Sad and annoyed sometimes that people are getting this wrong and judging others, or just suffering over misunderstanding. The West really doesn't understand this concept I feel like.
Minimal, doesn't mean non-existent, it means minimal. It means 'just enough'. Tai-Chi is about minimalism, why do we move so slowly? As my Sifu puts it, 'with enough force to push a feather'. You need force to push a feather, but not much.
So minimalism doesn't mean don't push at all, or in other words don't deny yourself of luxuries of pleasures. You don't have to deny yourself. And God forbid please don't misinterpret like I did and start to deny yourself of body needs as well and start fasting for 2 days every week whether you're a growing child or not, that's horrible and also a misunderstanding.
It shouldn't be about self-denial, that's the Buddhist story of Siddhartha who after seeing suffering gets introduced to some monks who think the body and it's desires is this horrible thing and so they self-deny, and Siddharta became so good at it some recounts of the story tells of where one day as he exhaled, he cracked a rib. That's when he invented the middle path, and one interpretation of the middle path means 'just enough'.
Minimalism has a cost, like everything else in life, and that cost is you don't get to be all Western-style flashing the newest car or luxury jacket or etc etc, but you willingly pay that cost because you want simplicity. You value quality and repeated use over quantity and the novelty of always chasing the newest thing and the consumerism cycle. I don't have a judgement about either by the way, your energy is spent with fewer things but deeper understanding of each, or many things but with a more surface-level understanding of each, who's to say what's better, I'm just saying minimalism is the lifestyle choice of the former.
When things are just enough, they are simple, because you're not expending extra effort for flashiness or virtue signalling or trying to alter other people's perceptions of you, it's not about them, it's about you, your perception of just enough, while honoring your body's needs of just enough as well.
Minimalism doesn't mean no pleasures or luxuries, that's being a Monk where you sacrifice luxury wants for the understanding of the truth of the universe, which is fine but don't get the two confused. I'm minimalist, and I have a whole box of all sorts of video games on different consoles. This works because I love every single game I play. I have just enough, I don't have a single game I don't absolutely love. And when I'm done, in minimalist fashion I trade my game for another one of equal value that I want, or I sell it, or I donate it. In other words, giving to another so they may enjoy the pleasure of this game as I did. Whenever I find I have excess, a spare chair in the basement I just realized I didn't need, a mug I got as a gift I've never used, etc etc, I give it away. There's no hoarding or greed here, that's about fear, but minimalism is about paradoxical expansion through using less space.
When I want a new luxury, I have a simple set of questions for myself. Is this beautiful, or useful, or both? (If it's neither it's junk in my eyes). Are you buying because of someone else (such as posturing), or for yourself? Will you use this 6 months from now? When you're done with it, what do you think you'll do with it? Can you buy it used instead? Is this an environmentally-friendly purchase?
So I'm not denying myself pleasures, I'm just more careful about them and make sure, again, it's just enough. That's the art of it, can you do with just a little less? Maybe not 3 bowls, but 2, and give away the 3rd? Get cloth grocery bags, to save one-time plastic ones. Use a handkerchief instead of one-time paper towels. Turn off power bars' phantom lights. Etc, etc. In Tai-Chi, can you push just a little softer? That's the art, the journey, less and less, but never nothing, and never self-deprivation.
Retain core principle without going overboard, and without collapsing, that's key in Tai-Chi, minimalism, and Buddhism, on levels of physical, mental, and spiritual.
Rant over, I hope that was clear, and I hope people understand the essence of minimalism better. It's simply a mindset- tool, works for some but not others, so keep it if you like it, drop it if you don't, but I just didn't like the many misconceptions out there so I wanted to write this so one has a better understanding of this tool. Mis-use is as harmful as shallow dismissal.
Submitted January 31, 2019 at 04:45PM by hox_blastien http://bit.ly/2RZgeNz
