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Information Overload
FleaMarket
Veteran
I think I've been reading too much again. My brains and eyes are telling me it's time to just sit for a bit and breathe.
Hello breath. Welcome back to my awareness. Enjoy your stay.
3
Comments
You need to have breaks and implement.
So … exactly right.
I
I still find the getting away from the reading / intellectual investigation a challenge. The answer to this overload -or frying our neocortex too much (using Ajahn Sona's words) is practice.
You / we / all are on the right track!
Yes, in the beginning this is a big change. But also getting used to reading more slowly, and reading in limited quantities, such as reading a book in chunks of 5-10 pages. It means you choose your books more carefully.
I used to read a lot of fiction, now I read almost exclusively spiritual books.
@Kotishka Hmm maybe I have some difficulty separating the intellectual and practical application at times. Maybe I have difficulty filling my day with things other than intellectual pursuits and pleasures. I see myself returning to the familiar even when the familiar is understood as unhelpful in that moment. Ignorance of what else to do? Blockages on acting? Addiction to the computer and the information readily accessible? Other unhelpful habits? I keep my mind just murky enough to avoid taking action on my responsibility. I sculpted my life around doing quite little lately. So lazy..go practice
@Jeroen I like that advice, reading in chunks. Deliberate reading. I read primarily non-fiction but I am noticing I read it like fiction. I would probably retain much more if I slowed down my spiritual consumption. There is reason my avatar says to remember. Maybe it should say to slow down.
Info overload.
Intelligence and Dharmic understanding are actually accessible and digestible throughout a much more extensive foundation than what an ego enthralled brain would claim as its sole domain.
A harmonization of body & mind can reveal an uncompromised intelligence that is more akin to a wider net than what the computer of our own mind usually offers.
A small amount of Dharma, digested in practice, potentially illuminates all Dharma.
A lifetime of Dharma, if undigested in practice, is just a dreamer doing more dreaming.
@FleaMarket :
About the computer... and excess information... I try to avoid using the phone using How's tip by allowing it the same amount of time that I allocate to my practice . And using it mindfully of course, not just to down texts/information/YouTube as if they were pints at a pub or cake at an all-you-can-eat. The internet is a buffet, but sometimes being able to enjoy a 3 course meal and a small dessert is better than stuffing ourselves to the point of sleepiness and exhaustion.
Of course....sometimes YouTube and these damned short snippets catch your attention and then you realise you've been 1 hour scrolling down foolishly. Time to atone for my sins...... !
@Kotishka I have so many responses, so many excuses! The roots of attachment to the internet run deep. This is my project which makes all other projects more interesting ahead of it. Let me finish every other chore first.
@how Some days the dream, some days the Dharma... Every day a little more Dharma.