is directly relating to the global environmental crisis that is currently being experienced. For myself I was awakened to the system, I was given a total world view vision, I was a part of nature, not just physically but spiritually through the wisdom that was unlocked through the ideas bestowed by the wonders from Deep Ecology and its founder Arne Naess.

From that moment I became a new container in the world and I was half full. I needed more. That was the day I formed a friendship with Arne Naess and his Deep Ecological wonderings. Just like any good friendship there have been challenges and obstacles along our journey together, but that has made the friendship an adventure and a journey of growth.

From additional inquiry I have also discovered another of Naess’ terms, Ecosophy, “a philosophy of ecological harmony or equilibrium” that human beings can comprehend by expanding their narrow concept of self to embrace the entire planetary ecosystem. (Grimes 2009)

Arne Naess transitioned from this earthly realm in 2009 at the age of 96. I am writing this to capture the reasons and feelings that Naess allowed me to remember from within myself. Why?

Why do we get up in the morning?

I write this with hope and optimism that maybe somebody else will be ready to remember their own special wonderings about their own place in the universe and their place on this earth. Why?

Naess helped me to develop a will to live and to develop my own ecosophy. I write this that my experience and relationship with Arne Naess is captured for prosperity, for my own record and as a mark of respect for our friendship. Why?

I write this for the planet. I am increasingly taking notice of the patterns that are occurring in my life. One of these reoccurring patterns is the notion of new thinking; This calling for a new way of thinking to assist the quality of life for everything and for all from earth and beyond; New thinking that inspires creativity and love, instead of the thinking that has lead humanity down the path of destruction and fear.

Considering Arne Naess.

Naess, the philosopher, priest, mountaineer, researcher, environmentalist, elf and author.

During a lecture somewhere in Oslo, Naess stopped after an hour and picked a leaf from a potted plant. He then tells the audience, “You could spend a whole lifetime contemplating this”, “It is enough. Thank You”. (Naess, 1983)

This is the beauty in which lies the being of Naess. Sure enough there is the wise and classic professor, but then there is also the enlightened one, the mystic, the man who can see truth in a leaf. He is inspired by the simple and has a love of ‘small’.

In the text, ‘The Ecology of Wisdom’, a compilation of his works, it is documented that he describes himself using a classical Greek term, zetetic, ‘one who seeks truth and knowledge but does not claim it’. I like the use of this term, zetetic. The word really gives the sense of a constant humbleness. Humbleness amongst the profundity that Naess must have accumulated over the years researching and building on from some of the great minds of thinking in their own right such as Wittgenstein, Spinoza, Heidegger and Ghandi.

From his younger days, Naess describes that a pivotal ‘awakening’ moment in his life was when he saw ‘true nature’ during a moment at the seaside. There were flounders swimming around his feet and then-and-there he felt a shift, he felt a developed awareness of being part of a vast world of living beings.

In Naess’ book, ‘Life’s Philosophy: Reason and feeling in a deeper world’, that by the way topped his home country of Norway’s best seller list, in the foreword written by Bill McKibben, Naess is described with the following words and descriptors,

‘He is a troublemaker, but the kind of troublemaker everyone wants to have around - He challenges orthodoxies with an elfin irreverence.’
(Naess 2002, p.xxiv)

Another of the Deep Ecological books that Naess had written for is titled, ‘Thinking like a mountain.’ Much of Naess’ wisdom from life was obtained from time spent in his hut, Tvergastein. This activity in the mountains of Norway, living the free-air-life (friluftsliv) inspired Naess and inspired the deep ecology movement. Naess traverses the boundaries of Buddhist philosophy by stating how ‘Thinking like a mountain’, allows for one to immediately connect with the enormity and wonder of life, to connect to the forces that created such a magnanimous icon such as a mountain. An icon of nature that inspires one to embrace a vast breadth of perspective of life just like that experienced when peering to the world from a summit somewhere on top of the world.

This is just a glimpse, a snippet, and a blip of the man Arne Naess. He has inspired me greatly to take on my own philosophical journey and develop my own ecosophy. I am very grateful for his time on this planet. I am also sure the planet is grateful for his activism in protecting beautiful and vital parts of nature. Hopefully these few words will spark your own heuristic adventure of Self and the wonder that is happening now on this planet.

Think, feel, act. Simple in means, rich in ends.






References Used:

Gardner, Howard (1983; 1993) Frames of Mind: The theory of multiple intelligences, New York: Basic Books.

Grimes, William (2009), Arne Naess, Norwegian Philosopher, dies at 96, New York Times, Jan. 14
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/15/world/europe/15naess.html


Naess, A. 2002, Life’s philosophy: Reason and feeling in a deeper world, University of Georgia Press, Athens

Naess, A. 2008, Ecology of Wisdom, Counterpoint Press, Berkeley