Beloveds:

The other day, I (Tuli)  learned a great deal from the weekly Buddhist meditation and talks I attend with my family. I share my reactions here in the spirit of the freedom of the pew, a core value for Unitarian Universalists.

Bhante, as male monks in the Thervada tradition are referred to, was recommending that we practice “sense restraint” and not fill our minds as we tend to do but instead give them the opportunity to settle - that we not watch things on repeat, scroll through Instagram images, listen to music incessantly or get dependent on news. I get the advice to break the cycle of craving and aversion. However, I objected when Bhante said that we should not be watching the Olympics or listening to music or appreciating art. I asked Bhante, after the talk, how he reconciled “sense restraint” with the evolution of human art, particularly Buddhist art - he said that Buddhist art is meant to focus and still the mind. 

I walked away thinking that this is precisely what all art does for me. As for the Olympics, that too is an art form for me and I truly enjoy watching human achievement.  For me, both fall into what Bhante called “wholesome activities.”

However, the lessons offered stayed with me during a week in which I was reminded of my privilege. Safe in my suburban home, I had no weather storm to contend with other than some minor flooding, nor any political situation to escape, waiting endlessly on a tarmac for relief efforts. What the advice of “sense restraint” did for me was stop me from watching things on repeat - once was enough. And interestingly, the less I watched and read, the more motivated I became to help out. I reached out to friends and family with ties in both Haiti and Afghanistan; I listened; I dropped off a meal to an Afghani friend. As a congregation we made a contribution to the UUSC to support relief efforts in Haiti. 

It made me wonder if the incessant consumption of material is in itself a distraction from the work at hand.

There can be no better time, Beloved, than this very moment to commit and recommit to what needs to be done, to be engaged, to ask ourselves, what needs to be done and what is my part in it? And we might find ourselves more focused, more committed with less distraction.

May it be so for each one of us.

Tuli, Robin, Emilie