flotsam & jetsam

“A lot of people don’t do minimalism because it doesn’t seem realistic for their lives. But what they often mean is that they don’t want others to think they’re weird.”

“I had possessions once. I mean, I had them up around my fucking neck. I thought and felt that I was not in control, that they owned me. After all, if you have a house and a car and nine jillion pieces of furniture, you’re not mobile. You’re not anything. You’re stuck. Some people will say it’s a great way to be stuck, and maybe it is for them, but the notion of having a bunch of shit that I have to stay around and take care of doesn’t wear well with me.”

“The space alloted to each monk is one *tatami*, or a mat 3 x 6 feet, where he sits, meditates, and sleeps. […] He has no regular pillow except that which is temporarily made out of his own private property. This latter, however, is next to nothing: it consists of a *kesa* (kasaya) and *koromo* (priestly robes), a few books, a razor, and a set of bowls, all of which are carried in a papier-maché box about 13 x 10 x 3 1/2 inches. In travelling this box is carried in front, suspended from the neck with a broad sash. His entire property thus moves with its owner. “One dress and one bowl, under a tree and on a stone” graphically describes the monk’s life in India. Compared with this, the modern Zen monk must be said to be abundantly supplied. Still his wants are reduced to a minimum and none can fail to lead a simple, perhaps the simplest, life if he models his after the life of a Zen monk.”