This school year, I watched the documentary Minimalism: A Documentary About the Important Things. This documentary starring Joshua Fields Millburn and Ryan Nicodemus shows what it’s like to be a minimalist and why they do what they do. They say that “Minimalism is a tool to rid yourself of life’s excess in favor of focusing on what’s important—so you can find happiness, fulfillment, and freedom.” Through living a minimalistic lifestyle, people have found lasting happiness through life itself instead of through material things. A minimalistic approach to life allows people to find freedom from fear, worry, stress, and toxic ways of consumer culture. In class, when we learned about Epicurus and living prudently, I immediately thought back to this documentary. I think Epicurus would be in favor of the Minimalistic lifestyle for many reasons. First off, Epicurus says in order to live a pleasurable life free from stress and anxiety, you must live prudently. You must think carefully, plan ahead, and manage your desires. He says we shouldn’t follow after unnatural and empty desires. Secondly, a Minimalistic way of living allows people to become happy and satisfied with all of their belongings. Epicurus says when you reduce the amount of material things that you own, you become more appreciative of occasional luxuries. Lastly, many modern Minimalists are jokingly seen as hippies who don’t own televisions or cars, and they just sit in their tiny homes writing blog posts every day. While this is very stereotypical and not 100% true about Minimalists, I do think that they are different and hip in a certain kind of way. This lifestyle reminds me of the “Epicurean Garden”. The “Garden” was Epicurus’ ideal way of living in a hippie-like community with supportive people who all take care of one another, disbursing burdens and living a simple life full of ataraxia. After learning about Epicurus in class, I have seen how Epicurus and Minimalists have very similar methods of finding happiness. If you have seen this documentary yourself, do you think that long term happiness can be found from living a Minimalistic lifestyle and living prudently? If you haven't seen it, you should definitely check it out! It's on Netflix, Amazon, iTunes, and many other platforms.
I like how this gives us an opportunity to see a comparable representation of the Epicurean lifestyle. When trying to live a minimalistic lifestyle, you try to live in simplicity in order to be as free as possible from distractions. When you are able to separate yourself, you can appreciate luxuries more and look at things you wouldn't have ever given a second glaces with open eyes. Also, while being Minimalistic, you will have an easier time achieving ataraxia without all of the hustle and bustle of the fast life. This post has sparked my interest in this documentary, and I can't wait to watch it and compare the representations of a Minimalist life with that of the Epicurean life.
ReplyDeleteThe teachings of Buddhism also fall in line well with the ideals of minimalism. For one, the idea of ridding yourself of all worldly desires advocates for a simple life. The Buddha himself advocated a simple life because he felt this was the best way to seek nirvana. Minimalism allows you to see many things that, perhaps beforehand, we would have considered trifles. The path to seeking nirvana is likely very similar because one becomes more worried about finding inner peace and finding joy in the small simpler things in life. In much the same way as minimalists do, a Buddhist can easily find joy in simply being alive. Buddhism in general is meant to free one from suffering in the same way that minimalism seeks to remove many of the negative aspects of life, such as fear or stress. In short, the two ideals are very similar and seek the same general path in the search for happiness.
ReplyDeleteI think it's important to notice the community aspect as well. When people are not as focused on material things or distracted by their worries and problems, they are better able to support and take care of each other. As Epicurus considered friendship a natural and necessary desire, I think you're right to say that he would endorse the minimalist type of lifestyle, because people in such communities seem like they would be much more connected with and willing to help one another.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed reading this comparison regarding the Epicurean lifestyle to the minimalist lifestyle because I think it really shows how many things in the world are related together, even when we don't realize it. I like to learn about the minimalistic lifestyle because I believe we should all strive to live like some of it. By living minimally, I believe it helps you to understand that you do not need everything to be happy. By only living by what you need, and not what you think you need, you can, in a sense, live a life free of life's anxieties, that come from always wanting more. I believe this also relates to the passage we read in class Monday about Pahom. In the beginning, he lived a minimal life. He always had "enough", but then he got tempted by worldly desires, to get more land, and it caused him to stray away from the minimalist lifestyle and into a lifestyle of a constant anxiety of wanting more land. This is why I believe we should try to live a minimalist lifestyle because it enables us to live simply, without all the worldly desires of constantly wanting more.
ReplyDeleteThis was definitely an interesting read! Especially about drawing out the idea of the garden living and the way that minimalist live. I agree that Epicurus would have agreed with this type of lifestyle. The idea of cutting out the things you don't need and making room for freedom and true enjoyment works very well with this philosophy! I will have to check out this documentary.
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