PROFOUND SIMPLICITY1

My personal experiences and reflections, and excursions into thephilosophical ideas of others, has led me to think... to feel... to know... that itis necessary to provide children with experiences of interaction with thenatural world. I say it is necessary, not just desirable, because children needexperiences that will prevent the problems of nature-deficit disorder asoutlined by Richard Louv (2008), and also because experiences with naturecontribute to the evolutionary unfolding of heartfelt awareness of the human-earth interdependency. Experiences with nature can help children discovertheir personal destiny and their role in the destiny of the human race, and of theearth and cosmos.

My search for deeper understanding of this thesis may be a goodexample of what Will Schutz described as humankind’s development ofwisdom. In his book, Profound Simplicity, Schutz summarizes our search forwisdom as a three step process, “simplistic, complex, and profoundly simple”(1979, p. 69). He suggests that human wisdom and understanding begins withsimple awareness of ideas — proceeds through reflections and exploration ofrelated ideas in attempt to make rational sense of the original ideas — and thenfinally arrives at the realization of the “profound simplicity” of the underlyingwisdom of the original ideas.

At the simple stage, ideas arise from awareness — they result fromthings we see, hear, or experience. This can be understood as knowledge thatis grounded in our senses. The stage of complexity often follows, as we seekempirical and consensual validation of the simple ideas. This is knowledge thatis grounded in our brain. At the third stage, which may or may not followfrom the stage of complexity, we come to understand the “profoundsimplicity” of basic ideas. This is knowledge/wisdom that is grounded in ourheart.

1 - 2007 - I participated in a workshop facilitated by Will Schutz about 40 years agoat a regional conference of the Association for Humanistic Psychology. I was familiar with him because of his book Joy: Expanding Human Awareness, published in 1967, which overviewed activities and interactional games. In the workshop, he handed out a paper, which was to become his book Profound Simplicity, published in 1979. I recently returned to the wisdom of Will Schutz to write this paper.

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Schutz sees this wisdom search as linear, but I don’t think theprogression is necessarily a smooth step by step flow. Although one canstruggle at the complexity stage of wisdom seeking for a long time, and oneday wake up to know the “profound simplicity” of basic ideas, that does notalways happen. There are times when one cannot get beyond the complexitystage, as the attempt to analyze, synthesize, and reflect on all the knowledgeand opinions that supports the basic idea becomes too confusing. Of course,when the limits of our rationality seem to close in, one can always take aKierkegaardian “blind leap” out of the complexity stage to find the “profoundsimplicity” of an idea.

There may be relevance in holistic philosophy. Holos is a Greek wordmeaning total, entire, all. Aristotle used the word to summarize his argumentthat “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” The term holism wascoined by South African philosopher Jan Christiaan Smuts, early in the 20th

century, to consolidate the post-Darwinian scientific and philosophical systemsthat were replacing the more mechanistic worldview of earlier philosophersand scientists (Smuts, 1926). Holism is a philosophical idea that rests on theassumption that any given system, especially life systems, cannot be fullyunderstood by a reductionistic study of the component parts. This is especiallytrue of living organisms. When scientists dissect a frog, trying to break downcomplex phenomena into simplistic explanations, the essence of the whole frogis lost. Holistic, humanistic and existential psychologists argue that bydissecting the human being into observable biological and physiological parts,psychology loses the essence of the whole person. Perhaps, the complexitystage of the wisdom search, where we are sifting through all the different ideasand opinions that lend rational support to basic ideas, is like dissecting thatfrog — it misses the essence, the “profound simplicity” of the basic idea.

Another reason that the wisdom-seeking process is not a smoothjourney is the fact that some ideas speak to us with “profound simplicity” fromthe moment we become aware of them. Two years ago, I read a short Sundaynews magazine story titled, “Mother Nature Knows Best” (Louv, Mitchell &Erickson, 2007, pp. 8-10). The article summarized a discussion betweenRichard Louv, author, Tedd Mitchell, M.D., and Martha Erickson, Ph.D.,about Louv’s suggestion that children need experiences with the outdoors. Thetarget audience for the story was the parents and teachers of young children,and the authors were encouraging them to take their children to nature toensure healthy development. Dr. Mitchell offered a recommendation: “If youcan’t go to a pond or lake, then find a puddle.” Now that’s profound simplicity!

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My intention in this paper is to share a few lessons that I have learnedfrom interaction with the natural world. I will support these lessons withquotations and stories that speak to me with “profound simplicity.” These arelessons that have registered in both my head and my heart and have becomeguideposts for my life. I share them to reinforce my argument that experienceswith nature are important for children, because they provide opportunities forlearning lessons that are quite similar to those I have learned.

LESSON ONE: THE WEB OF LIFE

I have learned to recognize that everything is connected to everythingelse. The earth is an amazing bundle of biodiversity — everything from treesto peas, bacteria to wisteria, turnips to tulips, creatures of the sea and creaturesof the land, and complex ecosystems. Life involves a continual interaction andinterdependency of all things. To fully understand any one part of this system,including human beings, one must be aware of this complex web of life, andof the reality that each of us is a part of that web. Experiences with theenvironment can enhance this awareness.

A human being is a part of the whole, called by us the universe; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, histhoughts and feelings, as something that is separate from the rest — a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personaldesires and to affection for only a few persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living creatures and

the whole of nature in its beauty. (Albert Einstein, 1954)

Nothing is simple and alone. We are not separate and alone. The breathing mountains, the living stones, each blade of grass, the clouds, the rain, each star, the beasts, the birds, and the invisible spirits of the air — we are all one, indivisible. Nothing that any of us does does not affect us all. (Frank Waters, 1989)

Each part is dependent upon another, all are related to the movement of the whole. Forests, grasslands, soils, water, animal life, without one of these the Earth will die, will become as dead as the moon. This is provable beyond question.

(Fairfield Osborn, 1970)

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The Little Wave: Author Mitch Albom (1997) tells this story that wastold to him by his teacher and friend, Morrie Swartz. Morrie was dying, andbecause he had been an influential teacher, Mitch visited him periodically.Even as he was passing on, the old man continued to be a teacher. “I heard anice little story the other day,” Morrie says. “The story is about a little wave,bobbing along in the ocean and having a good time. He’s enjoying the windand the fresh air — until he notices the other waves in front of him, crashingagainst the shore.”

“My God, this is terrible,” the little wave says, “Look what’s going tohappen to me!” Then along comes another wave. It sees the first wave lookinggrim, and says to him, “Why do you look so sad?” The little wave says, “youdon’t understand! We’re all going to crash! All of us waves are going to benothing! Isn’t it terrible?” The second wave says, “No, you don’t understand! You’re not a wave, you’re part of the ocean.”

“Part of the ocean,” Morrie says, “part of the ocean.”

Morrie’s conclusion is a good example of the wisdom of profoundsimplicity.

LESSON TWO: SIMPLE EXPERIENCES, PROFOUND LEARNING

I have learned that sometimes a simple experience can have animmediate impact on one’s values and beliefs. Sometimes one has an almostmystical experience that seems to transcend reality — what have been called“ah-ha” moments, where a basic personal or universal truth bursts intoawareness. Interaction with nature often gives rise to these moments.

Near the end of a long day of paddling, the sun was low in the skyand my mind had long ceased its normal chatter. I had the sensationof becoming my paddling and all that was around me. Stroke afterstroke. I was called to merge my experience until ‘I’ was no more.Only perception existed, a perception that was more complete, more whole than I have known in a usual state of consciousness. (Steven Harper, 1995)

In the book A re-enchanted world: The quest for a new kinship withnature (2009), J. W. Gibson quotes astronaught Edward Mitchell. Mitchellwas stunned by the sight of the Earthrise as he stood on the moon, and his

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awareness seems to exemplify the “ah-ha” wisdom of profound simplicity.

There was suddenly a very deep gut feeling that something wasdifferent, a nonrational way of understanding. I suddenlyexperienced the universe as intelligent, loving, harmonious.

LESSON THREE: PARTNERSHIP WITH TREES

I am a tree-hugger, a tree-climber, and an experiential educator. I wasexcited in 1993 when the Association for Experiential Education’s annualconference had the theme of “partnership,” and I presented a workshop onhumankind’s special partnership with trees. I facilitated activities with trees,and I had the opportunity to tell about my personal relationship with trees. Itold about climbing into a tree when I was six years old, to be comforted whendealing with sorrow about my mother leaving me with an aunt and uncle. Theworld always looked better from up in that tree, the branches taking the placeof my mother’s arms and giving me strength.

The workshop also gave me the opportunity to talk about the lovingrelationship I had with an old hard rock Maple on my farm, in which I hadbuilt a wonderful year ‘round treehouse. I told about the “ah-ha” moment whenI first encountered that tree on an Autumn hike, and we both had the samethought, “treehouse!” It was a moment of mutual awareness that exemplifiesprofound awareness.

Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, ‘this is an oak tree,’ or ‘that is a banyan tree,’ the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand onit and the word will not help you to touch it. (Krischnamurti, 1969)

The tree had a firm grip on the earth and he longed to share its feeling of committal to this place. It had a comforting air ofpermanence, so different from the camp and the life he knew. Yes, it would be his fine-day tree, when he didn’t want to swim or go walking. He would sit here and think and dream, and perhaps some of the tree’s vitality would come through to him, he would begin to share its feeling that this was his place too, he would learn how to beat that sudden strange urge to hide, and that would help him through the rough places. (Noel Hillard, 1965)

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LESSON FOUR: SOLO, SILENCE, AND SOLITUDE

A few years ago I co-edited the book Exploring the Power of Solo,Silence, and Solitude with my good friend Clifford Knapp (Knapp & Smith,2005). One of the lessons learned from that project was that wildernessexperiences can sometimes result in a higher consciousness, an experience ofwholeness and oneness with all things.

There are degrees and kinds of solitude. An island in a lake has one kind, but lakes have boats, and there is always the chance thatone might land to pay you a visit. A peak in the clouds has anotherkind, but most peaks have trails, and trails have tourists. I know of no solitude so secure as one guarded by a spring flood, nor do the geese, who have seen more kinds and degrees of aloneness than I have. (Aldo Leopold, 1949)

Time and nature, as experienced alone in the wilderness, are likehuge hands massaging the soul and the mind, altering perception like a good massage therapist alters the conditions of muscles.

(Burke Miller, 2005)

Solitude is a silent storm that breaks down all our dead branches. Yet it sends out living roots deeper into the living heart of the living earth. (Kahlil Gibran, 1927, 8 verse)th

LESSON FIVE: WILDERNESS BEYOND...WILDERNESS WITHIN...

I first learned an important lesson, about the circle of life whichconnects all that is outside ourselves and all that is inside ourselves, when Istudied with Native American elders in the early 1960s, and learned about thewisdom of the medicine wheel cosmology. That lesson led me to a lifetimemantra, “There is a wilderness beyond... and there is a wilderness within.” Isoon had it printed on my personal business cards, it was the title of some ofmy papers and workshops, and it became the title of my first book (Smith,1980).

Life is about balancing the search for wisdom between outsideexperiences and internal reflections. We go outside to nature experiences inorder to go inside to personal awareness. As my journey has continued, I findit more and more difficult to know the difference between the outside and the

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inside. Through time, the inside has become the outside, and the outside hasbecome the inside, and I have come to appreciate the circle of life.

An individual’s harmony with his or her ‘own deep self’ requires not merely a journey to the interior, but a harmonizing with theenvironmental world. The deepest self cannot be confined to ‘in here’ because we can’t be sure it is not also, or even entirely, ‘out there.’. (James Hillman, 1995)

What we know of ourselves ‘inside’ is ultimately what we will allow ourselves to know of nature ‘outside,’ for nature is also in us.

(Theodore Rozak, quoted in Knapp, 1988,)

SUMMARY:

Perhaps this essay about finding the profound simplicity of basic ideasshould end with a thought from Carlos Casteneda. This thought help me fromgetting bogged down in the complexity of the rational search for understandingbasic ideas. Casteneda’s sorcerer, Don Juan, warned him of the shortcomingsof such endeavors. “You want to explain everything, as if the world wascomposed of things that can be explained” (Casteneda, 1973).

I share these stories and quotations to affirm the readers’ wisdom aboutthe value of nature experiences, and perhaps encourage them to move beyondrationality and know the wisdom of those ideas at the level of profoundsimplicity. This is important because what one knows at the level of profoundsimplicity effects their whole being, and will then be reflected in their valuesand behaviors. Certainly, words and thoughts do sometimes speak with awisdom which can be called “profound simplicity.” Let me give a finalexample.

Every child should have mud pies, grasshoppers, waterbugs,tadpoles, frogs and turtles, elderberries, acorns, wild strawberries,chestnuts, trees to climb, brooks to wade in, water lilies,woodchucks, bats, bees, butterflies, various animals to pet,

hayfields, pine cones, sand, snakes, hornets and huckleberries, and any child who has been deprived of these has been deprived of the best part of his education. (Luther Burbank, 1907)

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References

Albom, M. (1997). Tuesdays with Morrie: An old man, a young man, andlife’s greatest lesson. New York: Random House.

Burbank, L. (1907). “Character.” Chapter X in The Training of the HumanPlant. New York: The Century Company.

Castenada, C. (1979). The teachings of Don Juan: A Yaqui way ofknowledge. New York: Ballantine books.

Dillard, A. (1975). Tinker at Pilgrim Creek. New York: Bantam Books.

Einstein, A. (1954). Ideas and opinions. New York: Bonanza Books

Gibson, J. W. (2009). A re-enchanted world: The quest for a new kinshipwith nature. New York: Henry Holt and Company.

Gibran, K. (1926). Sand and foam. New York: William Heinemann.

Harper, S. (1995). “The Way of the Wilderness.” In Roszak, Gomes, &Kanner (Eds.). Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing theMind. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club.

Hilliard, N. (1965). Power of joy. London: Michael Joseph, Ltd.

Hillman, J. (1995). “A Psyche the Size of the Earth.” In Roszak, Gomes, and Kanner (Eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco, CA: Sierra Club.

Keen, S. (1983) The passionate life: Stages of living. New York: Harper.

Knapp, C. (1988). Creating humane climates outdoors: A people skillsprimer. Charleston, WV: Eric Clearinghouse on Rural Education andSmall Schools.

Knapp, C. & Smith, T. (2005). Exploring the power of solo, silence andsolitude. Boulder, CO: Association for Experiential Education.

Krischnamurti, J. (1969). Freedom from the known. New York: Dell/Delta.

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Leopold, A. (1966) A Sand County almanac. New York: Sierra Books.

Louv, R., Mitchell, T. & Erickson, M. (2007). “Mother Nature KnowsBest.” USA Weekend, November 16-18.

Louv, R. (2008). Last child in the woods: Saving our children from nature-deficit disorder. Chapel Hill, NC: Algonquin Books; Updated andexpanded edition.

Miller, B. (2005). Leadership in the Wilderness. In C. Knapp and T. Smith(Eds.), Exploring the Power of Solo, Silence and Solitude. Boulder,CO: Association for Experiential Education.

Muir, J. (1988). My first summer in the Sierra. Sierra Club Books, 1988.

Olson, S. (1976). Reflections form the North Country. New York: A.A. Knopf.

Osborn, F. (1970). Our plundered planet, 2 printing. New York: Pyramid.nd

Rozak, T,. Gomes, M. & Kanner, A. (Eds.). (1995) Ecopsychology:Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. San Francisco, CA: SierraClub.

Schutz, W. (1979). Profound simplicity. New York: Joy Press

Smith, T. (2000). Wilderness beyond... Wilderness within... (3 Edition).rd

Cazenovia, WI: Raccoon Institute.

Smuts, J. C. (1926). Holism and evolution. Reprinted 1995, Gouldsboro,MA: Gestalt Journal Press.

Thompson, D. (1979). Into the shining mountains. New York, NY: A. A.Knopf

Thoreau, H. (1836). Atlantic Magazine. Reprinted in Nature Walking,1991, Beacon Press.

Waters, F. (1942). The man who killed the deer. Reprinted 1989, Athens,OH: Swallow Press/Ohio University Press.

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THE PROFOUND SIMPLICITY OF AN EXPERIENCE FOR AN INITIATIVE PROBLEM FOR A GROUP OF ADOLESCENTS, WHICH HAPPENS AFTER THE INSTRUCTION, “EVERYBODY UP IN THE TREE.”

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THE BACKPACKER’S THINKING BOOK1

I have been a psychologist and facilitator of personal growth groups forover 50 years. My professional training was as a clinical psychologist and after study with Carl Rogers I became involved in the exciting human potentialmovement of the 1960s. I have worked with groups in mental health centers,residential and public schools, colleges, and in my private practice. I beganfacilitating personal growth group journeys to the wilderness in 1960, and haveguided over 100 groups on expeditions of camping, climbing, caving, andcanoeing.

After study with Native American Elders, and the recognition of thecircle of connectedness of all things, I came to understand the parallel betweenthe journey to “the wilderness within” and “the wilderness beyond.” We go“out there” to the exciting and joyful world of experiences of interaction withothers and with all things of the world, in order to go “in there” to reflection,awareness, and wisdom about the meaning and purpose of our own existence.I have come to realize that experience, and reflection on experience, is thebasic ingredient of personal growth and learning.

Native wisdom also introduced me to the value of words as stimulantsfor reflective thought. In the tradition of oral teaching, I enjoyed the wisdomof “teaching stories” and I listened to the life stories of elders. I discovered thatreflective thought about my experiences with words may not involve “activelearning” — but they offer a significant opportunity for sorting out personalvalues and choices in life. Reading or listening to stories, reflecting on them,and sharing their meanings with others is certainly experiential learning.

This book is a collection of words — stories, memories, excerptedpassages from favorite books, and quotations. Some of the stories are takenverbatim from other sources which are references, but sometimes I have retoldthe story in my own words. The collection is not intended to be a referencebook to the historical authenticity and accuracy of the stories — I am moreconcerned with providing a collection of thoughts that stimulate the readers’

1 - 2008 - This is the introduction to my little collection of stories, memories, and quotations to stimulate reflective thought, The Backpacker’s Thinking Book. The excerpts provided here explain my purposes in compiling the collection.

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reflective processes, or that might be used by teachers and small groupfacilitators to stimulate the reflective thoughts of their students. I wouldencourage teachers and group leaders to do as I have done and adapt, modify,embellish, and retell these stories to the needs and interests of those they workwith.

When I travel with a backpack, I always take along something to read.I often wonder about that habit, for there is certainly much to “read” out therein the wilderness. Some would argue that the “food for thought” on anadventure should be the journey itself — the winds, the sunshine, the flowers,the storm clouds, the trees, the sunsets and sunrises, and the bugs. But I liketo add the thoughts of others to my reflective processes. My habit wasreinforced in 1983, when a college professor from the East told me that hereally enjoyed my little spiral-bound book Wilderness Beyond... WildernessWithin, which had been published three years earlier. He told me, “I call it my‘backpacking book’ because it is small and carries easily.” He continued, “Icarry it where ever I go, and when I have a break I flip it open to stimulatesome new thinking.”

Through the years, and four editions of that book, it has grown thickerand heavier — it is no longer a good choice for the backpack. So, I haveprepared this collection. Enjoy!

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