Expo West
I am writing these reflections from Anaheim in California, at the largest trade show of the American health product industry, Expo West. It is a mammoth jamboree of around 10,000 stands, all vying to explain and give tastes of their products.
I am here to give a talk about herbal remedies from the Greek-Arabic medical tradition. However I have spent a good deal of time wandering around, tasting organic delicacies from all the world, sipping juices from exotic fruits, snacking on nutritious food, and, when quite exhausted, getting doses of herbal pick-me-ups.
The inventiveness is extraordinary. There are lots of dedicated people who really believe in what they are doing. And lots of others who are only interested in making money. There are good products, and useless ones.
But it does raise some questions: Is our own health and our well-being, and that of the planet, dependant on what we buy? Or on what we do not buy?
For me, there is no difficulty in choosing more wisely what to eat, what to take when I feel unwell and what products to bring into my home. But here I am asking myself - even before I start choosing between this product or that product, why am I adding more 'stuff' to my life?
Human Beings Not Human Havings
When our instinct is to fill our lives with more and more, it could just be an escape from our basic existential dissatisfaction. Often shopping is an automatic response, encouraged by society, to be more happy.
For instance we may be convinced that if we have a new car/flat/holiday/computer/etc. we would be happy. And it can make us happy, but only briefly, because happiness is to be found in being, not in having. We are Human Beings not Human Havings. And too often, when the having loses its magic, we are left with sadness or even depression.
It is helpful (though not essential) on the road to real happiness, to be more simple. Not to be overwhelmed with things that we accumulate or feel we need. These can be physical possessions that pile up and we find ourselves constantly busy with them, or they can be mental possessions - ideas, attachments, views, and expectations.
As one Zen master said: ‘Why should I let go?" and his own answer, "Because it all piles up!"
A traditional Christian sect created a song that expresses this letting go of the need to control everything and keep having more: "'Tis the gift to be simple, ‘Tis the gift to be free/Tis the gift to come down to where we ought to be/And when we find ourselves in the place just right/'Twill be in the valley of love and delight."
As western culture is so deeply bought into a culture of buying, we may need to go against the stream. But if we are we going to turn round and swim against the tide, How do we do that?
Mahatma Gandhi's Thoughts On Joyful Living
In my opinion, Mahatma Gandhi, had one of the most well thought out alternative ways to live. He praised a community life which was fundamentally ecological, joyful and dignified. With his hand-operated spinning wheel that he took everywhere, he taught that joy comes when you restore your connection with the most basic things in your life, by doing them or making them yourself.
That does not necessarily mean that you need to spin your own cotton thread. But we can cook our own food from simple raw materials of grains and vegetables. Sometimes we can bake our own bread. For many years I used to bake bread in the early mornings, and it was one of the most joyful experiences of the day - the movement of my body, the aromas of the wheat, the concert of birds outside against the background quietness of the morning.
With a small plot of land we can grow our own food and even if we just have window boxes, we can grow medicinal plants. In my own life, as I establish a real contact with those crucial and forgotten life essentials, I find more joy and ease coming into my life, even my stress reduces as I become more intimate with simple needs and simple solutions.
Letting Go Of Spiritual Shopping
And there is also a deep let go that is a major help in our spiritual journey. Often in our desire for spiritual growth, we find ourselves in the restless mind-set of shopping - another weekend retreat, another course, another teacher, another book, another practice………none providing the deeper peace and joy of simply being and being simple.
It is as if we need to let go of the need to experience everything, of walking all paths, knowing all teachers, or trying all types of yoga. As we let go, we may experience a great relief - that all this stuff was not needed in the first place. That every path, teacher and yoga pose that we seek is inside of us.
As we let go, those self created voices demanding control and outcomes, needing to have it all, start to quieten and we may find that a much deeper joy creeps up on us, even as we are not expecting.
I am writing now of a real contentment that can not be bought or even given for free, because it is inside us. As Ramana Maharshi once said: "A passenger on a train does not need to keep carrying his baggage. He can put it down and allow the train to take him and his baggage."
Let life take us and our baggage. And with a feeling of being simply complete as we are, the train of life can lead us through the valley of love and delight.