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Fifith precept take 2
Mar. 12th, 2025 07:43 am""Aware of the suffering caused by unmindful consumption, I am committed to cultivating good health, both physical and mental, for myself, my family, and my society by practicing mindful eating, drinking and consuming. I will ingest only items that preserve peace, well-being, and joy in my body, in my consciousness, and in the collective body and consciousness of my family and society. I am determined not to use alcohol or any other intoxicant, or to ingest foods or other items that contain toxins, such as certain TV programs, magazines, books, films, and conversations. I am aware that to damage my body or my consciousness with these poisons is to betray my ancestors, my parents, my society, and future generations. I will work to transform violence, fear, anger and confusion in myself and in society by practicing a diet for myself and for society. I understand that a proper diet is crucial for self-transformation and for the transformation of society."
So the other thing he talks about in this chapter is control of media consumption--being aware of the things we bring into our consciousness, and not watering the seeds of hatred. He talks specifically about violent movies and TV, and how perhaps they should even develop TV sets that won't receive violent programs! That's an interesting approach (I guess he's anticipating parental controls). He also talks about controlling exposure to violent literature. I really wonder if he would have found anything good at all about social media. There is an updated version of the book, but I think it's publication date is something like 2009, so I doubt it completely addresses the explosion of social media, our self-siloing and also just the proliferation of hatred. I can actually tell that my more restricted social media diet is helping, though I suppose continuing to read advice columns is a form of lingering judgmentalism.
I see the next chapter is going to be about hungry ghosts and the lack of community and meaning in modern society. I do think the recent proliferation of estrangement, and people going no-contact with family members, is a sign of the extreme individualism that has become so prevalent and harmful. We aren't learning techniques for community building; instead we are all "setting boundaries" and "cutting out toxic people" and "refusing to do emotional labor." As one of the gender who is expected to do emotional labor, I agree that the current social arrangements are unfair, but I also wonder what this is all going to lead to--a society with no connections?
Just to return to the chapter from today, "The idea of a diet is the essence of this mindfulness training. Our collective consciousness has so much violence, fear, craving and hatred in it, and it manifests in wars and bombs. Bombs are a product of the fear in our collective consciousness. Just to remove the bombs is not enough. Even if we were able to transport all the bombs to the moon, we would not be safe, because the roots of the war and the bombs are still in our collective consciousness. We will not abolish war with angry demonstrations, We have to transform the toxins in our consciousness and in our collective consciousness." The chapter ends with asking ourselves to look deeply into what we consume, both physically and mentally, and to commit to not consuming poison.
So the other thing he talks about in this chapter is control of media consumption--being aware of the things we bring into our consciousness, and not watering the seeds of hatred. He talks specifically about violent movies and TV, and how perhaps they should even develop TV sets that won't receive violent programs! That's an interesting approach (I guess he's anticipating parental controls). He also talks about controlling exposure to violent literature. I really wonder if he would have found anything good at all about social media. There is an updated version of the book, but I think it's publication date is something like 2009, so I doubt it completely addresses the explosion of social media, our self-siloing and also just the proliferation of hatred. I can actually tell that my more restricted social media diet is helping, though I suppose continuing to read advice columns is a form of lingering judgmentalism.
I see the next chapter is going to be about hungry ghosts and the lack of community and meaning in modern society. I do think the recent proliferation of estrangement, and people going no-contact with family members, is a sign of the extreme individualism that has become so prevalent and harmful. We aren't learning techniques for community building; instead we are all "setting boundaries" and "cutting out toxic people" and "refusing to do emotional labor." As one of the gender who is expected to do emotional labor, I agree that the current social arrangements are unfair, but I also wonder what this is all going to lead to--a society with no connections?
Just to return to the chapter from today, "The idea of a diet is the essence of this mindfulness training. Our collective consciousness has so much violence, fear, craving and hatred in it, and it manifests in wars and bombs. Bombs are a product of the fear in our collective consciousness. Just to remove the bombs is not enough. Even if we were able to transport all the bombs to the moon, we would not be safe, because the roots of the war and the bombs are still in our collective consciousness. We will not abolish war with angry demonstrations, We have to transform the toxins in our consciousness and in our collective consciousness." The chapter ends with asking ourselves to look deeply into what we consume, both physically and mentally, and to commit to not consuming poison.
