Simplicity

Most of us think that the world is advancing, becoming more civilised, easier with technology, everyone thinks we're moving forward. Are we? Seems like almost the opposite to me. Maybe society didn't know where to stop.

Lately it seems like everyone is too busy running around trying to survive, instead of actually living. It's the nature of the society we live in- we acquire assets, and then we spend our lives as slaves to their maintenance. Like the high-interest bank I wrote about earlier. The solution? Simplicity. Minimalism. Content. Crazy as it sounds, I would be happy just getting by if it means that I can sleep at night without worrying about how much I owe who, how many hours I need to work to buy whatever, etc, etc...the worries go on and on. Call me lazy, but I just think life is too short to get caught up in this material mess.

Imam Ali (a.s) says that detachment is not that you own nothing, but that nothing owns you. The sad truth, as I see it, is that we have become possessions and slaves of this consuming system we live in. No sense of freedom, and the freedom that we do have, we don't have the time or platform to express. Society has set a standard to which most people have agreed to conform, et voila, surprise surprise, we no longer have lives. Our sole purpose has become to survive, to study, get a job, earn a living. Those things are fine, but not as goals. These are means, and most people have forgotten that or been forced to accept the opposite.

The only practical steps I can think of to take to avoid this are pretty drastic (that doesn't mean I wouldn't be willing to take them though), like moving, completely flipping my lifestyle around. Basically, it's not easy and I don't think there are any short cuts. And that's not surprising- as I've said before, good things don't come easy.