Henry Miller: American Dervish

"Whether it be admitted or not, there are hierarchies of being, as well as of role. The highest types of men have always been those in favor of 'unlimited circulation.' They were comparatively fearless and sought neither riches nor security, except in themselves. By abandoning all that they most cherished they found the way to a larger life. Their example still inspires us, though we follow them more with the eye than with the heart, if we follow at all. They never attempted to lead, but only to guide. The real leader has no need to lead--he is content to point the way. Unless we become our own leaders, content to be what we are in process of becoming, we shall always be servitors and idolators. We have only what we merit; we would have infinitely more if we wanted less. The whole secret of salvation hinges on the conversion of word to deed, with and through the whole being. It is this turning in wholeness and faith, conversion, in the spiritual sense, which is the mystical dynamic of the fourth-dimensional view. I used the word salvation a moment ago, but salvation, like fear or death, when it is accepted and experienced, is no longer 'salvation.' There is no salvation, really, only infinite realms of experience providing more and more tests, demanding more and more faith. Willy-nilly we are moving towards the Unknown, and the sooner and readier we give ourselves up to the experience, the better it will be for us..." Henry Miller, "The Wisdom of the Heart" [italics added].

I first discovered Miller's essay in 1980. I was twenty years old. I shared the essay with a good friend of mine who was several years older than me, and a clergyman. He responded positively to the essay, but he did not grasp its real meaning for me. For I knew then that I was not a Christian--and that I could never be a Christian--because Christianity is "salvation religion" and I understood, only too clearly, that there is no salvation, within the Church or without. Indeed, salvation is not the point of human life. There is no point to human life beyond the hard-won "wisdom of the heart" that permits us to be "content to be what we are in process of becoming."

Salvation religion is for those who feel that they must justify the accidents of their birth and the choices they have made in life as a consequence of those accidents. Saul of Tarsus, religious genius, extraordinary poet, and guilt-ridden diaspora Jew embraced the nascent Jesus movement and then, through the power of his personality, managed to steer it in the direction of soteriology--understandably so, for after his career as Persecutor-in-Chief, he found himself sorely in need of life-justification.

But Saul's problems only become ours if we let them. In lieu of Saul's problems, we do better if we contemplate Henry's solutions (solutions that reflect, incidentally, those of Jesus and his Jerusalem followers, not St. Paul's).

Tragically, prurience and shallowness prevent most people from accepting Henry Miller as a wisdom writer. It is a shame. Heir to Whitman--most clearly--but also to the anarchistic sensibility of Thoreau, Miller's writings amount, in the end, to a collection of 20th century American dervish diaries. Miller was not conscious of himself as a dervish, but that is just a function of his historical and cultural location. Had he ever found his way to Jalaladin Rumi, he would have left this world whirling.