Inside Yoga 206 (10/7/2017)

While planning a weekend break in an European city I did what most of us do, I got on the net and looked up what was there to do, and after hours (well, days or weeks) less browsing more buried under, all the information, I did think that my wife had a point when she said “it was easier before the internet.”

She likes the spontaneous form of travel: arriving and discovering, while I wanted to research and save money by finding out what deals were there before we got there, only to discover that this popular city has several “city cards” (you pay a fee for a package of things to do), and on top of that, numerous combinations were on offer, and to make all this more complicated there are several websites offering their own packages of pretty much the same thing.

As the trip loomed I had to make a decision, which city card, or no city card, what were our priorities, we discussed what to do, and so forth… and by the time I finally decided on a certain city card (it was late at night, my wife had said it was my decision and I was just too tired to care anymore), I discovered that I had left it too late to get that card! So I plumped for paying for one museum and playing the rest by ear… which what my wife wanted! There a saying by 18th century English writer: procrastination is the thief if time.

The internet is like Pandora’s Box: once opened all manner of things jump out and as you keep looking even more information comes your way. Now, information is all well and good, I like doing research, but how good are we at calling a halt to the looking? Do we know when to stop? The internet challenges that ability in us.

On the positive side, by the time we came to our break I did have a good idea of what was where and what we could do, so perhaps the time I spent researching was worth it?

Yet my hours on the web highlighted something else that relates to meditation and our understanding of how our minds work. Our instincts drive us on, devouring more, in this case, information, with the stimulation of even more information giving us a hit every time, and we become addicted to getting more, and more stimulation of input. We just cannot stop.

Meditation teaches us to quieten our mind, and trains us to notice when we need to be still – that is, free of thought and quiet, and also teaches when to be active, using our thoughts to direct our actions. The internet is chatter and we love chatter.

So when it comes to the internet we have given ourselves something that can be useful but also something that can overload us, stress us, and simply drive us mad! Or rather, it is not the cause of the problems, as it is just a machine, but it is us and our actions that are the problem, because I cannot blame the internet for my procrastination or can I?

We help and guard our children against the excesses of being on the TV or the computer too long, yet who is watching us and telling us when to stop? Who is in charge, because we act like children in a sweet shop when it comes to the internet and TV?

In meditation there is something called the witness, pure consciousness or self, which is said to be permanent, and in the background of our daily activities, which are driven by our ego. In context of what I am writing about, this is our day-to-day personality. A meditator cultivates a stronger and closer connection between the witness and ego so that they don’t act separately. For example, how many times have we been saying or doing something, which is perhaps wrong, naughty or bad, and there is an awareness of something within us judging us? Telling us, no! This is sometimes referred to as the witness. Meditation teaches us to cultivate a greater self-awareness so that we learn to do and think with greater clarity and wisdom – and in terms of the internet with less addictive and impulsive activity.

Easier said than done, as my internet experience showed me, but this is where devoid of parental supervision we turn to our inner witness or self, who is perhaps the responsible adult in this case, to let us know when to stop!

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