As we have distanced ourselves from the Truth of Oneness, have we also become alienated from our own True identity? Daniel Boone was an unlettered frontiersman in 19th century America as the carving on the stock of his rifle attests: “BOONs bESt FREN” However, “unlettered” and “unaware” are not mutually exclusive states of consciousness. All of which begs the question: What is our natural “state,” our natural identity?
In 1784 in Wilmington, Delaware, James Adams published the manuscript entitled Kentucke written by an acquaintance of Daniel Boone, John Filson. Daniel Boone is the protagonist in the narrative. “It was on the first of May, in the year 1769, that I resigned my domestic happiness for a time, and left my family and peaceful habitation on the Yadkin river, in North Carolina, to wander through the wilderness of America, in quest of the country of Kentucke.”[i]
Later, joined by his brother Squire, Boone describes the lure of the wilderness. “Thus situated, many hundred miles from our families in the howling wilderness, I believe few would have equally enjoyed the happiness we experienced. I have often observed to my brother, you see how little nature requires to be satisfied. Felicity, the companion of content, is rather found in our own breasts than in the enjoyment of external things; and I firmly believe that it requires but a little philosophy to make a man happy in whatsoever state his is.”[ii]
Boone’s words bring to mind Krishnamurti’s “I don’t mind what’s happening” and Philippians 4:11: “Not that I speak from want, for I have learned to be content in whatever circumstances I am.” Daniel Boone was content in an environment that was familiar to him and close to nature, which was the good, the true and the beautiful of his reality.
Our species finds itself once again at a crossroads. “Will we rethink our attitudes to nature and to commerce in order to address the health of our planet and the violent inequities in our society? Will we remember the compelling force with which we have been reminded of how deeply interconnected and reliant we are on one another? That we are not only part of nature but also part of a single organism? Will we honor the passion we felt for kindness? Will we, in other words, stay true to the version we glimpsed of our better selves: that of generosity, heroism and compassion? Or will we yield to the dark calls of those who insist that the lessons to take from this are that we should fear the stranger even more, build higher walls and practice a resolute policy of intolerance to difference and to reason?”[iii]
We must each open our hearts to feel a more profound vision of a sustainable community and then find the courage and compassion to engage in our own personal self-transformation. So far Americans have talked about how the formidable playbook they have devised will lead to an impressive performance on the field of Reality but we have yet to find the courage and commitment to actually enter the contest.
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Supplemental Reading: Transcendence, The ABC’s of Simple Reality, Vol 2
#83 Daniel Boone and Jiddu Krishnamurti
[i] Walton, John. “Ghost Writer to Daniel Boone.” American Heritage October 1955, p. 12.
[ii] Ibid.
[iii] Matar, Hisham. “Something Happens When You Fall.” The New York Times Magazine. May 24, 2020, p. 60.
