Convenience and on-demand Stimulation
Today, I had so many things that I wanted to do with my time. This is a curse of having far too many hobbies and interests, I suppose. But despite wanting to do certain things, such as read, or paint, or write, and many others. The attention is so easily drawn back to services such as Netflix and the like. Services that are far too convenient for providing stimulation. They make it far too easy to sit there, and vegetate in front of them.
Even when I did make a break and start one of the many things I wanted to do, all my brain kept encouraging me to do was stop, and seek the easy path of “enjoyment”. This is hardly an isolated experience, with a simple search returning this as the first result: Understanding the Phenomenon of Binge-Watching—A Systematic Review (Note: I have not read this, just using it as an example). Thankfully, I am able to stop myself, unlike some others. But that doesn't mean that the urge to sit there, eyes locked to a screen vanishes. No matter how terrible it makes you feel afterwards.
So, when I randomly opened the Dokkodo book to choose a precept to read this evening. I thought it was interesting that it should be: “5. Free yourself from desire for your entire life”.
His fifth principal calls on us to govern cravings, rather than be driven by them. – Dokkodo: The Way for Those who walk alone
A line from that was also the inspiration for this post title.