There was once a man called Kasper Hauser. Brought up in a German prison in the 17th century, completely unschooled in even the most basic skills of human communication, he was released at the age of about thirty and placed like an exhibit in the centre of a village square with a letter in his hand written by the prison warder..., and left. The letter gave information about Hauser’s upbringing and invited any willing family to take him in.

Kasper Hauser looked like an animal, grunted like an animal, ate like an animal and was greeted by the villagers as an animal. Ten years later lie was acclaimed a national hero. Why? Because from beneath the inarticulacy and barbarity, there emerged a profound clarity of mind which flawed many of the 17th century German academics and philosophers. He could answer questions that they could not. He was a scholar of life. But he also had the virtue of simplicity.

Without advocating barbaric conditions or animalism, there does seem to be a lesson here. Kasper Hauser had been forced by circum stance to limit his physical needs totally and because isolated, was oblivious to public opinion. Because of this his natural wisdom could come to the surface.

Meditation also has the same effect. By teaching you to be free of unnecessary clutter, by developing a love for internal solitude, two things can happen. First your lifestyle takes on a simplicity and easiness that in it can be a healing source to those around you; and secondly, your powers of perception become dramatically heightened. It really is like being able to see again. Occasionally there is a challenge:

Why have you given everything up? But the feeling is that only negativity has been given up. The wealth of experiences accumulated over the past has not been rejected, only the pain. Someone holding onto pain can never be simple.

But it is a great paradox that simplicity comes from passing through many stages of learning. It is a complex landscape before reaching a calm, straight, simple sea. It is the virtue of the spiritually old and yet also it is the possession of the physically young.

And perhaps most touching of all, it belongs to God, who holds with in His understanding the ups and downs of the entire human landscape. Listening to God’s words is like listening to someone playing a scale on the piano, when he could play a concerto. Just a scale, but done perfectly. This is simplicity.