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First published in 1981, VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY was quickly recognized as a powerful and visionary work in the emerging dialogue over sustainable living. Now-more than twenty years later and with many of the planet's environmental stresses more urgent than ever-Duane Elgin has once again revised and updated his revolutionary book.
VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY is not a book about living in poverty; it is a book about living with balance. Elgin illuminates the changes that an increasing number of Americans are making in their everyday lives-adjustments in day-to-day living that are an active, positive response to the complex dilemmas of our time. By embracing the tenets of voluntary simplicity-frugal consumption, ecological awareness, and personal growth-people can change their lives and, in the process, save our planet.
America's news movement for personal and social change, toward a way of life that is outwardly simple and inwardly rich.
VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY THE NEW GLOBAL CHALLENGE AT THE HEART OF THE SIMPLE LIFE IS AN EMPHASIS ON harmonious and purposeful living. Richard Gregg was a student of Gandhi's teaching and, in 1936, he wrote the following about a life of "voluntary simplicity":
Voluntary simplicity involves both inner and outer condition. It means singleness of purpose, sincerity and honesty within, as well as avoidance of exterior clutter, of many possessions irrelevant to the chief purpose of life. It means an ordering and guiding of our energy and our desires, a partial restraint in some directions in order to secure greater abundance of life in other directions. It involves a deliberate organization of life for a purpose. Of course, as different people have different purposes in life, what is relevant to the purpose of one person might not be relevant to the purpose of another. . . . The degree of simplification is a matter for each individual to settle for himself.
There is no special virtue to the phrase voluntary simplicity -- it is merely a label, and a somewhat awkward label at that. Still, it does acknowledge explicitly that simpler living integrates both inner and outer aspects of life into an organic and purposeful whole.
To live more voluntarily is to live more deliberately, intentionally, and purposefully -- in short, it is to live more consciously. We cannot be deliberate when we are distracted from life. We cannot be intentional when we are not paying attention. We cannot be purposeful when we are not being present. Therefore, to act in a voluntary manner is to be aware of ourselves as we move through life. This requires that we not only pay attention to the actions we take in the outer world, but also that we pay attention to ourselves acting -- our inner world. To the extent that we do not notice both inner and outer aspects of our passage through life, then our capacity for voluntary, deliberate, and purposeful action is commensurately diminished.
To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a minimum of needless distraction. The particular expression of simplicity is a personal matter. We each know where our lives are unnecessarily complicated. We are all painfully aware of the clutter and pretense that weigh upon us and make our passage through the world more cumbersome and awkward. To live more simply is to unburden ourselves -- to live more lightly, cleanly, aerodynamically. It is to establish a more direct, unpretentious, and unencumbered relationship with all aspects of our lives: the things that we consume, the work that we do, our relationships with others, our connections with nature and the cosmos, and more. Simplicity of living means meeting life face-to-face. It means confronting life clearly, without unnecessary distractions. It means being direct and honest in relationships of all kinds, It means taking life as it is -- straight and unadulterated.
When we combine these two ideas for integrating the inner and outer aspects of our lives, we can describe voluntary simplicity as a manner of living that is outwardly more simple and inwardly more rich, a way of being in which our most authentic and alive self is brought into direct and conscious contact with living. This way of life is not a static condition to be achieved, but an ever-changing balance that must be continuously and consciously made real. Simplicity in this sense is not simple. To maintain a skillful balance between the inner and outer aspects of our lives is an enormously challenging and continuously changing process. The objective is not dogmatically to live with less, but is a more demanding intention of living with balance in order to find a life of greater purpose, fulfillment, and satisfaction.
Copyright (c) 1998 by Duane Elgin
Anonymous
Posted May 15, 2006
This book came highly recommended as a seminal work in simple living. My interests in this way of life were grounded in self-sufficiency, rejection of consumerism, and a general 'take nothing, leave nothing' kind of attitude toward life. What I found in this book was a manual by and for the political left. The author tells us over and over again that voluntary simplicity can mean many things to many people, and that it is entirely up to the individual to discover what it means for them. This is always followed up by the reader being told that people who live in this way 'tend to' reject all violence, take a keen interest in human rights and feminism, boycott companies whose practices they find to be unethical, and use the time saved by living simply to volunteer at the local homeless shelter. The gap between rich and poor is bemoaned constantly. 'Spaceship Earth' and the brotherhood and goodness of all human beings are mentioned more than once. The author states if we all (meaning the West, presumably) would just engage in voluntary simplicity, everyone on the planet could enjoy the material comforts of the middle class. Followed to its logical conclusion, it's Elgin's opinion that if we just consumed less, all the tyrannies in the world would fall away, corrupt dictatorships would cease being corrupt, and people would stop strapping bombs to themselves. Evil would die. This man's naivete is staggering. Wrap all this up with a thread of vague, pseudo-Zen Buddhist nonsense, and you have Voluntary Simplicity. Essentially, non-liberals need not apply. I was lead to believe that this was a how-to guide for a more efficient personal way of life, but all it is is more feel-good theories and outright indoctrination.
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Posted April 12, 2000
There are a number of books about frugality and simplicity and these rates right at the top of them. The ideas and practical and the concepts really help give strength to your personal decisions about the life you want to live.
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Overview
First published in 1981, VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY was quickly recognized as a powerful and visionary work in the emerging dialogue over sustainable living. Now-more than twenty years later and with many of the planet's environmental stresses more urgent than ever-Duane Elgin has once again revised and updated his revolutionary book.
VOLUNTARY SIMPLICITY is not a book about living in poverty; it is a book about living with balance. Elgin illuminates the changes that an increasing ...