Walden Pond

Henry David Thoreau went to Walden Pond on this date in 1845.

He lived there two years, two months and two days. I was reminded of this once, while traveling in Tibet. Peering up a Himalayan cliff I spotted the cave of a meditating monk, a receding dark entrance agape against the bleached crag face. I was told that a monk, in order to become a lama, must meditate in solitude for three years, three months and three days. It does not feel at all awkward to think of Thoreau as the first American lama.

I learned recently of a theory suggesting that Thoreau went to Walden to practice yoga. “I am a mystic,” he wrote.