“The noise does not disturb you, you disturb the noise.”
~ Japanese Proverb
Technology. Does anyone else out there also share a love-hate relationship towards it ??
As I contemplate more on Santosha, or the jewel of contentment, I realize that my relationship with technology is probably my most challenging.
My entire life revolves around it. Yet when I am happiest, I am completely away from it. When I’m sitting on top of Grinnell Glacier, the absolute last thing I’m thinking is to Tweet about it. Yet, it seems to be a success in this modern world, this is exactly what I should be thinking. Can’t I simply enjoy my experience without the need to share it out for the world to see? Are we so caught up in our “sharing”, that we completely miss being present ?
While I lay on the couch the other day recuperating, I watched two Walt Disney movies, Swiss Family Robinson and Pollyanna. I couldn’t help but notice how “outdated” they were. I wondered if children today could have any appreciation for either movie. I personally found myself wishing I we could go back to those days when life was simpler, less urgent.
In those 4 hours of truly enjoyable, completely lazy movie watching, I failed to check my email. Shame on me. During that time, I had a client request an invoice, which they had access to themselves, if they had chosen to think about it. No more than 2 hours later, the same request came in, but with an urgent tag attached.
I’m not so sure I like where this modern world is headed ….
I wish to share what I found to be a beautiful poem of sorts from Debra Adele’s book on the Yamas and Niyamas.
Ringing.
That’s what it was.
On Sabbatical I never heard any ringing.
No ringing of the doorbell
announcing someone wanted to see me.
No ringing of the telephone
creating a duet with the
programmed ringing of my cell phone,
often making a trio of sounds
as my computer would chime in “mail truck,”
announcing at least one new email has arrived,
making a total of at least three people
who were trying to contact me at the same time.
Nor was there the ringing of my alarm clock
telling me it was time to start the day
or get up from a nap.
Now that I am home,
I am witness to the cacophony of rings.
Unlike the sounds of nature
where I could sit in pure delight
being drawn more and more inward
in contemplation,
these rings are impatient taskmasters
jolting me from my present state
and demanding an immediate response.
Notice me now.
Answer me now.
Attend to me now.
Whatever I was peacefully doing is now forgotten,
my attention now shifted to the “ring.”
And I notice that my responses range
anywhere from total annoyance
to the excitement of an unknown Christmas package.
Who is on the phone?
Who just emailed me?
Now what does someone else want from me?
The stimulation and demands are constant
and I begin to wonder,
“Who is running the show here?”
If I’m not careful
I become a yo-yo to my responses
of various ringing sounds.
A willing slave
to drop whatever I am doing
to respond to the ring.
I am being trained to need stimulation
and let a ring call me from my contentment.
I am becoming one of Pavlov’s dogs.
What are your thoughts? How often do you take a technology break? Would you die without you iPhone, your iPad, your MP3 player? When is the last time you sat with complete silence, with technology turned off, for 24 hours? Would you even want to?
“Soon silence will have passed into legend. Man has turned his back on silence. Day after day he invents machines and devices that increase noise and distract humanity from the essence of life, contemplation, meditation…tooting, howling, screeching, booming, crashing, whistling, grinding, and trilling bolster his ego. His anxiety subsides. His inhuman void spreads monstrously like a gray vegetation.”
~ Jean Arp
If you enjoyed this post, you can find the beginning of this series,
Exploring the Yamas and Niyamas: The Yogic Code of Ethics, here:
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