Last year, Murali, from his Thought Garage, expanded on some perspectives I offered in the comments of a Berkun Blog comparing those who “complexify” and those who “simplify.” For simplifiers familiar with the often-debilitating effects of complexifiers (at least, in the world of software development, where “real world” issues like deadlines and deliverables reign,) the problem is what do we do with redundancy when we can’t take it out back and shoot it in the head?
The irony of adding to a lengthy discussion on the topic is hopefully not lost on us, but I feel compelled to add that this is precisely the problem Zen addresses. That is, there is a way to directly experience the truth of our situation without expending excess energy on processes that do not serve us. During walking meditation yesterday, it occurred to me that Yeats said this very thing to me in The Coming of Wisdom with Time:
THOUGH leaves are many, the root is one; Through all the lying days of my youth I swayed my leaves and flowers in the sun; Now I may wither into the truth. –Yeats, William Butler
So, the solution? Read. Read more. Read even yet still more.
Then, go ask a tree.