The Asian Philosophy of Nature as a Lifestyle

As a student of Master Hsu, I’ve come to appreciate Asian philosophy more and more.  It has become part of my lifestyle.  It affects how I think, live, and feel.

In his teachings Dr. Hsu always tells me, “nature has all the answers.”  Well, okay, I understood the words, but it didn’t really mean much.  How does it relate to my problems?  my life? my family? I didn’t really get it.

Now, close to ten years have gone by.   I’m finally beginning to understand what he means.  Yes, you read that right, it’s ten years!  It’s rather embarrassing that it’s taken this long.  But, I now realize that to implement a philosophy into your lifestyle is really training your mind set.  It’s just like training to change your habits.  Or should I say, it’s training to create a new habit to incorporate into your daily life.  This doesn’t and can’t happen overnight.  It does take time, and you can’t rush time.  That reminds me of a story about a friend who came over and said, “why does your microwave take so long?”  I replied, “I don’t know, I thought a minute is a minute.”  Can’t rush time.

So, how does nature affect us.  Nature just is.  Let’s look at land formations.  Nature responds to conditions.  In Washington State, we just had a sad situation whereby many people lost their lives to a landslide.  These incidences happen because of the conditions to the land.  We carve the roads through the landscape and we build the homes where we desire.  Then the logging companies, remove the trees up the mountain.  The roots to hold the earth is now gone.  Rains continue and the soil becomes loose. That’s why we have landslides.  Nature doesn’t discriminate, just reacts.  We can’t blame her for what really started as a man made issue.

In our modern life, we’ve come to believe that laws are right.  But, I have forgotten that the laws of our government, that we must follow, are made by man.  Man is not perfect.  So, many laws are often made for the convenience of a just a few men.  I’m not here to criticize our government laws.  I want to just remind everyone that to really find inner peace, we have to look to nature.

Just as Dr. Hsu teaches, nature does have all the answers.  It doesn’t discriminate, it has no boundaries, it doesn’t give judgement, and it’s always there.  The more you respect and nurture the environment, the more it gives back.  When life gets tough, look to nature to find your answer.