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Remote Control of the Mind: Mindful Media and Steps to the Pure Land
I don’t know how much time each of you spend sitting in front of your television—three or four hours a day is too much. At a young-people’s retreat in Santa Barbara a seven- or eight-year-old wrote “I vow not to watch television on weekdays” on both sides of a sheet of paper, then more than twenty other children made the same commitment. Television can be wonderful, but many programs carry “poisons” of fear, violence, craving and hatred. Like edible food, TV requires mindfulness of consuming: choosing healthy programs, limiting screen time, even imagining a warning label on each set—“Be aware, if you are not mindful, this can be very toxic.”
Pure Land and hell both exist within us; when hell is about to manifest we must be aware and act, and when Pure Land is ready we allow it to flower. Crossing to the other shore (pāramitā) means moving from affliction to well-being by creating practice centers—mini Pure Lands—where therapist-like Buddhas and bodhisattvas design safe, healing spaces. Everyone in the Sangha cares for a “second body,” sharing in a collective Sangha-kāya that protects and nurtures each member.
To touch life’s wonders here and now we first stop running from the past and future. Then we practice
- mindful breathing (“Breathing in, I know I am breathing in”; sixteen Anapanasati exercises for transformation)
- walking meditation (each step brings you to presence)
- mindful eating, drinking and consuming (the fifth of the Five Mindfulness Trainings)
These simple practices reunite body and mind, reveal the miracle that you are alive, and give you the power to replace negative mental formations with joy, peace and freedom—one mindful breath or step at a time.