”The only Zen you can find on the tops of mountains is the Zen you bring up there” - What nature does and doesn’t do for me

Hiking and outdoor life generally has been getting a lot more "in" the last years, and I guess social media (mainly instagram) play a leading role. There’s so much positive about this and social media also inspires me in so many ways. Then there’s of course the discussion about the negative sides as well (mainly impact on environment). 

More and more I also get the feeling that going outdoors is being depicted as some sort of general cure to getting a better life and finding some sort of inner peace. All the pictures of yoga poses on cliffs at sunset, stories of the benefits of "forest baths", coffee mugs in the tent doors with epic views and so on. 

I am myself part of the outdoors movement on social media, and most people who are outdoors a lot probably just like me like what they do; physical activity makes you feel and function better and nature calms you (at least in comparison to city life). 

All these things are really good, and in my opinion most of them are physical and mental achievements, but they are not actually practising some branch of Eastern philosophy or solving some life issues.

What expectations about nature and outdoor experiences are realistic? As always, I can’t say for anyone else, but for me:

Nature does solve one problem for me, but only one, and that is how I should spend my time off work and out of bed ;) And that problem it solves really good! 

But other than that, nature itself doesn’t do anything to solve my problems. Absolutely nothing! Nothing magical just happens to my problems when I'm outdoors.
Nature does give me a lot of feelings of joy, and also of accomplishment. I wouldn’t be much, if anything really, without it. Maybe standing on the top of a mountain or sitting by the sea watching the sun set at the horizon are at the same time some of the most joyful and tranquil moments of my life. But they are moments of 100% commitment to that moment, which just takes the mind of everything else.

These moments and being out in nature in general makes me a better and happier person, but it's because it adds on positive, not because it removes something negative.

Actually taking responsibility for yourself, doing what you need to do to be able to live with yourself, that’s all hard work! Lots of scrutinising and actually following through! Nature may facilitate the process, but I don't think it can ever do the work for you. 

So, basically if you do go outdoors and you don’t find it to be all what it’s portrayed like in social media, maybe it’s not you that is doing it wrong. There's more to it than that, unfortunately ;)

The quote in the title of this post comes from one of my favorite books ever, Robert M Pirsig’s The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - An Inquiry into Values (from 1974). I first read it in high school and have reread it many times, such a good one! Here are a few more quotes from it, and I really recommend reading the whole book.

”The solutions all are simple - after you have arrived at them. But they're simple only when you know already what they are.”

”It is a puzzling thing. The truth knocks on the door and you say, 'Go away, I'm looking for the truth,' and so it goes away. Puzzling.”

“Dad?"

"What?" A small bird rises from a tree in front of us.

"What should I be when I grow up?"

The bird disappears over a far ridge. I don't know what to say. "Honest," I finally say.” 

“Is it hard?'

Not if you have the right attitudes. Its having the right attitudes that is hard.” 

“We’re in such a hurry most of the time we never get much chance to talk. The result is a kind of endless day-to-day shallowness, a monotony that leaves a person wondering years later where all the time went and sorry that it’s all gone.” 

“If someone's ungrateful and you tell him he's ungrateful, okay, you've called him a name. You haven't solved anything.” 

“I argued that physical discomfort is important only when the mood is wrong. Then you fasten on to whatever thing is uncomfortable and call that the cause. But if the mood is right, then physical discomfort doesn't mean much.” 

“The result is rather typical of modern technology, an overall dullness of appearance so depressing that it must be overlaid with a veneer of "style" to make it acceptable. And that, to anyone who is sensitive to romantic Quality, just makes it all the worse.”

“You can reduce your anxiety somewhat by facing the fact that there isn't a mechanic alive who doesn't louse up a job once in a while. The main difference between you and the commercial mechanics is that when they do it you don't hear about it—just pay for it, in additional costs prorated through all your bills. When you make the mistakes yourself, you at least get the benefit of some education.”