The Beauty Within is All We'll Ever Need - This is not a chapter, it is an essay, ok. by Erin Kuhn

In life struggle comes with hope, good deeds with sin, and unanswered questions with solutions. Man has throughout history had a desire, a need, to answer these questions and at times let the unknown drive him to insanity. On the contrary, a Taoist belief is to "accomplish everything by doing nothing." Thus in order to truly find the knowledge one seeks in the world, he must let everything go and find the beauty in the simplicity of life, the world, and himself. One must start off as a child, become lost in his world, and emerge as a child again.

Everyone was taught "the golden rule" in kindergarten. When someone went against this rule, they would be sent to time out, ordered to clean up blocks, and etc. This, in theory, is exactly how the world should work then, right? However, one reaches a certain age where "the golden rule" is nothing more than an ignorant little saying that we're so used to hearing. One learns that he is surrounded by all sorts of corruption, hate, and sorrow that comes and goes as it pleases, with no promise of punishment. In the non-fiction story Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer, Emory University graduate Christopher McCandless finds out that he is in fact a bastard child. Chris from then on felt that his whole life was a mistake, a lie. That his parents have showered him with things that society claims should make him happy, such as a new car, but never gave him he truth. This creates Chris to question not only all of society, but all of life: "Rather than love, than money, than faith, than fame, than fairness... give me truth." Chris is indeed being tormented with these questions of life and meaning, and getting no answers. Hermann Hesse also portrays this idea in Siddhartha:

"He saw merchants doing business, princes leaving for the hunt, mourners lamenting their dead, whores offering their services, doctors busy with patients, priests determining the proper day to begin sowing, lovers in love, mothers nursing their children- and none of it was worth the trouble of a glance, it was all a lie, it all stank, it all stank of lies, it all gave the illusion of meaning and happiness and beauty, and it was all unacknowledged decay. The world had a bitter taste. Life was torment."

Siddhartha, like Chris, believed that this society based happiness was all a lie. He felt no happiness, no answers from any of these things. His religion and teachers gave him no peace of mind, no real guide to happiness. He felt they were all living a lie, all from a religious book they didn't even know the truth of. This idea is also seen in Directive by Robert Frost: "The road there, if you'll let a guide direct you/ Who only has at heart your getting lost." The author emphasizes the idea that one man's peace of mind, is not another's. One cannot gain true wisdom, he has to experience and teach himself. Causing one to feel completely lost and trapped in this web of lies.

So, how does one experience this wisdom? There has always been something about nature that people take comfort in. It has always held that innocent charm, that pure comfort from being the only place a human can take refuge in that hasn't been touched by the hand of corruption by man. So it only makes sense that when one finds himself twisted and deformed in the mess that we call society, he will turn to nature to seek pureness of spirit and mind from this false being that society has created. This idea is seen throughout Into the Wild. Chris sheds himself of his society given name and replaces it with his new one, Alexander Supertramp. He gives all of his money away to charity and burns the rest. Packs up a few possessions, and heads to Alaska:

"'Two years he walks the earth. No phone, no pool, no pets, no cigarettes. Ultimate freedom. An extremist. An aesthetic voyager whose home is the road. Escaped from Atlanta. Thou shalt not return, 'cause "the West is the best." And now after two rambling years comes the final and greatest adventure. The climactic battle to kill the false being within and victoriously conclude the spiritual pilgrimage. Ten days and nights of freight trains and hitchhiking bring him to the Great White North. No longer to be poisoned by civilization he flees, and walks alone upon the land to become lost in the wild.'
— Alexander Supertramp
May 1992"

Chris rides himself totally from society, everything he was raised and used to, to live in the wild in order to truly rid himself of this "false being." In Siddhartha, this idea is also portrayed. Siddhartha becomes angry with living as a samara and then as a rich man, and decides to go live with the ferryman on the river. It is here that the river speaks to him and answers his questions and it is here that Siddhartha learns much about life. In Directive, Robert Frost shows this same belief: "And if you're lost enough to find yourself/ By now, pull in your ladder road behind you/ And put a sign up CLOSED to all but me." Meaning that only by getting lost of everything you were taught, or society, can you truly find yourself. This idea is also portrayed in the song At the Bottom of Everything by Bright Eyes. The song is about a business man and a girl sitting next to each other on a plane. The plane's engine fails, and they realize they're going to die. This creates them to realize the stupidity in the lives they once lived, in the society they grew up in: "We must blend into the choir, sing as static as a whole, we must memorize nine numbers and deny we have a soul, And in this endless race for property and privilege to be won, We must run, We must run, We must run." This whole idea of corruptness of society is shown with people doing things that go against what they believe in and people changing who they are to fit in to become more successful and etc. "Selling their soul" so to speak. In affect, this idea is portrayed once again that "we must run" from this society created world in order to find ourselves.

After we have ran away from this false being, we return to childhood. In Siddhartha, the ferryman tells Siddhartha to really sit and listen to the river. This time, when he listens to it, he hears multiple voices.

"By this time he could no longer distinguish the many children's voices from the grown men's; they all belonged together, the lament of longing and the knowing man's laughter, the cry of anger and the moans of the dying; it was all one, it was all interwoven and knotted together, interconnected in a thousand ways. And all of this together, all the voices, all the goals, all the longing, all the suffering, all the pleasure, all the good and evil, all of this together was the world. All of this together was the river of events, the music of life. And whenever Siddhartha listened attentively to that river, that song of a thousand voices, when he listened to neither sorrow not the laughter, when he tied his soul not to any individual voice, entering into it with his self, but instead heard all, perceiving the totality, the oneness, then the great song of a thousand voices consisted of a single word, which as om, the absolute."

He then understood that in order to truly lead a happy life, he must accept the good and the bad. In the story Into the Wild, Chris also realizes this, causing him to decide to return home for "happiness is only real when shared." They both realized that society may be corrupt, but love and happiness are not. You must simply live with the corruptness of society, only to see the true beauty in it, happiness, love, and etc. A complete stranger helping a lost child to a greedy business man, their all the same, all a part of this song we call life. And the song at that, is a simple one, it all depends on how you want to look at the world. A person can look at it through the simplistic view of a child, or let the evil in life ruin their quest to find the beauty within themselves and within their world. When one truly loves the world, it loves him right back. He will now look at the trees all around him and the sun up above him with love, and feel the love within them. As stated by Bright Eyes: "And then we'll get down there/ way down to the very bottom of everything/ and then we'll see it, oh we'll see it, we'll see it, we'll see it./ Oh my morning's coming back/ The whole world's waking up/ Oh the city bus is swimming past./ I'm happy just because/ I found out I am really no one." Way at the bottom of everything, past the corruption, lies, and deceit, lies happiness, truth, and peace of mind. Being perfectly content with being "no one." For when one finds himself, he knows who he is, and knows that being "no one" is just equivalent to being anyone, important or not, which is indeed the beauty of living. Creating this peace of mind one searches for, all from this simple loving view of a child. In which every little blade of grass has a story to be told, one that only a child's mind will take the time to truly listen to, and love with all his heart.


In the need for finding one's self, many search and search only to find more confusion and lies. For finding the beauty in the world is not a destination, but a journey. One must break away from everything they know, society, and their common way of thinking in order to truly reach his true self. This being of course the simple childlike love for the world within all of us that is just waiting to be let out to explore the beauty of it's existence in this place we call home. To find happiness and beauty in everything from the corrupt business man your mom calls a sleaze, to the single blade of grass outside your kitchen window blowing in the breeze. It's all apart of this simple life we lead, and happiness and beauty are surly all that the we will ever need.