Tag: simplicity

Decluttering

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In the Christian tradition the season of Lent begins today, a period of simplification and an opportunity to make space for the deeper realities in our lives, creating room to see what is happening, to go deeper and see where we are being called to invest our energy.

Most people today seems to think that sacrifice means giving something up. This is how shallow our religious sense has become. Sacrifice really involves the art of drawing energy from one level and reinvesting it at another level to produce a higher form of consciousness.

Robert Johnson, Jungian Analyst, Balancing Heaven and Earth

Buying happiness

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If we are silly enough to remain at the mercy of the people who want to sell us happiness, it will be impossible for us ever to be content with anything. How would they profit if we became  content? We would no longer need their new product. The last thing the salesman wants is for the buyer to become content. You are of no use in our society unless you are always wanting to grasp what you never have. The Greeks were not as smart as we are. In their primitive way they put Tantalus in hell. [Advertising]…on the contrary, would convince us that Tantalus is in heaven.

Thomas Merton

Sunday Quote: Simplicity

Karl DuffyLeave a comment

All Saints Day, starting a month were there is an emphasis on simplifying, remembering and integrating, imitating the slower pace of nature. This is somewhat different to the current fashion of accumulating and rushing around at this time, as the main shopping festivals arrive.

Maybe a side effect of the pandemic this year will be to slow things down and remind us of what is important

The man to whom little is not enough

will not benefit from more.

Saint Columbanus, 540 – 615, Irish monk, missionary and founder of monasteries.

One is satisfied not by the quantity of food, but by the absence of greed. 

Gurdjieff, 1866- 1949