Simplicity

I threw away my bowl when I saw a boy drinking from his hands at the trough.
                                                           ----Diogenes of Sinope (412BCE-323BCE)

Wikipedia Commons Image: Diogenes

Cutting through the fog of accumulated human custom and adaptation to the basic realities of human life is liberating and also frightening. We all construct self-images with the encouragement of society, which demands we play a specific role in the human matrix. Deviate too far from that role and you risk banishment, poverty and even premature death.

The endurance of Buddhism and Stoicism speak to an element in the human psyche which craves simplicity. Perhaps we all understand deeply that our better natures are linked to this simplicity, this basic humanity.