Escapism
Why is that we love to avoid reality?
The present moment is filled with joy and happiness. If you are attentive, you will see it. — Thích Nhất Hạnh
When I was in high-school, I used to have a teacher who loved to watch movies. He used to say that it distracted him. I asked what does he wanted to be distracted from. He couldn’t give me an answer.
Of course that, I knew the answer. I was just sort of testing him.
Movies, music, alcohol, tv shows, video games… All of these are common ways to distract ourselves from the problems we have in our life.
We all do this from time to time. We come home, turn on the tv or log into Netflix, and we sit down to watch a movie or an episode from a personal favorite show just to free our minds form the long day we had at work or school. We go to night clubs on weekends to dance, drink, and socialize with people just to forget about the long week we just had. And we go to bars and drink until we manage to get numb enough so that our life’s problems stop feeling so difficult. We try to escape from reality.
I recall a very old story about one man who become desperate after being in a zen monastery for a long time.
See, in monasteries you are entitled to constantly pay very close attention to whatever you are experiencing. Form sitting meditation to Eating your meals. You need to experience everything mindfully. Moment to moment. Day after day. After a while, this can become quite exhausting. And hats exactly what happened to the man in the story.
He told the master: “I want to leave, I can’t do this anymore.”
The master graciously said: “Ok, if that’s your wish, then leave. You are free to go”.
The student approached the closest door to him with the intention to leave. Then, the master told him: “You can leave through that door.” The student looked at another door and headed toward it. “You can’t use that one either” Said the master. Then the student said: “Well, then how am I suppose to leave. There are only two doors and there are no windows here.” And the master responded: “if you can’t leave, then stay.”
I think you see why I am telling you this story.
Just like the student from the story, we also want to leave. Maybe not from a monastery, but we definitely feel the urge to escape our life situations; to escape from reality. However, this is impossible. We cannot escape from our life’s problems, unpleasant situation, or, simply, from our boredom. Think about it and you’ll see that this is true. No matter how we try to distract ourselves, we will always be here and now. And we will still get bored, uncomfortable, and we’ll have to face problems from time to time.
When the Zen master told said that the student could leave only to make it impossible to him moments after, he tried to make he student see how he could go anywhere in the world, but he could not escape for reality; from the present moment. The practice of constant mindfulness that monasteries are so famous for is intended to make people notice this.
This is what meditation is really about.
About becoming fully present. Fully aware of what is going on right here and right now.
It won’t be until we achieve this level of presence that we will be able to become free form the constant suffering that the entanglement to past situations and the constant worry about the future brings.
Peace,
Ricardo Fabila
