Wild Mind, Wild Earth: Our Place in the Sixth Extinction

by David Hinton

Exploring the confluence of ancient Chinese spirituality and modern Western environmental thought, Wild Mind, Wild Earth reveals the unrecognized kinship of mind and nature that must be reanimated if we are to end our destruction of the planet.

Earth is embroiled in its sixth major extinction event—this time caused not by asteroids or volcanos, but by us. At bottom, preventing this sixth extinction is a spiritual/philosophical problem, for it is the assumptions defining us and our relation to earth that are driving the devastation. Those assumptions insist on a fundamental separation of human and earth that devalues earth and enables our exploitative relation to it.

In Wild Mind, Wild Earth, David Hinton explores modes of seeing and being that could save the planet by reestablishing a deep kinship between human and the insights of primal cultures and the Ch’an (Zen) Buddhism of ancient China. He also shows how these insights have become well-established in the West over the last two hundred years, through the work of poets and philosophers and scientists. This offers marvelous hope and beauty—but like so many of us, Hinton recognizes the sixth extinction is now an inexorable and perhaps unstoppable tragedy. And he reveals how those primal/Zen insights enable us to inhabit even the unfurling catastrophe as a profound kind of liberation. Wild Mind, Wild Earth is a remarkable and revitalizing journey.

Genres: Spirituality, Nature, Poetry, Nonfiction, Environment, Climate Change, Ecology

143 pages, Kindle Edition

Published November 8, 2022

About the author

David Hinton has published numerous books of poetry and essays, and many translations of ancient Chinese poetry and philosophy—all informed by an abiding interest in deep ecological thinking. This widely-acclaimed work has earned Hinton a Guggenheim Fellowship, numerous fellowships from NEA and NEH, and both of the major awards given for poetry translation in the United States: the Landon Translation Award (Academy of American Poets) and the PEN American Translation Award. Most recently, Hinton received a lifetime achievement award by the American Academy of Arts and Letters.

Reviews

[Dennis · Rating 3 out of 5]

Reading much of this book felt like browsing through my own bookshelves—Jeffers, Snyder, Thoreau, Leopold, Taoism, Deep Ecology. Fun, but I felt I was reading a lot that I already knew. The book would probably be appreciated more by people just becoming interested in the topics.

A later approach to viewing human-caused extinction as natural because it’s just people being people left me cold though. I get where the author’s going—detachment, acceptance, everything’s temporary, and so on—but that view makes it hard to accept all the judgmental “[sic]”s he inserts into old quotes because they’re not politically correct in some current opinions. Wouldn’t unintentional sexism be natural too, or are we supposed to believe it’s worse than extinction?

There are also a lot of “we” and “our” statements about supposedly ongoing transformation which are just opinions of a certain section of the choir. I think most people never even consider what he presents as truths, much less agree with him. He does often state that it may be too late to change the future, and on that point, I’ll agree.

Thanks to Shambhala Publications and NetGalley for the advance copy to review.

[Meg · Rating 2 out of 5]

Wow, was this disappointing. Especially for this avid appreciator of Hinton's translation work.

This is an argumentative piece, but poorly done: there's little here that's not bare assertion, with sparse detail to back it up. It's full of oversimplifications (an incredibly underdeveloped notion of how culture works and nature/culture collaboration) and fetishization (of Ch'an and Indigenous culture particularly; the latter is reduced to the past tense, the 'Paleolithic hunter-gatherer' with ostensibly unmediated access to wild earth; Hinton doesn't ever bother to talk about oral storytelling and its possible role in the values of many societies). One could take it all as a bit of polemic, just a manifesto, but Hinton unabashedly and repeatedly states that he has "shown" something to be true when he absolutely hasn't.

As an irksome example of how the lack of self-awareness undoes Hinton's own theses: Taoist-Ch'an practice is supposed to help us address sexism (a point Hinton states explicitly), but there's hardly a woman in sight in this piece. I count one mention of Rachel Carson—not even a full quote.

There's also an extreme over-reliance on Lynn White's famous essay about Christianity's contribution to the ecological crisis, that fails to engage with decades of discussion that have advanced upon it and gets some of that piece wrong itself. Hinton uses the phrase "Greek-Christian"; White actually distinguished between Greek and Eastern or Orthodox Christian practice and theology and its Latin or Western sibling. Nor does Hinton really address White's own skepticism about the potential of Zen. Writes White: "Zen, however, is as deeply conditioned by Asian history as Christianity is by the experience of the West, and I am dubious of its viability among us." White, in later pieces, suggested that what we need is “a viable equivalent to animism,” which is something different from the "empty mirroring" that Hinton centers here.

Another oversimplified argument is that about alphabetic vs. pictorial writing. If one wants to read a better and more interesting attempt at this, David Abram's The Spell of the Sensuous: Perception and Language in a More-Than-Human World is an option. There's plenty to critique in Abram's arguments as well, but he takes seriously strains of philosophy within European cultures that can contribute to ecological ethics and experience both, and he dives into the potential of animism that White suggests but which Hinton ignores.

I could go on, but you probably get the point.

[Grant Morgan · Rating 4 out of 5]

I liked the main thesis (basically the idea that can be stated in various ways: land is mind, no-self, interbeing, etc.) as essential in how we understand things as they are. However, it was repetitive, didn't develop some of the awesome ideas as much as it could have (e.g. the role of language in shaping the connections between land and mind, language as an expression of land, etc.) and there are definitely some assumptions to be challenged, perspectives to be troubled, language that could have been employed differently and missing pieces. I liked the discussion of Daoism, often not mentioned in these discussions.

Overall, a good introduction to these ideas, but if you're already down with the idea of "land is mind" or deconstruction the nature/culture binary, not the most in-depth book.

Nevertheless, I'd say still an important book with great writing, essential ideas, and well worth a read!

[Jonathan Pilgrim · Rating 5 out of 5]

Brilliant:

Discussing Robinson Jeffers’ description of the Cosmos as “one being”, a single living “organic whole” he notes that this is equivalent to Tao; and writes that: “… the whole purpose of Taoist and Ch’an (Zen) Buddhist spiritual practice in ancient China: to integrate consciousness with this Tao, this “one being” …”

Also: “… meditation … is essentially observational science turned inward.” And: “… meditation’s first revelation: that we are, as an observable fact, separate from our thoughts and memories.”

 “ … mind and Cosmos woven together in the most profound cosmological and ontological way, identity revealed in its most capacious and primal form as nothing less that the generative tissue itself. The gentle and nurturing “mother.””

“… Tao is reality in and of itself magisterial and awe inspiring: a generative cosmological process, an ontological pathWay by which the earth’a “ten thousand things” appear and disappear in an ongoing process of transformation: each emerging into existence, evolving through it’s life, and then going out of existence, only to be transformed and reemerge in a new form. And in this cosmology, humans are just one among these ten thousand things.”

[Cynthia · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful, lyrical, thoughtful. Hinton compares our present age of environmental destruction with the ancient Chinese Tao/Zen understanding of the human place in nature. I don't 100% agree with the attitude that humans are no more importance than any other of the 10,000 things in nature, but I take his point. He ends on a note that will not comfort everyone: the extinction of human being may be nature's way of restoring balance. (He doesn't say this explicitly, but is definitely implies. Recommended for lovers of nature, Chinese art, poetry, the world....

[Leanne · Rating 3 out of 5]

I am a huge fan of David Hinton. I keep them permanently out on my desk, and especially loved his recent 2020 book on Chan Buddhism, which I wrote a review of in the Asian Review of Books

As a great admirer, I was surprised at how uninteresting I found this one to be. It could be because I felt he was trying to persuade me, instead of illuminating an issue, he was trying to argue a case---and while I might buy what he is selling, I thought his arguments were sloppy at best. Basically in cherry-picking books and thinkers stretching back thousands of years and criss-crossing cultures to do so.

For people interested in thinking about the way our underlying understanding of being informs our practices with regard to the environment, I recommend All Art is Ecological, by Timothy Morton He goes about it in a far more rigorous way.

Also, as others have suggested, there is something off-putting about the way he concludes the book. Even if one agrees that humans are a blip and the earth will self-correct once we are gone, if it doesn't matter, why is he writing the book and can I have my money back?

But then again, I love his beautiful writing about poetry.

"Egrets Robes of snow, crests of snow, and beaks of azure jade, they fish in shadowy streams. Then startling away into flight, they leave emerald mountains for lit distances. Pear blossoms, a tree-full, tumble in the evening wind. What is the relation of egrets and pear blossoms? What is the logic of the poem’s leap from egrets rising to pear blossoms falling and scattering away? Isn’t it pure mystery, a particularly beautiful and resonant kind of mystery, as they echo each other: white egrets lifting away, their forms fluttering with wingbeats; white pear blossoms tumbling downward, their petals fluttering the same way? And what’s left afterward but the mysterious emerald mountains themselves: still distances, sage silence whispering in the wind. To see with the mirror-deep clarity of the Cosmos seeing itself—that is to inhabit in immediate experience our original unborn nature, to give ourselves to this wild mystery and wonder. There, we are ourselves indistinguishable from mountains and egrets and pear blossoms, are therefore also scattering away through the Great Transformation. In this, we know our unborn belonging”

[Gerald Bernstein · Rating 5 out of 5]

Not what I expected- but better!

To start, I practice meditation and attend programs with Buddhist Sanghas; this is by way of saying I have some familiarity with David Hinton’s cosmic perspective. As it is a minority viewpoint, no doubt other readers will find it more novel—and challenging!

What is this perspective? It’s an effort to broaden our thinking from a humankind- and even earth/eco-centrism to a broader universal/ cosmological/evolutionary view of humanity and our role here-in. He has no patience with “theistic” views of the human role in evolution, neither past nor future. We are not favored.

But I get ahead of myself in this summary as along the way he expands upon perspectives of other writers such as Aldo Leopold, Lynn White, Robinson Jeffers and Gary Snyder who have addressed the role of the human in evolution, as well as several references to Chinese Chan (Zen) writers (several of whom are addressed in more detail in the author’s other works). All this leading to a critique of contemporary thinking and its shortfall in not escaping the Greco-Christian (his term) roots of our civilization. This the author traces further back to a cultural shift from the paleolithic era to the early Neolithic communities when we lost the recognition that the “well being of the ecosystem is the primary value and bedrock assumption” (Chapter 8, page 69, Kindle edition). These are interesting theses and terminology—likely have some agreement and disagreement here!

His effort is to expand our perspective to understand human thought as just one manifestation of an “intelligence” that infuses all existence. (Chapter 4, page 27, Kindle edition). Indeed, “humankind belongs to the Cosmos conceived as a living and self-generating tissue” (Chapter 9, page 72, Kindle edition).

Is this worth the read? Absolutely!! Whether you agree or disagree with the author’s perspective, the arguments (supported-by or challenging a wide variety of sources) need to be read for their value provoking the reader’s own thinking. Can humanity survive the Sixth Extinction that is happening all around us? That’s not the point.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is a bit difficult to describe. Beginning with a tiny poem by Tu Mu called Egrets, written around 1000 CE, Hinton explores the nature of consciousness, across time as well as culture. (Ironically, I fail to respond to the poem the way that Hinton does, which makes some of the points Hinton makes feel curious.) The gist (apologies to the author!) of Hinton's thesis is that our analytical aspects have taken hold of our cultures and individual minds quite firmly, distancing us from the rest of nature in unfortunate ways.

The book is extremely well written. In trying to show us alternative ways to relate to the natural cosmos, Hinton makes extensive use of Chinese ideograms and concepts from Chan and Taoism, and contrasts these with the stances taken by Western poets such as Wordsworth and Jeffers.

The points he makes using Wordsworth were difficult for me to follow, but I have added Jeffers to my list of poets to read and learn from.

Given that the book is largely about our perceptual loss as individuals and as a culture as well as the harm we are imposing upon the earth, the book ends on a curiously optimistic note. The optimism makes perfect sense in the context in which it is presented, but feels distinctly foreign at the same time.

[Larry · Rating 3 out of 5]

After being completely entranced by Hinton's Existence: A Story, I was immensely eager to read this book. I was under the impression that the author would, like he did in Existence, use Chinese art and poetry as a starting point to consider a big issue of our times, in this case, the already-in-motion, human-caused environmental calamity. Such a book would be fascinating. Instead, this is more a homage to American writers like Robinson Jeffers and Thoreau, with some general mentions of Ch'an (Zen) thought tossed in. Instead of a deeply felt and original discussion of the culture, philosophy, and context of Du Mu's poem "Egrets", applied to contemporary environmental issues, it's almost as though he threw in that poem and left the reader to figure out its connection to the topic.

This isn't to discount the thought-provoking original arguments in this book. It's gorgeously written. It just isn't what I might have expected from this author.

[Heather · Rating 3 out of 5]

This small and more academically written book ties the concept of Eastern Culture into a way of looking at what it deems the inevitable coming Extinction Event. As someone from the US raised in Western Culture, this book helped to expand my knowledge and understanding of Eastern Culture in this specific context. It was an interesting read that at times could have been expressed in a less academic and easier to understand way for the general reader.

[Kaz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a game changing book for me, not so much about what it says, but how Hinton so gently and skillfully takes us step by step through the layers of misperception to another view of understanding our world and our place in it.
One of my favourite passages: "Ideas, those strange contraptions through which we define self-identity and orient ourselves in the world"
If you are a searcher, or trying to find the connection between ourselves and the natural world - like me, this is a must read.

[Amelia Maness-Gilliland · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is an eye opening discussion of the real consequences of humans impact on this earth and the ecological crisis we face.
The benefits of Chan practice are focused on as a way of addressing the crisis. This is one I recommend for everyone. If humans can return to a deep kinship with the natural world, a relationship our ancestors had, we can make a difference and save our planet.

[Ryan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Thank you David! Your book provokes important thinking and hopefully conversations. It's clear humanity can not go on as we currently are. The path forward that you suggest is beautiful to my mind. It is a path that is of course also beautiful to all the other life forms we share our planet with. :)

[Craig Adams · Rating 5 out of 5]

A thought-provoking book that elevates Chan Buddhist philosophy and over Western man-centric thought as a way of addressing our current environmental situation. Book makes the case to return your wild mind to the wild earth to halt our environmental crisis. A great read.

[Andrew Peacock · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not a bad work, but did not provide a new perspective to the environmental problem that hasn’t already been posited elsewhere. It felt like a rehashing of various perspectives about our spiritual connection with the planet, and how we might gain that connection again.

[Greg · Rating 3 out of 5]

Wonderful concepts and philosophy, but somewhat repetitive

[Zoe Horlacher · Rating 5 out of 5]

Wonderful message. However I often found the poetic writing difficult to follow

[Owen Summerscales · Rating 5 out of 5]

A beautiful and important book about the ecological future of planet earth, written from the perspective of ancient Asian wisdom, namely the eco-centric Daoist-Chan tradition.

[Michael Mallett · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely puts the benefits of Chan practice at the forefront of the human ecological crisis as a remedy, a radical rewiring of our consciousness.

[Cody]

On my second reading of Hinton's work, I'm struck by the resonance with David Abram's ideas about what humanity has lost and how language fundamentally relates to this disconnect. However, Hinton is more insistent that we cannot return to past modes of being, as we are "irremediably post-Neolithic." This explains why the second half of the book emphasizes Ch'an Buddhism as our most viable model in the present moment, given that it first flourished within a socio-political landscape not unlike our own by offering ways of rediscovering our true nature: wholly a part of the "generative tissue" of existence.

*Wild Mind, Wild Earth* is a disarmingly honest assessment of how much—or how little—can be altered at this point. Hinton bravely acknowledges that the current extinction is no different from previous mass die offs: something entirely natural. And he suggests there's value in viewing these "extinction events as the Cosmos sees them, with that same indifference," noting that "each mass-extinction leads to a more complex and remarkable array of diversity because it begins with a more complex array." Yet, Hinton leaves us with our own strange but rich paradox: for while "the Cosmos is perfectly indifferent...through us it loves the ten thousand things of this world."

And so the question seems to me: can we recommit to living fully, loving this world just as it is in this very moment?