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Does the Internet Make it Harder to Awaken?
Does the Internet make it harder for people to awaken? I've wasted so much time and energy online over the years, and often it seems to dull my perception. Sitting staring at a computer screen for hours just kind of puts me in a different world--and not one in which I really feel awake or conscious. (I'm using these terms in the Buddhist sense, meaning "aware," "alert," "present," etc.)
The recent breakdown of my laptop--which I used to use constantly--has really helped me awaken much more lately. I'm more aware of what's going on in my life in general, which helps greatly with Right Vision. I believe a big part of this is that I'm no longer as "plugged into" the Internet as I was before. Sort of like waking up from the "Matrix". It's been like a breath of fresh air, and in fact I've decided not to get my laptop fixed, because I feel so much more alive without it.
Does anyone else have this sense, that the Internet actually puts you in a "sleeping," disconnected state? Is the Internet a stumbling-block to your practice at all?
The recent breakdown of my laptop--which I used to use constantly--has really helped me awaken much more lately. I'm more aware of what's going on in my life in general, which helps greatly with Right Vision. I believe a big part of this is that I'm no longer as "plugged into" the Internet as I was before. Sort of like waking up from the "Matrix". It's been like a breath of fresh air, and in fact I've decided not to get my laptop fixed, because I feel so much more alive without it.
Does anyone else have this sense, that the Internet actually puts you in a "sleeping," disconnected state? Is the Internet a stumbling-block to your practice at all?
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Comments
I've had a much more mindful day today, this is the first time I've been on here today. I've been reading my 'Miracle of Mindfulness' book instead (mindfully, I might add
While the loss of my computer is in some ways a disadvantage, I have to say that the benefits I've gained from losing it far outweigh them! I'm meditating at my center 4 days a week, going to museums, socializing more, meeting new people, and starting to go back to the gym--all stuff I used to forego in favor of "logging on."
Janine, I wish you success in your non-attachment campaign; and if all else fails, then I hope your laptop konks out on you.
Thank you Zendo,
I'm not sure my husband would like it konking out on me though, he's a computer geek.
I think mindful surfing is the key.
The Internet is an unprecedented thing in human history: a medium that is at once interactive, visual, and electronic. So while I do agree with you, I also think the Internet is in a category of its own, and has a power distinct from anything we've seen previously.
In my case, it's a compelling, perhaps even addictive power; and from the point of view of cultivating awareness, it can be a singularly potent factor in keeping the mind "asleep". Again, just like the "Matrix" image of people lined up with computer cables plugged into their minds.
To make things even more surreal: the Internet (as we think of it) doesn't exactly exist. It's a fantastically complex web of illusions, which our minds interpret as people, things, and ideas, but which are actually a vast quantity of electronic impulses surging through a worldwide network of wires and cables. This is what we "plug into" when we go online. It's not real, it's an illusion. Even the words you're reading now aren't really "there," in any conventional sense--they're binary codes, floating in "cyberspace," whatever/wherever that is.
So if the Internet isn't "real," then it seems to me "plugging into" it pulls us that much further from what is real. Which (I think) is why, when I "unplugged" from my laptop, I suddenly started "coming back to life" again.
Definitely. We should all be practising rather than wasting time online.
Ahem.
P
Hmm...this is odd. Is it me, or did your post somehow become punctuated when I quoted it?
Whether it "matters" or not is a totally different question altogether, because (and this is the point I'm trying to make) do we really know what effects "plugging" our minds into this vast electronic network of illusions day after day is having on our spirits?
The answer to that question (as is always the case with new things which humanity plunges into) is not yet fully known, and may not be for a long time. But what is known is that for the first time in history, a vast network of machines has got the minds of humanity firmly connected to it.
Most of the human race exist at a level of consciousness low enough that they don't think to question this strange fact; but Buddhists are different. We are the ones who are "waking up," becoming aware of things on subtler and subtler levels, things others might not be paying attention to. We're the ones who should be noticing this, and questioning it.
That's all I'm saying, is that we should question it. I'm not saying the Internet is "bad"--just that we should take a step back and ask ourselves: "Just what effect is this having on me and my life?"
In my case, disengaging (even partially) from the Internet had a very strong and measurably positive effect, like waking up from a dream; and this fact showed me that the Internet had actually been hindering me from awakening, i.e. countering my practice.
Then there are also more subtle issues involved, which for the most part don't register on the radar of our consciousness. Like the fact that our attention is locked for long hours on things that aren't even really there. We invest our whole mental focus, day after day, in a one-dimensional realm of illusion, staring into electronic screens (with things like magnetic fields and ions swirling all around and through our heads--again, factors we aren't really conscious of), and all the while our connection to each other weakens.
Every moment we spend on the Internet is a moment we're not interacting with another human being. We think we're talking with each other here on this site, but we're actually engaged in coded electronic interactions with 1's and 0's. Yes, we read what each other is saying, but we do it in a way several steps removed from actual human contact. We're actually expanding the gap, pushing away from each other rather than coming closer.
It's just something to think about, is all I'm saying. The Internet has many benefits, for sure; but as an artificial electronic medium of unprecedented power, it can also push us further away from the things that are most important in life, the things that are most real.
I think that the human mind always sees change as being more stimulating than the same old/same old. When change happens, whatever it may be, you feel more alive.
I have even heard people singing the praises of being on the front lines in a war. “I was never more alive, than during those war years," a WWII vet said, nostalgically.
Perhaps after a little while without your computer, when you have once again grown complacent, coming back to the web, simply because it is change, will once again be stimulating, and wake you up.
: ^ )
Quote: "Variety is the spice of life."
This is probably the same reason that we don’t just eat a big plate of the same foods for supper every night and simply supplement it with lots of vitamins, because we may just fall asleep on our plate and smother in the mashed potatoes. Not pretty. ; ^ )
Warm Regards,
S9
Perhaps that's how it will turn out, Subjectivity9. Maybe after a brief period of change, the "novelty" of my newfound freedom will indeed wear off.
Maybe we wake up once in awhile, and we get excited, but sooner or later we fall back to sleep again, and realize the 'being awake' part wasn't actually real after all.
I tend toward another interpretation. My goal is to ride the wave as consciously as I can, and extend the ride as long as possible, and learn what I can from it; and hopefully raise it higher, in time. To raise my consciousness little by little.
Thanks for your contribution!
I love mashed potatoes and would eat them every day with or without vitamins.:p
P
Let the record show that S9's "Mashed Potato Argument" has been refuted.
I didn't to mean bash and smash the noble potato. They are nice little vegetable in their own plain spoken way. Perhaps even under appreciated. WOW that's sad.
S9 begins to cry. : ^ (
Please forgive me, and let me play, too.
Okay, I'm over it. ; ^ )
Smiles,
S9
Here, as a token of friendship: I]hands him a potato[/I
Wow, what a great potato. Friendship accepted.
S9 hands Zendo friendship all tied up with a ribbon, and a price tag still connected so he'll be very impressed. : ^ )
Miles of smiles,
S9
I]glances at price tag[/I
$14.99.
Wal-Mart.
Sweet.