To lead a simple life is not normally classed as being cool in the material world. There is always running after things and pleasures and that is how one is measured or seen. The more one possesses, the higher one is regarded according to material calculation. The ways of the latter are set: one normally is encouraged to seek more and more. Not to do so would be considered a failure as if one comes from an alien world. And the whole system is so designed at extracting pleasures to the avoidance of pain. There is a failure to apprehend that pleasures on its own are not a possibility. The accompanying sorrow is part and parcel of being and yet one ventures at making the aspect of deriving more and more as being a motto.
Life is so intentioned in that one may not even contemplate of other ways of being than to merely accept this as being the norm or the way to be. It is a way to be and not the way to be. Modern life approves it and the call is to be desirous always of what may bring pleasure to the false ego as this in a way is seen as promoting happiness. As when one becomes so attached to that form of enjoyment with a firm target of material opulence little does one know that this path brings about its own self destruction as one is constantly bewildered by such things as revealed.
In the search for such a goal of seeking to find solace in the plurality of material desires, one always succumbs to anxiety and with it comes further attachment to the network of more and more and more and further enslavement in the ways of the world with its vicious circle.
As one travels such a route, sooner the subject start making plans of how to develop expertise in the world of business which keeps anchored in the realm of the material and its network of desires and along with it also come a struggle for existence at all times. There is an over indulgence in doing things. In some ways it is a non-authentic way of avoiding what is and always looking unto the future as if the past had no value. The subject is further posed to seek and seek and seek whilst paying no heed to the present which is dismissed for a future, in that process, close ones matters little as the venture is about the future, an unplanned future which may never be or is always on horizon as an escapist. What is about us has no value as one succumbs to that form which is about fun, desires and pleasures which the subject chases.
In this arena there is nothing about reflecting or pausing to recollect. The motto had been set. It is all about running here there and everywhere. There is hardly any time to witness that which is revealed. What is encountered is that mass of reactions of the good and the bad and one happily partakes in it.
The norm of material culture or way of life is different from the transcendental realm which pierces through the material and opens up a venue where the ways of the mundane may not reach. It is of a different nature where one comes face to face with life as it is and not as it should be. In this mode, the call is never to identify and/or play a certain role and/or trying to run after pleasures or seeking of a fun lifestyle based on a network of the sensory, or what is immediately perceived!
It is a pathway which takes us beyond that which is perceived or a form of the miseries of being are left behind. However, the call is to move away from that dense forest of delusion where there is little or no questioning about the nature of existence. The call is for the mind to move away from that which is mixed with pleasures but end up in thorns at the end. Or the ways of running after pleasures unlimited verily takes us towards a network of desires of attachment and seeking of other ways to gratify the senses notably through pursuit of one’s efforts and so remain in the arena of the known or that which one takes to be the be and end of everything.
The task of the prudent is to move onwards and towards that form that no longer seeks solace in the acts of gratification whether through primary or secondary forms and or sought those fun activities which keeps one rooted at the base of the material realm.
Where there are no desires for the petty and the transient that is where one arises above and beyond and seek that which is through finding wealth not in the exterior or the other but in the self or as in some quarters may be termed as the transcendental way forward.
One is no longer disturbed when encountering the miseries or suffering which perpetually inflict us or inversely not thrilled when joviality is in the air. The clue is indeed being free from the pairs of the opposites and not be subjected to attachment or detachment. All a question of being there and mere seeing and being rather than trying to mend ways and or seek benefits as the crude would do to better oneself in so many ways.
It is all about being equipoised at all times whilst leading that simple life, a life not subjected to the ways of the world where one is forced into going along with the crowd. The idea is to set a simple standard and abide and live with it. No need to run after things and or seek to derive non-natural ways of deriving primary and or secondary pleasures. Or being bewildered within the material pool. Merely a question of being there away from all those forms which may distract the self that one is. Solace, calm and peace may not be found in running hither and tither but in seeing the self that one is within as we hinted earlier. Verily a question of coming to terms with one being rather that searching and searching after the, exterior. Or as Socrates reminds us ‘know thyself is the beginning of wisdom’.