The Wanderer's Way

16 December 2024

The Wanderer’s Way

1.  Plato has a number of descriptions of the philosopher’s character scattered through the dialogues.  Plato’s descriptions tend to depict philosophers as out of touch and more than a bit clumsy in the world.  Philosophers tend to wander through the world with their mind, their being, focused on the transcendent, or the transcendent-adjacent.  The result is a kind of inability to see the material world in front of them.  This isn’t difficult to understand.  For example, if you are focused on a song you have just heard and really, really like, and you are playing it over in your mind, maybe singing it as well, you may not hear someone speaking to you, or that your phone is ringing, or that there is a gentle knock at the door, or that it has started raining, and so forth.  There are many examples like this.  

I think the thing that distinguishes the philosopher in this regard is that as philosophical practice continues and deepens the focus on the transcendent tends to become dominant, or more dominant.  That’s because the Good and the One are inherently attractive.  

2.  There is a story that Plato tells about Thales; Thales was gazing at the stars and not noticing a ditch, Thales fell into it.  A servant girl saw this and laughed at Thales for being so inattentive to his own surroundings.

You could say that Thales was ‘lost in space.’  I think the story is an allegory for the transformation that occurs with contemplative awareness of the transcendental.  The stars are a symbol for the transcendent.  The ditch is a symbol for Plato’s cave, which itself is a symbol for being trapped in material reality.  

3.  There is the story found in the Symposium where Socrates falls into a trance on the way to the gathering.  Socrates is standing on the porch of some home in silence and stillness.  His companion, Aristodemus, is familiar with this behavior and leaves him there.  Aristodemus shows up at the party without Socrates, but they aren’t worried.  Eventually Socrates shows up after they send people to bring him back.

4.  A long time ago I needed to travel from Berkeley, California, to Providence, Rhode Island.  My funds were limited and at the time I did not have a car.  I spotted a message board (a physical message board which were common in Berkeley at the time; you found them at grocery stores, laundromats, and so forth) for a bus that travelled from coast to coast on an improvised schedule; when they had enough people sign up they would set out.  That was a long time ago, but I think the bus was called something like Green Tortoise, or maybe Green Turtle.  I contacted them and soon after they notified me they were ready to travel.

I boarded the bus at the designated location.  There were a lot of people and we introduced ourselves.  There were a pair of young women who seemed very engaging and I had a number of conversations with them.  They liked to sing songs and they had good voices.  One was a song they composed called ‘The Wanderer.’  It impressed me so much that I recall it to this day:

The Wanderer has no fixed abode,

The road, the road is her home.

The wanderer has no fixed abode,

The road, the road is her home.

Fire never lingers in one place

But moves on to new fuel,

Sometimes I wish my life was just a resting place

But I know that it’s a school, it’s a school now.

I think there were a few more verses but I only recall these two. The tune was in a minor mode and had a kind of jazz feel to it.

I learned from them that the lyrics of the song were based on passages in the I Ching.  Hexagram 56 in the I Ching is ‘The Wanderer’:

“A wanderer has no fixed abode; his home is the road.  Therefore he must take care to remain upright and steadfast, so that he sojourns only in the proper places, associating only with good people.  Then he has good fortune and can go his way unmolested.”

(The I Ching, translated by Wilhelm Baynes and Cary F. Baynes, Princeton University Press, 1950, page 217, ISBN: 069109750X)

This is very good advice for the philosopher.  The world is inherently unstable and there is no safe haven in the material realm.  Realizing this, the philosopher is not attached to place or location which is a prerequisite for the Wanderer’s Way.  The comment from the I Ching points out that another prerequisite is to be ‘upright’ and ‘steadfast.’  I understand ‘upright’ as meaning ethically reliable.  I understand ‘steadfast’ as meaning that the Wandering Philosopher follows the path to the transcendent step by step and does not abandon the journey.

The philosopher should sojourn only ‘in proper places.’  I understand this to mean that the philosopher needs to be careful not to fall into bad company that may distract the Philosopher from the path and the best way to do this is to associate ‘only with good people.’

If these principles are followed the Philosopher will have ‘good fortune’ in his wanderings.

5.  I often think of myself as a spiritual wanderer.  I came to that self-description because I have wandered from one spiritual tradition to another over the decades; these include a wide variety of Buddhist traditions, a stint among the Sufis, various Christian teachings from Orthodoxy to Quakerism, the I Ching itself, and so forth.  At times my inability to settle down in one tradition has been a source of anxiety and self-criticism as I have wondered if I am just a dilettante.  I have friends who have found a spiritual home and have stayed in that home for 40 years or more and the contrast with my own wanderings has made me uncomfortable at times.

On the other hand, this wandering through spiritual traditions has allowed me to make connections that I would not have been able to make otherwise.  For example, I frequently compare Platonism to Dharmic traditions and I am able to do this because of my studies in Indian spirituality (Buddhism and Jainism in particular.)  I feel secure in pointing out the Dharmic nature of Platonism because of my experience with Dharmic traditions.  And that is not the only example of how my wanderings have impacted my understanding of Platonism in ways that feel constructive to me.

6.  In addition, this wandering has kept my life lean in terms of possessions.  This has been a great benefit.  Someone like me can easily become a dedicated book collector with shelves and shelves of books and I think that tendency would have manifested if it were not for my wandering.  In a sense all a Platonist really needs are the Dialogues of Plato and the Enneads of Plotinus.  Other works like the Chaldean Oracles or the I Ching may offer helpful observations, but the two wings of Platonism (Plato and Plotinus) are sufficient for taking flight to eternity.

7.  The Platonist may or may not wander in a physical sense.  But as the cultivation of contemplation deepens the Platonist realizes he is just a visitor here in this realm of sorrow.  It is good to be able to wander away from it, to be free from it, and to grow in awareness of the Good, the One, and the Beautiful.

8.  “Strange lands and separation are the wanderer’s (and the philosopher’s) lot.”  (Ibid, I Ching, page 56)