{"id":47925,"date":"2022-09-22T11:43:07","date_gmt":"2022-09-22T11:43:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/?p=47925"},"modified":"2022-09-22T11:52:41","modified_gmt":"2022-09-22T11:52:41","slug":"the-joy-of-simplicity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/2022\/09\/22\/the-joy-of-simplicity\/","title":{"rendered":"The joy of simplicity."},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Everything in life can become a rabbit hole.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter what it is we fall in love with or become intrigued with, it can devour us and take us into oblivion for as long as we live.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just one of those things that add flavor to our existence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There\u2019s really no limit to the stuff we can embrace.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can become infatuated with almost anything, add it to our personality, and build on it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From tiny housing to hard science.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From plant-based living to geocaching.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

From being a left-wing activist to earning billions while destroying the earth and not giving a fuck.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And of course \u2018spirituality\u2019, that vague concept we all have different ideas about, is an endless playground for infinite directions we can roam and explore, because we can go from yoga to crystals to angels and horse-whispering and back, and there\u2019s much, much more.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We can study the Tao, spend the rest of our lives trying to become master meditators, or explore the many intricacies of non-duality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You get the idea.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today I was watching an older BBC show that follows people who are building and renovating houses to make them into their dream projects, and the guy in this episode said, somewhere halfway through the program, that \u2018simplicity is the hardest thing to achieve\u2019.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I smiled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quite broadly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Because simplicity is my rabbit hole.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I\u2019m totally intrigued by how complex and hard life can feel for one person, while the next man or woman who can live under fairly similar circumstances, has nothing but good vibes and experiences.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I’ve tried almost everything in existence to be happy and feel good and fulfilled and safe and inspired, and it turned out that knowing and trying less works way better than adding and plowing on.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The way I see it now, simplicity is not about figuring out everything in existence, but the exact opposite: coming to a place where you stop figuring it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everything.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That\u2019s hard because it\u2019s so simple, and seems TOO simple.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that\u2019s why the quote in the show appealed to me so very much.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard because our experience of life is mostly confusing and rich and enticing and overwhelming and insecure and scary and unpredictable, and we\u2019ve learned for many years to try and understand it and control it and manage it and bend it into the shapes we like to see and believe will keep us safe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So that’s what we keep doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What we’re promised will do the trick, what’s supposed to scratch these terrible existential itches, is knowing as much as we can, and that\u2019s why we never stop studying.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the overwhelm keeps coming anyway, and the suffering remains, which makes the whole thing even more confusing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simplicity is hard because we think all the fucking time, and those thoughts look and feel like life and not like thoughts.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s hard because the idea of not controlling a single thing, the idea of being lived from moment to moment by something we\u2019ll never comprehend (even though we’re made of it), is the most terrifying notion possible for the mind, and a lethal blow to its importance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simplicity means REALLY knowing that you ultimately know nothing, and life goes on anyway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a deep relief, but you\u2019ve got to get used to it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not anything like a dull and scary emptiness and you won’t be left emptyhanded, but instead, it\u2019s a creative vastness, an infinite source of possibilities and formations and options.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the direct feeling of life, without the taste of forms and ideas.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within that feeling, within that knowing, everything can still go on, and it will.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can still study, still do whatever it is you feel inclined to do, but the approach is a lot lighter, and finding the answers becomes more playful than crucial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s like being calm in a world that\u2019s not.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sometimes it\u2019s referred to as \u2018the eye of the storm\u2019, and that sounds about right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simplicity is how we feel when we\u2019re not lost in thoughts and ideas about the world, if we step back from the grotesque creations and suggestions of the mind, and realize there\u2019s a sense of being that has never not existed in the background.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It doesn\u2019t mean that all thoughts go away or change into nothing but positive messages, it also doesn\u2019t mean you stop feeling all the feelings we can feel; it just means that your overall experience is grounded in unchanging, unwavering okayness.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Simplicity is not really a discovery, nor a reward for hard work.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s just one of the rabbit holes, twisting and turning until you find your way back to where you started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s the sweetest, most invigorating way to feel a bit stupid.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

—<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n\n\n\n

(Photo by @shashanksahay, for Unsplash)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everything in life can become a rabbit hole. No matter what it is we fall in love with or become intrigued with, it can devour us and take us into oblivion for as long as we live. It\u2019s just one of those things that add flavor to our existence. There\u2019s really no limit to the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47926,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"off","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":""},"categories":[99,102,97,117,100,116,113,107,103,112],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47925"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=47925"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47925\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":47929,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47925\/revisions\/47929"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/47926"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=47925"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=47925"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/marnix.nl\/homepage\/welkom\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=47925"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}