I found Wabi Sabi Simple in a Little Free Library and it's right up my alley, so to say. I thought i'd share a few excerpts to give a sample of what the book is like. The author, Richard Powell, has a personal web site [1].
Japanese readers of literature first used the word /sabi/ to try to describe the muted and subtle beauty of twelfth- and thirteenth century poetry, with its autumnal feel and somber mood. The word has a melancholy ache to it, conjuring up rural images of faded and wobbly fence lines, fallow fields, and brown sparrows searching for food among crumpled autumn leaves.
/Wabi/ means poverty, but a genteel poverty such as is found in farmhouses where the family enjoys the riches of conversation and connection, while eating simple food from a simple hearth.
Wabi is the detachment from wealth, the recognition that money can't buy everything, and that it often buys trouble. Wabi is the resolved attitude of acceptance in the face of hardship and fear. We fear losing our job, or losing our spouse, or losing prized possessions, or losing talents, or losing our reputation. Wabi names the fear itself as the real difficulty and refuses to let it spoil life. It looks past want to what is essential for life.
Wabi was developed as a concept in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries to tone down aristocratic tea parties. The gatherings were made simpler and simpler in order to emphasize the relationships and the gentle pleasure of simple communion.
When the two related terms were brought together into the phrase /wabi sabi/ [2], it was a sign of humble grace. It describes a certain type of simplicity, not the simplicity of square apartment buildings, nor the unimaginative simplicity of mass media, mass transportation, or mass marketing. It is not about volume or size. Bigger is not better and faster is not fantastic. It is about travel at human speed, eating natural food, and slowing down to be mindful. It is about respectful conversation, harmonious and peaceful dwellings, and modest behavior. It is ordered but not orderly, planned but not scheduled, simple but not simple-minded, and deliberate without being rigid.
Wabi sabi, if fully realized, is a way of life. It may be helpful to contrast it with what is slick and stylish and plastic and fake. It doesn't mean we don't use or appreciate all the positive technological advances of the modern world, but it does mean that we understand the need to balance "tech slick" with wabi sabi.
The following chart will help clarify the essential differences between wabi sabi and "tech slick".
Wabi Sabi Tech Slick
=============================== ===============================
Nature focused Technology focused
Authentic Copied
Allows things to age Strives for eternal youth
Subtleties Bold and obvious
Intuitive Rational
Personal Impersonal
One-of-a-kind Conformity and sameness
In the moment Future oriented
The whole Separated into parts
Open and unresolved Works toward closure
Appreciation Depreciation
Seasonal Quarterly
Flexibility Stability
Paradoxical Black and white
Unrefined Refined
Elegant Ornate
Fractal Square and measured
Organic Geometric
Living Artificial
Handcrafted Mass-produced
Soft edges Hard edges
Patina Plastic
Stone Steel
Listens Talks
Sees Shows
Receptive Arrogant
Slow Fast
Humble Proud
Plain Fancy
Reflective Unconscious
Mindful Mindless
Heartfelt Heartless
Warm Cold
Tolerates ambiguity and Intolerant of contradictions
contradiction and ambiguity
Naikan [3] (pronounced "nye-kahn") is part meditation, part therapy, and part spiritual practice. And among other things, it is a good way to begin integrating wabi sabi into your everyday life, because it fosters humility, appreciation, and noticing.
The word means "inner observation," /nai/ (inner or inside) /kan/ (observation), and its secret is that it creates awareness through the simple act of remembering the significant people in your life.
To gain the most benefit from this experience, you need to set aside a block of time and follow these instructions:
1. Find a quiet room.
2. Sit comfortably, preferably in a corner or behind a screen with no other distractions.
3. Thing and/or write lists based on three questions:
Think of and write down concrete examples.
Choose one person at a time and spend as much time as necessary working through your history with that person from its beginning to now. Try to put yourself in the other person's shoes and feel what he or she has felt. When you have examined your three lists and are comfortable sharing them, talk to someone about it. At a day session or retreat a counselor or someone familiar with the method will regularly ask you, "What did you explore this time?"
By speaking aloud what you wrote, you will make it more real and confirm for yourself the importance of the process. Finally, when the time is right, express to the people on your lists your gratitude for the specific things they have given you. By doing this you will bring authenticity to your relationship with them and reveal the wabi sabi nature of the gifts they have given you.
Multitasking, the ability to do more than one thing at a time, has always interested me, largely because I have never really mastered it. Oh, there are times when I will start the photocopier going and return to my desk to finish a letter I am working on, but anything much more complicated than that taxes my capacity. For years I felt bad about this, felt inadequate because I was unable to hold multiple threads of activity in the proper order in my mind at the same time.
Then, a few years ago I heard about single-tasking from computer geeks who expressed their desire to work intensely on one problem before moving on to the next. When a computer is multitasking, it divides its computing power up between programs and gives the illusion that it is doing two things at once. What it is really doing is a bit of one task and a bit of another, alternating, until both tasks are done. Because in human terms it takes little time to execute both tasks, we perceive that the computer accomplishes both simultaneously. The technique obviously doesn't work all the time, because most of us have had that frustrating experience when our computer locks up because too many programs are running at the same time.
About seven years ago I started designing Web pages. At first I dabbled with drag-and-drop software, but that led to an interest in HTML and a short course on advanced HTML techniques. I looked at the code that the drag-and-drop programs created and was not happy with the clutter and redundancy I saw. "Simple elegant code," as it's called in online forums and bulletin boards, produces clean fast-loading pages. I discovered that Web page designers often examine the code of other people's pages. When I found "simple elegant code" I would often whisper to myself "very nice." I was amazed to find a wabi sabi beauty in the world of "tech slick."
author: Powell, Richard
title: Wabi Sabi Simple