Throughout
history, there have been those who have taught and sought a simpler life. As our lives grow more complicated,
comprehensive and hectic, the idea seems more attractive to me. What I think of and what many others have
embraced is a lifestyle that allows for a more authentic existence. In addition, questions are being asked about
our world today. What does it mean to
experience? What is our purpose? German philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein once
proposed that our existence is not about enjoying ourselves. He was only a more recent in a long line of
thinkers who have questioned the society around them and offered another
vision. It is worth considering.
Siddhartha
Gautama was a Hindu prince who, upon seeing the world and its misery around his
protected palace, decided there must be another way. The Buddha, living between the 500s and 400s
BCE, felt that the only way to remove suffering was to remove desire and
want. In keeping with philosophical and
religious practices, the Buddha explored many ways to eliminate want, including
an ascetic lifestyle. The Buddha endured
pain and deprivation to find a purer way of living. For the Buddha, the reward of a simpler life
includes the cleaning out of our mind and soul those things that are not important. Even in our most treasured values in the U.S.
– the concept of choice, for example – the Dalai Lama has warned that within it
lie a paralysis and ultimately, a misery.
Jesus
of Nazareth also warned of the dangers found within the society. Christianity has a long tradition of
embracing the ascetic lifestyle and is based on Jesus’ admonishment of those
who sought to hold on to luxuries and wealth.
Instead, he said that man’s role was to serve, not to be served. He famously quipped that a wealthy man could
no more easily enter the kingdom of heaven than a camel could pass through the
eye of a needle. Jesus attempted to
convince Jews that they must return to the values of their ancestors. Similarly, the Prophet Muhammad turned his
back on his more wealth-oriented clan members in Mecca and worked to convince
Arabs that the traditions that existed prior to the trading wealth of the
Arabian Peninsula had been forgotten and needed to be embraced once more. Today, when a Muslim prepares for the
obligations of the Hajj in Mecca, they put aside their modern clothes in order
to embrace the simple and humble ihram clothing. What exists outside of Mecca is detrimental
to a clear mind and heart.
In
19th-century United States, a philosophical movement known as New
England transcendentalism emerged in response to the growing industrialization
within the country. At the head of this
movement were thinkers such as Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry David Thoreau and
Amos Bronson Alcott. In explaining what
Kant referred to as “transcendental philosophy,” writers like Thoreau spoke of
the struggle that existed in the U.S. between the growing technology and a
simpler concept of living, typified in his book, Walden. Like de Tocqueville,
Thoreau and others questioned what was being lost with the growth of industrialization. In such writings is an emphasis on the true
nature of living – that being the forces that surround us but with which we’ve
lost contact as we surround ourselves by the trappings of our age.
When
I see people goofing off on their iPhones or me on my work-mandated computer, I
wonder what is being lost, what skill is not being perfected as a result. One of the reasons I enjoy nature so much is
as an exercise of getting away from everything.
I do not want my phone or any other component of modern society. I want to engage in the world around me
without such things. Each day, I seek
ways to simplify my life. With
simplification, we grow healthier and cleaner – in mind and in heart. Without complications, we grow stronger in
our abilities and in our faith. Early
observers of Japan’s age of the samurai marveled at the daily commitment to occupation
and community without distraction. Perhaps
it is easier to see that Wittgenstein was correct.
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