Finding Simplicity in an Age of Excess
“Simplicity is the ultimate sophistication.” - Leonardo da Vinci
This quote from the great master gracefully captures how simplicity isn’t primitive but rather displays a refined understanding that comes only after mastering difficulty. In an era when “more” is the dominant chant - more productivity, more content, more connection, more consumption - we have become paradoxically emptier. Our homes are filled with things that require maintenance, many of which are not required, our schedules are filled with commitments, many of which are either not required or just cosmetic, and that wear us out, and our minds are filled with information that seldom results in wisdom. Therefore, one feels that perhaps it is time to revisit the ancient virtue of simplicity - not as a nostalgic longing for an idealized past, but as an intentional answer to the distinct challenges of our time.
Humanity’s traditions of wisdom have for millennia known what we modern folks often either ignore or forget that a life full of stuff, stuff to do and stuff for the senses is not necessarily a life rich in meaning, connection or contentment. As Socrates said when he strolled the streets of Athenian marketplaces, “How many things there are which I do not need.” But in what way could such ancient insight tangibly help us in these troubled times? I offer a few pathways for consideration that might help achieve meaningful simplicity.
Digital Temperance: As per an Ernst & Young report carried by The Economic Times on 28 Mar 2025, on an average Indians spend five hours daily on the mobile screen, nearly 70% of it devoted to social media platforms, gaming, and videos. The average American spends more than seven hours per day on screens. What would we potentially gain by making technology-free zones in our homes or “digital sabbaths”? The point isn’t technophobia, it’s taking back attention as our most valuable resource. Consider designating certain rooms or time slabs screen-free, thereby giving your mind the increasingly rare gift of undivided presence.
Consumption Consciousness: Ancient wisdom would have us hit pause on every purchase and ask: Does this truly add value to my life? You know, will it take more work to maintain than it returns in value to you? Could I share or borrow this rather than own it? Such questions don’t reject material pleasures but make sure they serve and not enslave our lives. In our school days many times we would tear our book into two parts and help a buddy who did not have the luxury of buying that book, to study. What a great sense of pleasure and inner satisfaction that offered. Filling our wardrobes and bathrooms with items that are actually not required, but simply to impress our uneducated and inflated egos makes these spaces only look like boutiques and cosmetic shops, rather than spaces of need.
Relationship Focus: Studies consistently show that sincere relationships provide better satisfaction to human understanding than material wealth. And yet how often do we lose connection at the altar of acquisition or achievement? Try tugging time away from your career path or consumption habits and putting it into deeper investment in fewer, more meaningful relationships and see the manifold payoffs.
Natural Reconnection: From Thoreau to the Tao Te Ching, wisdom traditions have long highlighted nature’s ability to recontextualise and restore perspective. Just short immersions into natural settings have been found to lower stress hormones and enhance cognitive function. Try establishing contact with the natural world and make it a non-negotiated priority every single day and see the fantastic peace of mind that you get. Watch birds chirp, collecting twigs to make their nests, see through pouring rain, watch the daybreak at dawn, and such like natural wonders and notice what peace there is in nature. Moreover, in Islam, the Nature receives special attention. For its vast beauty and complexity, nature is not just a backdrop for our lives, but a living testimony to the greatness of Allah. The Quran frequently references elements of nature to draw our attention to the signs of Allah’s creation, encouraging us to reflect and find deeper meaning.
Purposeful Productivity: Instead of maximising output, ancient wisdom suggests that we should align our efforts with our deeper values. Doing less, perhaps, but more meaningfully and skilfully may yield better and greater dividends. Look at our school curricula - our children carry satchels that are heavier than their body weight. Cramming and mugging up lessons, and nowadays internet downloaded cut-pastes, make up for their homework. Where is the real learning? Should we therefore regularly question ourselves: Am I measuring success through quantity or quality? According to external measures or to my internal satisfaction?
Scheduled Stillness: In an ever-busier culture that equates busyness with importance, showmanship with real worth, deliberately protecting unscheduled time becomes subversive. Across cultures, ancient contemplative traditions prescribed regular intervals of silence and contemplation. Then spend just 10 minutes a day doing nothing, no structure, only brain time. Quran advises us to pick sometime in the night to meditate to reach the stillness within the self, a moment of peaceful tranquillity so that your Rabb (Almighty) may guide you to a blessed mental state. With the stillness in your heart, you will be able to listen to your Rabb’s guidance.
None of what I described above requires any ascetic withdrawal. The sages didn’t preach simplicity as deprivation but as liberation - liberation from the endless loop of desire, acquisition and disappointment that defines our modern consumer culture, and robs us of real satisfaction as humankind. These nuggets from the ancient and timeless wisdom resonate with the urgency of our moment of environmental crisis. There isn’t enough planet left to allow for universal Western-style consumption. Simplicity is therefore, more than a matter of personal virtue, it’s an ecological necessity.
Simplicity also creates space - space to reflect on what is actually important, space to listen to softer voices (inside and outside of us), space to respond instead of habitually react. Above all it teaches patience and grounds one with the temporariness of our existence. And so, in embracing simplicity, we do not lessen our lives but rather unpack and fill them. In exchange, we give up quantity in favour of quality, distraction for presence, and the ephemeral fulfilment of ownership for the more profound satisfaction of enough-ness. It’s not always easy in a culture designed to optimize consumption. But as the ancient Stoics understood, the most rewarding paths seldom are. The question is not whether we can afford to adopt simplicity, but whether can afford not to? To bookend this piece, I am tempted to quote Deepak Chopra: “In the midst of movement and chaos, keep stillness inside of you.”
Colonel M Maqbool Shah, Recipient of Rashtriya Gaurav Saman - 2009
