MindThe Beginner

Are you a collector of something? A huge collection of stamps, a secret collection of comic books or a coin collection so heavy you can’t carry it all at once. One of my teachers actually has a dice collection. As you can see, he needs two more to make his collection complete. It has to do with the orientation of the dots if you’re wondering.

Before a collection is complete it’s obviously incomplete just to state the obvious. Collection at this stage revolves around that which you do not have. Essentially the same as minimalism although in minimalism we look to expand that which we do not have.

It is the emptiness within the cup that makes it useful – Lao-tzu

Just like with minimalism you’re never completely content with the things you do have, you’re always striving to expand one way or the other. Different sides to the same coin but the same coin nonetheless. And you want the bigger coin.

Collecting Minimalism

Is it possible to collect minimalism? To expand that which you do not have. I’ve written about it several times already, Be it the 100 things challenge, the one-step to creating a minimalist home  or using a razor to cut away the uselessness, minimalism has become somewhat of a main topic on my blog. It’s also the search term that gets me the most traffic through Google. I’m slowly becoming an expert on minimalism through Zen.

Minimalism actually is to me a natural result from practising Zen. It’s not that I’m collecting minimalism, I’m constantly trying to expand usefulness and awareness and trying to reduce uselessness and carelessness. We humans are hunter-gatherers, gathering is in our genes. Building collections is what we do, no exceptions. And so I collect as well, but it’s what I collect that makes the difference.

Turning round

Given the fact that we must collect to feel satisfied in life it’s your choice to choose what to actually collect. The easiest by far (or at least most portable) would be to collect knowledge. Not the physical books but what’s written in them, what they are trying to convey. Now this isn’t a collection for everyone obviously. Some people just don’t like to read and learn. The least useful would be collecting coins, sigar bands or even those little toys you get with a happy meal. Yes there actually are people collecting that.

Combining minimalism with collecting severely limits you in what you can collect. I’d suggest you start collecting knowledge and true usefulness. If it’s not useful it doesn’t belong in your collection and applying this to knowledge; don’t fill your mind with useless knowledge. Of course you’re going to ask me what I mean by usefulness. And I’m going to leave that entirely up to you! The only suggestion I’m going to do is that you take a good honest look at your collection.

Take a step back and have a good look, what do you want to collect?