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Talk: 2013-06_28 Retreat Closing.json Start_time: 01:05:27 Display_question: Do you had any commentary or opinion, as far as technology and the constant stimulation, that makes us less aware? Keyword_search: technology, stimulation, aware, attention, New York Times, Industrial Revolution, granddaughter, scrawl, CNN, Turkey, information, President Obama, Cambridge, mountain climber, Siberia, wisdom, power, IMS, MIT, atomic bombs, nuclear energy, pollution, mind, India, compassion, Buddha, greed, hatred, delusion, ignorance, mindfulness, attention deficit disorder, interconnected, meditation, peace treaties, United Nations, heart, entertainment business Question_content: Questioner: I was just wondering if you had any commentary, or opinion, on the way that society has been going, as far as technology, and the constant stimulation, and the technology around us that makes us less aware, in a sense. Larry: I understand… Questioner: As a parent, at a very young age and just where all that's going. And where… Larry: Have you got about five months? Yeah, but, you know, there's… okay, I think I understand what you're saying, and I'm very much in the world and pay attention. I still enjoy going to coffee shops and reading my New York Times and I watch the next… this new generation of students. And so, I…let me give you one example. Yes. Historically, let's say when the Industrial Revolution came in, that was over 100 years ago, it disrupted all kinds of things, and people became obsessed with this that, and neglected everything else. That's going on now. I think the technology is obviously brilliant. Are there dangers in it? The technology in and of itself, it's miraculous. These little gadgets. I don't own one, but I'm impressed by them. You touch this and it's a phone, then it's a camera, then whatever you need. It's some of this little thing and it has it. And there are people and children now… our granddaughter is five years old. She's way past us. She's born into it. I don't want to fault that. The problem is how we use it. But this is the world we live in. Break_line: Let's take… I watch the news a fair amount, CNN, and other news stations. So, let's say you're watching a screen, and I think this is what you're getting at, but tell me if it is, or isn't. And you're watching something going on, something in Turkey. There's rioting in Turkey, or whatever it is, and you're attending to it, and the announcer is telling you what's going on. So, there are two modes of information. Then, as if that weren't enough, in the corner, there's some Turkish general to a translator, he's telling you some other things. And then there's scrawl, the scrawl about Joe Blow from Idaho just shot 15 children, in the playground. While you're watching that, if this gets a little… if the Turkish general starts to become boring, you go to Joe Blow from Idaho, and then suddenly there's a scene of students throwing things, and police coming, oh, forget Joe Blow from Idaho, forget the Turkish general going over here. And then you go back to the scrawl, and there's an interesting scrawl. President Obama said that. And then a commercial interrupts it. It's maddening. It's as if we have to be entertained every second of the day. And at least in Cambridge, everyone's got something in here, in here and here, because I'm going to get to us as yogis with the channel. Break_line: Let's say, when I was an undergraduate, and a graduate student, we went to coffee shops, and we sat, and we drank stuff, and ate, and argued politics, and talk about our courses, and put down our professors, of course, and put some up. And we laughed. And we were very over, super serious. And we got into arguments, and so forth. Well, people are now doing the same thing, except they're doing it with a computer. So, here's a late… I just saw it about a week ago. It's a couple. They come in together. Each has their own computer, all right? He's sitting on one side of a table; she's sitting on the other side of the table. They each have something to drink, and something to eat, and they're doing different things. They're there together. He's looking at the computer, and he's very serious. It looks like he's either trying to become the next multimillionaire, or he's doing a term paper. Whatever it is, he's really working hard doing that. Then suddenly, I guess he changed from that, I had enough of that. And then it's (laughter) and in the meantime she's doing serious, and he's laughing. But they're not doing it with each other, they're doing it… or, oh, I found a mountain climber in Siberia, and we have a wonderful connection with this mountain climber. We email each other back and forth. Have you ever met this person? No, but we feel so close. If he showed up in your door and knock, hi, I'm Evon. I'm the mountain climber. Sort of like police 911. There's some strange man with a fur hat here. Break_line: Okay, so this is the world we live in. Now, if it's going to work out, as a culture… in other words, right now we're so in love, fascinated with technology. And what you're getting at is, to me, an extremely important point. But it's been going on for a long time, thousands of years, wisdom. But right now, the stakes have become very, very high. I'm sorry to end the retreat this way, but it's true, because the brilliance of the thinking mind, the brilliance of it has created power. Through science and technology, we've unleashed power that's extraordinary, and that destructive power, and also polluting power. All that you hear and there's not much… do you hear parents saying, oh, we just want Janey and Johnny to grow up, and go to IMS, and develop wisdom, and be in compassion, go and spend time with the Dalai... They want them to go to MIT, and get a degree in engineering and computer science, and make a fortune. So, wisdom is puny. It's this tiny little wisdom, and it's got vast, powerful machinery, that can destroy the world ten times over. Or we're going to reduce atomic bombs. So, the real question is, are we capable of learning? And right now it's hard to know. Break_line: But now you as an individual, because I face it too. When I walk down the street, I feel it's important for me, not to have stuff in my ears, but to just be at home with ordinary sounds, and ordinary people. I've taken that on. Of course, I'm not that interested in this anyway, so it's easy for me. But let's say, I would suggest take a look. Are you overly dependent on these things, so that you don't hear birds chirping anymore? You don't pass people and see their moods? You're not in touch with the trees, and the weather, because every second of the day you got to plug something in, and hear something. You have to be entertained nonstop. As soon as you get home, music's got to go on, or you got to turn on this. So we are doing…. this is the world we live in. So we have to learn how to live in this world. But we don't have to do exactly everything, that everyone's doing. But the only way to use it sensibly, is to see where you're not using it sensibly, and make a correction for that. As for the rest of it, I don't know, because there are people who are pushing for sanity. And the problem isn't nuclear energy, nuclear bombs, it isn't pollution. It's the mind. It's always been the mind. Break_line: Let's say in ancient India, people were suffering then too. Otherwise, when the Buddha talks, he's talking about suffering. They didn't have all this stuff, but they use bow and arrows, and knives, or whatever. But they couldn’t…the power wasn't so enormous, that it could destroy them. I mean, the whole thing, the whole planet, they didn't have that. But even then, wisdom is not something that apparently, we're in love with. Maybe people think it's too hard, so we reserve it for special people. Monks, nuns, priests, rabbi, you do it, you wise up and tell us how to live. In the meantime, we'll just destroy the world that you guys but now we can't afford that anymore. So, for example, let's say greed. People are talking about corporate greed. It's greed. In other words, the Buddha’s teaching is almost 3000 years old. Greed, hatred, and delusion, and their children different. That's the soil out of which all this destruction is coming from. The root is ignorance. In other words, we really don't understand ourselves, or how we're living, or what we're doing, because we don't, then we do things that really don’t… that are not beneficial. We're not intentionally, necessarily trying to hurt ourselves. We just don’t…we're confused. We're ignorant in this sense. We ignore, we don't know ourselves. So, wisdom is an attempt to correct that. Break_line: So, greed, hatred, and delusion, are alive and well. They always have been, in every culture. I've not been anywhere. The content changes, the outfits change, but it's always in a different form, the same thing. So, unless the mind is taken seriously, and there is some… it's promising, this is growing. I don't know, I don't have mindfulness…we can spread mindfulness. The whole planet will be saved like peanut butter. Just spread it everywhere. I don't see how that… people have to want to really use it effectively, and have to look at certain things, that it's not so easy. Is it always easy? It isn't, but we're motivated, we want to do it. Now, look, if a lot of people don't want to do it, and only a small number want to do it, so be it. This is how I want to live my life. Just selfishly, I'm just pointing that out. And I see this world, I live in the same world you just described, and I'm trying to live a sane, simple, natural life, within it. I use email, et cetera, and there are certain things I don't want to waste my time with. I'd much rather do other things. So, I don't know, it's in the process of unfolding. Break_line: But right now, for example, they talk about attention deficit disorder. The whole culture has attention deficit disorder, but there are certain people singled out. You have attention deficit disorder. Yeah, specifically. But then look around, and isn't that TV, CNN, with all those things looking, you're looking…. I got that. So, yes, it is inclining us in that direction, but do you have to go in that direction? Can you be in the society, but not of it? That's been a standard for thousands of years. Not to be isolated, or negative, about all these stupid people who don't understand anything. Why don't they meditate? We're all finally interconnected everyone's, human everyone, et cetera. But if this is so helpful, then let it help you, to live in this world, with some sanity, and learn how to relate to the people in your life, who maybe don't see it this way, in ways that are reasonable. I'm not saying it's easy, but I can just say that's what I try to do, it doesn't mean I succeed. But you put your finger on a big thing, because no amount of conferences, and peace treaties, and United Nations, and committees doing special…none of that's going to have much impact. It hasn't. Unless the mind changes. Unless the heart changes. And that means a radical change in culture, and what we think is important about living. (clapping). Oh, for God's sake. So, I'm in the entertainment business now. End_time: 01:17:52
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