Information technology fosters ignorance.
According to Buddhist teachings ignorance is the root cause of all our problems. Ignorance is the state of ignoring our true nature and mistaking it for something else. We think we are our ego and it’s thoughts and emotions, but that is not really who we are, that is merely a mental construction. The thoughts and emotions that we cling to are the appearance of mind, not the essence of mind. We are much much more than our thoughts and emotions. The truth of our deepest self is there if we can become still enough to see it, but we are so habitually distracted that we give ourselves no chance to experience the clear, calm spaciousness at our core. We ignore it.
Information technology trains us to ignore things and offers countless opportunities for distraction. We are presented with so much information – adverts, pop ups, words that run across the bottom of the television screen beneath the main program, endless tweets, countless options in response to a search etc – that we can’t possibly attend to it all. We have to sift the useful from the not useful and ignore what doesn’t apply. There’s nothing wrong with that; our brains would explode if we tired to digest all the irrelevant information, but the reason we’re so good at it is because that’s the way we operate anyway, and it’s the same skill that makes it hard for us to be still enough to see through the veil of superficial reality.
We automatically judge everything we come across in terms of whether or not it may be useful to us. If we think the object will provide something we want like entertainment, money, success, pleasure and so on, we will want it and engage with it, if not, we will ignore it. But when we reject things on the basis of our conceptual mind, we cut ourselves off from any possibility of which we can’t conceive, including the possibility of seeing beyond the veil.
We also habitually seek out things we think will be useful or entertaining, but that habit of constant seeking, can easily lead to distraction. How many of you have found yourself wandering around Facebook wondering how the hell you got there when you were suppose to be doing something else? That’s distraction, and we can do without it if we want to accomplish anything. In terms of this topic, the issue is that a mind that is constantly distracted has no chance of discovering its true nature. It’s always out there, seeking something else, instead of remaining centred in itself, open to seeing something it doesn’t realise exists.
Distraction is the handmaiden of ignorance.
Meditation trains you to not be distracted, first you learn to not be distracted from an object, then to not be distracted from the present moment and eventually when you are still enough and open enough to glimpse your true nature, you train to be undistracted from that. When you continually no longer ignore your true nature, you are, to some degree, enlightened.
Who cares whether they know their true nature or not? Once you taste it, you know it’s worth the training. The world is a glorious place when you see how it really is. Doesn’t the bible say somewhere that the Kingdom of God is right here among us; that we have eyes but we do not see.
How can we see reality as it truly is? How can we cease being ignorant, especially when we practice it every moment of our lives? Are we supposed to not ignore all the useless information that comes our way? No, just take some time to practice operating a different way, so you can break through the habit at any time and open to a greater possibility. That greater possibility is the thing you need to stop ignoring.
Turn of the Internet, or at least look away. Take a deep breath and when you release it, release and relax your mind – everyone can do it for an instant. Then just be open to whatever you see, hear and feel without judging it, without ignoring any of it. Simply be, without focusing on anything in particular. Let your mind expand to encompass all.
When you find yourself thinking, just watch the thoughts the same way, without judging, or ignoring, and particularly without being distracted by them. If you start thinking about those thoughts, you’ve been distracted. At that point, you start again with the deep breath.
So notice how you ignore things and by all means ignore the adverts, but try not to ignore the blue sky, the daffodil poking its head out of the ground, the bird chirping in the trees and the look on your child’s face.
Would life be sweeter if you took time occasionally to simply be, to stop sifting the valuable from the invaluable for a moment, and see what is there before you without being distracted from the being?
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