In David Hinton’s translations and philosophical essays—most notably in China Root (2020) and Wild Mind, Wild Earth (2023)—he interprets our original nature (chien-hsing in Ch’an/Zen) as an ecological and cosmological fact.
To Hinton, awakening to our original nature means stripping away the dualistic concepts that alienate us from the world and realizing that human consciousness is fundamentally continuous with the same generative processes found in the Cosmos.
One of Ch’an and Zen Buddhism’s main tenets is the The Mirror of “Empty-Mind”
Hinton explains that our original nature is synonymous with what Ch’an and Taoist sages call “empty-mind” xu or kong. Hinton argues that in the Taoist framework, emptiness is a vibrant, silent illumination, generative space—an “Absence” out of which the “Presence” of the physical world constantly emerges.
When the mind is emptied of its analytical narratives, social constructs, and the rigid illusion of a separate “ego,” what remains is a clean, mirror-like awareness. This mirror-mind does not possess an identity separate from what it reflects; rather, it is the universe experiencing itself.
Consciousness as “Wild Earth”
A central pillar of Hinton’s interpretation is deep ecology. He asserts that early Taoism and original Ch’an are rooted in the Earth-Mother culture from our human Paleolithic and Neolithic past. These early cultures, by way of archaeological evidence, present ecocentric and relational based values. Original nature is not something uniquely “human” that isolates us from nature; it is the realization that we are completely interwoven with the “generative tissue” of the Tao.
Hinton argues that humanity suffered an ontological rupture when we transitioned to sedentary, agrarian lifestyles and developed alphabetic writing, patriarchal religions, which compartmentalized our thoughts and made the inner world seem permanent and detached from the physical world. Reclaiming our original nature means understanding that our mind is inherently “wild mind,” a direct extension of the “wild earth.”
Always — Already — Awakened
Because original nature is the baseline reality of existence, Hinton stresses that we do not need to manufacture or achieve it through rigorous, agonizing spiritual striving. It is not a distant goal to be reached. Instead, it is an immediate reality that is “always already” present once our artificial, intellectualized concepts are dismantled.
Just as the Tao Te Ching views named virtues as poor substitutes for an original, uncarved wholeness, Hinton views complex theological explanations as barriers to our true nature. Awakening is simply the act of falling back into this primal, wordless kinship with reality.
Hinton’s rendering on the Tao te Ching, forces us to look at our moral vocabulary in reverse. A society obsessed with discussing justice is usually profoundly unjust. A culture hyper-focused on kindness is likely deeply alienated.
The named virtues are not signs of spiritual wealth; they are the intellectual currency we print to cover up our spiritual bankruptcy. To find true virtue (Te), Lao Tzu argues we shouldn’t try harder to be “good”—we should instead strip away the concepts and return to the uncarved block of our original nature.
Hinton highlights the deep irony in how we view moral progress. We tend to view the rise of complex ethical systems (like Confucianism, which Lao Tzu was subtly critiquing) as a human achievement. Lao Tzu views it as a emergency patch on a leaking boat.
Art by Kate W 