| Topic: |
Religions > Atheism |
| User: |
"V" |
| Date: |
08 Jan 2007 09:07:04 AM |
| Object: |
Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand |
Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand. When we get too busy with
life and complex living, there is no time left for spiritual practice
it seems. Martialism also pulls us in directions that may hinder our
studies. No telling who first came up with the idea to scale back and
simplify instead of expanding and producing more complications in life.
The ancient Greek philosophers referred to simplicity. "In order to
seek one's own direction, one must simplify the mechanics of ordinary,
everyday life," - Plato The famous Greco-Roman philosopher Epiticus
also talked much of simplicity. It was reported that when he died he
owned a cloak, a candle and a bowl...you can't much simpler than that!
A 15th century Zen master Murata Juko (1422-1502) broke all convention
with the customs of serving tea and the concept of "wabi" which
literally means "desolation," and made the serving of tea stand on its
own with its utter simplicity. Zen philosophy takes the positive side
of this and says that the greatest wealth is found in desolation and
poverty, because we look inside ourselves and find true spiritual
wealth there when we have no attachments to things material. Instead of
using expensive imported vessels in a lavish reception hall, he made
tea in a thatch hut using only a simple iron kettle, a plain lacquered
container for tea, a tea scoop and whisk whittled from bamboo, and a
common rice bowl for drinking the tea. The only decoration in a
Rikyu-style tearoom is a hanging scroll or a vase of flowers placed in
the alcove. Owing to the very lack of decoration, participants become
more aware of details and are awakened to the simple beauty around them
and to themselves.
Rolling around to the 19th century Thoreau, considered by many to be
the granddaddy of simple living wrote in Walden of "Simplicity,
Simplicity, Simplicity" and describing his neighbors in the following
terms; "The twelve labors of Hercules were trifling in comparison with
those which my neighbors have undertaken; for they were only twelve,
and had an end; but I could never see that these men slew or captured
any monster or finished any labor. They had no friend Iolaus to burn
with a hot iron the root of hydra's head, but as soon as one head is
crushed, two spring up." From 1849-1854, Thoreau borrowed a large
number of Indian scriptures from the Harvard University Library. In
1855 his English friend Thomas Chilmondeley sent him many Oriental
books such as; Rig Veda Samhita, Mandukya Upanishads, Vishnu Puranas,
Bhagavad Gita and Bhagvata Purana. So, Thoreau was greatly influenced
with philosophical works from the Oriental viewpoint as well as
classical Greek and Roman sources.
In 1936 Richard Gregg, who coined the term Voluntary Simplicity, wrote
a book 'The Value of Voluntary Simplicity' published by Pendle Hill.
Even though Gregg gave much deep thought to this subject he was not at
peace initially. Gregg once complained to Gandhi that while he had no
trouble giving up most things, he could not let go of his books. Gandhi
told he shouldn't try: "As long as you derive inner help and comfort
from anything, you should keep it." He pointed out that if you give
things up out of a sense of duty or self-sacrifice they continue to
preoccupy you and clutter your mind. To talk of 'denying oneself' is to
use the language of despotism. Simplicity is an affirmation, not a
denial of oneself, as written by Philip Slater in his 1979 book
entitled 'Wealth Addiction'.
Here is a snip from the masters original work:
Pendle Hill Essays Number Three
THE VALUE OF VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY
RICHARD B. GREGG
Acting Director of Pendle Hill 1935-36
Chapter X. SIMPLICITY A KIND OF PSYCHOLOGICAL HYGIENE
"There is one further value to simplicity. It may be regarded as a mode
of psychological hygiene. Just as eating too much is harmful to the
body, even though the quality of all the food eaten is excellent, so it
seems that there may be a limit to the number of things or the amount
of property which a person may own and yet keep himself psychologically
healthy. The possession of many things and of great wealth creates so
many possible choices and decisions to be made every day that it
becomes a nervous strain. Often the choices have to be narrow. The
Russian physiologist, Pavlov, while doing experiments on conditioned
reflexes with dogs, presented one dog with the necessity of making many
choices involving fine discriminations, and the dog actually had a
nervous breakdown and had to be sent away for six months' rest before
he became normal again.
Subsequently, American psychologists, by similar methods, produced
neuroses in sheep by requiring many repetitions of mere inhibition and
action; and as inhibition is an element in all choices, they believe it
was that element which may have caused the neurosis in Pavlov's dog. Of
course, people are more highly organized than dogs and are easily able
to weigh more possibilities and endure more inhibitions and make more
choices and nice distinctions without strain, but nevertheless making
decisions is work and can be overdone."
Voluntary simplicity fell out of fashion in America for the most part
until the 60's and the back to the land movement of the hippies. Then
in 1981 Duane Elgin, a social scientist from Stanford Research
Institute wrote 'Voluntary Simplicity - toward a way of life that is
outwardly simple and inwardly rich' and brought the idea of simplicity
back in vogue (In vogue for some people anyway) Elaine St. James also
wrote many little simple living books in the mid 90's. In fact, I can
thank her for introducing me to simple living. I was hitting my local
book and CD shop for my weekly buying binge when her book was on the
counter and I thought 'simplicity... that is what I need instead of
buying all this crap'. I put away the armful of stuff I planned to buy
and just bought her book instead. That was about 1997 for me and I had
made an 'about face' in the direction I had been headed in all those
years with my mass consumption lifestyle.
Many other books followed on the subject of simplicity such as
'Your Money or Your Life: Transforming Your Relationship with Money and
Achieving Financial Independence'
by Dominguez / Robbins
'Choosing Simplicity: Real People Finding Peace and Fulfillment in a
Complex World' by Linda Breen Pierce
'Tis a Gift to Be Simple: Embracing the Freedom of Living With Less' by
Barbara Degrote-Sorensen
'The Overspent American: Why We Want What We Don't Need' by Juliet B.
Schor
'The Simple Living Guide' by Janet Luhrs
'Simplicity Lessons: A 12-Step Guide to Living Simply' by Linda Breen
Pierce
'Slow is Beautiful: New Visions of Community, Leisure and Joie de
Vivre' by Cecile Andrews
And by the new millennium we have finally come full circle when the
'Idiots Guide' gets around to writing about simplicity - 'The Complete
Idiot's Guide to Simple Living' by Georgene Lockwood.
For more history also see:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voluntary_simplicity#History
I will leave you with a snip from Philip Slater's book on 'Wealth
Addiction'
All personal solutions to wealth addiction involve one form or another
of what has come to be called Voluntary Simplicity. This doesn't not
necessarily mean going "back to nature" and does not mean living in
poverty and discomfort, although some people may elect forms of
simplicity that would be highly uncomfortable for the rest of us. Above
all, it does not mean forcing yourself to give up something you really
enjoy, out of some pious conviction that it's the "right thing to do."
Voluntary Simplicity merely means trying to rid one's life as much as
possible of material clutter so as to concentrate on more important
things: creativity, human survival and development, community
well-being, play.
The key word in Voluntary Simplicity is "voluntary," which means that
the giving up of the material clutter is not coerced either from the
outside or from the inside. As Andre Vanden Broeck observers, only
those who have experienced affluence are in a position to have a
"choice divorced from need." The poor aren't in a position to make such
a choice-they are stuck with a scarcity that is neither simple nor
voluntary.
Nor is Voluntary Simplicity coerced from within, for to deprive
yourself out of some ideological conviction is merely to feed the Ego
Mafia. The word "simplicity" may have overtones that arouse our
suspicions: a vaguely puritan ring, conjuring up images of drab smocks,
self-righteousness and flagellation. But if this is in the spirit in
which Voluntary Simplicity is embraced the result will most certainly
be noxious.
There is an old Zen story about two monks traveling together who
encounter a nude woman trying to cross a stream. One of them carries
her across, much to the consternation of the other. They continue in
silence for a couple of hours until the second monk can stand it no
longer. "How," he asks "could you expose yourself to such temptation?"
The first monk replies, "I put her down two hours ago. You're still
carrying her."
Addiction is internal; if you experiment sincerely with Voluntary
Simplicity and find yourself still thinking of money and possessions,
your simplicity is a fraud and you might just as well go back to
pursuing wealth until you've had your fill of it. To achieve its goal,
Voluntary simplicity must be undertaken in the spirit, not of
Puritanism or self-flagellation, but out of adventure. All adventurers
throughout history have, after all, been people who abandoned comforts,
possessions, love and security to seek new experiences in faraway
places.
Take care,
V (Male)
Agnostic Freethinker
Practical Philosopher
AA#2
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| User: "Robibnikoff" |
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| Title: Re: Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand |
08 Jan 2007 02:29:43 PM |
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"V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote in message
news:1168268824.254804.134110@42g2000cwt.googlegroups.com...
Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand.
That's nice - You're definitely simple, as in simple-minded
<long-winded, pontificating ***** deleted>
--
Robyn
Resident Witchypoo
BAAWA Knight!
#1557
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| User: "Enkidu" |
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| Title: Re: Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand |
08 Jan 2007 06:52:33 PM |
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"V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote in news:1168268824.254804.134110@
42g2000cwt.googlegroups.com:
Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand.
You are simpleton, and you mistake muddled thinking for depth and
spirituality.
--
Enkidu AA#2165
http://www.thoughts.leaddogs.org/
EAC Chaplain and ordained minister,
ULC, Modesto, CA
No man dies for what he knows to be true. Men die for what they want to be
true, for what some terror in their hearts tells them is not true.
-- Oscar Wilde
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| User: "raven1" |
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| Title: Re: Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand |
08 Jan 2007 07:14:41 PM |
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On 8 Jan 2007 07:07:04 -0800, "V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote:
Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand.
So WTF are you doing posting to Usenet?
--
"O Sybilli, si ergo
Fortibus es in ero
O Nobili! Themis trux
Sivat sinem? Causen Dux"
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| User: "John Baker" |
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| Title: Re: Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand |
08 Jan 2007 10:42:40 AM |
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On 8 Jan 2007 07:07:04 -0800, "V" <vfr44@aol.com> wrote:
Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand.
Well, you definitely have the simple part down....
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| User: "Mark K. Bilbo" |
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| Title: Re: Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand |
08 Jan 2007 09:39:58 AM |
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On Mon, 08 Jan 2007 07:07:04 -0800, V wrote:
Path: border1.nntp.dca.giganews.com!nntp.giganews.com!postnews.google.com!42g2000cwt.googlegroups.com!not-for-mail
From: "V" <vfr44@aol.com>
Newsgroups: alt.atheism,alt.christnet.christianlife,alt.bible,alt.religion.christian.roman-catholic,alt.religion.christian
Subject: Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand
Date: 8 Jan 2007 07:07:04 -0800
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Simplicity
<snip>
Abuse reports to:
--
Mark K. Bilbo a.a. #1423
EAC Department of Linguistic Subversion
------------------------------------------------------------
"Religion is regarded by the common people as true,
by the wise as false, and by the rulers as useful."
- Seneca the Younger
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| User: "Pastor Kutchie, ordained atheist minister" |
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| Title: Re: Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand |
08 Jan 2007 09:43:35 AM |
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V wrote:
Simplicity and spirituality go hand in hand.
well, in the interests of your spiritual wellbeing, simply wave you aol
account goodbye.
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