A New Year’s Wish for Less, and Four "S"
Words
12/30/2009
Traditionally, plans and resolutions for a new year involve the hope
for more: more money, more success, more travel and other diversions,
more happiness. More happiness is definitely a worthwhile goal, but I
notice considerable confusion about how to achieve it. Our society
teaches that happiness comes from money, fame, power, the accumulation
of possessions, the tireless pursuit of new experiences, and the
achievement--even if artificial--of physical attractiveness, among other
goals. However, rather than a need for more, I see many people suffering
from too much: too much food, too much distraction, too much
self-absorption, too much busyness and striving. The planet is also
suffering from too much: too much human consumption, too much
meat-eating and frivolous travel, and too much carelessness about the
sacredness and fragility of the web of life. I try to look for ways to
eliminate the unnecessary, the overly complex, the time-consuming, the
excess, the meaningless aspects of daily living, and luxuriate in less.
Spiritual teachers of most traditions around the world have been
trying to communicate this message for centuries, of course, long before
the stakes for all life were as high as they are now at the beginning of
2010. In the Buddhist tradition I practice, for example, participants in
a ceremony of commitment to the path of enlightenment declare: "I
vow to live a life of simplicity. I vow to live a life of stability. I
vow to live a life of selflessness. I vow to live a life of
service." These vows could serve as a sort of shorthand for the
life of less busyness and less stuff. If we can just keep in mind and
practice those four "S" words--simplicity, stability,
selflessness, and service--much of the unwanted, superfluous, and
destructive would fall away.
