Jennifer Kavanagh - Simplicity Made Easy

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www.enoughisplenty.net

www.thenoodlebowl.com/jesters/

www.slowfood.org.uk

In folk history and philosophy, in the arts and in science, simplicity has generally been considered a good thing. People from such different cultures and periods of history as Confucius, Lao-Tzu, Thoreau and Gandhi have paid tribute to its importance. The German writer, Goethe, wrote: Nothing is true, but that which is simple. John Ruskin felt that it is far more difficult to be simple than to be complicated; far more difficult to sacrifice skill and easy execution in the proper place, than to expand both indiscriminately. A principle established by William of Ockham, a fourteenth-century Franciscan friar and philosopher, states that entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity. In other words, the simplest explanation or strategy tends to be the best one. Stripped of all excess or unnecessary matter, the truth, the essence, shines through. Undue elaboration, complication or, indeed, obfuscation, masks the message, the purpose, of almost everything. It is certainly a barrier to communication. We all know examples of the jargon used by particular professions to exclude, as it seems to us, anyone not in the know. When it is a matter of information given out by government, it is vital that it is comprehensible to the general public. For over thirty years, the Plain English campaign has been working to eradicate gobbledygook and jargon from our public information, so that we can indeed be informed. Simple, spare prose is effective. As Ruskin said, The greatest thing a human soul ever does in this world is to see something, and to tell what it saw in a plain way.

Simple elegance and clear lines are admired in most aspects of design whether of clothes, architecture or furniture. The culture of the Shakers, a religious group founded in the eighteenth century, is particularly renowned for the way functionality, simplicity and beauty are combined, the way form follows function. Shakers never fashioned items with elaborate details or extra decorations, but only made things for their intended uses. The interior spaces of their buildings are characterised by austerity and simplicity, and the simple architecture of their homes, meeting houses, and barns have had a lasting influence on American architecture and design. But it is for their simple, functional and high quality furniture that the Shakers are best known, and still emulated.

Shakers came out of a religious revolution that began in seventeenth-century England: simplicity was an aspect of their faith. Part of the general Protestant movement, in fact, was to simplify worship itself. It was felt that to remove what were seen as the Popish trappings of High church services incense, rich vestments, etc. would enable worshippers to focus on what mattered: the worship of the Divine. Quakers, for instance, stripped away the rituals and externals of religious services; their practice to this day is utterly simple in its lack of set words, dogma, anything that might interfere with the relationship between the worshippers and God. Quaker Meetings for Worship can take place at any time and in any place no building is more sacred than another and Meeting Houses themselves are bare of symbols and ornamentation. Quakers feel that cumbersome theology can be simplified into the statement God is love. One wrote recently: The more overlaid our reaching out to that ultimate reality is with ritual, words, music and image, the more it is masked by human reality (Quaker Quest, 21).

In reform Islam too there has been a stripping down of the accretions of ritual and superstition accrued over the centuries. In the eighteenth century, the Arabian scholar, Abdul Wahhab, became aware of the luxury in dress and behaviour, what he considered as superstitious pilgrimages to shrines, the use of omens and the worship given to Muhammad and Muslim saints rather than to God. He began a mission to purify the religion, to proclaim the simplicity of the early religion founded on the Koran and the manner of life of Muhammad.

Meditation, at the centre of many Eastern religions, requires practitioners to leave behind all distractions, everything save the experience of the present moment. Focus and concentration are at its heart. An image or a prayer is chosen as a focus; attention to this is sustained and repeated on a regular basis. Insight meditation is an all-encompassing practice, a way to healing, purification, detachment and awareness by concentrating on different parts of the body, or pain of the mind or heart. Practice is built up over a long period; steadfastness and concentration are the keynotes. What is required is a willingness to let go of everything and go to the centre of our being.

Zen Buddhism goes further, letting go even of the need for a focus for meditation. With inner experience at its heart, stripped of both dogma and the authority of sacred books, Zen is neither a religion nor a philosophy: its fundamental objective is to obtain insight into the nature of our mind and soul. It eschews intellectual analysis and religious doctrine, trying to grasp the central fact of life as it is lived. Zen teaches nothing, writes D.T. Suzuki, one of the foremost authorities on Zen. We teach ourselves; Zen merely points the way (38). Elusive to all but the most experienced practitioner, Zen can be seen as the epitome of simplicity.

Regardless of label, there can be no simpler practice than sitting down and opening up the self to the Divine, or Higher Being.

But what does simplicity mean when it is applied to our own daily lives? We live in a complex world, and it is not surprising if we sometimes feel it is all just too much. Assailed on every side by information, weaving our way through lifes options can be an exhausting and puzzling business.

Albert Einstein is quoted as saying, When the solution is simple, God is answering, and in a religious context, simplicity takes on a particular significance. When we apply simplicity to our own lives, when we strip away the unnecessary, the extraneous from ourselves, we become more truly who we are, and as such we reveal the potential we were born to express. A favourite definition of simplicity for me is to remove the clutter between ourselves and God, or the Spirit, or the real self whichever expression we find comfortable.