During the past fortnight, I was invited to join my wife at the local Buddhist temple in Bangkok, to support her 11 year old cousin, as he temporarily became a monk for 14 days, along with 50 other children.
This uplifted me and gave me hope. Thank you for sharing this wonderful experience, which was highly educational as well as inspiring. I agreed with all the monk's sentiments and wisdom. Many children are lost in the artificial world of technology. Many adults are too. It has become a comfort blanket and prevents human to human interaction. Many teenagers and twenty-somethings have no skills in conversation, nor depth of thought. Older adults, too. Everything is superficial. Real life is dismissed because it involves moving through pain and beyond it. Most are addicts to the apps/technology now. Apps and mobiles are their life, they cannot function without it. They do not see the danger. It holds them in shallow waters and stifles deeper thought. Recently, I have been focusing on peacefully asking for all errors to be forgiven, and for all magnified, malicious harm that has caused suffering to all life, to be gathered up and returned to all those who have caused the malicious harm (to release that harm from entangling all the innocent and vulnerable life forms) I follow that with asking for all that has been lost to be found (because we are losing life force codes when we use this technology). Our energy/life force needs protecting, as does the children's. They lose life force whilst on the tech./apps and this needs to be our focus because of the harm this technology is doing to humanity. I feel the tide is turning. Much help has arrived for humanity to help them and to protect the children. The whole of Creation has been called upon by many small voices and their calls for help have been answered. Humanity is becoming more aware. I loved the beauty and sincerity of the water pouring ceremony...thank you so much Nicholas, I read your wonderful post all out loud to my husband. It moved us.
Important and well-phrased though the monk's sentiments are, how long will it take for those young lads to forget his words once they are reunited with their electronic lives? My guess is, about three-tenths of a second.
The fact is that most young people have been corralled into seeing real life as a poor substitute for the online world. As a consequence, their personalities are irretrievably stunted in both depth and breadth.
It may well be a majority of the child monks that return to their 'digitopia' with a sigh of relief. For others, their time spent away from devices may serve as a realisation for having already experienced "peak smartphone". Even if only a few of them significantly decrease device usage and time online afterwards, that alone will likely catch on with their other peers at school, to an extent.
Noticing the stark contrast in behaviour for the small number of children who accompanied their parents to visit their siblings ordained as monks was striking - 100% of those visiting children were immersed in phones or handheld gaming consoles -speaker volume on full blast even during the quiet reflections and the chanting of the child monks - parents scolding them to turn volume down, lasted 10 seconds then back to full speaker gaming mode. The best the ordained children can hope for (even if they don't yet realise it) is to gain a sense of social self awareness, as well as a conscientious awareness of how they selectively allocate their attention to devices versus real life.
While I understand your pessimism, I have to disagree, a little. I think that a "disruptive experience" like that 10 day immersion might act as an inoculation; the planting of a healing seed that will live on in their subconscious minds, ready to germinate at some time in the future. I'm reminded of Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha.
It would be wonderful to have such a system here in the West, perhaps even mandatory. Separate ones for boys, and girls as well.
Unfortunately........... i have to agree. I don't think anything good is accomplished by harping on "what we wish for . or how the human soul is ................ "
the one thing i can focus on is not going astray...... not giving up my quest to be a good example . But i am not one to give out "performance trophies " that are rewarding others who do not get their act together, and are really just hypocrites in saints clothing.
Being accomodating to everyone who is trading their abilities for a mind numbing device is not helping . I for one will not eat with others who need to play with their devices instead of "socialize" . (just ONE example ! not using one's body to be healthy. not having discipline to eat healthy . the list goes on and on. And parents nor teachers or even people who call themselves doctors are meeting my standards of what a good role model is .
This is incredibly beautiful and well articulated. People are lost in the control freak culture of online interactions and I am glad that the monk sees this so clearly. I always noted the great emphasis and respect placed on mothers in Thailand (well placed, IMHO) which is in deep contrast to American style: here Moms are Welfare Queens, implying that women, especially those of color, make babies indiscriminately with no sacrifice. Young mothers have thrown their life away instead of working for the man like they are supposed to and they are selfishly straining the Earth's resources doing so. Of course lately they seek to erase women and especially motherhood entirely with all of these sheer fantasies of artificial wombs and surrogates. Yet the foundational basis of all conscious human life, so every single person reading this, began with a pregnant woman...
I've been in deep thoughts regarding the death of Mar, my mother in law and my husbands' mother, five years ago on April 24, 2019. I should resurrect my writing on that funeral experience at the Buddhist temple Wat Prathong. Thanks for the fascinating insight...
Great comment. People are lost but do not realise it for the most part. I look forward to your resurrected writing - it's healthy for us to find out about cultures different to those that we grew up in - it helps us to really listen / absorb alternate viewpoints without immediate judgement, which is sorely lacking in today's hyper-sensitive, hyper-offended by anything and everything culture.
ahhh yes. being as i am human, i have first impressions. first thoughts. unique to me.
with this reading i think of preachers ( or other names similar : teachers, educators, spritualists, life coaches, etc. etc )
Once again, like APPS, there are thousands to choose from . I drift into thinking " if only these "teachers" would practice what they preach . Show love, not be tempted by the material riches, live as a good and honest person. DON'T JUST TALK THE TALK . :-)
slowly i walk away ......... having heard the talk so many times. Sometimes my head does an involuntary shaking from side to side . I have lived a long life .
slowly i walk ............... trying to remember what it was i was going to do .
This uplifted me and gave me hope. Thank you for sharing this wonderful experience, which was highly educational as well as inspiring. I agreed with all the monk's sentiments and wisdom. Many children are lost in the artificial world of technology. Many adults are too. It has become a comfort blanket and prevents human to human interaction. Many teenagers and twenty-somethings have no skills in conversation, nor depth of thought. Older adults, too. Everything is superficial. Real life is dismissed because it involves moving through pain and beyond it. Most are addicts to the apps/technology now. Apps and mobiles are their life, they cannot function without it. They do not see the danger. It holds them in shallow waters and stifles deeper thought. Recently, I have been focusing on peacefully asking for all errors to be forgiven, and for all magnified, malicious harm that has caused suffering to all life, to be gathered up and returned to all those who have caused the malicious harm (to release that harm from entangling all the innocent and vulnerable life forms) I follow that with asking for all that has been lost to be found (because we are losing life force codes when we use this technology). Our energy/life force needs protecting, as does the children's. They lose life force whilst on the tech./apps and this needs to be our focus because of the harm this technology is doing to humanity. I feel the tide is turning. Much help has arrived for humanity to help them and to protect the children. The whole of Creation has been called upon by many small voices and their calls for help have been answered. Humanity is becoming more aware. I loved the beauty and sincerity of the water pouring ceremony...thank you so much Nicholas, I read your wonderful post all out loud to my husband. It moved us.
As it is written in the Dhammapada: "A fast mind is sick, a slow mind is healthy, a still mind is divine."
Wise words indeed! Thank you.
Important and well-phrased though the monk's sentiments are, how long will it take for those young lads to forget his words once they are reunited with their electronic lives? My guess is, about three-tenths of a second.
The fact is that most young people have been corralled into seeing real life as a poor substitute for the online world. As a consequence, their personalities are irretrievably stunted in both depth and breadth.
It may well be a majority of the child monks that return to their 'digitopia' with a sigh of relief. For others, their time spent away from devices may serve as a realisation for having already experienced "peak smartphone". Even if only a few of them significantly decrease device usage and time online afterwards, that alone will likely catch on with their other peers at school, to an extent.
Noticing the stark contrast in behaviour for the small number of children who accompanied their parents to visit their siblings ordained as monks was striking - 100% of those visiting children were immersed in phones or handheld gaming consoles -speaker volume on full blast even during the quiet reflections and the chanting of the child monks - parents scolding them to turn volume down, lasted 10 seconds then back to full speaker gaming mode. The best the ordained children can hope for (even if they don't yet realise it) is to gain a sense of social self awareness, as well as a conscientious awareness of how they selectively allocate their attention to devices versus real life.
While I understand your pessimism, I have to disagree, a little. I think that a "disruptive experience" like that 10 day immersion might act as an inoculation; the planting of a healing seed that will live on in their subconscious minds, ready to germinate at some time in the future. I'm reminded of Herman Hesse's novel Siddhartha.
It would be wonderful to have such a system here in the West, perhaps even mandatory. Separate ones for boys, and girls as well.
Unfortunately........... i have to agree. I don't think anything good is accomplished by harping on "what we wish for . or how the human soul is ................ "
the one thing i can focus on is not going astray...... not giving up my quest to be a good example . But i am not one to give out "performance trophies " that are rewarding others who do not get their act together, and are really just hypocrites in saints clothing.
Being accomodating to everyone who is trading their abilities for a mind numbing device is not helping . I for one will not eat with others who need to play with their devices instead of "socialize" . (just ONE example ! not using one's body to be healthy. not having discipline to eat healthy . the list goes on and on. And parents nor teachers or even people who call themselves doctors are meeting my standards of what a good role model is .
That..... is what is needed :-)
And parents nor teachers or even people who call themselves doctors are meeting my standards of what a good role model is .
this sentence is of course meant to be NOT MEETING MY STANDARDS ......
This is incredibly beautiful and well articulated. People are lost in the control freak culture of online interactions and I am glad that the monk sees this so clearly. I always noted the great emphasis and respect placed on mothers in Thailand (well placed, IMHO) which is in deep contrast to American style: here Moms are Welfare Queens, implying that women, especially those of color, make babies indiscriminately with no sacrifice. Young mothers have thrown their life away instead of working for the man like they are supposed to and they are selfishly straining the Earth's resources doing so. Of course lately they seek to erase women and especially motherhood entirely with all of these sheer fantasies of artificial wombs and surrogates. Yet the foundational basis of all conscious human life, so every single person reading this, began with a pregnant woman...
I've been in deep thoughts regarding the death of Mar, my mother in law and my husbands' mother, five years ago on April 24, 2019. I should resurrect my writing on that funeral experience at the Buddhist temple Wat Prathong. Thanks for the fascinating insight...
Great comment. People are lost but do not realise it for the most part. I look forward to your resurrected writing - it's healthy for us to find out about cultures different to those that we grew up in - it helps us to really listen / absorb alternate viewpoints without immediate judgement, which is sorely lacking in today's hyper-sensitive, hyper-offended by anything and everything culture.
ahhh yes. being as i am human, i have first impressions. first thoughts. unique to me.
with this reading i think of preachers ( or other names similar : teachers, educators, spritualists, life coaches, etc. etc )
Once again, like APPS, there are thousands to choose from . I drift into thinking " if only these "teachers" would practice what they preach . Show love, not be tempted by the material riches, live as a good and honest person. DON'T JUST TALK THE TALK . :-)
slowly i walk away ......... having heard the talk so many times. Sometimes my head does an involuntary shaking from side to side . I have lived a long life .
slowly i walk ............... trying to remember what it was i was going to do .