Dominique Loreau, a well-known French essayist, has lived in Japan for 30 years. She taught at a Buddhist university in Shikoku, and she has a lot of contact with Japanese Zen and started to practice it long before minimalism became a craze. Such a way of life, and compiled essays and essays into a book for publication. “How to Live More with Less” (L’art de la simplicité) is one of her works. The book is full of her personal experience of actually trying a simple life, and depicts the true face of a simple life with simple words.
Although it is called “simple life”, Dominique told everyone from the beginning that for modern people whose appetites have been nurtured, simple life is actually the most difficult, because we are used to solving anxiety and consumption through consumption. Escape from facing certain problems or gain superficial happiness, and it has reached the point of addiction. People’s fear of losing the things they own is actually more like a reflection of their fear of losing their social status, and the fundamental way to change their living habits actually starts with the way of thinking.
The ideal simple life does not mean that you have to give up your dreams, happiness and desires, or connection with the world, but to learn to distinguish what you really want. Even if you still have nostalgia for the material, you will not be restricted by it and lose happiness. From Dominique’s writing, we can see that the spirit of Zen Buddhism and medieval European ascetics is mixed with French randomness and an attitude of loyalty to one’s own desires. As mentioned in her book, for a happy woman, she must have her favorite lipstick and a tasteful and durable leather bag in a simple life.
Although it takes time, everyone can start a simple life with practice. And once more and more people live with this belief, it is not just the individual’s life that will be changed, but it may also change the way resources are allocated and used.
**This book is really worth reading!
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