Shambhala Publications released The Free Mind: Finding Clarity in a Digitally Distracted World by Dza Kilung Rinpoche in August 2024.
Dza Kilung Rinpoche may be Tibetan-born, but he is among the first to engage with and share the fact that he, like almost all of us, is a user of modern technology and aware of all its trappings as its infiltration into our lives comes with both positive and detrimental effects. In fact, so versed is he in this contemporary world that, reading his words, one may almost forget that he is a Tibetan Rinpoche who grew up as a nomad, herding livestock in the green pastures of the vast Himalayan Plateau. Rinpoche now divides his time between Seattle and Tibet, where he heads Kilung Monastery while also teaching internationally.
Straight off the bat, Rinpoche reminds us of bygone days of rotary telephones, which in turn reminded me of widely shared memes of life in the 1980s. While I won’t romanticize that decade, such memes often include a photo of an old rotary phone, wildly decorated Christmas trees, and old analogue box televisions sitting in the corner of a velour sitting room. Oh the irony of distraction, as I doom-scroll on my smartphone while otherwise reviewing this book!
Rinpoche doesn’t rest here, although this image serves as an instant reminder of bygone days that many people still seem to miss. These were the last days before the world shifted beneath our feet and became smaller and globally connected (yet separating us from our neighbors); before the world became digitally instant and present, following us into our bedrooms and even into our restrooms; before we lacked an excuse for our ignorance but became blind to algorithms; before our dopamine became reliant on a “like” from a stranger, from the next post we scroll to; before the efficiency of digital convenience and entertainment actively sucked us into a vortex where time slips by like water on black ice, taking our awareness with it.
We often forget how new our digital lives are. One of the engineers who helped to create the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, is, at only 69 years old, still well and truly with us, as is his contemporary Robert Cailliau at only 77 years old. And following the advent of this new world, more or less 30 years ago, the smartphone has evolved into a device with which we are practically conjoined. Yet we are already so far down the rabbit hole that we haven’t fully realized the effect all of this ia having on us—especially young people who have no recollection of a world before this digital wave. But I digress!
While this book is presented as a non-Buddhist text, it still leans heavily into many Buddhist philosophies and practices, including karma, the paramitas and Dzogchen, with maitri-bhavana and tonglen meditations, through thoroughly contemporary and seemingly unrelated events such as the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, I would make the argument that this book is one of the best gentle introductions to Buddhism that I’ve read. Maybe this is exactly because it is not written as one, and so has sidestepped the usual narratives and tropes, syntax and weight, instead discussing a very real and present issue from the viewpoint of a learned teacher who happens to be of a Buddhist lineage and possesses a wealth of wisdom from which to draw.
Between the meetings and recordings that Dza Kilung Rinpoche made for this book, editor Brian Hodel has retained Rinpoche’s voice in the written word, with Rinpoche himself having been very involved in the presentation of the pages, resulting in what he describes as a flight, taxiing, and take-off into the clouds and through the clouds, then way beyond the troposphere to bust through the exosphere and into existential musings, before returning back down to Earth. The result is a smooth intellectual flight that will serve to remind many readers to snap back to reality and reengage with the real experience of living.
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The Free Mind: Finding Clarity in a Digitally Distracted World (Shambala Publications)
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