How Much is Enough?
By Marjorie Yap
You can go to any fast food restaurant today and “Supersize” your order.
For a little more money you can get twice as much food. Marketing calls it
Value. As if we needed a half pound of hamburger, two potatoes of French
fries and 64 oz of drink for our midday meal. American culture today makes
it so difficult to say “I am satisfied, I have enough.” People look at you
funny and ask what is wrong with you. We think we need to have a bigger
house, fancier car, the latest gadgets. Consumers are what drive the
economy. People are working longer hours, looking for the next promotion in
order to satisfy the financial obligations of buying on credit more
electronics, more clothes, more exotic vacations. We are exhorted daily with
messages to have more, do more, be more, more, more.
Some of us may get layed off from our job or have health problems that
halt the headlong pursuit of having more. But such events rarely allow
people to appreciate their circumstances. What happens to those who step off
this acquisition merry-go-round? I read a news story the other day about a
high-powered executive that quit his job to spend more time with his family.
None of his co-workers believed that he made the decision to do it. They
thought it was a polite way of saying he was fired. Choosing a simpler
lifestyle not easy. How can we get to a place where we can say that we have
enough, we are satisfied?
Living in Japan: Lessons from Chado, the Way of Tea
I spent time in Japan studying Japanese culture through Japanese Tea
Ceremony, known in Japan as Chado, the Way of Tea.
According to D.T. Suzuki, who introduced Zen Buddhism and Japanese
culture to the West:
“… to understand Japanese culture is to understand the desire not to be
dependent on things worldly – wealth, power and reputation – and yet to feel
inwardly the presence of something of the highest value, above time and
social position.” (from Zen and Japanese Culture)
Rikyu, who codified Tea as we know it today, left many sayings about how
much is enough:
“There is shelter enough if it keeps the rain off, and food enough when
it staves off hunger. We draw water, gather firewood, boil the water and
make tea.” (from the Nampuroku)
“Tea should not be an exhibition of what the tea man owns. Instead the
sincerity of his heart should be expressed.” (from Rikyu’s 100 poems)
Not everyone can take these lessons from Chado and put them into practice
in their own everyday life, but we can strive for them as we study Tea and
the Way. Little by little, in my own study, I have understood more about
what Rikyu was talking about.
While I was living in Japan, I stayed in a small Japanese room that was
my living room, bedroom, study and dressing room. My actual living space
became smaller and smaller as I acquired things. My choices often came down
to “can I live without it?” rather than “do I want it?” Returning back home
after living with absolute essentials for a year, I wanted to clean out my
house and get rid of so many things that were cluttering up my space.
So the lifestyle question for me is not “can I fill up the empty spaces?”
but “what can I eliminate and still be satisfied?” It is like sculpting a
life. What can I remove to reveal the art within rather than add something
more to clutter and obscure it. Removing many of the things that distract
us, allows time for reflection on what are our deepest values are so that we
may consciously live a life of meaning according to those values.
By getting rid extraneous things, I was amazed at how unburdened I felt.
Ownership implies that I have taken responsibility for it: finding a place
for it, caring for it, storing it, keeping it in good working order. I did
not notice when I was acquiring things how each thing weighed me down a
little more until I was mentally dragging it all around with me.
Another aspect of having enough is being thankful for what we already
have. It may sound trite, but getting up every morning and being thankful
for the life we have seems to make the desire for more less strident. And
there are many things to be thankful for: good health, family, and friends,
to name a few. Especially after the September 11, 2001, attacks in New York
and Washington, we ought to look right here now and appreciate our lives as
they are before we think about the future, knowing that at any random time,
our lives can be changed forever.
The Japanese kanji for contentment is made up of two characters: chi soku,
literally to know sufficiency. Nobody can tell us how much is enough. If we
rely on external sources to tell us, there will never be enough. There will
always be something more that we do not have. Only we know what it is in our
lives to know sufficiency. It comes from inside us. It comes from
appreciating what we already have, from knowing what is really important to
us, and deciding what we can live without.
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