Religious and spiritual
A number of religious and spiritual traditions encourage simple living.[6] Early examples include the Śramaṇa traditions of Iron Age India and biblical Nazirites. These traditions were heavily influenced by both national cultures and religious ethics.[7] Simplicity was one of the primary concepts espoused by Lao Tzu, the founder of Taoism. This is most embodied in the principles of Pu and Ziran.[8] Confucius has been quoted numerous times as promoting simple living.[9][10]
Gautama Buddha espoused simple living as a central virtue of Buddhism. The Four Noble Truths advocate detachment from desire as the path to ending suffering and attaining Nirvana.[11][12]
Jesus is said to have lived a simple life. He is said to have encouraged his disciples "to take nothing for their journey except a staff—no bread, no bag, no money in their belts—but to wear sandals and not put on two tunics".[13] He also told his disciples that they cannot serve God and money at the same time, and explained that God is capable of providing them with the essentials for life (food and clothing), so long as they "seek his kingdom first".[14] The Apostle Paul taught that people should be content with food and clothing, and that the desire to be rich is the cause of many kinds of evils.[15]
Many other notable religious individuals, such as Benedict of Nursia, Francis of Assisi,[16] Leo Tolstoy, Rabindranath Tagore, Albert Schweitzer, and Mahatma Gandhi, have claimed that spiritual inspiration led them to a simple living lifestyle.[7]
Sufism in the Muslim world emerged and grew as a mystical, somewhat hidden tradition in the mainstream Sunni and Shia denominations of Islam.[17] Sufism grew particularly in the frontier areas of Islamic states,[17][18] where the asceticism of its fakirs and dervishes appealed to populations already used to the monastic traditions of Hinduism, Buddhism, and Christianity.[19][20] Sufis were influential and successful in spreading Islam between the 10th and 19th centuries.[17] Some scholars have argued that Sufi Muslim ascetics and mystics played a decisive role in converting the
Plain people typically belonged to Christian groups that practised lifestyles that excluded forms of wealth or technology for religious or philosophical reasons. Such Christian groups include the Shakers, Mennonites, Amish, Hutterites, Amana Colonies, Bruderhof,[22] Old German Baptist Brethren, Harmony Society, and some Quakers. A Quaker belief called Testimony of simplicity states that a person ought to live her or his life simply. Some tropes about complete exclusion of technology in these groups may not be accurate though. The Amish and other groups do use some modern technology, after assessing its impact on the community.[23]
The 18th-century French Enlightenment philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau strongly praised the simple way of life in many of his writings, especially in two books: Discourse on the Arts and Sciences (1750) and Discourse on Inequality (1754).[24]
Secular and political
Epicureanism, based on the teachings of the Athens-based philosopher Epicurus, flourished from about to. Epicureanism held that the paradigm of happiness was the untroubled life, which was made possible by carefully considered choices. Epicurus pointed out that troubles entailed by maintaining an extravagant lifestyle tend to outweigh the pleasures of partaking in it. He therefore concluded that what is necessary for happiness, bodily comfort, and life itself should be maintained at minimal cost, while all things beyond what is necessary for these should either be tempered by moderation or completely avoided.[25]
Henry David Thoreau, an American naturalist and author, made the classic secular advocacy of a life of simple and sustainable living in his book Walden (1854). Thoreau conducted a two-year experiment living a plain and simple life on the shores of Walden Pond. He concluded: "Our life is frittered away by detail. Simplify, simplify, simplify! I say, let your affairs be as two or three, and not a hundred or a thousand; instead of a million count half a dozen, and keep your accounts on your thumb-nail."[26]
In Victorian Britain, Henry Stephens Salt, an admirer of Thoreau, popularised the idea of "Simplification, the saner method of living".[27]
