Plain and Simple

Plainness and simplicity have been and remain significant values around the world. Almost every religion has some dimension that addresses the human need for plain living and simple practices in the home and in faith. In the West, one of the belief systems best-known for plainness and simplicity is Quakerism. Quakerism has been around for centuries, and has traditionally been among the justice-oriented of the Christian sects, with Quakers standing against slavery, for freedom of religion and practice, and working for peace around the world.

Quakrs are related in faith and practice to other branches of Christianity, especially the Mennonites and the Amish, whose observance of rules for plainness and simplicity are not so much stricter as more orthodox. Quakers have adapted more to modernity and the Amish have not, largely because of their more isolationist self-understanding. But still some values are shared. As among the Amish, among the Quakers, plain speech, plain dress and simple living are supposed to undergird a spiritual life that is honest, ethical, modest and peaceful. As the Quakers put it, simplicity promotes fullness of life. (see Faith and Practice, 1985, p. 143-144.)

Another faith system that is renowned for its focus on plainness and simplicty is Taoism. In Chinese, the word Tao means "the way." Taoism sees nature’s cycles and the constant flux in the natural world as earthly signs of a fundamental, universal force which it calls Tao. Taoism is not monotheistic, this force or power is not the recipient of worship. Rather Taoists focus on coming into harmony with the Tao.

Like Judaism’s rabbis, Taoism is defined and refined by its "masters" who have taught or written about the Tao or commented on the writings of others. And this is not easy; according to those masters, Tao can be learned but it cannot really be taught. And perhaps the most important of those Taoist concepts which can be learned but not taught is wuwei. Wuwei is the concept of non-doing, it literally means "to do without doing" or "to act without action." It is the practice of quietism, of existing without conscious effort, as nature does, in accordance with the cycles and changes of nature.

Those cycles and changes are rooted in the relationship of yin and yang, the interactive opposite forces in nature. Yin is associated with the shady side of the hill, passivity, coolness, night, and female. Yang is associated with the sunny side of the hill, activeness, warmth, day, male. The one cannot exist without the other, and they are both valuable, yang for its promise of warmth and energy, yin for the importance of its enduring passivity, a model for Taoism which celebrates quiet and letting be more than strife and direct action.

Simplicity and plainness were especially important elements, established as central by the Taoist master Chuang-Tzu who lived in the 4th century BCE. Chuang-Tzu believed that living within ordinary society made people forget Tao or the ultimate reality. He felt that society caused people to become obsessed with tasks, routines, successes - all the things that stand in the way of true success - and to lose contact with the simple life of union with Tao, which is at the root of their being.

Taoism is an ancient and profound religion with much to offer aspirants who resonate to the idea of Tao, and want to develop a simpler, more meditative and aware sense of life and their place in it. Like Unitarian-Universalists, Taoists have often been out of favor politically, viewed with disapproval by more conservative or bureaucratic religions and rulers. And like transcendentalism, Taoism takes its inspiration from nature, advocating a mindful life in relation to nature, as the way to live in true union with the force that animates the universe, and to inspire deepest and highest human understanding of the universe and our place and capacities within it.

Plain and simple - it sounds good doesn’t it. And more, it sounds appealingly easy and understandable, a lot easier than say "elaborate and complicated" as a lifestyle. But you know we have to ask: really is anything ever either plain or simple? Or are plainness and simplicity utopias of thought and faith? Perhaps like worthy utopias, they beckon us like oases, they challenge us to attain them, but they ultimately elude us in any absolute sense.

(Story of Sue Bender’s journey in Plain and Simple.) She goes from a busy and overwhelming life in California, where every day begins with a list that she usually can’t complete by the end of the day. She has the opportunity to spend some time with the Amish, and learns in the patterns of their quilts and their lives, to consider new rhythms for living, rhythms that are simple, clear, and productive without being stressful and busy in the way her old lifestyle felt. She returns to her California life feeling revitalized, and committed to trying to apply the lessons of her time among the Amish to her west coast existence.

But there are some complications in her story. Sue is fortunate to have the option to take a break from her life and try another experience. I’ve done the same thing myself. But I wouldn’t be able to do it now, and I know how lucky I was to have the opportunity at all. Most people have hardly any chance during the course of their lives to afford the time or expense of making that kind of change even, or perhaps especially, when it is a temporary change. Instead, if we are to make any change, it has to be within the context of our lives, rather than on a break from our lives.

Surprisingly, when Sue gets home, one of the first things she does is drastically renovate her kitchen. She has the whole room redone, in a very spartan, all white, clear surfaces look. There is nothing on any surface, except one decorative piece perched on a shelf to give the room a bit of color and relief from the whiteness. She’s very into her new kitchen as she describes it in her book, and she clearly has a different take on her project than I did as I read about it, which was, what kind of lesson can she have learned about plainness and simplicity if the first thing she does on returning is an expensive, high-concept renovation?

Maybe her project would seem different if she did it herself and had a sort of barn raising experience of sawing the wood and hammering the nails and drilling the screws and hanging the cabinet doors, but she didn’t. In the end, she can call her kitchen a spiritual experience if she feels it to be that, but it can just as easily seem a self-indulgent piece of pseudo-simple busy-ness that puts her right back where she started.

What about the importance of living engagedly in this life, in this world? The Tao Te Ching, the primary Taoist text written by the first Taoist master Lao-Tze, was written mostly as advice to rulers on how to govern. And it is surprisingly hands-off in its attitude, which is one of the reasons Chinese emperors found it hard to embrace as a practical philosophy. Lao-tze wrote: "Governing a large country is like frying a small fish. You spoil it with too much poking." Taoists were not against government, they were simply disinterested, believing literally more in fishing [1]|in a mountain stream than in shuffling papers in the imperial court.

The richness of Taoism’s potential for individuals is boundless, but its limitations as public policy are real. Taoism is not inherently an ethos of mercy or compassion, but more of balance and awareness. It is a system for personal peace but not effecting social justice. Peasants suffering from drought or flooding or earthquake or other hardship had no recourse in the Taoism conception of governance. Perhaps if everyone were a good taoist, the system could work, but everyone is never united in anything.

Unitarian Universalism has in the past, and continues now, to struggle with its participation in the peace movement, in lobbying regarding public policy, in taking stands on a woman’s right to choose in this country, or women’s rights in Afghanistan. The intersection of religious belief and civic engagement is different for each of us. And it is too easy to poke holes in any theological system, because none is perfect. In considering what Quaker or Taoist insights have to offer us in our very worldly western world, if we want our consideration of them to be significant or truly incorporated into our lives or our faith we need to acknowledge both the aspects that work for us and those that don’t. It is easy to say we wish life itself, or our life, was plain and simple. But to actually do spiritual work, be it Quaker practice or Taoist meditation or a discipline from another faith, to give things up or limit our spending to make our lives simpler or plainer, and to have it last, takes thoughtful, intentional work.

We are living in an era of complexity. We read the Dalai Lama and magazines and bestselling books on simplifying our lives, our Christmas holidays, our family living. Simultaneously we engage in helicopter skiing, and struggle to understand gender and sexual identification, and multiculturalism, and technological advances and environmental needs. In this era, when it is fashionable to make everything simple, and simultaneously to live life on our terms, sensitive to everyone else’s terms, truly integrating any plainness or simplicity in a lasting way in our lives is a goal we cannot take lightly if we are to attain it at all.

We live in this world with the power to succor or abandon each other, with also a responsibility to look beyond ourselves or even each other to the other life on this planet. Nothing is beyond us, even plainness, even simplicity. And making our life simpler can work for many of us in many different ways. Our task as religious liberals is to think truly about what we want for ourselves and the world,and then do the work of a lifetime, becoming what we wish to be.

I don’t know how to tell anyone who is interested what they ought to do to make their own life plainer or simpler. I can tell you that I don’t think plainness or simplicity will come to any of us in a magazine we buy or a home project or in visiting with plainer people. Frankly, I’ve done all that, and it hasn’t worked for me. Some other things have worked for me, some other things may work for you.

Plain and simple is not life as usual in modern living, and we moderns are hard put to live in the modern world we believe in while finding ways to keep it simple. It’s Merely appreciating the plain and simple will not make a difference. What would we like plainer, simpler in our lives? What change will we make for that to happen?

Amen