Introduction:
Someone asked me recently
about my HEN religion and I started into my usual cursory summary before
blanking on one of the four main tenants behind one of the three main
pillars. I was embarrassed because
HENfest is right around this time of year, the one time I’m most particularly
supposed to reflect on HEN. I was also
asked about HEN web pages and not only didn’t know of any, I didn’t think there
were any.
There are very good reasons
for this of course. HEN has so few
followers and they tend to be a lazy bunch, but mainly because HEN
practitioners are not supposed to proselytize.
So it’s quite a fine line I’m walking here by creating a web page
devoted to HEN. Fortunately, walking
fine lines is itself part of the philigion.
Plus, I’m going to put in a big bold disclaimer right in front here:
I have no intention of trying to convert you to HEN!
OK, I hope that sets me
straight with the powers that be. I
think so, because I’ve made passing reference to HEN before without any
negative feedback and I’m only going to summarize a portion of the primary
beliefs here. Really, I’m thinking of
it as a quick reference to HEN devotees who, like me, have a brain-lock near HENfest
and need a primer for some of the main points.
The HEN name is an acronym:
Happy Epicurean Nihilists. Each word
represents one of the three main pillars of the religion, which is often
sometimes referred to as a “philigion”, short for philosophy/religion. All three pillars are equally
important. However, they are also
listed in order of decreasing importance.
I know -- this is a contradiction.
It won’t be the last one you find in HEN. One of the HEN proverbs is: “Contradictions are part of life;
therefore, contradictions are part of HEN.”
OK, so I will describe them
from the back first, in order to build up in importance. Keep in mind though that all three pillars
are equally important.
The Nihilists Pillar:
The Nihilists concept is one
of the most difficult and most contentious parts of HEN. In order to understand this, you need to
have some background on the Bokononist religion. Bokononism is often unfairly written off as a “made-up” religion. To that, HEN would say that all religions
are made-up. Bokononists, of course,
would just say that all religions are foma.
Now, there are plenty of web pages describing Bokononism, so
I’m not going to go into all that here.
I’m just going to say that HEN borrows, and modifies to a large extent,
several of the concepts and rituals used in Bokononism. These include the boko-maru “mingling of
soles/souls” ritual; the concept of karass (greatly extended in HEN to include
strong and weak forms of these relationships); and terms such as zamahkibo,
kan-kan, and pool-pah. These are all
fundamental components of HEN. We don’t
have any Calypsos though.
In fact, some HEN wish to
emphasize the entire Bokononist contribution so they call themselves HEB
instead of HEN. It’s not a serious
division however. I can’t speak for all
of the faithful, but I think they would all agree that all HEB are HEN and all
HEN are HEB. We’re far too small to have
divisions like that! Now that I’ve said
that, I’m going to tell you why HEN is more correct.
It is the nihilistic
component of Bokononism that is the central concept that hangs over everything
in that religion. In a nutshell, it is
the idea that we humans are both individually and collectively doomed to an
insignificant, and basically meaningless existence in a cold, cruel world. Think of Vonnegut’s Cat’s Cradle and the quote: “No damn cat, and no damn cradle.” It’s OK though, at least to HEN. Here is a HEN proverb: “Nothing you do
really matters; therefore, everything you do really matters.” I’m just touching on a complicated topic
here, so I’m not going to go on and on about it. The short answer we HEN can give to our non-believing buddies is
that the Nihilists pillar of HEN comes from the underlying nihilistic beliefs
of Bokononism.
The Epicurean Pillar:
OK, I’m glad to get that one
out of the way. Let’s move on to the Epicurean pillar. HEN borrows many of the beliefs from the followers of Epicurus
(341-270 BC). One critical one, which
is certainly not exclusive to Epicureans, is the idea of reducing desires in
order to avoid pain. HEN combine this
with a modern Minimalist approach.
Here are a few “Principal
Doctrines” from Epicurus that are near to HEN:
“It is impossible to live a pleasant life without living wisely
and honorably and justly, and it is impossible to live wisely and honorably and
justly without living pleasantly. Whenever any one of these is lacking, when,
for instance, the man is not able to live wisely, though he lives honorably and
justly, it is impossible for him to live a pleasant life.”
“No pleasure is a bad thing
in itself, but the things which produce certain pleasures entail disturbances
many times greater than the pleasures themselves.”
“If you fight against all
your sensations, you will have no standard to which to refer, and thus no means
of judging even those sensations which you claim are false.”
“Of all the means which
wisdom acquires to ensure happiness throughout the whole of life, by far the
most important is friendship.”
Equally important is Diogenes four-part
summation of the Epicureans and how these are interpreted by HEN:
“Nothing to fear in God.” – HEN belief is that there is one God, who
is not to be feared. The HEN God is
neither demanding nor vengeful.
“Good can be attained.” --
This is both a very simple concept and a very intricate set of beliefs to
HEN. In its simple form this means both
that you should enjoy your life and that you should try to be good. Both of these can be interpreted very
broadly. The complicated meaning is
quite similar to Spinoza’s
ideas on “human blessedness”. We can
strive for a higher degree of good/reason/knowledge in order to achieve an
“intellectual love of god”. In other
words, through achieving a higher level of rational understanding of the world
around us, we come to a closer understanding of God and the connectedness of
life.
“Nothing to feel in Death.”
-- HEN don’t believe in an afterlife.
Death is the absence of all feeling.
From this, HEN believe that Life should be a concentration of
feeling. In fact, a study of feeling
and a gaining of some level of mastery of it.
“Pain can be endured.” -- HEN
see this both that literal pain can be endured, but also that we can deal with
evil people and difficult situations.
Avoiding and dealing with pool-pahs is considered an inevitable part of
HEN life.
OK, there’s a lot there and a
lot more to that pillar that I haven’t mentioned, but the main idea is the
modification of certain ideas from the Epicureans.
The Happy Pillar:
Finally -- the Happy
pillar. This is the easiest to describe
and yet perhaps the most powerful part of HEN. Here is a HEN proverb: “the sole purpose of HEN is to increase
happiness.” The idea is that there is
no point in having a religion that makes you or others unhappy. And this concept of increasing happiness is
all-inclusive. It not only includes
you, but also extends to everyone around you, and even to your
dog/cat/plant. The Happy pillar is the raison d'etre for HEN.
HENfest:
I think that is the outline
description of HEN that I set out to write.
I did mention HENfest so I’ll just briefly say that this is the one holiday
(and HEN doesn’t have many) where we are supposed to reflect on our
beliefs. The idea is that you’re living
HEN 24x7 so most of the time you’re not thinking about all of it. The ideas behind HEN just become instinct
and affect everything you do.
One great thing about HEN is
its flexibility and this is reflected in HENfest. How many religions give you a choice over when you can observe
its biggest holiday! I love this about
HEN. HENfest falls somewhere between
December 5th and January 10th, on a day that you get to
choose. And you don’t have to pick the
same day every year, just a day that falls during that period. And it is pretty much left to up to you as
to exactly what you’re going to do that day.
Of course, many people book-maru, or have a special feast where they
toast Henning the God of Wine (yes, I know, HEN is monotheistic, yet we have
this Bacchian deity too), or make a point of contacting people in their various
karasses, or try to eliminate pain or want; but really, nothing is set in stone
other than reflecting on HEN beliefs.
And of course, be happy.