Minimalism as a core value is the belief and practice of eliminating the unnecessary. It is the rejection of material and immaterial distraction in favor of focusing on what matters. The individual actualizer devotes their time to developing themselves, others, and the struggle to overcome the systems and values driving us toward crisis. We embrace minimalism as a path of transformation necessary to overcome the crisis of desire. When we embrace ideals of being that are unimpressed and unmoved by the idea of possession, we become at home in any environment. Minimalism prioritizes the immediate present and its inherent value to the observer over illusions of grandeur.
Minimalism does not diminish our imagination or creativity. It enhances it. Our practice helps rid us of the desire to misdirect our focus and energy. Minimalism is not about becoming a specific form and not at all intended to encourage the abandonment of entertainment and comfort. It’s about ridding ourselves of the programming. Through the proactive reduction of our wants, we become less bound to objects—not in the sense that we can escape the relational universe, but that they hold no sentiment or value to us outside of their use. By embracing minimalism individually, we also improve our flexibility. Minimalism develops our individual capacity for expression in various directions and diminishes our systems' power over us.
Minimalism as a practice is relatively straightforward. Materially, it is the reduction of stuff. There is no specific definition that each individual must follow; like everything else, it is about choice. The most direct path is to stop acquiring new things. We inhabit material and economic systems that plan obsolescence into everything, and the waste we create is central to the crisis of extinction. More often than not, these new widgets are small variations on what we have but big enough dopamine hits to keep us high and wanting more until the next hit. Advertising campaigns would have us believe that we can be more expressive of our uniqueness through their products, but individuality can never be obtained through consumerism. Our rejection of consumerism extends into large purchases as well. Luxury items are almost always functionally identical to their non-luxury counterparts, existing primarily as status symbols. The individual who purchases for status directs their energy and focus away from actualization and toward the crisis. Status-driven purchases are rooted in either network or insecurity. When we broadcast our advantageous circumstances to others, we do so under frameworks of meaning and value that encourage class and caste as a source of self-worth. This philosophy of meaning stands in direct contrast with our understanding of the single truth and the relational universe.
Another aspect of minimalism as a core value is to get rid of the things we have that do not serve us. It is natural to accumulate more over time, so we must be mindful to practice the removal of the unnecessary. Letting go of something we have is significantly more difficult than rejecting something new. Without periodically pruning our collections, we find ourselves in circumstances where we spend more of our resources and energy keeping things than we do using them. Whenever possible, give away your things to those with less. The process is less time-consuming than selling them and in higher alignment with the relational universe.
When it comes to leveraging material wealth as a sign of network status, we begin with a question. If the groups you surround yourself with only associate with you because of your material wealth, are they really adding value to your life? Remember that any time we focus on a specific direction, we become it. Self-actualization in the age of crisis is an active redirection of ourselves and the collective. Our journeys toward individual actualization lay the foundation upon which we develop systemic actualization, through which we raise the floor for the collective. Material wealth as a form of status only serves the present arrangements and the diminishment of collective humanity. We cannot transcend if we are unwilling to let go of the trappings of the systems and values that have brought us to this immediate present. This is especially relevant for those inhabiting time experiences with access to extreme wealth; they have the power to create significant change in the world where many others do not. All systems reinforce ways of living, and the ultra-wealthy exist within a time experience of systems created especially for them. There is no fault in receiving the benefits associated with an act of great creation, and the idea that anyone above a particular scale of material wealth is evil is an immature approach toward transcendence. But there is great shame in perpetuating values and systems that diminish access and agency for others, whether through active intent or willful ignorance.
Beyond the material, minimalism also applies to engagements that add no value. Moments within our time experience are extremely valuable in a universe governed by the single truth, and we should treat them as such. Every choice has an opportunity cost that compounds into a lifetime of event chains. Reject that which does not bring you closer to your vision without guilt or hesitation. Minimalism as a spiritual value infuses the individual with precision. We become unafraid and unburdened by activities and attractions that do not align with the visions of good we seek to create.
Ultimately, minimalism as a belief is about more profound freedom. Acts of simplification purify our intention and focus toward transcendence. Our detachment from value systems driven by competition and status is an act of alignment with the single truth. By freeing ourselves from the burdens of desiring status and material goods, we reject the alienation inherent in the social hierarchies we inhabit. It is about finding wholeness in the immediate present, with what we have and who we are now. Minimalism does not detract from progress and is not a call for complacency. Rather, it is an embrace of our capacity to create and direct independent of circumstance. When the individual acknowledges the latent power contained within their infinite imagination, they are free. Free to act in a world independent of the trappings imposed upon them by systems encouraging values and meaning out of alignment with the single truth.
