Minimalism, East Asian philosophy (Buddhism), and how they are not that different from one another.

I think I’ve mentioned in several posts that there was one point in my life that I really got into some of the philosophies behind Buddhism, I was trying to be spiritual, and be more mindful of everything I did. Mindfulness was one of my biggest takeaways from that time and I try to practice it as often as I can. Well anyways, before I digress any more, I want to start with….interconnectedness.

First things first, what is interconnectedness? To my understanding, it is the idea that everything is related to everything else; what you do can affect everything OR another way to look at it is one thing cannot exist without the other OR something exists because the other exists.

Confusing? Well let me try to relate this to minimalism…

When we are so consumed by our “things” we tend to block ourselves off. We are only concerned with our latest gadget or app, consumed by earning more money to get more things that we don’t need. Our relationships with our friends and family and the rest of society (even the world) start to depart from us.

If those relationships don’t exist, we don’t exist. I’ll leave with this quote (not sure of the author, but I like it anyways):

If you light a lamp for someone else it will also brighten your path.