On Simplicity
True simplicity is about depth, not deprivation. What remains may be modest, but it nourishes the soul.
Do you remember the art classes in school as a young kid? Drawings stitched together with simple dots, lines and shapes. Three triangles and a circle were frequent features in my drawing books. There would be guest appearances of different things in that drawing - a house, a garden, and stick figures of my tiny life would show up on different days. The simple shapes came together to create a coherent lookalike of a real-life scene or object. All that mattered at that point in time was showing it to my parents at times. The simple joy of getting to spend time with crayons and play dough felt ecstatic. Strangely enough, I remember the sensory joy experienced as a three-year-old playing with play dough at my nursery.
Simple life, simpler times.
Today, as an older adult trying to immerse myself in a similar vocation, it’s very easy to get entangled in the complex intricacy of creating a piece of art. It becomes more layered and complex for someone like me whose emotions are like an endless wellspring. The tiniest change in the universe has the capacity to move me deeply. As David Jones wrote, it’s a blessing and curse to feel everything so deeply. This very emotion is the fire that lights the fire of desire to create. I am relearning to hold my emotions in a holy sanctuary - a sanctuary of simplicity where even the most complicated and conflicted emotions reflect the path it has taken to shape itself into what it is. Art has been a conduit for my growing tenderness for finding my way back to simplicity.
In these times filled with equal doses of good and evil, I am hoping that I am able to hold on to the hook of compassion and stillness to sail through the changing worlds. The process of creation is like a sage in disguise. It’s helping me make my way back to the dots and lines. After years of having navigated through asymmetric paths of a life filled with a history of complicated trauma and stories, I am at a stage where I am repainting my canvas.
The past will always be a part of my being. I am here to find back the whole of the little girl who revelled in joy with the lines and dots. In this journey of becoming, I also want to marinate myself in the home that was once mine. While I was always a quiet and shy girl, I think I tried my best not to let the world overwhelm me. The past few weeks have been deeply stirring yet it has brought to light that one needs to untangle and find back the roots of where I truly belong. The fractals of my existence are shining forth from afar. In my daily journeys with the blank sketchbook, I have been reflecting on how to paint the rest of my life.
I’ve realized that I’ve held onto my emotions fiercely at times, created mazes instead of straight paths, and forgotten the simpler times in trying to become all of me. The time to rediscover the virtues of simplicity is back in life.
"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex...It takes a touch of genius and a lot of courage to move in the opposite direction." So remarked Albert Einstein on our modern condition. As life becomes increasingly interwoven and complex, with crisis upon crisis unfolding, the wise find solace in simplicity. Great artists and philosophers have long extolled the power of simplicity." There is no greatness where there is not simplicity," wrote Leo Tolstoy. Lao Tzu's, Tao Te Ching is filled with wisdom of how simplicity can lead to a richer inner life. During the pandemic when I was reading Tao Te Ching, I had no idea that my path to zen would be through art.
Art has helped me refocus on how important the lines, shapes and forms are to the creation of a painting. As an artist, the creative process often begins in complexity - a whirlwind of ideas, sensations, emotions, narrative, and references sit at the start of this journey. These unrefined ideas are transferred into figments of sketches. After deliberate addition and subtractions, the potential visual is finalized. The canvas is primed. The outline with simple use of lines is drawn onto the canvas. Step by step, an array of shapes starts crowding the canvas. In the initial stages, the painting is mostly questionable to the eye of the artist as well as the passerby. Background details are trimmed away to highlight the focal point. Colours are muted to establish a unified palette. Each brushstroke aims to capture the essence with an economy of form. The negative space gives breathing room to the overall narrative. And as time passes, order emerges from chaos through the act of simplification. The time is relative to the creative fulfilment of the artist’s vision. There are times when it takes hours, days or even years. Sometimes, even the simplest-looking paintings take years to be available to the world as a finished piece. I have an empty canvas on my corridor wall staring at me. I hope someday I will be able to start working on it.
One such painting is Cy Twombly’s epic painting of 1994. It took 22 years for the artist to declare it as complete.
This was the artist’s view:
“I THINK OF THE PAINTING’S MOVEMENT AS FALLING. . . . IT CASCADES AND IT EXITS ON THE LEFT. THE PAINTING IS ABOUT LIFE’S FLEETINGNESS. IT’S A PASSAGE.” - Cy Twombly
Twombly is one of the abstract expressionists whose work might seem too simple to the common person. It is steeped in depth. He wrote, ‘I found the idea of Asia Minor extremely beautiful. Saying goodbye to something and coming back on a boat.’ Who among his American compatriots, he wonders, had ever heard of ‘Asia Minor’? (Not so since the first Gulf War). There is this Lit Hub Article where you can read more about it from a literary perspective.
True simplicity is about depth, not deprivation. What remains may be modest, but it nourishes the soul. "Less is more," stated Ludwig Mies van der Rohe. I believe this more and more. I imagine each of us floating in our tiny bubble in this dispersed reality, present in fractured moments and lost many a time. For it is through simplicity that we can touch the awe-inspiring beauty of being fully present. By paring down the complicated, we reconnect to life's basic rhythms - our breath, our footsteps, the passing seasons.
Simplicity helps us chart a course back to what is most meaningful. It removes obstacles so we can appreciate the people and simple joys before us - time with loved ones, connection to nature, acts of service. With less clutter to weigh us down, we gain lightness. Modern life often inundates us with possessions, stimuli, and responsibilities. Simplicity grants freedom through ruthless discernment.
In the whirlwind of modern life, simplicity is a choice. To obtain it, we must make time for introspection. These are some of the areas where I have been curious as I chart the remaining years of my life.
Ask yourself, What is essential to me? Family, friends, personal growth, rest, creativity?
I found hints when I was quietly sitting by the streams on a fallen tree. I have been thinking of values that are a compass for my life. Life's noise often drowns out such truths.
Construct your days around these pillars - make them the foundation. Protect them fiercely from that which does not nourish your spirit. Let go of activities, possessions, and habits that weigh you down or distract you from living purposefully. It will feel uncomfortable, like a decluttering. But you will breathe deeper as the clutter lifts.
I have grown utterly conscious of time. I am learning to cut out the parts that no longer resonate with me. I had gotten off from the hedonic treadmill when I moved to London. But these days, I am learning to fill my cup with everything that nourishes my soul. I feel blessed that small joys like spotting a rainbow after a storm still make me jump with joy. I am learning to move away from spaces that aren’t meant for me. I am surrounded by the works of writers and artists whom I keep learning about each day. I am learning to be intentional about how I spend my days. A balance of not too much and not too little as I reconstruct the foundation for the simple life.
Savour open moments. Discover tranquillity in presence. When overwhelmed, return to basics. Take a few deep breaths. Look to nature - the grace of a tree, the stillness of a lake. There resides your guidance. Simplicity, like wisdom, often hides in plain sight. We need only remember how to see it.
I have learned to clear through the clutter of emotions that often overwhelmed me when I was in nature. There is so much to be grateful and curious about in the ephemeral nature that surrounds us. A leaf, a tree, a cloud, an ant, a flower — all have stories for us only if we are present. Meditation is a window or rather a door to the world of simplicity. The Nan-in story of the empty cup is an eternal reminder that I need to keep emptying my cup frequently.
In a strange way, my simplified life after quitting the corporate world has brought me an abundance of creative inflow. There are some questions simmering on this topic for another essay. For this edition, I chose these poems and a special poem from one of my favourite poets, Louise Gluck who passed away recently. I hope to share one edition that is dedicated to her. Isn’t Emily Dickinson just amazing :)
Simplicity - Emily Dickinson. How happy is the little stone That rambles in the road alone, And doesn't care about careers, And exigencies never fears; Whose coat of elemental brown A passing universe put on; And independent as the sun, Associates or glows alone, Fulfilling absolute decree In casual simplicity. * * * Poem by Louise Gluck ( Excerpt from Winter Recipes from the Collective) Day and night come hand in hand like a boy and a girl pausing only to eat wild berries out of a dish painted with pictures of birds. They climb the high ice-covered mountain, then they fly away. But you and I don’t do such things— We climb the same mountain; I say a prayer for the wind to lift us but it does no good; you hide your head so as not to see the end— Downward and downward and downward and downward is where the wind is taking us; I try to comfort you but words are not the answer; I sing to you as mother sang to me— Your eyes are closed. We pass the boy and girl we saw at the beginning; now they are standing on a wooden bridge; I can see their house behind them; How fast you go they call to us, but no, the wind is in our ears, that is what we hear— And then we are simply falling— And the world goes by, all the worlds, each more beautiful than the last; I touch your cheek to protect you— * * * How reluctantly the bee emerges from deep within the peony Basho
As we pick our way through the deeply entangled troubles of the modern world, simplicity beckons. It quietly rebels against the unessential. For meaning, solace and depth, we need not look far. As Leonardo da Vinci put it centuries ago, "Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication."
In simplicity, we return to ourselves.
Reflection for this edition :
Have you experienced moments of clarity and peace in your life when you embraced simplicity? What were they, and how did they impact you?
Here are a few snippets from my brushes with the voice of simplicity. My prayer for you is to find your version of simplicity that can nourish your life.
Including some great reads from my Substack treasure trove and books I am reading:
I love Sari Bottom’s
. I loved reading Laurie Stone’s personal essay. It was liberating to read it.If you follow me on X, you would have seen me rave about
. Her latest post on Love is beautiful. I have been thinking of love and how we show up for the ones in life a lot. An excerpt from her latest post :I am rereading the Book of Hours by Rilke. Rilke is someone whom I would have loved to meet.
This essay truly spoke to me . Thank you for your thoughtful words and reminders of what is important and essential
I love this line you wrote: "Simplicity grants freedom through ruthless discernment." Absolutely true for me.
Daily life seems a constant job in itself to stay on the path of simplicity. Zen, art, and appreciating the present moment all help me keep that in mind.