It seems easy enough. You just remove the parts you don’t need. How hard can that be? I’ve heard sculpture described as a process of removing everything that isn’t the sculpture. That’s simplicity, eliminating the extraneous material. Slowly, methodically, chiselling away until you’re left with the purest form.

Simplicity is a process.

But, when you start, you’ll have no indication of the duration. You might be at it a while, peeling away the excesses, slowly, meticulously removing layers of the unessential forever. 

Simplicity is patience.

To move towards the simple,  you have to start with the assumption that what you’re working on is incomplete. It’s cluttered with something not needed, or even not desired. You need to start from a position of weakness. You need to confront a realization that you aren’t finished yet. You have more work to do.

Simplicity is viscious.

You can work towards simplication. You can choose to value “less” more than “more”. You can choose to see the world around you composed of veils obstructing the essential core within. You can choose to discard and remove and search. You can choose to see the layers around you as blockages around the heart of simplicity. You can choose to focus on that pure central core. And believe that…

Simplicity is buried within.

unattainable

.

Or,

You can let go and, see the layers as part of the whole – infinitely peelable until you’re left with simply –

nothing

.

Jody

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photos are from Benimoto’s photostream on Flickr (used under creative commons license)