Watu hununua iPhones ili kuunganishwa ulimwenguni kote na kuwa na toni ya vitendaji na vipengee vingi kiganjani mwao. Lakini kama vile mtawa mwenye busara Mchungaji Heng Sure alivyowahi kusema, kila kitu tunachounda katika silicon tayari kipo katika kaboni. Ningeongeza kuwa teknolojia ya silicon ni faksi duni kabisa.
Kwa hivyo unapataje teknolojia nzuri ya kaboni unayobeba kila wakati? Kutafakari ni chombo cha ajabu cha kufanya hivyo. Hapa kuna maeneo matano ambapo kutafakari kunapiga iPhone.
1. Muunganisho
Ukweli ni kwamba huwezi kuungana na mtu mwingine yeyote isipokuwa kama unawasiliana na wewe mwenyewe. IPhone hukuruhusu na kukuhimiza kuwepo kidogo wakati haupo kimwili, na kutokuwepo kwa kiasi unapokuwapo kimwili.
Kutafakari hukufanya uwasiliane tena na hukusaidia kuwepo. Kipindi. Wakati mwingine watafakari wapo sana, hata wanakuwepo wakati hawapo! Na hiyo inafanya uwezo wao wa kuunganisha zaidi ya kile iPhone inaruhusu.
2. Mitandao ya Kijamii
Tuseme ukweli: Twitter mara nyingi mara nyingi ni sehemu za mawazo zisizo na maana ambazo unafuata kutoka kwa watu ambao huwajui kila wakati. Kwamba idadi ya watumiaji wa Facebook inazidi idadi ya watu wa nchi nyingi na kwamba 50% ya watumiaji wake hutembelea kila siku inapendekeza kuwa kuna kitu kinacholevya na Faustian kuhusu utumiaji usiodhibitiwa, kwani watu milioni 800+ hushindana ili kuonekana kuwa na furaha zaidi huku wakikusanya 'marafiki' zaidi.
Nyuma ya umaarufu wao ni hadithi kwamba wingi hufanya kwa ubora.
Je, ni marafiki zako wangapi wa Facebook unaweza kuwapigia simu ukiwa na jam saa 3 asubuhi? Je, ni twiti ngapi utatafakari kwa muda mrefu zaidi ya umakini wa herufi 160?
Ukweli ni kwamba ubora ndio wa maana, na kutafakari hurahisisha ugonjwa wa akili nasibu ili kuongeza ubora na umuhimu kwa 'tweets za akili'. Mawazo ya nasibu hurejeshwa polepole kwenye udongo wa kiakili, yakirutubisha mawazo yanayostahili kusitawishwa kadri usikivu unavyotulia na kuongezeka. Afueni inayoongezeka kutokana na machafuko yote yanayozunguka kichwani mwako huanza kujenga huruma kwa mapambano ya watu wengine. Wewe mwenyewe unaanza kuwa mtu aliye tayari kukimbilia uokoaji saa 3 asubuhi, au kusaidia tu kuwafanya watu walio karibu nawe wawe na furaha zaidi, na hiyo inaanza kukupatia marafiki wa kina walio tayari kukujibu kwa njia nzuri.
Ghafla unaburudika popote ulipo, bila muda uliosalia wa kutweet kuihusu, kupiga picha kwa facebook, au kuvizia maisha ya watu wengine. Ndege walio na manyoya huruka pamoja, kwa hivyo utazungukwa hivi karibuni na watu wenye nia moja, wakitengeneza njia ya miunganisho isiyo ya kawaida ambayo hukupa mabuu kwa njia ambazo unaweza kuunganisha kwa rafiki-bora wa daraja la 2 au mpenzi-wa siri-kutoka-prom kwenye Fbook kamwe.
3. Vipengele na Utendaji
Je, kamera ya iPhone ya megapixel 5 haitoshi kwako? Vipi kuhusu megapixel 324 sawa na jicho la mwanadamu? Je, hakuna hifadhi ya kutosha kwenye iPhone yako kwa aina hizo za picha? Hakuna mtu anayejua njia nzuri ya kukokotoa uhifadhi wa ubongo wa binadamu, lakini nadhani zinazoaminika zinasema kuwa inaweza kubeba terabaiti 1 hadi 1000 za habari. Huwezi kukumbuka sana, unasema? Kutafakari huboresha kumbukumbu , hurudisha nyuma upotevu wa kumbukumbu, na kuchelewesha au kuzuia Alzheimers na shida ya akili. Vipi kuhusu GPS? Kutafakari kunakuweka msingi na hukusaidia kujua ulipo na unapoelekea. Vipi kuhusu programu na michezo? Kutafakari huanza kufungua michezo unayocheza vyema zaidi na kukufungua kwa programu zenye tija zaidi.
4. Mazingira
Wakati uchakavu uliopangwa unakupata, iPhone yako inakaribia kuwa taka ya kielektroniki, iliyojaa kemikali zenye sumu ambazo California inazichukulia kuwa taka hatari. Hakikisha umeitayarisha upya ukimaliza kucheza, na uwakumbushe wengine kufanya hivyo pia.
Wakati huo huo, kutafakari hakuongezi alama yako kwenye sayari, lakini kunaweza kuifanya iwe laini. Hakuna utafiti mwingi juu ya hili, lakini ushahidi mwingi wa hadithi ambao unaonyesha kuwa utaanza kuhisi hitaji la vitu vichache vya nyenzo. Na hiyo ni nzuri kwa sayari!
5. Gharama
Baada ya mipango na dakika zako zote za data, unaweza kutumia $5 au zaidi kwa siku kwenye iPhone yako. Kutafakari ni bure, ikizuia unacholipa ili kujifunza au kuhudhuria kozi (na kuna baadhi, kama Vipassana , ambapo gharama zako tayari zimelipwa, na unalipa tu ikiwa unataka). Na ikiwa una nia ya dhati ya kufanya mazoezi, kutafakari kunaanza kukulipa, kwani lengo hilo lote hukufanya uwe mtu mwenye matokeo zaidi, mbunifu, mwenye maarifa na mwenye nguvu. Ningeita huo uwekezaji mzuri katika hali yoyote ya kiuchumi. :)
Kwa kifupi, kutafakari ni teknolojia isiyo na kifani ambayo inapita iPhone kwa kiwango kikubwa na mipaka. Kwa haki, teknolojia yoyote hurahisisha utashi unaoweka nyuma yake, na inawezekana kutumia vitu kama iPhone, Twitter, na Facebook huku ukipunguza mapungufu yao kama inavyowezekana kutumia kutafakari vibaya.
Bado kubaini uwezo wa kuvutia wa teknolojia yetu ya kaboni ya asili ni ya kuvutia zaidi kuliko kuchezea teknolojia ya silicon, na hiyo itanifanya nirudi kwenye mto wangu kwa miaka mingi ijayo.
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Good Job, excellent article, i loved it the way that you explained about Meditation
I love this article. This is very well written. You have truly enriched me with some excellent knowledge about Meditation
This article is very good. I like it. Interesting post. Thanks for posting this about meditation .
Sometimes tecnology and meditation could live together in an App http://itunes.apple.com/us/... :)
What's your favorite mediation app?
Kind of ironic that there is a share to Facebook on this article.
nice Birju ! same here :) Cheers for the extraordinary people that can till use the phone and technology and have the balance too !
So true! I certainly need to meditate more. Thanks for the reminder!
The funny part is at the end, where we can click on buttons to share this article on FB, Twitter, or send it by email to someone's iPhone :)
Fantastic!!!! Like others, I’ve added this to my google reader. Mariette
So insightful, thanks!
MBJYou raise a good point in your usual delightful, insightful way.As a recipient of so much proselytizing chatter for both the iPhone and meditation, I’m sure it would be a relief to silence the buzz around either. My post was aimed at muzzling at least half our common harassers in a light-hearted way more than anything else. Even the comparison I make establishes a false choice between the options, especially when considering how many iPhone-using meditators commented on the post.As for shilling meditation on the attention-deficited internet, its a little bit like putting a helmet on a narcoleptic: its bound to be awkward, doesn’t really solve the problem, but might just stop a head crackin’. While I wasn’t really trying to be much of a serious meditation monger, I’m not that uncomfortable with the legitimate clunky-ness of it all I do agree that serious conversations about meditation are best kept private, but if anything around this post could be considered to have turned into viral advocacy and promotion, its something on the scale of a cold sore on a smallpox patient. Its public only in the way that a conversation in the corner of a room at a loud party is: virtually private because so few people care to quiet down and listen!
[Hide Full Comment]Rahul:This is a smart, clever, interesting comparison of two enabling tools currently undergoing a run of hip, faddish acceptance in the popular imagination. (Meditation, it must be said, has enjoyed a several-millennium longer run than the iPhone. Its persistence and longevity is itself strong evidence in favor of your thesis. Still, one suspects that it went through periods where, as with the second generation Macs, the only users were esoteric freaks who could only find “software” — to piggyback on your extended technology metaphor — at the spiritual equivalent of garage sales.)Like so many things, meditation and iPhones are useful tools in the hands of skilled, purposeful people. Hospital physicians, for example, are able to carry comprehensive pharmaceutical reference material in their pockets with the iPhone as they visit patient bedsides; and thoughtful practitioners of self-exploration are able to dig deeper with meditation. And yet, both are supremely annoying in the hands of poseurs.The nice thing about both meditation and the iPhone is that both are genuinely good tools; it’s hard to really criticize either. They generally work as advertised, have real utility, and create a nice user experience. Even with this appreciation, I have never found either to be so compelling as to harbor any desire to incorporate them into my life. Unfortunately, this doesn’t insulate me from having to endure endless proselytizing chatter from fans of both at just about any social occasion. Frankly, it’s getting to the point that I like to imagine a world where neither meditation or iPhones existed. It seems a shame when the excellence and fascination of a thing are overwhelmed by the ubiquity and banality of the hype.In our consumer society, it seems impossible to have a product without constant advertising. Where commercialism establishes both our memes and the tropes, way to much private conversation has transformed into viral advocacy and promotion. Steve Jobs will, of course, be thrilled that his customers have turned into his advertisers. But are serious devotees of meditation really comfortable having their treasured practice shilled like this? Seems so.MBJ
[Hide Full Comment]Lol. so true, so true. thanks for the entry.
Birju: hilarious.Rahul: wise! kosher. will share on our wednesdays in dc meditation board!
Awesome post Rahul! Thanks for distilling your thoughts in this clear and compelling article. Time to hit the cushion
BAAM! hermano Rahul! Following Birju’s path, I just twitted it and posted it on my FB status… AND, I’m going to read Vinoba and sit for a while… being in receptive silence is the DNA of the kindness (r)evlution.See you on the cushion!
Good stuff!* This article was read from an iPhone
Phenomenal post! You remain ensconced in my happy memories and warm inspiring moments shared. Love to Asha
Rahul, so true!!! Thank you for this! Very well written!!!!
Being an Apple passionista and having consulted to many IT companies, I can honestly say that this article rocks! Thank you.
"From the Mayan point of view, high
technology is not a sign of an advanced civilization; it is a sign of a
civilization about to be advanced. What good is technology to a people,
if they discover that the human body and human consciousness is capable
of doing everything that technology is now doing, and far, far more?...
This is what we are about to understand, according to the Maya." —
Drunvalo Melchizedek
"The divine currents, like the ethereal
waves of a radio, are spread out in the atmosphere in all the
directions, giving out delectable strains of music. We, however, cannot
catch the ethereal vibrations and listen to the divine melody until we
get in tune with the Infinite by adjusting our mental apparatus.
Therefore we become etherealized more and more as we come in tune with
the heavenly music." -Sant Kirpal Singh
Rahul, this is excellent. One thought on environment...meditation also helps deal with our personal unplanned obsolescence allowing us to age more gracefully without letting pain create toxic ripples of suffering around us.
Amazing article...
makes me remember this quote:
"It's not technology, it's what you do with it"
(Thanks for sharing the article)