The Dharma Has To Be Adjusted for Modern Times

There is an influence on humans now that was not illustrated in ancient text, and that is modern technology. In every walk of life, this has a profound effect on us.

Teachers talk about our minds clinging to ‘likes’ and ‘dislikes’ – desire and aversion – which is true, but thoughts can be placed in the mind by outside influences and have nothing to do with likes and dislikes. They’re just there; we are bombarded with ‘suggestions’. This is partly down to our upbringing and the upbringing of our parents. If we read Huxley’s “Brave New World”, we will get the idea of what’s actually going on, with the deep seated ideas that we hold, alongside the constantly changing, superficial ideas that we acquire: this creates much confusion.

Tibetan teachers, who’ve had a rarified upbringing, have not been brought up in our modern world. They’ve not been born into ordinary families and had ordinary friends; they’ve not gone to ordinary schools, taken an ordinary job, acquired ordinary debts, got into ordinary trouble. They don’t understand all the influences on us; if they did, they’d explain this extra layer of confusion. Many Tibetans see modern humans as being stupid and needy. This may be the case, but it doesn’t apply to those who want to learn.

At retreats, we are often treated like 4 year olds who need controlling. Going to retreats may cost hundreds of pounds (and even thousands if one has to travel from another country). We are there because we want to be there. There is always an ‘inner circle’ around the teacher which assumes superior qualities; unfortunately, it is from this group of individuals that the teachers often form their view of a society because they don’t mix daily with ordinary people.

In the modern world, we pick up millions of bits of information every day, and some of it “sticks”. Over a lifetime, we acquire much junk in our heads 😉 This affects the way our modern brains are wired, which in turn influences our mind. Once we can acknowledge this is happening, we then can discriminate as to whether this wiring is beneficial or not, and re-train as a result.

If this is not understood, then the Dharma is just another set of ideas that we pick up, and we still remain stupid and needy. This is not meant to sound harsh; just realistic.

Here’s an example:

A teacher might say, “Don’t criticise others; look at your own mind.” One can take this as “Don’t criticise others, criticise yourself,” or, as in the Bible, “First take the dust out of your own eye.” These sayings are generalisations. The important thing is how it actually feels, and is applied in a practical way.

Instead of feeling guilty (which is a subtle, control mechanism), we can be more practical than that. Using the faults we see in others, we merely look at our own reactions. If it wasn’t for seeing the faults in others, we wouldn’t reflect on our reactions; this is the rawness of genuine experience. So we should be more precise and practical thanks to our ‘awareness’ for being aware, rather than denying that we feel a certain way. And the ‘faults’ of others are only due to what they have picked up from their environment since birth…

We just have to be aware of everything that is placed in our minds.

We’re not 4 year olds. We do have infinite knowledge; it just has to be unlocked. Then we are free.

We use soap to clean.
Then we wash the soap off!
If we don’t,
we merely acquire a lot of fragile, empty bubbles
🙂