Zen and Technology, Part Three

With Palms Together,


Good Morning everyone,

Zen and Technology, Part Three



As I go through my day I notice both very fine nuances in my brain’s activity, and the gross impositions its impairment places on my ordinary daily activities of living. I notice my body’s lack of balance, facial tics, and my halting, stumbling gait. I notice my fingers are tight, perhaps a little puffy. I notice how my mind tries to go to sleep when I open a book or sit down for zazen. Everyday life is our playground. In it we reveal ourselves to ourselves. It is these revelations that we should notice. Notice, not grasp.



Technology is neither good nor bad; it is neither the beginning nor the end. It is the sun setting, the moon rising, the birds chirping.



Change is always difficult. We experience a sweet moment and want to hold it forever. Yet, there it is, that pesky next moment intruding on our song. For all of our talk about being in the present, I notice a desire to live in the past or in some future rendition of perfection. I just notice. I open my grip on it and let it slip away.



We also fear change. Our children, those digital brains, are the next step in our evolution as a species. They will understand their creation in a wholly different way than we do. Moreover, they will not understand us without great effort. They will be less and less constrained by a physical world and be more and more interconnected in the vast network of the universe. Values and expectations will change. And much like our ancestors were challenged by the paradigmatic shift regarding our place in the universe, so too, will we.



From a Zen perspective, no problem: Be here now!