Western Life

[RossE]

The more I meditate; the more I get in touch with the basic fact I'm a human being; and the more I let go of my old ways, the more I see just how INCREDIBLY destracting our modern, "Western" lives are. Almost from morning until night it's just distraction, distraction, distraction.

Distraction from what? The fact that we are human beings. We are just creatures. We only need the bare essentials. Our two main, most basic concerns are really survival and reproduction, and helping other humans and other animals to do so, without jeopardising our own needs.

But when I look around me, when I'm sitting in my house even, that's not what I see. Our lives do not promote these basic needs; it masks them, denies them even.

Let me discuss the most basic things, say food, water, clothing, shelter. A lot of the food sold in supermarkets is terribly bad for us, it weakens the quality and longevity of our survival, but we eat it anyway because we are lazy, and because we seek easy pleasure. Water - a lot of the water we drink is delivered in very unhealthy forms - fizzy juice, alcohol, juices with colouring and flavouring, you name it. All of that is distraction from why we must drink water- for survival. Modern clothing is a distraction. All the brands which go around, the newest trainers, the coolest snapback, the best suit. All distractions from our basic need to protect our body from the cold and from overheating. But what about shelter? We have great houses, they have everything we need, we get water delivered here, we can store food. No - houses have become a badge of honour, a place which we can hoard all our lovely, distracting belongings, where we can watch our TV, eat our crappy food, titillate ourselves, and we can use our house to judge others about their house. All we really need is a basic hut.

I could go on, and on, and on. I'm not saying these are evil things we've created. Some of it is functionally effective. But man, once you see past them, you stop being a slave to them. You see through the delusion, the distraction from truly living a human life. I certainly used to be a slave, I still am, but I'm starting to see how much of a distraction it all is, and you can too.

Peace 

 

[egoeimai]

How beautiful ! 

No you're less slave than before. You grow everyday. Better each day . Keep going. ?

[RossE]

@egoeimai If only it were so easy! But yes I shall keep going

[Joseph Maynor]

Yes.  I think it is healthy practice to re-build your life from the bottom up.  I keep very few possessions for this reason.  I like to have a very basic grasp of my needs and satisfy them very carefully.  Otherwise we basically just get distracted and over-saturated with addictions.  That doesn't help us, it sabotages us.  Additionally, I am working on not getting triggered by the distractions.  I shouldn't be getting annoyed by the distractions.  That would be optional adversity not mandatory adversity.  I have a zero tolerance rule for optional adversity.  So, I need to develop an exercise I can run to solve this little issue for me.  It's not bad, but I still need to do a little work on not being triggered by the distractions.  I should be able to get to that point.  That's a new goal for me.  

Edited June 10, 2017 by Joseph Maynor

[Dizzy]

@RossE beautiful words there

I realized the more we hold on something we don't to loose, it's exactly what we don't need and loosing it would be a blessing. Basically the more we loose, more we realize the illusion we were living once. 

[RossE]

@Dizzy so true Dizzy. Those are beautiful words too!

[Prabhaker]

On 6/9/2017 at 5:57 PM, RossE said:

the more I see just how INCREDIBLY destracting our modern, "Western" lives are. Almost from morning until night it's just distraction, distraction, distraction.

The East has also missed many things - it has missed the scientific mind, it has missed the technological progress. It has remained poor, it has been invaded by anybody. The East has tried the first extreme — of meditation. It became life-negating and escapist — hence the poverty, the ugliness. Some individuals have evolved: a Buddha, a Krishna, but they are exceptions; they are not the rule.

Man is coming to a very unique point from where a quantum leap will be possible. The moment is coming closer, because for the first time, particularly in the west, the society has come to such a state where it is feasible, it is practical. Otherwise in the east people have lived in such starvation – how to think about consciousness? The East was also interested in meditation when the East was rich; this has to be understood.