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The simple life advocated quite understandably by saints and mystics as a means of detaching people from too much worldliness is to be welcomed. But two points should be made and then kept clear. It should not be confused with the monastic life, with vows of poverty imposed on laymen. It should not be opposed to the cultural life and deprive us of the gifts of art, beauty, colour, and replace them by utter bareness or drabness. It should not be fanatical and push its dislike for the products of man's invention to the extreme. The cave is the simplest habitation. Are we to stop only there? And scratch on the walls instead of printing on paper?

-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved > Chapter 7 : Discipline Desires > # 101