Yogi Lifestyle of Aparigraha & Minimalism in times of endless consumerism

For anyone living in the major cities, we are all living under the system of Capitalism, an era of endless consumerism. People chasing over things after things thinking and believing that it will lead them to happiness. Using time and life to exchange for money in-order to exchange for things and material. A time whereby human are being consumed by the very material that they are consuming.

In one of the Yamas in the eight limbs of yoga, there is Aparigraha which had been translated into non-possessiveness, non-grasping or non-greediness. In my personal opinion, it somehow resonates with the minimalist lifestyle of living. Living with the awareness that what we really need is not many, but the few that really matters.

Mahatma Gandhi has this quote that leaves a deep impact in my heart, “Earth provides enough to satisfy every man’s need, but not every man’s greed.”. Especially in the world of consumerism, human’s greed knows no end, people think they will be happy if they have something, after getting it they think they need another, and on and on. Only till they realised what they really need to jump out of the Rat race of chasing after the “wants”. Many Minimalist understand this very well. Only when we free out ourselves from the wants, we beings to have time and space to do what they truly want. By Identifying what we truly needs & which are our wants and having the discipline to live by the “needs” instead of being the slave of the “wants”. Some of the famous people that had inspired me on this lifestyle are Steve Job, Mark Zuckerberg, taiwan’s comic legand Cai Zhi Zhong and many of the Mystics and Spiritual master who had lived the way.

Once a person start to lives in this way, they will begin to have more time and money to focus on what truly matters to their life.

-Danny Lee