Would Buddha Download?
However one day I considered the Buddhist principle of detachment from the physical world to help reach a more spiritual existence. The Buddhist principle appeals to me and it occurred to me that in this kala of downloading data and not having a physical object to hold in your hands may help this generation in detachment from the physical possessions and will help them understand a more spiritual level of enlightenment.
Naturally one of the most obvious perks of downloading is space. Say you are going on a plane and you want to read, what fits more comfortable in your backpack a kindle and/or iPad or a few thick paperbacks of three hundred to two hundred page books? What about back in your home life. I have shelf's of movies and comics and I'm beginning to run out of places to put my books. An iPad with a library of books takes up as much space as a single iPad does.
What about games? I have a Playstation 3 and I not only don't want to download games but I cant. My Playstation cannot connect to the Internet, ow I've tried, god knows its been tried but the universe simply wont let it happen. But the point is the quickness of the downloadable games simply doesn't appeal to me, I don't care what games are downloadable, I care about the real games that make it to the shelf.
In terms of renting I have a LoveFilm account (only for movies and not for games, no real reason). I don't have a Netfilx account, why? well because technology hates me. I am certain that if I attempted downloading a movie that the files would get corrupted or some other technical duduk masalah that I don't understand, so for reliability I go for physical discs. There has only been very few times when the DVDs were given in bad condition and caused some slight stuttering, never a whole movie was unplayable.
I would never download a movie and watch it on an iPad or iPhone. I would give an explanation but David Lynch puts it best, see below...
So I suppose one of the reasons why I'm against downloading is because I really don't trust the technology.
However there is nothing in the Buddhist principle that says that one cannot have physical possessions, only that you must be detached from them, you can have cool things but you have to be willing to give them up, have them taken away or be destroyed at the drop of a hat.
On a related note, lets look at downloadable comics against print. Now I myself have an iPad and I eventually got the app to download comics. Now at this point I really didn't own that many comics and I think all I had were Watchmen and Arkham Asylum, but through downloading some free samples of comic books I got really interested in the medium and decided to get up, get out and go down to an actual comic book store and buy some real comic books (and I've never looked back). One day while I was browsing the comic store two costumers there were in mid conversation and I couldn't help but overhear them, but they raised some good points. One of them said that when his father died he left him with nothing accept for debts, but now he himself is a father with over six thousand comic books to his collection and the day he goes his children can either get some entertainment from his collection or sell them for some financial profit. You cant sell a download, a download doesn't increase in value the longer you keep it.
How about money? Money has always been a figment of human creation and is only as valuable as we determine it to be. Originally gold was deemed to be the currency with coins. But keep in mind the gold was only as valuable as we deemed it to be. But then as the population grew and the economy with it there wasn't enough gold to go around so the bills were invented, on your paper money it says that the bank promises you that amount of payment. Notes are essentially a little contract that you carry round to purchase things. Now however, they are reduced to data in a computer and lights on a screen. Money is getting boiled down and down to nothing more than an idea.
But now lets think about people who are materialistic. People who do hold their physical possessions to a high standard usually become obsessed with them and become more and more obsessed with getting more and more cool stuff. There is nothing wrong with having cool things, having cool things is fun, but there will always be cool things that you don't own, so let it go. Be happy with what you have and get what you need and think about what you want secondly.
There is however one aspect of the virtual materialism where I have fallen prey to the idea, this blog. Yes for all physical purposes this blog is not real and yet it is one of my favorite things that I own. I so enjoy writing my reviews and my big thoughts on other subjects and it is a very appreciated outlet for all my thoughts and feelings. But even then the term of owning, on a blog is very loose. I have no legal rights to the website and for all I know it could be taken down at anytime and all my work would be gone (I should really backup my posts).
But still to answer the question that the title of the post puts forward, would Buddha download? I think that if Buddha was alive and meditating today, he wouldn't care. Buddha wouldn't care that much and he would just do what would be convenient to him and see the benefit of not getting attached to a CD collection and just download or pick up his movies and music.
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