Modern Epicurean Dualism

Last week as I was driving to my tax accountant to hand over some paperwork, I was listening to the Northern California-based KPFA radio show Against the Grain featuring British philosopher and author Mark Vernon as he discussed his latest book "Plato’s Podcasts: The Ancients’ Guide to Modern Living."

During the discussion—all of which I found entirely fascinating—Vernon described some of the tenets of Epicurean philosophy based on the classical thinker himself. To summarize the depth and greatness of his thoughts, Vernon said Epicurus would have prescribed to a vastly different theory than the hedonistic, sense-loving impression one might believe nowadays, instead adhering to a “less is more” mentality in his living and thought process.

I understood that Epicurus would savor essential ingredients in life, food, or other experiences, contenting himself with wholeness and purity of substance. He would not necessarily appreciate things excessively or obsessively, but with a more refined, sophisticated and self-controlled approach to enjoyment and pleasure.

Existing in a modern world that at times seems like a whirlwind around me, I am incredibly attracted to a pared down “less is more” lifestyle and approach to modern living, especially where I am now in San Francisco, CA. As a designer and musician, writer, and communicator, I devote a lot of time towards the editing process, constantly reducing, tightening, clearing, opening and simplifying and organizing information intelligently so as to present a more ordered, cohesive and positively resonant result. I find this reduction and distillation process incredibly creative and powerful. My understanding is, that even the very tenets of modern architecture and design advocate a reduction to and focus on essential elements.

As I reduce life’s complexities further and further, simplifying my perspective and processes, I can glimpse how I am just a little part of a much bigger, more complex whole. Like a cell or molecule, performing a relatively simple task, I find my tasks, even as complex as they can seem to be, are a part of some larger movement towards greater global evolution of consciousness and do propel me towards a greater ideal.

My question, now, is this. Is that ideal fundamentally “more is more” as my mind or the mass-media saturated “modern” world (at least here in SF/USA) or “less is more?” More “Super Size me” or more the subtle, vast vacancy of the Wheel of Life , the Middle Way or the Tao?

The next question I might pose beyond all of that is how can I train and develop myself to perceive and proceed as such from here on in…? Ever present, ever aware of my role in the bigger picture, and always able to access the simple, direct aspects to my actions and thought??? Should I think more? Study more...train more??? Or think less and be more? How can I be less is more?