Realisation: Should You Call the Fashing Police?

Realisation: Should You Call the Fashion Police?

As that in trend changes, 'change' is never out of trend. - stonepeace

When we look at fashion trends of bygone eras, they often look tacky - especially the elaborate designs of clothing and hairdos. When we look back at today's fashion statements in time to come, chances are, they will look just as tacky. It's ironic that while we laugh at others' yesterday's fashion, we forget that others are likely to laugh at ours today. This makes the cheeky idea of being or having "fashion police" ridiculous? However, fashion can and almost certainly will be be reborn, ad infinitum, ad nauseam... for boundless creativity also means the once created gets reinvented. Fashion is so transient that the forgotten and that previously judged as tacky eventually gets picked up again, to be re-conditioned to be deemed fashionable - albeit in a (neo-)retro way.

The fashionable is usually just the fickleness of the moment. It is "not lasting" (Anicca) and thus "not substantial" (Anatta). To cling to a fashion style being ultimate is to fool oneself, to be bound for dissatisfaction (Dukkha). The truth is, different occasions and environments require different styles. Even simply dressed monks need to dress up or down for practical reasons - for ceremonies and other purposes. Chasing after fashion trends is to be baited by a carrot on a stick - that will never be grasped. It becomes the material pursuit of happiness, while only spiritual pursuits can attain True Happiness. Hey, there's an entire industry that continually "fashions" "new" carrots for countless carrot-chasers.

Simple designs tend to be timelessly "in", outlasting passing trends because they are the basis of good design. They are minimal designs based on needs for function; not maxed-out designs based on wants for form. The functional is always in style, while embellished forms tend to run out of style. Less is not always more - but enough! Some interesting quotes on fashion... From Coco Chanel, "Fashion is made to become unfashionable." From Oscar Wilde, "Fashion is a form of ugliness so intolerable that we have to alter it every six months." From Uriel Saenz, "We only move style forward when we embrace the past, cherish the present and look toward the future." But to live in the moment is already in style. Past and future styles are unneeded burdens. Just change styles when needed! -Shen Shi'an (from moonpointer.com)

Your style is how you carry yourself, not how you carry anything. - stonepeace

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Excerpt: Mind Your Mind to Mind Your Life

The Buddha said that we should completely subdue our minds. Whatever we do, for good or ill, it is our mind that is the true agent. In the very depths of our being, we all desire one thing: we want to be happy. We don't want to suffer. But because of this - this wanting - the three defilements of craving, aversion, and ignorance arise, and suffering is what we get. It is because of these defilements that we accumulate actions that prevent us from escaping from Samsara [the cycle of birth and death].

So it is important right from the start to see the difference between a good motivation and an evil one. Our own mindfulness should be our teacher. We must examine what is positive [that which arise from generosity, compassion and wisdom] and what is negative [that which arise from craving, aversion and ignorance] with mindfulness. If positive thoughts arise, we should go along with them. If nonvirtuous thoughts arise, we should put a stop to them. A virtuous mind is the source of happiness. An unvirtuous mind is the source of pain.

- Counsels from My Heart (Dudjom Rinpoche)

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