Mysticism in American Literature: Thoreau's Quest and Whitman's Self

by Paul Hourihan, Anna Hourihan (Editor), V. K. Chari (Foreword by)

Overview

OPEN THE HEART OF SELF-DISCOVERY through the lives and profound works of Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman. This first of its kind overview celebrates the spiritual importance of these two influential American writers of the 19th century. Notable passages from Thoreau's Walden and Whitman's poem "Song of Myself" are explained from a mystical standpoint�the only way we can we truly understand their deeper message. When we share with these men of
letters their wisdom and strengths along with their faults, our own evolution advances. This book serves to open the heart of self-discovery for readers seeking their own self-understanding.

With a Ph.D. in American literature and a strong experiential background in the field of mysticism, Paul Hourihan is uniquely qualified to write this book. He was a serious student of the world's mystical traditions and committed to the spiritual path for over 45 years. For 15 years he taught dozens of courses and gave many lectures on the subjects of great mystics and mysticism in Ontario, Canada.

By combining his lifelong passion for literature and mysticism in this work, Dr. Hourihan, an award-winning author, gives us an insightful view of two of America's own literary mystics.

Recommended for religious collections by the Library Journal (May/04).

 

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781931816038
Publisher:	Vedantic Shores Press
Publication date:	03/28/2004
Pages:	144
Product dimensions:	5.40(w) x 8.40(h) x 0.50(d)
Age Range:	18 Years

About the Author

Paul Hourihan was born and educated in Boston where he earned a doctorate in American literature from Boston University. For 15 years he taught dozens of courses in southern Ontario, Canada on the subject of great mystics and in particular, literary mystics. He was a serious student of the world's mystical traditions and was committed to the spiritual path for 45 years.

By combining his lifelong passion for literature and mysticism in this award-winning work, he gives us a revealing and insightful view of two of America's own great spiritual writers whose influence is still felt today.

Read an Excerpt

                                                                                         "The Quest-Walden"

� Thoreau's favorite text was, along with the Bhagavad Gita, India's classic scripture the Upanishads. He said that after reading this text the Western outlook seemed merely practical by comparison, and even Shakespeare seemed youthfully green. These scriptures of India spoke to him at a deeper level than the great works of the West. So strong was his personal orientation toward the East that it was as though he had lived there in a previous lifetime and was now yearning for that spiritual homeland again ... finding himself out of place in the West, including nineteenth-century Concord which was as idyllic a spot as we of this century are likely to imagine, but to Thoreau it was already too westernized, outward-turned, egocentric, and loud.

In the "Spring" chapter of Walden there is a typical Thoreauvian sentence, packed with hidden meaning: "We loiter in winter while it is already spring." He is alluding to the rebirth of the year in his design of Walden, which is an emblem of the personal rebirth he is seeking. The year begins and ends with spring. The year is reborn, as Thoreau hopes to be, reminding his readers that men also have their spring. But we loiter in winter still�Thoreau making a commentary on his own life. We've got so used to our wintered selves, our state of ignorance, that when the chance for enlightenment comes we remain prisoners of what we were. The light of spring is there but it eludes us.

More than anything else, habit is the secret�taking the form of deliberate exercises. If we discover the habits that would save us�cultivating three or four�they would lead us on to perfection. We all know the power of habit�involuntarily cultivated�like the compulsion to postpone our destiny�loitering in winter when the spring has already come. We don't recognize it, as we await our transformation.

Meditation and other spiritual practices would help the mind get used to the possibility of a spiritual reality in our lives�the ideal of living intentionally, with design and deliberation, with existential passion. But without these practices we seem to perpetuate the habit of our old reduplicating selves, over and over again, year after year, lifetime after lifetime.

It is going to take some struggle to loosen the mould we are in�the phenomenon we call our personalities. Even if we are bright and educated, it is still a darkened mould of ignorance. Intellectuals, as well as rudimentary men, are alike, trapped in the condition of ignorance.Near the end of the last chapter Thoreau asks his readers to discover the true problems that have concerned mankind�not what is going on in other countries, but in your own. Those who are absorbed by the question of Africa or the Mississippi or the Northwest passage, attend to those things and it will be good for them. But those who have sighted the inner continent should turn to that with equal vigor. He writes about recognizing your own streams and oceans, exploring your own higher latitudes.

"Nay, be a Columbus to whole new continents and worlds within you, opening new channels, not of trade, but of thought"  �the thought not of the intellect, but of the deeply intuitive mind that has to be awakened as part of the life of discipline: the mind we know nothing of.All this is strange at first. We ask�within? We enter within and find only the body and its works, the heart and lungs and so on. So sensate-oriented are we that we can't really believe there is an infinite world within. We are identified with the body, or at best we think that the mind familiar to us in literary reflections is the real mind, when in fact this is but a surface area of consciousness that we call the mind. It is when the power of the mind is turned inward�not upon things but upon itself�that the light of intuition awakens. It is not things that will awaken us, but the mind turned upon itself. The mind's rays need to be systematically concentrated by some force�namely meditation�whereby the fire of the mind can contact the inner fire, and the two fires uniting will explode in mystical experience.

The fire of the soul, the fire of the mind, fused in a consummation that makes clear in a single moment all the meaning of life.

The mind has to absorb what it experiences�not only to know there is a transcendental reality but to assimilate it, which can only be done through the grace of spiritual life, month after month, year after year, decade after decade, so that the moral and ethical parts of the personality, as well as the spiritual, and the physical too�through yoga exercises, for instance�will form a unity and a harmony, and we won't crash an essentially weak mind into a transcendental realm it has not earned.

The mind has to be strengthened so that it can absorb the lightning flashes from the eternal world within, and this is the life of dedication, of disciplines, of mysticism�then when the great insight comes, the mind is strong enough to absorb it.

When Thoreau was asked why he left the woods, he replied: "I left the woods for as good a reason as I went there. Perhaps it seemed to me that I had several more lives to live, and could not spare any more time for that one."

Did he attain his goal at Walden? No, but he had found a way of life which supported him in the years to follow. He had gained self-knowledge, courage, conviction. As he put it:I learned this, at least, about my experiment: that if one advances confidently in the direction of his dreams, and endeavors to live the life which he has imagined, he will meet with a success unexpected in common hours.

This is what happened to Thoreau. As early as twenty he yearned to live in Walden and discover himself�discover a world he was not able to find at home. He goes on: "If a man does not keep pace with his companions, perhaps it is because he hears a different drummer. Let him step to the music which he hears, however measured or far away."

Table of Contents

Foreword                                            iii

Author's Note                                      v

Introduction                                         1

 I   Thoreau's Quest 
Henry David Thoreau                          7
The Quest - Walden                            37

II   Whitman's Self 
Walt Whitman                                     77
The Self in "Song of Myself"                96

Epilogue                                              125

Notes and References                          129

Index                                                   131

Editorial Reviews

Written by a teacher with a Ph.D. in English literature and 25 years experience in mystical instruction and studies, "Mysticism in American Literature: Thoreau's Quest And Whitman's Self" is an introspective study of the lives and well-known works of Henry David Thoreau and Walt Whitman from a mystical point of view. Exploring the spiritual struggles both men went through, in order to deepen the understanding and appreciation for their lives and works, "Mysticism in American Literature" is a sublime, literate, and thoughtfully reasoned study of enduring philosophical questions and ideals grounded both within and beyond the physical world.

Midwest Book Review

Hourihan, who died in 2001, wrote a number of scholarly articles on Thoreau and Emerson, but his real interest was mystical studies. Edited by his widow, Anna, this fourth entry in a series on Hourihan is based on his lectures on mystics and mysticism and does not quite fit the literary criticism genre. Its chapters read more like sermons, as the author is concerned only with highlighting the mystical elements in Thoreau's Walden and Whitman's "Song of Myself." Hourihan explains that both men experienced a great mystical revelation, showing how their major works reflected their religious insights. Ultimately, the two writers underwent declines in their later lives and writing, with Thoreau experiencing depression and Whitman failing to match the greatness of his first long poem. This book might have been welcome, as religious explications of these two authors are comparatively rare in book-length studies. Unfortunately, some readers will be turned off by Hourihan's single-minded emphasis on mystical insights as well as his repetitious prose style. Recommended only for specialized theological libraries and religious collections. Morris Hounion, New York City Coll. of Technology, CUNY Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.

Library Journal

Hourihan does us a great service by showing us the true religiousness of Whitman, set against the American Romanticism of Transcendentalism. Hourihan has an invaluable background in Indian spirituality which allows Whitman's mysticism to emerge, free as it is from what Whitman called 'ecclesiasticism.' ...
Any work on Thoreau and Whitman that explores their spirituality is welcome, but it is particularly so when it comes from an author with a doctorate in Western literature.

Network Review, Journal of the Scientific and Medical Network, Winter 2004 - Mike King

Can an artist be a mystic? And can a mystic be a partially-realized soul who stops on the road to realization?... Hourihan deals directly and fearlessly with this question. He concludes that "Thoreau gives us willpower, Whitman gives us humanity―-the ideal is to combine them!" It is a fitting conclusion for a reverent-―and yet fittingly at times irreverent―-appreciation of two classic American artists and mystics.

American Vedantist - Steven Walker

Written in true literary style, yet in layman's terms as readers will find many of Hourihan's works, the author delves into the personalities, lives and successes of these two great men. This reviewer found it a fascinating read, being a fan of both. Illuminating, informative and insightful, highly recommended.

AllBooks Reviews - Shirley Roe