Materialism does not bring happiness

Category : General advice, Philosophy 7th November 2016

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Inside Yoga 182 (7/11/16)

Every so often the unexpected happens: take Tom Ford, who made his money and fame as designer for Gucci, and now as a film director, was recently quoted as saying materialism does not bring us happiness, which some would think is a surprising comment for a person who sold materialism for a living.

In an interview with Radio Times, and quoted in numerous papers last week, Ford acknowledged that his work might not sit with his views: “I certainly helped create this consumer world. I’m a big part of it. Contemporary culture tells you that it is possible to achieve happiness, and it’s not.

“You can have happy moments, happy days, but you’re also going to have things that are devastating in your life, whether you’re rich or poor.
“Everyone today is on antidepressants. It sounds weird coming from me, a fashion designer, but we all have expectations of life that can’t actually be achieved.”

What I find interesting here is that these comments are more news worthy coming from a fashion designer than a wise monk such as the Dalai Lama. It is a comment about perception, because we expect the Dalai Lama to say this kind of thing, and he often does, but we didn’t expect a fashion designer and film maker to make such an observation.

But should we be surprised because what we do in life should not prevent us from having insights into what is really important in our lives. And perhaps having being at the cutting edge of materialism Ford is well placed to have seen its excesses and false expectations.

On the other side, it is a shame that a film director, who has noticed that happiness is not found in our consumer world, gets more coverage with his one comment than the numerous wise comments made by people such as the Dalai Lama who lives and breathes the way of happiness.

Tom Ford in the interview goes on to say, he uses baths as his relaxant – he has three a day: “They’re an hour and a half a day of pure meditation. It’s when I put myself together. I’ve tried real meditation, but it doesn’t work.”

It is arguable that even though he is in his bath, he is still practising a form of meditation, so he is wrong to say that meditation does not work. Meditation is something that arises and results from setting the most conducive conditions for a stable and calm body and mind, and it appears his bath does this for him.

He adds about happiness: “The things that make me happy are the people in my life. Your parents tell you the best things in life are free and you go, ‘Yeah, yeah, the best things are a new apartment and a shiny new car.’ Not true. Maybe I’m a fool that I didn’t understand that right off the bat.”

Tom Ford is now 55, and simply showing signs of his age, because many of us realise as we get older, now we get it, and now we understand, but when we were in our 20s we were indestructible and didn’t care, we just wanted to consume and we couldn’t be told otherwise.

Wisdom comes with age and to some extent, family – he has a young son now – and this teaches a lot about what is happiness and what is important. Critical as I am of why a designer’s profound words are so newsworthy it does mean that perhaps his story and comments might reach some people who would never read what the Dalai Lama has said.

Feel free to share this blog with others, and any thoughts, questions or comments do contact me via the reply panel or email me gary@yogabristol.co.uk



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