the simple life - p.1

how i admire people who know how to dedicate an entire life to simplicity while leading an (emotionally) intelligent life.

i would love to keep my life simple! in interactions with others, in my doings and activities, my ambitions. it is an aspiration. i have too many interests, want too many things at once, and how many goals have i reached ??

isn't that pointing to the buddhist recommendation to aim for detachment (not get too attached to things and people)? mentally i am trying to steer myself away from the consumer thinking and to rationalise my desires ("needs") for material objects like books, clothes, comfort things, by NOT buying unless i truly run out or have no more - thereby "travelling light".

the next step is that i am finding myself looking at my environment (and japan, as most other developed nations, is such a materialistic society). how can people so intensely and consciously kill themselves at work 14-hours a day or more, every day of their lives - for what? the best outcome is that they buy expensive brand-name bags & clothing, car and house of sizes that noone really has the time to use...because they're at work night-and-day. the new slave...whose slave? the consumer slave, the materialist slave or the ego slave?

interestingly this kind of thinking-feeling seems to have been a long-time trend labeled post-materialism. another label is the cultural creatives. we here on zaadz are probably mostly part of the cultural-creatives community that cares.

emotional intelligence is key, i have come to realise recently. people who lack emotional intelligence can be extremely annoying to deal with because it is hard to connect and communicate at a higher, straightforward, intuitive (simple!) level.