As you know I'm a big proponent of a minimalist lifestyle. That comes from a solid place of studying lifestyles in Korea and Japan where lifestyles are minimalist by necessity and by design. There's very little terrain and a lot of humans so they figured out there's simple, natural way of living.
Minimalism encompasses several areas like simplicity, frugality, low carbon footprints, anti-consumerism and non-consumerism. Minimalism is visually empowered ( I am not saying Zen is minimalism or minimalism is Zen, one is a philosophy and monastic practice, the other a lifestyle) by the aesthetics and philosophy of Zen, which I studied in person in Kyoto.
When I visited Korea and Japan I slept on heated wooden floors especially in Korea. When I visited a lot of the Zen temples in Kyoto people were required to take their shoes off and we all walked on brilliant tatami laid on top of wooden floors that were licked clean in a perfectionist way. There was no dirt between the wooden planks.
tatami – A pattern of tatami mats and wooden screens at the Tenryuji temple in Arashiyama, Kyoto.
Doesn’t this amazing, peaceful environment beckon you to just lay down and sleep on the bare floor? It did beckon me and frankly I said good bye to all my Silicon Valley sitting on a computer for 14 hours back problems. I have never seen a better solution to floor covering and sleeping arrangements, as well as living arrangements.
I have a lot of art stuff and things which would be a burden to put away daily, and frankly I do not want to hide my art materials, I like to live with them in my life on a daily basis. But if I were to be asked what the most luxurious palace on earth looks like - this is it below.
Incidentally this is where I got a near Nirvana experience, on this tatami floor in Arashyama in Japan, looking out into this garden. None of the material things I have seen since look good to me except perhaps Japanese painted screens. I had a crush on Japanese gardens long before we saw each other in person, inexplicably, it was a love at first sight for me from looking at them in a book. We were long distance for about a dozen years.
What I learned on these journeys is that Japanese people sleep really well and are very comfortable on the floor in washable futons. I sleep on my floor in a washable futon. It seems like a very natural and hygienic way to sleep. I can wash my floors everyday even with a simple disinfecting wipe, and I can put the bedding in the washing machine every day if I want to.
As I was walking on 5th avenue today I noticed a luxury sleeping bed store and I took a look. I took pictures for everyone to see the kind of abomination this luxury sleeping involves.
This layered cake will never see washing during its entire lifetime. Can you imagine the bacteria and the dirt and dust that will collect over the years in these layers and springs? I mean it could be years and decades collecting dust and pollutants. Can you possibly sleep on this or on top of it, just the thought of it makes me cringe.
The less is more often quoted by design and architecture people is actually pretty valid here. Get yourself some wooden plank or whatever floor and then put a simple futon on top of it that could be easily washed, and sleep.
