I'm not against entertainment of the mind, body, emotions, or taste buds. I don't aspire to be an ascetic. I have ascetic tendencies by nature and have to work hard to relax and enjoy myself (which rarely works out). Left to my own devices, I'd still be living in an apartment with a chair, a bed, a pot for cooking my Kraft Dinner
, and the props for whatever hobby was my current obsession. Visitors would take one look and ask, "Oh, did you just move in?" "No. I've been here 18 years." Uncomfortable silence as they inch towards the door and wonder what I keep in the freezer.I don't feel entirely comfortable criticizing popular culture, since it appears that everybody else is enjoying it, or at least accepting it, far more than I am. If it makes them happy but not me, do I have a right to be critical, or should I be jealous instead?
The Buddhist perspective would be that these distractions are just that, a way to learn to fly (making sense of life) by throwing yourself at the ground and missing
(preventing yourself from thinking about it). Reality TV shows, religions (hmm, Reality TV Religions--note to self for future business opportunity?), mind-altering substances, or watching or reading "news" are distractions removing us from the current moment. Combine that with fretting about past indecisions, and pining for future acquisitions or conquests (new car, caviar, four-star daydream
), and how much awareness do we devote to the present? Does the present exist?Our economy doesn't need the present, because it doesn't encourage us to consume. We aspire to buy something, we buy it, and then we move on to dreaming about the next thing we need. The present pops up long enough for cash to change hands, or a computer to add and subtract, then vanishes again.
Whatever lofty philosophy I may spout, I am the poster child for the Age of Distraction, hence this blog post.
I've been reading a lot about the present recently; the "now" and being mindful of what's going on. It's insane when you stop and think about how much time we spend on the past/future and how rarely we are ever in the present.
ReplyDeleteI'm seeing a lot of how the Buddhist perspective makes sense..not sure if I can take on the whole religion but it certainly has some great concepts.