been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro...

1st story, the book report

In my childhood American public school education, from kindergarten to 12th grade, there were only two times that I encountered topics in class that I was genuinely intimidated.  School was easy. With little effort I could get an 'A' (highest grade) in any subject I desired.  That's not bragging, that's a testament to the (poor) quality of American public education. 

The first subject that freaked me out was pre-calculus *.

The second subject that totally freaked me out, happened in 3rd grade (8 or 9 year old child). We were reading a children's story that was maybe 10 pages long, and this was the first time as kids we were asked to write a book report.  Now I understood what a book report was asking for. You were suppose to condense the meaning of the story into a short summary. Why did this freak me out? Because I could not for the life of me figure out what details of the story were important and what was trivial and could be disregarded. It's a children's story! Something like a boy and his dog were walking around a neighborhood and had an encounter with a neighbor. That's my adult educated and experienced mind able to summarize the essence of the children's story into one line, but think about a 3rd grade 8 year old boy. I didn't have a sufficient vocabulary yet, didn't have the life experience and perspective needed to sort out what was relatively more important and relatively a trivial detail. Every detail seemed equally important! I sweated and struggled to pick out what parts to summarize, and fully expected to get a fail on that paper, despite my best effort. I ended up getting a 'B' or 'A' (highest mark). Afterwards, I was still freaked out, because I had no idea what was correct, what was wrong, what I needed to do to make it better or what I could have done that would scored lower. In contrast, in math and other subjects, correct and wrong are very clear even for children. I'm still mad about the book report incident to this day. It was inhumane and irresponsible of the educators to not make it clear that they weren't expecting a 3rd grader to produce an accurate summary with no clear criteria of what was good quality output and what was poor quality. Probably all they were looking for was the grammar and punctuation that was expected  of a 3rd grader, and that the details in the summary should be consistent with the book.

Now I'm going to connect that point with an important Dharma:

(from the standard formula on recollection of past lives)

evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto	(I had) such-(a)-name, such-(a)-clan,
evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro	such-(an)-appearance, such-(was my)-food,
evaṃ-sukha-dukkhap-paṭisaṃvedī	such-pleasure-(and)-pain-(I)-experienced,
evam-āyu-pariyanto,	such-(my)-age-limit [expired].
so tato cuto	he, (from) that-state, passed-away,
idhū-(u)papanno’ti.	here, (re)-arose

Even if you don't believe in past lives and rebirth, this formula excerpt is an extremely powerful mantra (an important principle to recite out loud or silently, and reflect upon frequently). 

Each phase of your life is like a death and a rebirth. The 3rd grader with their circle of friends, the middle school hormonal rage period with a new circle of friends or feeling of being alienated, high school years pondering the meaning of life, college, getting your first job, first girl friend, first kid, etc. 

If you were to write a book report for each of those phases, what would it look like?

If you asked me decades ago, maybe I could write entire books, not just a short book report, on each phase. But now?

grade school phase: been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro...

middle school phase: been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro...

high school...:  been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro...

first job...: been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro...

2nd story, the video game addict

When I was a kid, I loved video games. My mom was always complaining and preventing me from playing video games to my heart's content (maybe only satisfying 30-50% of the length of time I desired), resulting in building an even greater uncontrollable desire to play once I moved out and went to college, where I could play all I wanted as an independent adult.  You better believe countless hours were wasted.

When I was 25, I finally had an awakening. After playing one of the Nintendo Mario adventure games to it's conclusion, I reflected on my experience. This game was the state of the art, one of the masterpieces and critically acclaimed video game experiences of all time. Just to pick an even number, let's say it took 100 hours to complete. While it offered great joy in the realm of sensual pleasures via the stimulating visuals, sounds, music, interactive tactile control and immersive experience in a stunning alternate world, if I really took an accurate accounting, probably:

10% of that was really joyful time spent

50% of the time was kind of neutral, neither particularly pleasurable nor painful

40% of the time you're angry at the game designers for putting frustrating elements and wasting your time forcing you to do frivolous and dumb things just to provide an illusion that you 'earned' the story's conclusion by wasting countless hours doing arbitrary frivolous trivial inane mini quests.

Now keep in mind, this game was a masterpiece, and if the best game available can only offer me a pleasure ratio of only 10%, why am I wasting my time doing this stupidity?

In comparison, low quality and mediocre games, I could expect ratios of maybe 2-5% pleasure and well over 70% anger and frustration.

Upon that deep reflection, I stopped playing video games that day and never played again.

One final  remark on that Mario game. After I spent well over 100 hours completing that game, do you know what the ultimate reward was? Something like a short one minute animation of the princess I rescued giving me a cake or some cookies. 100 hours of sweat and tears for a box of cookies? Never again.

been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro...

How many thousands of hours had I wasted in my 25 year old life on stupid video games?

I was such a dumb ass. 

3rd story, the books, movies, television

I don't remember the age but I was young, 6th grader or younger. The first book series that I read that was totally immersive, and became my whole world, was 'little house on the prairie' by Laura Ingalls Wilder. I just checked google to see if I got the name and spelling of the author correct, and it was. Decades after not thinking about the book, I could still remember some details like that accurately. 

By immersion, what I mean is I felt like I was in that world. It's amazing that words on a page can make you feel like you're breathing the air of the frontier, as if you were actually there yourself with all of those characters.

 

When I finished reading that book series, I was devastated, because that immersive world ended, almost as if all of the characters in her story were my family and relatives and had all abandoned me in loneliness and depression.  

The melancholy and mild depression lasted weeks. 

How did that depression end? I started some other novel, don't remember the genre. I had a wide range of tastes and interests. Charles Dickens was a favorite, classics, fantasy, science fiction. 

I could list some titles, but why? You know how it ends in each case, be it the great American novel, movies, television shows, or an inane children's book. 

been there, done that: evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto, evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro...

How many thousands of hours wasted on video games, and stories?

I was such a dumb ass. 

Depression and melancholy were never fixed, just temporarily set aside until the next story reached the same predictable conclusion. 

Conclusion

Stop being a dumb ass.

Get up, look away, exit stage left. 

Whenever you find the urge to engage in a book, movie, video game, remember (sati) that you know the ending already. At best, all you get is a picture of a princess with a box of cookies. But that's a bait and switch! Princess is going to get old and ugly and your cookies are going to excrete. 

(from the standard formula on recollection of past lives)

evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto	(I had) such-(a)-name, such-(a)-clan,
evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro	such-(an)-appearance, such-(was my)-food,
evaṃ-sukha-dukkhap-paṭisaṃvedī	such-pleasure-(and)-pain-(I)-experienced,
evam-āyu-pariyanto,	such-(my)-age-limit [expired].
so tato cuto	he, (from) that-state, passed-away,
idhū-(u)papanno’ti.	here, (re)-arose

If the Buddha was was the teacher, that's the book report he's looking for, and you'd get an A+ without having to even read that thick book or watch the movie. Now that is a good deal worth taking every time. 

What are you going to do with all that time you save? May I suggest: 

 AN‍   DN‍   KN‍   MN‍   SN‍

Better yet, listen to it on audio, while walking, jogging, biking,  making your body and mind healthy at the same time, feeding two birds with one scone. 

Oh what bliss, to realize that there is no bliss going down the wrong path.

footnotes

1. The first subject that freaked me out was pre-calculus, 

the class that comes the year before calculus. In hindsight, it wasn't my fault. What was intimidating about the subject was I couldn't easily grasp the underlying principles of how it worked. I could score an 'A' on the class following the instructions, but it would be like doing black magic or chanting magic mantras that worked, but I didn't understand why it worked like all of the math classes prior to calculus, where math has an intuitive and logical basis you can see and feel. It was a struggle, but eventually I was able to understand the core principles of how calculus worked. Then the next year when I took the actual calculus class, it was easy because I had done the hard part of understanding the underlying mechanism in precalulus the previous year. But they never explained to us in pre-calculus that they really didn't expect you to understand the underlying principles right away. I wish the educators who designed the curriculum were more humane and just explained that this subject is going to be very difficult, they don't expect you get grasp it completely in precalculus and the second time around in calculus it would start to sink in and make sense.

Why am I sharing this story on calculus? Meditation and dhamma teachers  need to exercise some of foresight in anticipating what things are difficult and explain that students shouldn't expect to get quick results or understand principles right away. Many things in Dhamma and meditation take decades to sink in and understand. 

2.  The standard formula on the power of recollection of past lives, 

6ab → 4♾️🏠 aneka-vihitaṃ pubbe-nivāsaṃ: many dwellings of previous lives

aneka-vihitaṃ pubbe-nivāsaṃ	many-instances (of) previous-abodes-[lives]
anus-sarati,	(he) recollects,
seyyathidaṃ –	like-this -
ekampi jātiṃ dvepi jātiyo tissopi jātiyo catassopi jātiyo pañcapi jātiyo	one birth, two births, three births, four births, five births,
dasapi jātiyo vīsampi jātiyo tiṃsampi jātiyo cattālīsampi jātiyo paññāsampi jātiyo	ten births, twenty births, thirty births, forty births, fifty births,
jāti-satampi jāti-sahassampi jāti-sata-sahassampi	one hundred births, one thousand births, one hundred thousand births,
anekepi saṃvaṭṭa-kappe	many contractions-(of cosmic)-aeons,
anekepi vivaṭṭa-kappe	many expansions-(of cosmic)-aeons,
anekepi saṃvaṭṭa-vivaṭṭa-kappe –	many contractions-&-expansions-(of cosmic)-aeons, [recollecting],
‘amutrāsiṃ	There
evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto	(I had) such-(a)-name, such-(a)-clan,
evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro	such-(an)-appearance, such-(was my)-food,
evaṃ-sukha-dukkhap-paṭisaṃvedī	such-pleasure-(and)-pain-(I)-experienced,
evam-āyu-pariyanto,	such-(my)-age-limit [expired].
so tato cuto	he, (from) that-state, passed-away,
amutra udapādiṃ [uppādiṃ (sī.)];	there, (re)-arose.
tatrāpāsiṃ	There too
evaṃ-nāmo evaṃ-gotto	(I had) such-(a)-name, such-(a)-clan,
evaṃ-vaṇṇo evam-āhāro	such-(an)-appearance, such-(was my)-food,
evaṃ-sukha-dukkhap-paṭisaṃvedī	such-pleasure-(and)-pain-(I)-experienced,
evam-āyu-pariyanto,	such-(my)-age-limit [expired].
so tato cuto	he, (from) that-state, passed-away,
idhū-(u)papanno’ti.	here, (re)-arose
Iti sākāraṃ sa-uddesaṃ	thus (with its) characteristics (and) details
aneka-vihitaṃ pubbe-nivāsaṃ	many-instances (of) previous-abodes-[lives]
anus-sarati,	(he) recollects,