Teaching, Learning and Practicing Yoga and Buddhism Freedom
and Living Simply
It is easy to get a somewhat distorted view of the country, culture
and society that we live in, especially if we usually read the
newspapers or are overly influenced by what we see on the news
everyday.
For a number of years this writers main source of information about
Thailand and its people was through the daily look at the English
language newspapers published here. The news was always depressing
and many times unbelievable and horrible.
During a recent trip to Cambodia, I noticed the same reaction in
myself when looking at one of the English language newspapers
published there. The crimes being committed there that made the
news were pretty much the same as in Thailand, revolving around
robbery, sex, murder and the violation of anothers human and
political rights.
Then, through the interest in gathering resources and texts for
teaching English in both Thailand and Cambodia, I started to look
at the daily headlines and news from a number of newspapers and
locales in the U.S.
It did not matter if the place was Austin, Texas, Jacksonville or
Orlando, Florida, Los Angeles or San Francisco, California, New
York City, or Cleveland, Ohio, the news was the same as it had been
in Thailand or Cambodia.
Sad, depressing and at times unbelievable, mainly because those who
live in the west and the U.S. have so many wonderful things that
can and should bring them happiness in their lives.
But the bottom line is that it is not what we have or do not have
in our environment that determines the state of our mind and
consciousness, but instead the quality of our mind and
consciousness and the state of our mindfulness.
The defilements are at play in all individuals throughout the
world, regardless of where they live and what language they
speak.
Perhaps part of the problem is that we do not know how to live a
simple life.
We consume much more then we need in order to live well and live
wisely.
This consumption consists of things such as food, sex, clothing,
water, electricity, comfort and space.
In our freedom, we have been conditioned by all sorts of forces to
consume with little mindfulness about what it is we really need. We
may find that if we gear our life to living more simply, some of
our needs and desires will not be as strong as they were
before.
We also may find that some of the things that are very basic to
life are easily within our grasp and use, things like the breath
and air, nature and trees, and the mental and physical well - being
of our own body and mind.
We sometimes see that we and others, especially when we are exposed
to the sad, terrible and unbelievable things that people do through
our reading of the newspapers and watching of the news, are not
using and experiencing the freedom that we talk about and seemingly
treasure so much in a wise way.
Perhaps if we make an effort to cut back on all things and live
more simply, we will find a greater focus and be able to experience
a greater joy and sense of satisfaction through the self
discipline that we have imposed on ourselves.
©2007 John C. Kimbrough
John is a volunteer teaching Yoga and Buddhism and providing other
health and educational resources for men and women in a local
provincial prison in Cambodia. He has lived in Asia for twenty
years