Simplicity
Yesterday, while on an afternoon jaunt ‘up north’, a few of us farm brothers and sisters encountered a wooden puzzle maker. That is, a man who makes wooden puzzles. Puzzles of Washington state, of the United States, of Africa and Europe; of peace signs, alphabet-turtles, pandas, swans, sail boats and animal arks – all kinds of puzzles, all made out of birch wood. He carves them, and his wife paints them.
It turns out, wooden puzzle making has been in their family for nearly 50 years! He made his first when he was 13. It was only recently, that he found his own way back to the family business. His mom and step dad had been running it continuously since 1979 in Northern CA, with many decades spent running a store front on Pier 39 in SF. Now, he and his wife run the business out of their wood-shop on a side street in Edison, WA – a part of the vibrant resurgence of village culture in the town that was largely empty of businesses 20 years ago; today it is filled with cafes, bakeries, shops and galleries of all flavors.
Being a wooden puzzle maker – sounds simple enough. And indeed, that is exactly the philosophy which brought him back to wood puzzle-making. He referred to this choice as one of ‘voluntary simplicity’, and said it has been his path in life for the last 20 years (prior to moving to Edison last year, they lived in an off-gird yurt in Mendocino).
Well, you can imagine our delight – here were 6 of us, brothers and sisters of simplicity from the Ashram of Camano. We told him our own story, that we live and farm on 25 acres on the south end of Camano, and that our life path is simplicity, and our life purpose is Self Realization.
What joy it was to meet on this level – in the choice and path to realize freedom by being simple. This world is complicated enough, eh?
Attached below is our own Ashram user manual for ‘voluntary simplicity’.
May all know the joy of being simple, and may we visualize a day, where the world’s complicated problems will yet fall away, for a humanity which chooses simplicity over complexity; happiness over materialism; harmony over separation, love over fear.
If you’re interested in wooden puzzles (we got the turtle alphabet and a peace sign): https://puzzlepeople.com/
Simple Living Manifesto
(Inspired by a talk given by Paramhansa Yogananda, ‘How to be Blissful and Happy all the Time’, June 12, 1949 – direct quotes are in italics)
Freedom lies in simplicity.
The commitment to live simply is, ultimately, the commitment to live for God alone. This means to tune your will with God; to find and know him. Then you will know that you came on earth for a destined purpose.
Why can’t we see a divine design for human life? For even my own life?
Desires. Born of ego identification, desire-nature keeps us bound to the dual nature of the world and enmeshed in the senses, habits, and attachments. You think you came here for yourself!
Therefore, as brothers and sisters of simplicity, we aspire and attain to be free from a life guided by selfish motives and desires, and to realize the divine purposes of life as a human on planet earth. If you have a desire, cut it off, you’ll be happy right away.
The Goal of life is Plain Living, High Thinking, and Freedom.
Yogananda called the coalition of life’s purposes Brotherhood Colonies, or the living Church of Christ, whereby work, worship, education, play, meditation, creativity, and all aspects of life are integrated into one holistic, natural and spiritual community of life. It is based on Brotherhood and Love, and what is possible only when you have God.
- He revealed the “goals of life”, as 4 fold:
- The first is to be happy in God, all the time, no matter what happens.
- The second is to grow one’s own food.
- The third is health through natural living, and freedom from the dis-ease that accompanies modern, unnatural life.
- The fourth is to provide all other basic needs (like clothes, building, art, medicine, etc) as a community, and thereby become independent from the ways of the world.
These purposes coalesce into a single purpose of Freedom, to realize God within and without, as the true and abiding reality of all Life. The purpose of life is to have God, and to do His will.
This message of a simple, happy life, is not a message of primitivism or going backwards; it is the mission of soul freedom. It is not for weaklings or prideful people; it is for the spiritually courageous and the humble.
It speaks not to the passing cultures and fads of humanity in a day, but to the timeless and universal path of life, which is always here to be known when a human-Soul is ready to be born anew. What you need is these colonies if you want to wake up.
It is the immortal path of happiness which God has designed for humanity: To live close to Nature, in brotherhood and in harmony with all life. This is the actual, practical application and realization of Yoga (Union) and Christ’s teachings in this world. In our own lives.
That is the kind of church we are going to build. The church Jesus Christ preached.
Yogananda stated that this way of life will be the way of the future of humanity: A perfect blending of East and West; of inner spiritual-realization, and of outer harmony with nature; That we should go forth in all directions, and demonstrate that simplicity of living, combined with high thinking and self-realization, will lead to the greatest happiness and freedom.
This is the way that I am showing you, and this shall spread all over the world, and nothing can stop the power that God has given me. I am showing the way to freedom.
And don’t forget this plan. Each one of you can do it; the work needs you, and you need the work. This is the way of freedom.” -P. Yogananda
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