Category: Essays

That’s right, I said Monk. I have recently done a small bit of research on the life of a Monk. All kinds of Monks (Buddhist, Christian, Shaolin). Through my research of all these different types of Monks, I discovered one thing they all have in common: They are all minimalists. Every single type of Monk. EXTREME Minimalists. In fact, it’s the very fact that they are Minimalists that make them Monks. And vice versa. One can even argue than monastic living is just an extreme form of minimalism.

These are a people that have a narrow focus of passion toward something they consider bigger than themselves. In order to maintain that focus, they live in an environment, in a lifestyle free of all distraction that would serve to deviate them from their focus; from the images that they see, to the food they eat. What is that, if not the very definition of Minimalism (extreme minimalism)?

We Minimalists are a bit Monkish, are we not? Our passions are not all in religion/faith, but so many of us have our passions in something bigger than ourselves: music, teaching, Reiki, cycling, children, etc. And if we spend so much time and effort on our passion, does that not kinda make it our religion, our faith? Think about it.

If ever there was a template, or guide which to follow on how to be Minimalist, the life of a monk is definitely a solid standard. For some interesting tid bits and philosophy of the life of a Monk, follow the links below. I tried to get links that did not focus on the passion itself (no religion), but rather the lifestyle designed to create focus on that passion.

The Buddhist World: Lay Buddhist’s Guide to the Monk’s Rules

12 Essential Rules to Live More Like a Zen Monk

Inside the Life of a Shaolin Monk | The Huffington Post

The Productivity Monk Lifestyle

While I try to keep my media forms of entertainment to minimum (as you already know I don’t have cable TV) in an effort to block out garbage information from being absorbed in my mind, I do have a strong appreciation for radio. This is for two big reasons.

First, music is still the most pure, motivational, and inspiring form of entertainment I am aware of. Ever since I was a little boy, we almost always had the radio on in our home. Whether it was from a stereo receiver, or a tiny handheld, whether we were cleaning the house or just hanging out, we were always listening to what was on the air waves. It always made the home warmer. Music was there for me through all my best and worst times. Music has made me laugh, helped my cry, and inspired me to move forward.

Second, the information is always current and local. Well …… we can get current information from TV and any online media, but only with radio and local news papers do we learn of local news and events. As a social extrovert, I like to know about events in my area. Unfortunately online social media is not quite yet an adequate hub of information for local events. That is, if we know what we are looking for, we will find it through browsing online …… but that still requires that we already know what we are looking for. Personally, I have always incidentally learned of concerts, shows, and events of interest from the radio first, then followed up with them online.

Bonus reason: IT’S FREE. Besides the cost of the radio itself, and the electrical current to power the radio, there is no service charge to listen to radio. This is something that still blows my mind even today; the most wonderful form of entertainment we have is absolutely free. This is the reason XM and later SEROUS radio never took off; because even though commercial free radio is attractive, free radio will always be more attractive. Then once the smartphone became the norm, and PANDORA and i Heart radio became popular (also free), SEROUS became obsolete. The only price we pay for radio, is having to be exposed to garbage information in the form of ads. Excuse me for saying so, but TOTALLY WORTH IT.

It is for these reasons that I always have a good stereo receiver and speakers in my home (and almost always on), and in my vehicle (also on).

Minimalism is a basic philosophy, an idea, a concept. An idea that has gathered a bit of a cult following. Unfortunately for most ideas, as they become popular, they evolve into a standard; a fixed and very specific set of rules and regulations. From what I have seen recently, the concept of minimalism  is slowly being perverted in this way.

This is no surprise however, as it is the human condition to take ideas and build on them. Heck, entire businesses, entire empires are all built on ideas, often very simple ideas. This is a very positive thing. It’s the very basis for civilization as we know it.

A problem occurs however when we focus too much on building on the idea, that we lose sight of the idea itself. We often reach a point where if we would just step back, we would realize that much of what we built on the idea, actually contradicts the idea itself. Civilizations and businesses have fallen apart because of this tendency. This is the reason why organizations write down and document the original idea in what they call a “Mission Statement.” And constantly refer back to the Mission Statement with every development, and every decision to see if they are in line with it.

To go just a little broader: We humans have a tendency to get so coupe’d up in the money, politics, competition, and/or power struggle (BTW these are all the same really) that we lose our purpose.

I digress

It has come to my attention that many minimalists are being unfairly judged, due to a misunderstanding of what minimalism actually is. I read the comments of ignorant people saying things like “If you are so minimal, then you wouldn’t wear makeup.” or “Why would a minimalist need such a big kitchen.” This has happened so often that many of these minimalists have shut down their YouTube channels due to all the ignorant judgement.

It has also come to my attention that all of a sudden, minimalism is a competition. Always am I seeing podcasts about “minimalists” bragging about how they have reduced themselves down to only (enter number here) possessions. And then two weeks later seeing the same “minimalists” saying “I can’t handle this minimalism thing anymore! I miss having all my things!” (or something like that). Then they quit. These are the people that are no doubt giving the public the wrong idea about minimalism in the first place, thereby generating the ignorant comments mentioned in the paragraph above.

Let me address this problem first by defining minimalism as concisely as possible. Then I will break it down even finer than that by elaborating on a couple focal areas of that definition.

Minimalism: The act, process, and lifestyle of reducing ones life down to only the elements that add value to that life.

(I am intentionally leaving out the “why” part of the definition and just leaving in the “what”, because it’s only the “what” that we are concerned with in this article. For a more full definition, please go to the This Site page.)

The key words in the definition above are “elements” and “value.”

Element: Anything that takes ones time, space, money, and/or energy. This includes our material possessions, activities, thoughts, and people we associate with. So basically, everything in our lives is an element.

Value: A level of personal fulfillment; a sense of purpose. An element gives our lives value if it provides personal fulfillment, or is a means toward personal fulfillment.

“Value” is where things get subjective. What has value to one person will likely not have value to another person. So the only person that determine the value of an element in ones life, is that person themselves. So before one can even incorporate minimalism into their life, there is a huge prerequisite. Ready for it?………..KNOW THYSELF. A person must have a really good grasp of who they are, and what they want out of life.

People who do not have a good grasp on who they are, but wish to embrace minimalism, turn minimalism into a numbers game. It’s easier to do that, than it is to determine what they value. Unfortunately this is not true minimalism at all. It’s really just getting rid of a whole bunch of stuff in an effort to fill some type of void (the anti-hoarding). People who do this are usually people that desperately need a life change, but do not know enough about themselves to accurately determine what that change should be. For these people, minimalism is attractive because of it’s simplicity.

People who do have a strong identity, are attracted to minimalism because of the time and focus it gives back to them.

 

There are many types of minimalists out there. There are ones that live in big homes, with a spouse and lots of children. As long as everything within the property adds value to their lives, they still qualify. There are backpackers that live out of their …… backpack, and get tremendous value out of satisfying their wanderlust. There are “efficiency” minimalists like myself that live a domestic life on a small scale. We live out of apartments, condo’s, and tiny homes.

So, if a minimalist likes to wear makeup, that doesn’t make her any less of a minimalist. Obviously that adds lots of value to her life. If she has a big kitchen, maybe she likes to cook large scale meals for friends and family. We don’t know her values, her passions, and we can’t determine them for her. Minimalism doesn’t dictate what our passions are supposed to be, only that follow those passions un-distracted.

For those who are playing the numbers game, your doing it wrong. Rather than focusing on the minimizing itself, instead determine and focus on what we want out of life. Once that is determined (and that might take a while, as it’s the hard part), we are in an excellent position to now custom tailor our life on this newfound passion; as we’ve already disposed with the excess baggage. It is even possible that with this new focus, this new passion, that we might even need to acquire some all new material possessions (God forbid). Don’t worry, we will still be minimalists tomorrow.