Forming ourselves
We live in a new world, as history marches inevitably forwards, this is a rather redundant phrase. However, the world I talk of is not the one our ancestors have known for millennia. It is the digital world, the one that we have slowly become a part of, made homes in, lived in, become accustomed to, for many of us without realising. As we should work towards positive change in the world we live in physically, so too should we endeavour to change the world we live in virtually. Now more than ever, we have a chance to connect with each other, in ways that our ancestors could only dream of. It would be a shame to waste that oppurtunity.
'We should endeavour to be welcomed onto the web by the things that are going well, the ways humanity is progressing in the right direction, the things that are taking us there'.
There’s a concept in Buddhism, you’ve probably heard of it, but it might not be something that you’ve actually heard of, at least not the way I’m going to explain it, it’s called Karma.
Now what many people might think of when they hear this word is some insufferable person, confidently asserting the notion that if you do good deeds then the Universe will reward you, and if you do bad deeds you’ll be punished. This is not what Karma means in a Buddhist context.
In a Buddhist context, Karma refers to the ways that our intentions, and our actions of both body speech and thought form who we are. One analogy that I particularly like is the one that our mind may be thought of as a field: All that we are is the things that are growing in that field, some are so big that they are fundamental parts of us, some are so small that we might not even notice them. And it is through what parts we give attention, what parts we feed, that we nurture the things that remain and grow within us, and likewise, through the parts we ignore, that we starve, that wither and die, that are no longer a part of us. Karma is less about how our actions might bring us good or bad fortune, and more about how our actions shape who we are, and through that, shape how we experience life.
I’ve been thinking a lot about life lately, namely the one that I live. I live in the world, as many of us do. I also live in another world, as many of us do, I live in the internet. The internet is everywhere nowadays, many people now don’t know a time without it. It is as much the landscape upon which we live as the one where we wake and work and eat and sleep. What kind of a landscape are we living on? How is it affecting who we are?
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If you want to read the full article, you can find it at: file:///C:/Users/danie/Downloads/Forming%20ourselves.pdf