
Watching Kon-Tiki a few months back I was mesmerized by the leap of faith taken by Thor Heyerdahl and his team. It is one thing to sail 4300 miles on a raft but totally another to stick to only primitive methods to build one.
The principle of primitive man was not to fight against nature but to adapt himself to it. - Thor Heyerdahl
Thor and his team apparently did not entirely grasp the pros and cons of the primitively built raft they had all risked their lives upon. They had simply trusted their findings and the ocean in front of them. They had trusted that things done in accordance with nature, as the primitive man had done, will allow them to sail far.
Humans are part of the continuum of nature. In its cosmic design we are born, we operate and we go to nothingness. To live harmoniously is to listen and understand the workings of nature. To allow it the upper hand and operate with its flow and its force.
Life is most skillfully lived when one sails a boat rather than rowing it. It’s more intelligent to sail than to row. With oars I have to use my muscles and my effort to drag myself along the water. But with a sail, I let the wind do the work for me. - Alan Watts
Yet, often, we try to use our mind to win against nature. Instead of respecting the mountain in front of us and asking for its blessings for safe passage, we brashly declare using our juvenile vigor that we will surpass it.
Sooner or later, if we are spared complete disintegration in the face of such follies, we are humbled to realize. We cannot fight against nature and live long. We always have to adapt ourselves. We have to pluck the misgivings of our thought dominated being from speaking before listening to what nature has to say. Nature is way bigger than us. Or rather, we are an indivisible part of nature. Fighting nature is fighting ourselves.