12
as the dry leaf blows past
the hungry ghosts
gnaw
Lesson # 12
Cell phone screens blind us,
violent words and gunshots
assault our ears,
making us blind and deaf to life.
Drink, drugs, and sugar
overwhelm our senses
until all we feel is numb.
Nothing satisfies.
Close your eyes, ears, mouth.
Just feel your breath,
deep inside the stillness.
From: 81 Lessons from the Tao Te Ching
Number Twelve: Overstimulation
We overstimulate our eyes
with bright video screens
We overstimulate our ears
with loud music and voices
We overstimulate our tongue
with rich sweet and salty snacks
We overstimulate our attention
watching violent images
We overstimulate our needs
with a desire for the lifestyle of the rich and famous
Craving overstimulation leads to a numbing of the soul
The wise person turns away from this world of overstimulation
and towards a quiet, deep breath taken into their belly
NUMBER TWELVE
The five colors blind the eyes of man.
The five musical notes deafen the ears of man.
The five flavors dull the taste of man.
Violent running and hunting disturb the emotions of man.
Greed for rare objects is hurtful to the actions of man.
That is why the self-controlled man occupies himself with the unseen, he does not occupy himself with the things visible, he puts away the latter and seeks the former.
Isabella Mears, The Tao Teh King, A Tentative Translation from the Chinese, William McLellan, Glascow, 1916.
Number Twelve (commentary) How can we live peacefully in this crazy world?
We are bombarded every day:
Violent or erotic media grabs our attention.
Computer algorithms steer our attention towards that which we might want and then turns that wanting into craving.
Newscasters play on our fears.
Junk food poisons our bodies.
The marketplace keeps stimulating and exploiting our desires.
All of that is done to capture our time and take away our money.
The wise person turns away from that noise and takes the time to look within. The wise person returns home to their breath and to peace.
Tangent and Tool # 12, Social media addiction recovery: (Reflective exercise) You can guess what is coming; cell phone recovery. And, in your heart, you know that too many precious minutes of your life are taken away reading IM’s and emails and obsessing on online games, losing minutes and hours to Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, Facebook and other screen related time-eaters.
You only get this one precious and time-limited lifetime. There will never be enough time. So, start with a day, from dawn to dusk. Choose one day this week, a day that you are off from work. Set your outgoing messages to Out of Office Reply, and then put your cell phone in a drawer, unplug your computer and go take a walk outside. The outside looks and feels very different when there are no chances of virtual interruptions. Hang for eight hours without disturbance. After that day, take on the practice. Do this for at least an hour every week. Hopefully, even more. Remember, there was a time not that long ago when phones hung on the wall and folks communicated through letter writing. The world will not collapse if you take an hour for yourself; one delightfully media-free, non-virtual hour.