Television

LostSoul

How many here watch television? Do you think it is harmful to mindfullness?

Cloud

Dunno, how mindful are you when you're watching TV? That's the only real gauge, no one else can know how mindful you are or whether it's harmful to your mindfulness.

LostSoul

Hah! Not very much, that's for sure :P. But, I'm not very mindful a lot of the time either...

Cloud

There are actually all kinds of positions on the subject of how watching TV (or a lot of TV) affects people. Some people blame TV for many problems in society. I think you might get a lot of different replies!

ozen

No, it's mind numbing and generally bad for health sitting for extended periods.

how

As opposed to watching a computer screen?

ozen

As opposed to watching a computer screen?

As opposed to more participatory and physical activities.

how

By jumping between the TV and the "puter" can't ya get both while not being troubled by bothersom reality.

WilliamHobbs

It almost completely depends on the type of programmes you watch.

ozen

By jumping between the TV and the "puter" can't ya get both while not being troubled by bothersom reality.

I'm currently trying to distract myself from a bothersome deadline, but enough about boring old me.

Zero

Everything in moderation...

RebeccaS

The studies done on reality TV and the people who watch it are super interesting.

We actually just cancelled cable because there is never anything on But I am quite partial to Hell's Kitchen and Seinfeld. I guess it depends on what you're watching and how long you're doing it for. I used to have the TV on constantly because I liked the background noise but now I quite like the silence. Like someone said, everything in moderation.

BigD

We still have a TV but got out of the habit of watching it when it was unavailable for 6 months after our house move in 2004, and did not watch it much before that. We do occasionally watch DVDs on it but never 'TV'. From what I've heard about reality TV I'm sure we are not missing anything..

Evenings are usually spent reading, gardening, playing guitar, drawing etc.

I only use the home computer for about an hour a week too - to check e-mail etc.

karasti

Well I think that it just depends. Is tv bad for you if you spent 2 hours during a day watching the Dalai Lama's teachings on netflix? Or is it bad for you when you spend 12 hours a day watching a Jersey Shore marathon? I don't think there is an answer for your question, other than for you to answer it yourself. Most of the time I find that if I have to ask a question like this, it's because I already know the answer and am looking for other input to determine if my self-arrived answer is correct or not. If you are starting to wonder if you watch too much tv, then you probably do.

Personally, I (and the rest of the family) watch varying amounts. Some days the tv isn't turned on at all, though that's rare because my hubby likes baseball. I don't watch all that often, because it's too much of a distraction for me, and I can lose track of several hours watching it. Because of that, I tend to keep it off, which forces me to get busy doing other things. Same with the computer. But when it's a really rainy day, when I don't feel well, when it's -40F outside, I'll spend more time on the computer or watching tv than I will today, when it's sunny and 85F outside

LostSoul

Thanks for the answers, guys!

I never personally enjoyed watching reality TV. We usually just watch TV for an hour or so before bed. But, what I've noticed is right after a meditation session, if I try watching what we usually watch (which usually consists of stuff like, futurama, american dad, family guy, simpsons), I don't find it quite as enjoyable or as funny. I think it might be because I'm not relating so much to the "trashy" jokes, but who knows. Or maybe I just get super boring after meditation :P

OneLifeForm

Thanks for the answers, guys!

I never personally enjoyed watching reality TV. We usually just watch TV for an hour or so before bed. But, what I've noticed is right after a meditation session, if I try watching what we usually watch (which usually consists of stuff like, futurama, american dad, family guy, simpsons), I don't find it quite as enjoyable or as funny. I think it might be because I'm not relating so much to the "trashy" jokes, but who knows. Or maybe I just get super boring after meditation :P

Realizing that engaging in any worldly activities
is like trying to winnow something meaningful from chaff
you must try to take the essence of life at all times
day and night.

LostSoul

Thanks for the answers, guys!

I never personally enjoyed watching reality TV. We usually just watch TV for an hour or so before bed. But, what I've noticed is right after a meditation session, if I try watching what we usually watch (which usually consists of stuff like, futurama, american dad, family guy, simpsons), I don't find it quite as enjoyable or as funny. I think it might be because I'm not relating so much to the "trashy" jokes, but who knows. Or maybe I just get super boring after meditation :P

Realizing that engaging in any worldly activities
is like trying to winnow something meaningful from chaff
you must try to take the essence of life at all times
day and night.

Interesting post, insightful but at the same time confusing.

I believe what your saying is to try to find the "essence" in everything, including things such as television? I do find that I can connect to a lot of history shows, and documentaries, in a mindful way - but do find it very hard to find some sort of meaningfulness in "The Simpsons", however entertaining it may be.

Sometimes, I wonder if entertainment itself is at odds with buddhism?

vinlyn

Over the years -- ever since Newton Minnow declare television a "vast wasteland", I've grown very tired of the denigration of television programming. First, people should be selective in their viewing, but so what if they like "Jersey Shore"? It's their choice (certainly not mine). Just like Buddhism is a choice we are making.

I watch very little network programming anymore. Right now I am enjoying the "Dallas" revival and "The Newsroom". During the regular season there are handful of other network shows I watch.

So what? Maybe what you do for relaxation or recreation I may think is stupid.

We don't have to be mindful 24/7.

upekka

i do

before i watched and absorbed in them, get angry, cursed at villan, feel sorry for victims, etc.

now try to be mindful and see how much i get fooled by the consciousness when eyes see the colours on the TV (four elements which create a shape) and the sound (four elements which brings sounds to the ears

NEWS and movies (from non-english-speaking-countries with english subtitles)

if we are mindful it help us to practice what we learnt from buddhism
if we are ignorant i would say 'poor me'

how

I heard one Christian with obvious TV issues say "The one eyed god is actually the devils rectum. Bow down to it all you want but know what you are inviting.
Course maybe that's just Canadian programming.

Beej

When I am mindfull, tv is nuetral to me, like a Piet Mondrian painting . When I am unskilled and without awareness, tv scares the snot out of me like trying to stare at a Salvodore Dali painting on strong LSD. And by scared I mean, "this thing is brainwashing people! I'm a people! This could brainwash me too! Turn it off! Aaaaahhhhhhhh!". I think I have an aversion to tv, especially anything that calls itself "news". But I'm working on that... by not watching tv as much as possible.

Its way more fun to read books anyway, as the imagination has to co-op with the text to paint a picture worthy of, lets say, Bob Ross..... happy little trees and such.

LostSoul

Enjoying the posts so far

i do

before i watched and absorbed in them, get angry, cursed at villan, feel sorry for victims, etc.

now try to be mindful and see how much i get fooled by the consciousness when eyes see the colours on the TV (four elements which create a shape) and the sound (four elements which brings sounds to the ears

NEWS and movies (from non-english-speaking-countries with english subtitles)

Interesting on the former point (how most TV pictures are created by a bunch of lights). But, it makes me wonder if your truly "seeing" the picture still? When you look around in real life, do you tend to be mindful how much you get fooled by the consciousness, when your eyes see all these tiny particles of atoms, but rendered as beautiful landscapes? I'd think you should be focusing on the beautiful rendered landscape, not the particles that the landscape is made up of, no?

And I do love watching foreign movies. I watched a pretty interesting one a while back (while not actually a "foreign movie" it was a chinese themed movie, I guess) where a man practiced a particular style of martial arts, and wanted to be the "best of the best" and achieved that. But then he found the true meaning of the martial art, which to me alluded to buddhism. Forgot the name, it was on netflix...

EDIT: And sorry, I might just not be understanding your point in my first paragraph..

Beej

Funny though, as TV is what introduced me to Bob Ross.

MaryAnne

Well, I enjoy TV. I watch almost no network TV but instead watch the cable/satellite channels 99% of the time.

I love good movies; science shows; nature shows and documentaries.
I love to watch "reality shows", but only the ones that are about what unusual and difficult things people do for a living- like Deadliest Catch (Alaskan crab fishing), or Gold Rush, (mining for gold), Dirtiest Jobs, etc. (I don't watch trashy reality TV like Jersey Shore, etc)

I love travel shows about places and cultures I would otherwise never be exposed to.... I like cooking shows, too, because I enjoy cooking. I like the HGTV and many of their shows about house hunting around the world; or home repair and renovations.
I love learning how to do different things. And TV is my window to the world that I can't afford to travel to.

Whenever I hear people say there's "nothing good on TV" or they don't watch /have TV in their home because there's nothing but garbage on.... I feel bad for them. Because it's not TV that's limited- it's your interests that are limited.

But to each his own, right? Even with my varied interests and my list of what I like to watch, I rarely watch TV for more than 3 hrs a day (and that's with a 2 hr movie tossed in now and then). So I don't think I am overdoing it.

karasti

I just think there are better programs (generally speaking). Watching NOVA can expand your awareness and your knowledge. Watching Jersey Shore isn't likely to do that. What people like to do with their time is of course, up to them. I have my "guilty pleasures" as well as far as entertainment goes.

My personal issues with it, is because so many people seem to get sucked into it, and personally invested in it, especially reality shows. All tv is scripted and made to sell a product. 100% of it. It's no more actually realistic than soap operas are. That's not to say I don't enjoy watching them, I just watch them with the same sense I do anything that is obviously fiction. I enjoy the survival shows, and Manhunter, NOVA, Life After People, similar stuff. I do love Big Bang Theory. But overall, if my husband wasn't a baseball freak, we probably wouldn't have cable tv, and just watch what we got on network tv. I certainly wouldn't be missing out on life by not having tv, because tv isn't real life. You can experience things in life without seeing them marketed and scripted for tv.

vinlyn

...

I love travel shows about places and cultures I would otherwise never be exposed to.... I like cooking shows, too, because I enjoy cooking. ...

Yes, in fact, I remember a wonderful travel/documentary on Buddhism that was (I think) by the BBC...something like "In The Footsteps Of Buddha". I'm not sure if it is or isn't the one that you can still find on You Tube, but it was very good.

vinlyn

...Watching Jersey Shore isn't likely to do that. ...I do love Big Bang Theory.

Although I never watch it anymore, if I were home on sick leave from school (I was a principal) I would usually watch Jerry Springer. You can't get much more low class than that. But it was a reminder to me what some of the parents were coming from that would come into school acting so weird, and it was also a reminder of the kind of homes some of our kids lived in...homes much different than the one I grew up in.

I love "Big Bang Theory", too...particularly the sensitivity and confusion of Raj.

Mountains

How many here watch television? Do you think it is harmful to mindfullness?

Haven't done so since 2001, and yes, I think it seriously harms mindfulness, intelligence, physical fitness, and civility. For starters.

JohnG

I've spent several years working evening shifts, which didn't permit me to see prime time TV. When I got to mids, I got to see this wonderous time again; and it scared me to high hell! That's been ten years now, and I still can't figure out what happend in that time period that created such a waste of production money. :screwy:

Bunks

Does the USA have many commercial free channels? In the UK and Australia we have commercial free government owned channels that generally air interesting documentaries and relatively non sensationalist news. Apart from a little sport on the commercial stations, that's about all my family watch these days.....although my wife likes The View for some reason? I don't get it but each to their own.....

DaltheJigsaw

I do sometimes, but usually it's online. And even then, I try to balance it. I read a lot more, which can also be a problem due to overindulgence or over stimulation of information.

LostLight

It depends on the show. Everything is conditional. There are shows that promote happiness and no-ego. There are shows that promote ego and craving. There are a few series that made me rethink everything I thought I knew and promoted personal growth; I could never condemn television as a whole because of great things I was able to take out.

DairyLama

TV is nice because I don't have to think.

karasti

@Bunks, we have PBS, which is public broadcasting. It's more locally funded (not by the federal government) but the same idea. No commercials, the programming is meant to educate and develop people, from children to adults. They have some really good programs on there, like NOVA, and it's where Sesame Street comes from. When we didn't have cable tv, we watched PBS most of the time. The news is also much better.

MaryAnne

Does the USA have many commercial free channels? In the UK and Australia we have commercial free government owned channels that generally air interesting documentaries and relatively non sensationalist news. Apart from a little sport on the commercial stations, that's about all my family watch these days.....although my wife likes The View for some reason? I don't get it but each to their own.....

In the USA we have cable channels... and the vast majority do not have commercials for consumer products. Back in the early days of cable channels like HBO, etc there were NO commercials at all except for what was coming up on HBO in the future.
Now a days you will see commercials for consumer goods on SOME cable channels, but not as many or as often as network TV. Mostly you see commercials for other affiliated cable channels and what they are/will be showing.

PBS used to be 100% commercial free, but no longer. For the best news (IMO) I tend to watch BBC America (cable or satellite). Other than that I glean my current events and news from various internet sources.

karasti

That must vary then MaryAnne, our PBS is still commercial free and a lot of our cable stations have regular commercials. Not as many as the network stations, but they are definitely there. Commercials for deodorant on Discovery, commercials for Kraft on History, etc. We have local cable though and not satellite or major cable provider so maybe that is why? Our cable provider only serves 3 states, and even then, very small portions of those states.

MaryAnne

Yeah, Karasti I think you're right, it probably does vary from area to area and cable/satellite company to company. Now you got me thinking about the commercials... I'm going to note which ones I see on History channel or Discovery and the like. :-)

Amelia

To make a duality of everything seems to go against practice.

MaryAnne

To make a duality of everything seems to go against practice.

Hi Amelia, could you please explain how you mean that? I'm confused....

how

I wondered if Amelia was speaking of TV as being spoken of as being just innately beneficial or harmful, whereas a Buddhist practise is about our relationship to it.
I also wonder if this is the same Amelia of former Jiyu linage.

Bunks

I wondered if Amelia was speaking of TV as being spoken of as being just innately beneficial or harmful, whereas a Buddhist practise is about our relationship to it.
I also wonder if this is the same Amelia of former Jiyu linage.

That makes sense - there are some benefits to television but also some downsides. Just depends how you use it I guess! I have a friend who thinks Facebook is the most horrible thing ever invented but that seems far too simplistic to me...

vinlyn

And I know someone who feels discussing issues with people you have never met in online forums is foolish. There is good and bad in all forms of communication and entertainment...it is up to the user to use it judiciously.

Dakini

I quit watching TV years ago. I guess in part because it does tend to discourage mindfulness. The problem is, one watches a selected show mindfully, but then the tendency comes into play to just sit and veg in front of the Tv no matter what's on next. That's what I didn't like about it.

DairyLama

I quit watching TV years ago. I guess in part because it does tend to discourage mindfulness.... That's what I didn't like about it.

You're right, but I haven't got the energy to be mindful all day, so I feel I need some vegging out time. Or maybe I'm just lazy!