I have really enjoyed a discussion in the community on our understanding of simplicity. Between us we have demonstrated the complexity of seeking simplicity!
We are challenged by a call to simplicity. Our deepest need is to grow in our knowledge and love of God, not the accumulation of more material things. There is a beauty in space, in openness, in solitude. We seek to enjoy beauty without owning or possessing; to stay focused, single minded, with purity of desire.
A few thoughts sparked by our discussion:
a) It is not so much what we have (though when we have to excess while others lack, there is a moral issue) but our attitude to what we have. We can have much and be utterly attached to "things" (material and nonmaterial). We can have little to nothing and be equally attached to things. It is our attitude to the things, making them more than they ought to be, that gets in the way of a deeper, truer spirituality.
b) In the history of spirituality, folk have taken a wrong turn when they despise the material world. The material world is good, created by and infused with God, a world to explore and enjoy and respect. Despising the world, and hence the body, has had a devastating effect on nonhuman animals at the hands of humans. Animals are, of course, merely bodies with no souls and so can be as despised as much as the non-anmial material world—so we have been told. That's why the "Other," women, people of color, our enemies, any who differ, are compared to animals. There is a long tradition of despising the animalistic about humans. This is the "lower" side of being human. This is the connection to the material world. It is bad theology, bad philosophy. It has led to bad practice.
c) I confess that I am a bit of a technophile. Our technology amazes me and I keep up with it. (I'm waiting for the iPad2 before I take the plunge! I can already see the uses I will put this to.) Without technology we would not be able to have the Lindisfarne Community in its present form. The "virtual world," so called, is the real world as much as any other aspect of the world. Again, it is about attitude, attachment, use.
Simplicity is a winsome idea. Finding the simple in the complex, discovering the complex as simple ...
+Ab. Andy