Simple living

Simple living has long been linked to spirituality, and likewise many expressions of spirituality also have been historically linked to simplicity. Jesus embodied a life of compassionate simplicity. The Bible speaks about the need to find a balance between the material and spiritual aspects of life: “Keep falsehood and lies far from me; give me neither poverty nor riches, but give me only my daily bread.” Eastern spiritual traditions also encourage a life of material moderation and spiritual abundance. Chapter 33 of the Tao Te Ching says, “To know contentment is wealth.” The Buddha taught a middle way between mindless materialism on one hand and needless poverty on the other. And the same is true about other traditions throughout history…

the same thing over and over again was just not for him. A person who was very similar to Mccandless was Henry David Thoreau. They both shared similar values, had different results of their actions, and had a few things that they both could’ve learned from each other. Thoreau saw society just like Mccandless, they both wanted to “explore” and value nature, something most of us ignore and see no importance in. Thoreau believed that people should live a simple life. They both wanted to be…

Can we really learn about human nature by removing ourselves from the company of other humans? Thoreau, for one, wanted to answer this same exact question, and he conducted an experiment purely based on his own experience alongside Mother Nature for two years and two months at Walden Pond near Concord, Massachusetts. Through his experiment, Thoreau endeavored to escape the distractions and emotional clutters of society in order to get in touch with his inner self in and to find out what living…

He states “I went to the woods because I wished to lived deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (Thoreau 1101). Thoreau discusses many ideas, all circling one theme, simplified living. His practice of simplicity may be too extreme for most to adhere to, however it is a valuable guideline. Thoreau’s promotion of living a simple life in “Where I Lived and What I Lived…

The idea of simple living was both widely promoted and discouraged from the arrival of the earliest Puritan colonists in 1630 to the extensive industrial growth of the middle 1800s. Many groups and societies aimed to resurrect the simple life and promote it among the masses. Yet each of these revivals were either stopped or drastically slowed down by the American majority’s desire for wealth. A small percentage of Americans consistently lived interpretations of the simple life but they were…

off into the woods to live alone for the purpose of finding himself. He was very concerned about growing old without experiencing everything he could. Thoreau famously puts “I went to the woods because I wished to live deliberately, to front only the essential facts of life, and see if I could not learn what it had to teach, and not, when I came to die, discover that I had not lived” (271). He found himself displeased with the way he was living and wanted a change in scenery. His definition of…

no longer have to fight for your happiness, for your safety, for a stress-free life. Henry David Thoreau describes the unimportance of luxury in Where I Lived, and What I Lived For: "The nation itself, with all its so-called internal improvements, which, by the way are all external and superficial, is just such an unwieldy and overgrown establishment..." Thoreau lived for two years in a cabin on Walden Pond, isolated from the pressures of society, and the speedy pace of it all. He was content to…

Leo Tolstoy pulls no punches when the story of The Death of Ivan Ilyich begins. The revelation that Ivan Ilyich has died was met with dismay and shock for all of the wrong reasons. Colleagues and “friends” became concerned for his death not because of the loss of his life, but for the inconveniences and changes it would cause for them. The lack of sincerity surrounding Ivan became very clear in the opening scenes of the story, and we quickly start to realize that Ivan lived a “false” life.…

Sophisticated Words on the Simple Life: Thoreau’s Rhetoric Nature is a complicated entity whom countless poets and writers have written about. Henry David Thoreau, a highly educated author who frequently wrote about nature, wanted to understand nature and, more importantly, life better. To do so, he went to live in the woods of Walden Pond for two years, and wrote a book about his time there. The resulting work, entitled Walden, discussed Thoreau’s time in Walden. The second chapter named…

Alaska is nearly twice the size of Texas, but only inhabited by less than 750,000 people, making it very hard for stranded and injured people to get help.Chris McCandless, a huge proponent of Henry David Thoreau, studied and believed he was living the transcendentalist life that Henry David Thoreau preached. McCandless drifted around the country subsiding by the transcendentalist ideals, making several stops along the way where he would generally make a profound impact with those life paths he…