One of the problems of trying to advocate, let alone practice simplicity as a lifestyle is that you have a multi-billion dollar industry screaming at you to do otherwise. The spending of consumers, we are told, drives the economy so the more you spend the better it is for all of us. But other voices, other traditions argue for smallness. Some of them have been around for a long time.
When I was a child, my mother took me to a local cultural center where someone who had lived in Japan presented an introduction to the Japanese tea ceremony. I was mildly perplexed by this since we did not drink tea, but I was fascinated by the idea. Here was an entire aesthetic built around a very simple act of sharing a beverage. Of course, as the presenter was at pains to show, it was anything but simple. But it made and impression and the experience stayed with me.
In the early 20th Century a Japanese art expert named Okakura Kakuzo wrote a slim volume called The Book of Tea wherein he attempted to bridge the cultural gap between East and West. He used the Japanese tea ceremony as a medium for explaining some of Japan’s less well-understood aesthetics and cultural values at a time when Japan was trying to “westernize†itself as quickly as possible; the Russo-Japanese War had concluded they year before this book was published in 1906. Japan had emerged suddenly as a modern military power to be reckoned with.  But Kakuzo, although born into a samurai family, wanted the West to see Japan for it’s civilized artistic self, and not merely a younger, brasher version of the western military ideal of nationhood.
The influence of the Japanese tea masters on their culture was profound, and here you will see their mark on art appreciation, architecture, the cultivation of purity and refinement and perhaps most important of all a pathway to moments of peace and concord. One last observation: This book was originally written in English. I cannot help but marvel at Okakura’s expressive command of the language, his erudition and the artistry with which he executes this work. One can enjoy The Book of Tea for itself and not through the haze of a translation.
Because this work is in the public domain, you may read a free copy courtesy of Project Gutenberg here. There is also a free audio book of The Book of Tea available from librivox.org (a wonderful organization that deserves your support). For those of you who are (like me, alas) addicted to hard copies, I highly recommend the edition with Kodansha International with a superb Foreword and Afterword by Hounsai Genshitsu Sen.
