REFLECTIONS NOV 6

In his thought-provoking book, Amusing Ourselves to Death, Neil Postman notes:
Television serves us most usefully when presenting junk entertainment; it serves us most ill when it coopts serious modes of discourse - news, politics, science, education, commerce, religion - and turns them into entertainment packages. We would all do better if television got worse, not better.

from Akashaloka,
Ray Innen Parchelo

REFLECTION NOVEMBER 4

DISTRACTIONS OF ENTERTAINMENT
Lest we think that this precept is a modern intrusion, we are reminded that monks were admonished to stay away from such distractions even in the early days of the Sangha. In those times , it was common for monks to be warned to avoid gambling, drinking and disreputable women. Then, as with now, certain activities were seen to be so distracting and unwholesome that they would interrupt the progress and practice of monks.
As lay Sangha members, we are possibly even more vulnerable, since we lack the isolation and protection of a secluded monastic environment. When was the last time you were inside or outside your home or workplace and weren't assaulted by some distraction of gambling, over-consumption of some sort or an urging to indulge your less wholesome tendencies?

from Akashaloka,
Ray Innen Parchelo

REFLECTION NOV 3

This month we begin a new topic: Distractions of Entertainment.
Anyone who has explored practice knows that we are easily distracted most of the time. In this Reflection we consider how much what we call "entertainment" is nothing more than distraction. Be it TV, Internet, iPod, Wii, soaps, The Daily Whatever, and on and on we surround ourselves with the means to distract ourselves with the justification that it is "light entertainment". This somehow approves all the multitude of time-wasting we engage in.
Perhaps the remarkable thing is how many ways have been created to interrupt our paying attention to our lives as they are. It would be simple to blame this all on advertising, condemning entertainment as ways to sell us things we likely don't need. This is all too simple. These wouldn't be successful and prolific if human weren't eagerly searching something to take their attention. Call it monkey-mind or squirrel-mind, our minds are endlessly busy trying to find something to keep us from noticing the impossibility of the self-project.

from Akashaloka,
Ray Innen Parchelo