First impressions upon reading the slogan: don't consume (eat, read, listen to, watch) stuff that is bad for you. As you did, I think here mostly about social media. We who use social media are fed a stream of things to consume dependent on what we consumed before. It is very clear to see on YouTube. Watch one video about cats being funny and you get a hundred more next time you open the app. But there is of course other stuff that is less innocent than cats being funny. I watched for a while videos about Donald Trump and his legal woes. Observing myself I realised that these videos create an addiction. I want to see more about Trump losing in court or about Trump's lawyers making fools of themselves. Some of the videos might be really informative but for the most part they speak to a part of me that really shouldn't be encouraged. I can't influence the election anyway so I'm merely a bystander watching a train crash. It's not healthy. I've stopped watching these videos on a regular basis because they are poisonous in their way (which isn't so say that Trump isn't poisonous himself, quite the opposite). I simply don't think that gloating over his set-backs is good for me.
So that was my first impression. Then I read the comments by Page Chödrön in Judy Lief and they talk about something else, about the danger of holier-than-thou-ism. That one can get self-righteous about one's practice and belief and crave adulation. I'm sure that this is a real danger for some. Think of all the gurus and teachers that abused the trust people placed in them by thinking that they were entitled to whatever pleases them. The Catholic Church is notorious but even revered Buddhist teachers have become guilty of this, not to speak of numerous televangelists and cult leaders.
And yeah, I feel very similarly about coverage of Trump. Generally, I don't engage with any of it because I have constructed my media consumption to be as deliberate as possible, but I actively avoid anything that is simply mockery and mean-spirited. I dislike everything he stands for AND it doesn't justify name-calling.
First impressions upon reading the slogan: don't consume (eat, read, listen to, watch) stuff that is bad for you. As you did, I think here mostly about social media. We who use social media are fed a stream of things to consume dependent on what we consumed before. It is very clear to see on YouTube. Watch one video about cats being funny and you get a hundred more next time you open the app. But there is of course other stuff that is less innocent than cats being funny. I watched for a while videos about Donald Trump and his legal woes. Observing myself I realised that these videos create an addiction. I want to see more about Trump losing in court or about Trump's lawyers making fools of themselves. Some of the videos might be really informative but for the most part they speak to a part of me that really shouldn't be encouraged. I can't influence the election anyway so I'm merely a bystander watching a train crash. It's not healthy. I've stopped watching these videos on a regular basis because they are poisonous in their way (which isn't so say that Trump isn't poisonous himself, quite the opposite). I simply don't think that gloating over his set-backs is good for me.
So that was my first impression. Then I read the comments by Page Chödrön in Judy Lief and they talk about something else, about the danger of holier-than-thou-ism. That one can get self-righteous about one's practice and belief and crave adulation. I'm sure that this is a real danger for some. Think of all the gurus and teachers that abused the trust people placed in them by thinking that they were entitled to whatever pleases them. The Catholic Church is notorious but even revered Buddhist teachers have become guilty of this, not to speak of numerous televangelists and cult leaders.
This slogan is all about mental hygiene, I think.
Mental hygiene is a good way to frame it!
And yeah, I feel very similarly about coverage of Trump. Generally, I don't engage with any of it because I have constructed my media consumption to be as deliberate as possible, but I actively avoid anything that is simply mockery and mean-spirited. I dislike everything he stands for AND it doesn't justify name-calling.