Dickinson’s No-body, No-mind, and Non-action

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ANQ: A Quarterly Journal of Short Articles, Notes, and Reviews,Vol. 28, No. 2, 110–117, 2015

Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLCISSN: 0895-769X print / 1940-3364 onlineDOI: 10.1080/0895769X.2015.1060114

YANBIN KANG

Guilin University of Electronic Technology

Dickinson’s No-body, No-mind, and Non-action

Although no evidence indicates that she had a significant knowledge of Daoism and ChanBuddhism, Emily Dickinson’s ideas, motifs, and mindset seem strikingly analogous to Chinesephilosophies.1 Chan Buddhism, which originated in sixth-century China, promoted a disciplinedprocess meant to rediscover the Buddha nature and achieve inner freedom. Hui Neng (638–713), thesixth and final Chan patriarch, laments the human tendency to become “infatuated by sense-objects”and to “act voluntarily as slaves to their own desires” (129); he advocates a life lived free of obstaclesand in an anxiety-free state, employing such terms of negation as “Idea-lessness,” “Non-objectivity,”and “Non-attachment” (83). This ideal of self-negation is also found at the core of Daoism, a tra-dition that served as a major influence on Chan Buddhism. As a case in point, Laozi emphasizesthe need to develop a stance of disinterested passivity toward the world and to establish as the goalsof self-dispossession both a refusal to contend against others and a refusal to act self-servingly. Forboth Daoism and Chan Buddhism, as Alan Watts states, “the very life of the universe” is “completeat every moment and does not need to justify itself by aiming at something beyond” (146).

Recently, scholars, such as Christopher Benfey, Hiroko Uno, Adam Katz, Tom Patterson, andmyself have approached Dickinson’s Eastern spirit. One thing that has not been emphasized enoughis how much this perspective can contribute to our understanding of Dickinson, which as MargaretFreeman argues, is “a matter of understanding its cognitive-cultural-contextual frame” (“body”40). Feminist studies have persuasively interpreted how women writers including Dickinson havebeen oppressed, isolated, silenced, and transformed into the notorious madwoman in the garret;equally worthy of notice are other aspects of Dickinson, among them, a Dickinson preoccupiedwith settling the mind, figuring out a set of negative strategies, eventually achieving “a Glee amongthe Garret,” as Dickinson herself phrases (Poems 907). As a sequel of my discussions in EmilyDickinson Journal (2011, 2013) and Literature Compass (2014), which have explored Dickinson’snon-action, egoless aesthetics, and detached blandness, this essay will sketch Dickinson’s affin-ity with Daoism and Chan Buddhism through the rubrics of No-body, No-mind, and Non-actionas reflected in their shared metaphors or tropes. The focus will be on the cases related to GreatDeath, No Trace, Mind-dissolving, No Effort, Divine Unconsciousness, Great Use of Softness,and so on, further delineating the distinctive features and advantages of the Chinese interpretiveframework.

Essentially, no-body means reducing the acquisitive ego to nothing, requiring one to still orkill the desire. Inner freedom prescribes denying the body since it is the body that manifests to bedesirous. Chan Buddhism deems Great Death as a necessity of achieving Great Life. The explanatorypower of Great Death can be illuminated in rereading Dickinson’s poem “I bring an unaccustomedwine” (Poems 126). In this poem, the cooling glass that serves to counteract the thirst has too strong

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of an effect that the feverish pilgrims become “superfluous Cold”—beyond merely cooling downand gone all the way cold.2 However, the speaker determines to continually “obey the biblical com-mand to give drink to the thirsty” (Freeman, “E-mail”). This narration of “a failed attempt to nurturea dying friend” as perceived by Jane D. Eberwein (204) poses an interpretive quandary as a paean toconventional femininity or religious altruism since the speaker’s benevolence proves to be disastrousrather than life-giving. Vivian Pollak maintains that thirst eventually deprives the nurse speaker of theability to “sympathize” (47); the speaker “dies emotionally” and is “morally obnoxious” since she“intends to use a whole series of patients to ensure the welfare of her soul” (48). Mary Loeffelholzargues that Dickinson rejects the nineteenth-century American cultural prescription about the lov-ing womanhood, “killing the other with her loving cup” and “triumphantly reversing stay-at-homealtruism into a sanctified, questing aggression”(102). A rereading informed with insights of ChanBuddhism assumes that Great Death is requisite to Great Life and the feverish pilgrims are symp-tomatic with avaricious fevers. In terms of plot and moral message, this Dickinson poem intriguinglycoincides with a Chan poem in which a Chan master strategically serves a poisonous wine to a disci-ple, in order to emancipate the latter from the bondage of desires and to attain awakening (Wu 256).3

Such a striking affinity can be ascribed to the shared conviction about renouncing desire situated inthe body for achieving inner freedom on the part of Dickinson and Chan Buddhism.

Dickinson recognizes that “Captivity is Consciousness—/So’s Liberty” (Poems 649), indicat-ing “Consciousness” as the pivotal locus to get spiritually emancipated. Correspondingly, she setno-mind as the highest state. No-mind refers to a state when one’s mind is devoid of any desire,ready to sink into nothing. Such an ideal state is often expressed as disappearing, leaving no trace,but an expanse of emptiness for viewers or listeners; it is recurrently rendered as wuji ( , notrace) in Chinese poems with flavors of Chan Buddhism. “The Birds begun at Four o’clock—”(Poems 504) focuses on birds singing songs in the early mornings. Birdsongs are compared to a vast“space,” a “Noon”; “Brook by Brook bestows itself/To multiply the Pond” suggests how a receptivemind gradually get purified by paying attention to the delicate equilibrium of nature; images asso-ciated with water such as “Brook” and “Pond” indicate the birds’ non-desire, which can be furtherconfirmed by “independent Ecstasy/Of Universe, and Men,” not “for applause”; when “The Sunengrossed the East—,” these miracles totally vanish. The last line “Forgotten, as fulfilled” encapsu-lates the gist of the whole poem. Geoffrey H. Hartman perceptively observes that this is “not Nature,but a mode of being present that at once values and cancels the self,” “Nature has the right decorum.Its daily miracles are enacted unselfconsciously” (4–5). Indeed, Dickinson’s nature often serves asan analogue for human experience. More exactly, she presents an ideal personality—to withdrawafter achieving and leave no trace.

The “Forgotten, as fulfilled” mode suggests the sage’s not angling for fame, honor, and recog-nition from the external others, free of self-regard. These ideas are analogous to the maxims in Laozisuch as “once he achieved his aim, he does not linger” (Chapter 77 [Laozi quotes are cited by chapternumber]).4 Most typical expression of this pattern can be found in Dickinson’s portrayal of themoon. “I watched the Moon around the House” (Poems 593B) is her comprehensive elaboration ofthe detached moon marked by negative wisdom—“No Hunger. . . . Nor Avocation—nor Concern,”and eventually it effaces the self, “vaulted out of Gaze—.” Her 1882 poem further examines thesignificance of such effacement:

The Moon upon her fluent RouteDefiant of a Road—

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The Star’s Etruscan ArgumentSubstantiate a God—

If Aims impel these Astral OnesThe ones allowed to knowKnow that which makes them as forgotAs Dawn forgets them— now— (Poems 1574A)

Shira Wolosky detects a “suspension of faith in teleology” and “a threat of disintegration” reflectedin the language, stating that “Dickinson is questioning here all those assumptions about time, order,and aim without which her universe becomes inconceivable” (29). For Chan Buddhism, however,Dickinson attempts to rationalize a way for human beings to live free from the thrall of the purpose,ready to gracefully efface the self. The moon is “Defiant of a Road—,” emphatically affirmingits resolve to erase the trace. The star’s “Etruscan Argument” suggests its state of fading away,which displays a divine non-desire since Etruscan is a dead language, unknown to others. But whyare the sidereal bodies capable of such aloofness? The second stanza hypothetically conjectureswhat they will be if they are impelled by “Aims” and aware that their effacement leads to oblivion.Such questions turn out to be a further reconfirmation of the astral bodies’ independence from anypurposes and their lack of any self-regard. The variation of the second stanza can reinforce thisreading. The speaker avows great appreciation toward the moon and star, exclaims that “dwellingthere today,” one is able to enjoy the present moment, “archly spared the Heaven ‘to come.’” Sheregards living as the moon and star as living in the “Heaven” in here and now.

For Dickinson, the disappearance of things can nurture a tranquil mind rather than elicit fear ordiscomfort. Wangwei, a poet of Buddhism, posits that watching the flowers fading in a single day is away of dispelling cares and cultivating tranquility (70); likewise, Dickinson resorts to watch the sun-set. The sunset resembles a wick flickering in the west, with “the Red declined” and “Amber aided”;it gradually dissolves into “a dissembling Hue,” “waned without disparagement” “That would notlet the Eye decide/Did it abide or no—” (Poems 1416). Greg Johnson calls attention to “a noteof perceptual confusion” and the resultant “anxiety and disorientation” in this poem, stating that“Dickinson progresses in her quest not only through achieving knowledge, but also by realizingwhat she cannot know” (113). However, for a Chan meditator, the state of having “waned withoutdisparagement” is devoid of anxiety, and a slash of light cloud on the verge of vanishing serves toemblematize a detached mind.

Notably, the non-caring moon, the disappearing bird and the fading sunset are typical imagesfor Dickinson’s no-mind. This spiritual ideal is also closely interwoven with her idiosyncratic redef-inition of heaven, a strategy often eliciting a (mis)-reading as a critique of Christianity. In “Heavenis so far of the Mind” (Poems 413), Dickinson conceives “the Mind dissolved,” specifically themind of “adequate desire,” as the site of heaven; “the Mind dissolved,” which can be translatedas “shen shi” ( ), might be one of Dickinson’s terms that is closest to the no-mind of Daoismand Chan Buddhism.5 In particular, Chan Buddhism uses the trope of ice dissolving into waterto illustrate the change from ignorance to enlightenment and suffering to happiness (Hong 72).6

“I’ve known a Heaven, like a Tent—” (Poems 413) is a further illustration of what “the Mind dis-solved” is. According to David Porter, this poem launches a severe critique of “orthodox belief”since “the idea of heaven is embodied not in such conventional metaphors as light or musical har-mony but rather in the metaphor of a traveling circus” (44). Renee Bergland also argues that “thecircus-like apparatuses of the nation and the church dissolves” (153); there is “something frightening

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about the way everything . . . dissolves so utterly” (156). From the perspective of Daoism and ChanBuddhism, this poem does not compare heaven to the rambunctious circus marked by uncontrol-lable exuberance, but to the peace, quietude, and emptiness followed by a “Show’s Retreat”—“NoTrace— no Figment— of the Thing” when everything that “dazzled, Yesterday” are “Dissolved asutterly.” After the decamping of a circus, there is a quietness that never existed before, a silencemore poignantly felt when the noise is subdued. Similar to “The long sigh of the Frog” (Poems1394) and “His Oriental Heresies” (Poems 1562), among others, this poem affirms the value ofblandness through a contrast with boisterous or indulgent states. The last stanza further associates itwith the bird’s flight, which apparently has no appalling import but conveys an effable joy:

Dissolved as utterly—As Bird’s far NavigationDiscloses just a Hue—A plash of Oars, a Gaiety—Then swallowed up, of View.

No-body, No-mind, and Non-action are closely interwoven. “Non-action” marked by a detachedblandness as Daoism promotes it does not involve a negation of all action, but calls instead foractions executed gently, “without strife or ostentation and without a desire for recognition or com-pensation” (Kang, “Dickinson’s ‘Power to Die’” 75). Laozi writes, “Gentleness is the function ofTao”; “Gentleness overcomes strength”; “There is nothing weaker than water/But none is superior toit in overcoming the hard” (Chapters 40, 36, 70). As Sarah Allan explains, the image of water, a rootmetaphor in early Chinese philosophy, speaks to the wisdom of being “Soft and Weak, Yielding, andUncontending” (47–48). Softness generally is viewed as a passive approach tantamount to giving upor to conceding defeat. However, for Daoism, softness epitomizes wisdom of living, regarding howto emerge undiminished, or to conserve and even replenish one’s integrity.

Dickinson’s non-action is exemplified by “Four Trees— upon a solitary Acre—WithoutDesign/ Or Order, or Apparent Action” (Poems 778).7 Another typical image is the mountain.For instance, in “The Mountains grow unnoticed” (Poems 768), the salient features of mountainsare illustrated by series of negations, such as “Without attempt— Exhaustion/Assistance— orApplause—.” Non-action is a spontaneous, effortless, un-premeditated, and purposeless act, con-trary to “attempt,” which means to initiate an effort for a certain end. Negating “Exhaustion” intendsto remove the embedded implications of exertion and fatigue, stressing the interminable source andvigor. Such no-exhaustion bears resemblance to Zhuangzi’s concept of Reservoir of Heaven in termsof never getting dried (36).8 No-“Assistance” and no-“Applause,” however, suggest that this growthstems from the inner resource, independent of any external support. The second stanza highlightssuch innate power or wisdom originated in repose will prevail over the ephemeral and everlastinglyradiates—upon their “Eternal Faces,” “The Sun— with just delight/Looks long— and last— andgolden—/For fellowship— at night—.” That mountains drenched in brilliant sunlight in the eveningis a metaphoric expression, referring to the ebullient inner light that the mountains have nurtured andemanated in the nocturnal solitude. This depiction echoes Zhuangzi’s statement that “he who has apeaceful mind radiates with a divine light” (468–69).9 Such is a sage’s state of transparency andblissful rapture coming from an empty mind.

Notably, Dickinson is acutely aware of the fact that any effort or attempt is a conscious act,which inevitably stymies the effort itself and thus needs to be transcended on a higher level. This

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knowledge and apprehension is laid bare in a gnomic quatrain, which actually is composed of asingle sentence:

Aurora is the effortOf the Celestial FaceUnconsciousness of PerfectnessTo simulate, to Us. (Poems 1002)

The controversy of this poem stems from the only verb, “simulate,” which is cognate with cre-ating semblance (resemblance, imitation, mimesis), also meaning to “feign” or to “pretend to bedifferent from what one really is.” Carol Quinn contends that “Aurora” serves “as an emblem foraspects of the universe that resist interpretation” (62), reflecting a “deliberate” “deception” (63).Jed Deppman also argues that this poem raises a question—“if natural beauty is not a faithfulrepresentation of divine mood and consciousness but an unethical simulacrum” (131). Dickinsonmight question the moral integrity of nature in terms of Aurora’s self-righteousness, but shealso comes to realize, to reveal, and to underscore the inherent dilemma of the “effort” itself.Dickinson is deeply aware that unconsciousness or lack of self-regard is essential for a spiritualideal; “Unconsciousness of Perfectness” is fundamental to the perfectness. This idea resonates witha notable parable in Zhuangzi—a beautiful concubine regards herself as a beauty, which renders herless appealing, whereas an ugly concubine considers herself ugly, which makes her more attractive.Unconsciousness, as Philip J. Ivanhoe has argued, constitutes an important theme in early Daoisttexts, and he argues that this parable reveals “the value of unconsciousness for being” (138). The“Celestial Face” might attempt to demonstrate what “Unconsciousness of Perfectness is,” but suchan ideal state cannot be enacted through any endeavor that is premeditated, conscious, or traceable.Any conscious effort to dramatize “Unconsciousness of Perfectness” is doomed to be a simulacrum,inevitably impairing its perfection and proving to be a fake. “To simulate” in the last line respondsto and aptly presents the logical consequences of the “effort” in the first line. Margaret Freemanchooses the definition of “simulate” as creating semblance, suggesting reading this poem backwards,“to us, aurora is the effort of the celestial face to simulate unconsciousness of perfection”; she sees“the poem as saying something about man’s limitations, not in terms of fakery, but in recognizingthat, for us as mortals, achieving the unconsciousness of perfection can only be seen in terms ofeffort” (“E-mail”). Her reading also implies that “effort” might ineluctably impair “unconsciousnessof perfection.”

Non-action does not exactly refer to lack, cessation, or absence of activity or movement, but therepose of mind. To symbolize such a divine tranquility, Dickinson also uses the small, soft-bodiedcaterpillar crawling slowly, noiselessly, contrasted with the towering mountains growing unnoticed.The caterpillar, quite often treated in an antagonistic and contemptuous manner, is singled out as apoetic vehicle, customarily for its metamorphosis into a butterfly; Dickinson, however, focuses onits softness and slowness of this excellent climber. While the frantic hurriedness is emblematized ofburning desire, an agitated state, slowness is indicative of a leisured no-mind:

How soft a Caterpillar steps—I find one on my HandFrom such a velvet world it comesSuch plushes at commandIts soundless travels just arrest

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My slow— terrestrial eye—Intent upon its own career—What use has it for me— (Poems 1523)

The above poem clearly demonstrates the trajectory how the poet distills amazing sense fromeveryday observations. The speaker studies a caterpillar on the hand, seeing how it pursues its ownway. The exclamatory tone of the beginning line stresses that the diminutive caterpillar seemstotally unaware of its situation, taking a casual promenade even within a potentially dangeroushand and under a somewhat brusque and judgmental gaze. “From such a velvet world it comes”(line 3) refers to fact that the caterpillar is as soft as velvet, underscoring its innate softness fromthe place where it comes. “Such plushes at command” (line 4) indicates a nonchalance and equa-nimity toward mandatory gesture, presumably the speaker’s threat to toss it away with disgust.The phrases “soft . . . velvet . . . plushes . . . soundless” together highlight its desire-less soft-ness, the source of its self-assurance, serving to countervail the harmful animosities or forces.Paradoxically, its being “soundless” without blatantly provocative acts or vociferous requests forattention elicits the speaker’s great zeal and commands a large measure of reverence. The speaker’sconfessed “slow— terrestrial eye” implies that recognition of the caterpillar’s virtue requires areverse thinking, quite opposite to everyday logic. Here, vigorous steps, sturdy limbs, and sonorousvoices are considered inferior to a caterpillar’s soft step, small stature, and quiet mien. The lastline implicitly affirms Great Use of the caterpillar’s inner composure on the plane of spiritualfreedom.

Zhuangzi stresses that a perfect man cannot get burned within blazing swamps, nor chilledin freezing rivers, nor startled by sudden thunder or a howling gale; such unconcern toward deathconditions the perfect man’s calmness toward gain and loss (38).10 Dickinson uses the similar tropesto express the ideal spiritual: “The Sound ones, like the Hills— shall stand— /No Lighting, scaresaway—” (Poems 343); the bird ready to cruise the sky illustrates a newfound freedom—“beyond theestimate/Of Envy, or of Men—,” “At home— among the Billows” (Poems 853).

Dickinson consistently uses the slow and soft caterpillar to emblematize the composure of asage, intriguingly resonating with Zhuangzi’s scenario of staying cool amid blazing swamps. In anearly July 1879 letter to her cousins, Louise and Frances Norcross, Dickinson relates a fire inAmherst. With “the ticking of the bells,” the scene quickly devolves into a hopeless pandemonium—“the birds singing like trumpets,” “buildings falling, and oil exploding, and people walking andtalking”; she continues to write, “And so much lighter than day was it, I saw a caterpillar measure aleaf far down in the orchard” (Letters 610). Facing the conflagration, this caterpillar is not flustered,does not evince any fear or apprehensiveness. Judith Farr perceptively observes that Dickinson’svision of a small caterpillar “continuing its methodical existence amid the terrifying illuminationcaused by the blaze” is “a painterly conception,” a strategy of distinguishing a minute object in con-trast with a river torrent or a faraway canyon, quite often practiced in the mid-Victorian landscapepaintings (27). I would like to add that what distinguishes and contributes to the caterpillar’s leisuredgait stems from its unconsciousness, the highest state of detachedness, rather than the blindness toimminent turmoil.

Clearly, Chinese sensibility cultivated by Daoism and Chan Buddhism can illuminateDickinson’s mind style and unpack her poetics. This phenomenon might indicate the epistemicadvantage of preconception on the part of readers who are sensitive to Eastern philosophies andalso the Eastern nature of Dickinson’s intellectual influence as well. There is much scholarly workthat remains to be done if we are to acquire an adequate understanding of the East–West cultural

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exchange that began to flourish in Dickinson’s own time and continues to shape the contemporaryAmerican poetic field.

Acknowledgment

I would like to thank Dr. Tom Patterson’s patient reading and insightful suggestions.

Funding

This essay is supported by the National Social Science Foundation of China under GrantNumber 10CWW015.

Notes

1Dickinson’s Eastern thinking might be related to Transcendentalist writers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson and HenryDavid Thoreau and the introduction of Buddhism in the periodicals, which reached vogue in the mid and late nineteenthcentury (Kang, “Dickinson’s Response to Buddhism”). But she seems to come closer to Eastern aesthetics than writers whohave influenced her.

2Thanks to Adam Katz, who notes the ambiguity regarding the cause of death. He and Margret Freeman believe that the“tardy” glass came too late, the cooling of the fever that the speaker had hoped to provide has therefore become superfluous,since death has rendered the hands cold.

3

4

5This poem has absorbed William Rounseville Alger’s introduction of Buddhism and Nirvana in The North AmericanReview (Kang, “Dickinson’s Response to Buddhism” 182).

6

7See the discussion in my essay “Towards a Chinese Perspective on Dickinson” (154).8

9

10

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