Vipassana

llinois Vipassana Meditation Center offers ten day donation-supported retreats. It's calm, but is it useful?

Dwelling Portably

An 80s magazine describing how to live without a fixed home. Bert and Holly Davis wrote it on their manual typewriter.

Morton Feldman

A composer whose later works are long, sparse, and quiet. Recommended listening: For Philip Guston (it is over 4½ hours long).

Beeswax candles

They smell good and are easy to make with just a lump of wax and some wicks.

Yeast-risen bread

How relaxing to knead and rise and bake.

Building with stone

The world's madness is fleeting; stones endure. Read Charles McRaven's book.

2700 Kelvin lightbulb

For bulbs Kelvin measures color: lower redder, higher whiter/bluer. 2600-2800 is soft cozy light.

Interest

Money's unskilled labor.

Cast-iron skillet

Heats food evenly. Repays its modest upkeep.

Ludwig Wittgenstein: There Where You Are Not

Wittgenstein was a brilliant uncompromising 20th century philosopher. This book by Michael Nedo provides biographical pictures, including details of W's cabin in Skjolden, Norway.

Cloth cords

Electrical cords wrapped in cloth rather than plastic.

Bakelite phone

Tough old rotary beasts with real mechanical ringers.

Go

A board game with just one type of move.

Nicolas Bourbaki

Not a person, but a group of men who wrote a multi-volume, austere, unified exposition of math.

Toru Takemitsu

Wrote haiku-like music blending Eastern sensibilities with Western instruments.

Swingline 747 stapler

Solid metal. Indestructible.

Pickling food

An easy nutritious process to preserve food without refrigeration. Harsch Fermenting Crock Pots make it even easier.

Mansfield College Library

Old, with portraits and nooks.

The Man Who Planted Trees

"In order for the character of a human being to reveal truly exceptional qualities, we must have the good fortune to observe its action over a long period of years."

Jean Giono wrote this short story about a dedicated man who planted a forest.

Edsger Dijkstra

He designed algorithms, and emphasized patience and exactness. See the video Discipline in Thought.

網師園

The Garden of the Master of Nets is located in Suzhou, China. Placid water, circular windows, ancient calligraphy.

Manual typewriter

Isolation and focus can improve writing. A typewriter removes distractions.

RZA beats

Disjointed atmospheric instrumentals provide urban calm.

Brevity

"I would have written a shorter letter but I did not have the time."
— Blaise Pascal

Grain mill

Try a cast-iron manual grinder. Make cornmeal, etc.

Poem by Frances Shaw

  Who loves the rain
  and loves his home,
and looks on life with quiet eyes,
  him will I follow through the storm;
  and at his hearth-fire keep me warm;
nor hell nor heaven shall that soul surprise,
  who loves the rain
  and loves his home,
and looks on life with quiet eyes.

The Hand-Sculpted House

Ianto Evans wrote this guide to earthen housebuilding. Building with cob requires no forms, no cement, and no machinery of any kind.

Clothing

It is as simple as you choose. Have it tailored to your specification by Janine Giorgenti. Read Alan Flusser for historical guidance.

Three sisters garden

Corn provides a stalk for beans to climb. Beans fix nitrogen. Squash smothers weeds and cools the soil.

Chalkboard

Easy to use, quiet, durable. A piece of slate.

Blank analog watches

E.g. Mario Botta's single-handed watch.

Plainchant

It is free of instruments, meter, or polyphony. One can learn Gregorian chant by the Solesmes method.

Plant cloning

This works for many plants: cut a small branch, put it in water until little roots begin to sprout, then plant it. Copy complete.

Junkbusters

An organization which helps consumers reduce unwanted junk mail, junk email, and telemarketing calls.

Im Lauf der Zeit

Directed by Wim Wenders. A slow, hypnotic story of two men traveling back-roads by truck.

Déodat de Séverac

Loved nature, and wrote sunny, picturesque piano music. Suggested listening: En Vacances.

пустынь

Poustinia in English. A small, sparsely furnished cabin for solitary retreats.

Fixed gear bike

Just a frame, wheels, and a chain.

The Twelve Seasons

A book by Joseph Wood Krutch about people's relation to non-anthropomorphic nature.

Dick Proenneke

A survivalist so skilled he creates his own tools and a snug cabin in Alaska. He filmed himself for the documentary Alone in the Wilderness.

Federico Mompou

He wrote delicate, meditative piano music. Suggested listening: Musica Callada.

Récoltes et Semailles

The autobiography of mathematician Alexander Grothendieck. He describes the simplicity and poetry of modern abstract math. There is no complete English translation yet.

Cheap. Fast. Good!

A cookbook by Beverly Mills and Alicia Ross. Its title is accurate.

Ryōkan Taigu

A buddhist monk who left the monastery to live in a hut outside of town. He wrote poems about his daily life.

The thief left it behind:
the moon
at my window

Into Great Silence

A three-hour, mostly wordless documentary by Philip Gröning about the Carthusian monks. They live closely with wood, stone, cloth, and the seasons.

Erik Satie

A composer of understated gentle piano music. Suggested listening: Cinq Nocturnes.