Your favorite simplicity books

I have two that I absolutely love:

1. Your Money or Your Life
2. Scaling Down

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

I have read Radical Simplicity, albeit late at night and with a sleep deprived mommy brain. I really enjoyed it and felt guily for having so much “necessary ” stuff. DH and I have joined 2 households. I love to watch Clean Sweep, How Clean is your House, and Neat. I see what others think is clutter and am better at dealing with mine. It is difficult, but so freeing. I am doing this in tiny step.

I also like the website www.flylady.com It is about cleaning, but you have to release clutter first. I just wish dh would be able to get on board more. All those DVDs and tools!

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

That flylady website is awesome; thanks for sharing it.

I love the question at the top of the page:  “Are YOU living in CHAOS (Can't Have Anyone Over Syndrome)?”  Heh!

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

I have a few that I read, but I still really love the first such book my mother ever gave to me: Living More with Less. It’s written by a Mennonite woman, and includes a lot of different ideas on a lot of different topics that is still very relevant today (the book was written in the early 70s, as I recall.) It also gets into a lot of issues of social justice, and the discrepancies between use and waste in various parts of the world. I usually reread it at least once a year when I need some inspiration.

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

Thanks for the recommendation, Jenn.  They don't have it at my library, so I guess I'll put it on my wanted list and check for it next time I go to the used book store. 

Chuang-Tzu: Inner Chapters

Chuang Tzu - Inner Chapters
http://www.fhzal.com/philosophy

Prince Wen Hui's cook was carving up an ox. Every touch of his hand, every heave of his shoulder, every step of his foot, every thrust of his knee, with the slicing and parting of the flesh, and the zinging of the knife - all was in perfect rhythm, just like the Dance of the Mulberry Grove or a part of the Ching Shou symphony.

Prince Wen Hui remarked, “How wonderfully you have mastered your art.”

The cook laid down his knife and said, “What your servant really cares for is Tao, which goes beyond mere art. When I first began to cut up oxen, I saw nothing but oxen. After three years of practicing, I no longer saw the ox as a whole. I now work with my spirit, not with my eyes. My senses stop functioning and my spirit takes over. I follow the natural grain, letting the knife find its way through the many hidden openings, taking advantage of what is there, never touching a ligament or tendon, much less a main joint.”

“A good cook changes his knife once a year because he cuts, while a mediocre cook has to change his every month because he hacks. I've had this knife of mine for nineteen years and have cut up thousands of oxen with it, and yet the edge is as if it were fresh from the grinding stone. There are spaces between the joints. The blade of the knife has no thickness. That which has no thickness has plenty of room to pass through these spaces. Therefore, after nineteen years, my blade is as sharp as ever. However, when I come to a difficulty, I size up the joint, look carefully, keep my eyes on what I am doing, and work slowly. Then with a very slight movement of the knife, I cut the whole ox wide open. It falls apart like a clod of earth crumbling to the ground. I stand there with the knife in my hand, looking about me with a feeling of accomplishment and delight. Then I wipe the knife clean and put it away.”

“Well done!” said the Prince. “From the words of my cook, I have learned the secret of growth.”

Re: Chuang-Tzu: Inner Chapters

That story with its good moral is related well to this pod and i appreciate the time and thought you put into it.

I also cringed from the example of butchering up many oxen and think of the irony of the excessive consumption of animals that brings so much suffering to our planet. From the knowledge i have about the myriad costs of what i believe to be an unecessary and inhumane practice, we stray further and further from voluntary simplicity. The habit of eating meat contributes greatly to world hunger, soil erosion, rainforest clearcuts, cancers, and feeds the illness at our collective human core—greed.

Organically fed, 'kosher killed', hunted animals as an alternative? That is better than factory farming, but is still killing. There are several Zaadz pods related to the animal kingdoms, hunger in Africa, and passionate zeal with creative alternatives to the consumption of animal flesh. Hope ya'll give em a peek and a shout.

I am off my soap box now and its truly been a while since i have seen the dusty old thing, but that Ox piece pulled it right out of my closet where i return it to once again!

Re: Chuang-Tzu: Inner Chapters

Thanks for your feedback, Mary.  I think you're right to appreciate the moral of the story first.  The details are only secondary.

I first encountered the Chuang-Tzu story in the book Flow.  Later in the book, the author offers a more modern story with a similar moral; it is the story of another person who enjoys doing things well.  Here it is:

“Joe was in his early sixties, a welder in a South Chicago plant where railroad cars are assembled.  About two hundred people worked with Joe in three huge, dark, hangarlike structures….  In the summer it is an overn, in winter the icy winds of the prairie howl through.  The clanging of metal is always so intense that one must shout into a person's ear to make oneself understood.

“…[Joe] had been working at this plant for over thirty years, but never wanted to become a foreman.  He declined several promotions, claiming that he liked being a simple welder…. Although he stood on the lowest rung of the hierarchy of the plant, everyone knew Joe, and everyon agreed that he was the most important person in the entire factory… His fellow workers said that without Joe they might as well shut down the shop right now.

“The reason for his fame was simple: Joe had apparently mastered every phase of the plant's operation, and he was now able to take anyone's place if the necessity arose … But what astounded peopel most was that Joe not only could perform these tasks, but actually enjoyed it when he was called upon to do them.”

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

Another that I am just reading is called Affluenza. Did you know that after WWII, the normal size for houses was 750 sq ft? Apparrently the average American now needs2300. They extra space is used to store Stuff.

Iska

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

Has anyone read Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin?  If you're not sure what this movement is about and want to begin a life of simplicity, it may be one to pick up.  I read it during university and it changed my mind.  Recommended for people starting out on the path towards simplicity.

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

Voluntary Simplicity was decent enough. More common sense than anything, though. I don't know if its been mentioned yet, but for several years there was a newsletter published dealing with the topic of simplicity and frugality. Can't for the life of me recall who wrote it, but it is to this day considered the “source of all goodness”. I bet one can get a stack of them on Ebay … real cheap.

 I can't agree enough with Affluenza.  Reading it is an eye-opening experience. Doesn't explain how to simplify your life, but certainly shocks you into wanting to do so.

 Richard

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

“I've been to simpleliving.net and I'm really overwhelmed by the list of books available.  Not in a bad way - merely thinking of the basket of books to be read next to my desk already then wondering where to start on simpleliving's reading list.

I've never read a simple living book - just followed my own thoughts.  I think I most definitely should read a book.

Where would you suggest starting?

“Affluenza” looks entertaining but I think I'm already past that realization and I guess with my reading overload - for now I better keep it purposeful.

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

I read something today based on a prompt at another pod and I was immediately inspired to share it here. This is the perfect place for it:

“… I can only carry back my little channelled whelk. It will sit on my desk in Connecticut, to remind me of the ideal of a simplified life, encourage me in the game I played on the beach. To ask how little, not how much, can I get along with. To say – is it necessary? – when I am tempted to add one more accumulation to my life, when I am pulled toward one more centrifugal activity.
     “Simplification of outward life is not enough. It is merely the outside. But I am starting with the outside. I am looking at the outside of a shell, the outside of my life – the shell. The complete answer is not to be found on the outside, in an outward mode of living. This is only a technique, a road to grace. The final answer, I know, is always inside. But the outside can give a clue, can help one to find the inside answer. One is free, like the hermit crab, to change one's shell.
     “Channelled whelk, I put you down again, but you have set my mind on a journey, up an inwardly winding spiral staircase of thought.”

© Anne Morrow Lindbergh
Gift From the Sea
1955 , Pantheon Books
New York, Toronto

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

I would have to second the vote for Voluntary Simplicity by Duane Elgin. Visionary and futurist, he was the first of this group in my opinion to add structure to this concept back in 1980. One of the books that birthed or focused some of my questions.

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

I would vote for both Living More With Less and Voluntary Simplicity. I also like Extreme Simplicity, by Christopher and Dolores Nyerges.  It covers a lot of ground;  they are teachers of wilderness survival, and live in the LA area.  This book would appeal to those who are into the wilderness survival thing (they also publish a really good magazine called Wilderness Way), as well as environmentalists, urban gardeners, and simple living folks.  Good info all the way around.

Some good info can be found in books that discuss the way things were done in the “old days”.  Pioneer books, including the Little House on the Prairie series; books on colonial times; and Civil War-era books all discuss making do with what you have.  Not to mention Depression-era books.  I am struck by how folks valued things like paper and cloth!  If we ever happen upon bad times again, the skills mentioned in these books could help us along.  And the tips can be implemented now to help us all keep the earth greener right now.

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

I really like Simplify your life by Küstenmacher and Seiwert. It's German originally, and at least translated in Dutch, but I'm sure it's out there in English as well.

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

I just found it: in English it's called: How to Simplify Your Life.

Re: Your favorite simplicity books

In my attempt to learn about simplicity, I have bought a few books that I am now ready to release. Would I be allowed to post them here to sell?

Iska