The Monastery of the White Tiger

Extreme opinions require extreme choices and asking other people to engage in it with me requires an extreme commitment.

I live in a society that disgusts me. A pandemic that kills a million of its citizens and one of its first priorities was getting back to work. People that live on the streets are scapegoated as vermin and leeches. People that die for no other reason than they cannot afford medical care or they fear medical bankruptcy.

Even on an individual level, I've never felt personally fulfilled by the expectations of society. Go to school. Get a good job. If I go to school, I will rack up an exorbitant amount of debt and even if I did go to school with that premise, I don't find fulfillment in climbing the corporate ladder.

A central principle of our society (because of how it is structured) is that no matter how much you have and/or make, you will always want more. Get a higher paying job? A year later, you'll want an even better job. Save a million dollars. Well, what if you saved ten million dollars? And, yes, life is a hedonistic treadmill, but there comes a point in your life where all of the consumption and all of the working won't fill the hole in your soul. Maybe if you're lucky, you'll be running so fast on the treadmill, you won't notice, but if you ever do, I hope it's not too painful.

I've been a minimalist my entire adult life. I've always aspired to live at the poverty level.