There are 10 indriyas in our body, out of which 5 are considered as sense organs(sight, hearing, taste, touch and smell) and 5 organs of action(speech, hand, feet, excretion and procreation). These organs are given to us as an aid in living a good life. These organs get in touch with the outside world and let us enjoy the experiences. We can't indulge in sense pleasure for ever as there is some energy lost whenever these indriyas come in contact with the material world and we need to rest to regain our strength. All the great teachers have advised us to restrain the senses and preserve our energy for doing spiritual practices. In the modern world where technology is the new guru, no wonder even electronic gadgets echo these thoughts. Although we think they are dumb and still long way to go for full AI enabled machines, they can still teach us a few things about how to lead a good life.
On one occasion I had to put my smartphone in airplane mode for a few days. The phone's battery was charged almost 95% when i put it in airplane mode and when i brought it out of airplane mode after 3 days of complete radio silence, the battery was close to 85%. If this device can retain most of its energy by just consuming only whatever is required and not communicating/interacting with the environment, how much energy we can save by stopping unnecessary indulgence of our senses(useless chat, eating without hunger, watching TV/laptop ....). We can instead use this energy for learning new things, developing new ideas...
On one occasion I had to put my smartphone in airplane mode for a few days. The phone's battery was charged almost 95% when i put it in airplane mode and when i brought it out of airplane mode after 3 days of complete radio silence, the battery was close to 85%. If this device can retain most of its energy by just consuming only whatever is required and not communicating/interacting with the environment, how much energy we can save by stopping unnecessary indulgence of our senses(useless chat, eating without hunger, watching TV/laptop ....). We can instead use this energy for learning new things, developing new ideas...
Yes and add to the list - mental banter. I have found (as many others have too) that instead of thinking too much, doing it is much more efficient. We think about what will happen, what could have happened,what shouldn't happen etc. Such a waste of energy! All that time could have been spent just happening not thinking. Nike got it right - Just do it :)
ReplyDeleteThat thought was the driver behind writing the blogs :)
DeleteWow. Insightful.
ReplyDelete