Can you read this magazine, beginning to end? Can you, really?

Distractions are just too many…

It doesn't help that we're addicted to ignorant beliefs in “quick fixes”… addicted to ‘drama’ —we're a social specie, we love to complain, we love to compare ourrselves to others… addicted to dopamine… addicted to “feeling alive”… addicted to reassuring ourselves, be it by eating a tub of ice cream, or by taking risks (to prove something), or by “keeping our options open”…

Devadatta was the Buddha's ambitious cousin. Sometimes, Buddhists imagine Māra, the Lord of Death, as the Devil of Buddhism, but Māra is wise… Devadatta might be a lot more representative of what we should be careful of. The Devadattavipatti sutta (AN 8.7) isn't kind:

(1) Because he was overcome and obsessed by gain, Devadatta is bound for the plane of misery, bound for hell, and he will remain there for an eon, unredeemable. (2) Because he was overcome and obsessed by loss… (3) … by fame… (4) … by disrepute… (5) … by honor… (6) … by lack of honor … (7) … by evil desires… (8) … by bad friendship, Devadatta is bound for the plane of misery, bound for hell, and he will remain there for an eon, unredeemable.

The Buddha never doubted that distractions were a major issue for practitioners. In the Brahmāyācana sutta (SN 6.1), it is described how, right after his Awakening, the Buddha hesitated to teach:

This Dhamma that I have attained is deep, hard to see, hard to realize, peaceful, refined, beyond the scope of conjecture, subtle, to-be-experienced by the wise. But this generation delights in attachment, is excited by attachment, enjoys attachment. For a generation delighting in attachm… … … …