Technology is Repetition.

"We become what we behold. We shape our tools, and thereafter our tools shape us."
Marshall McLuhan

Recently, I introduced a Grade 4 class to Buddhism. A few days after, a curious student approached me in the hallway, asking with genuine interest, "Who do you meditate for?" Having just studied theistic religions, he might have envisioned my meditation as a gesture towards some divine entity, or perhaps to satisfy family expectations.

I responded simply: "I meditate for myself."

Perhaps a better retort would have been, "Who do you eat for?" Just as we eat daily for our physical nourishment, we meditate daily to nourish our connection to our inner self.

As Aristotle writes, excellence is not an act, but a habit. It is what we do regularly that shapes our character. And so, we must meditate daily to permanently remind ourselves of what we really are. In turn, our very cognition is altered by this daily reorientation. Just as a hammer influences how we engage with our surroundings, meditation has a similar impact. In this context, meditation can be viewed as a type of technology, as can all habitual behaviors. A habit is a repetition, and, I see all technology as repetition. To understand this perspective, we must start with a broad definition of technology and narrow it down to a more nuanced understanding.

Level 1: Technologies are external implements that enable us to control our environment.

A stick extends the length of our arm which allows us to reach objects beyond our natural capacity. A wheelbarrow amplifies our capacity to transport heavy loads, turning multiple trips into a single efficient journey. Glasses and telescopes optimize our visual reach, adjusting and extending our natural sight to distances and clarity beyond our innate capabilities. We find ways to manipulate our environments that, recursively, enable us to find ever more powerful ways of manipulating our environments. When we created cogs and gears who knew it would ultimately lead to the printing press, which revolutionized the dissemination of knowledge, subsequently making it easier to share ideas and create even more remarkable technology.

And yet, the essence of technology is not solely about dominance over our surroundings. At its heart, technology is an amplifier of human capacities.

Level 2: Technologies extend our natural ability to interface with reality.

A pair of glasses is not controlling reality to enact our will upon the environment. Instead, glasses allow us to interface with the visual world in a way more appropriate to our constraints (i.e. near or far sightedness). As we advance in our understanding of technology, we begin to realize that its domain is not limited to physical tools alone. Take language, for instance. The development of complex language systems allowed us to encapsulate and convey experiences, ideas, and emotions in structured sounds or symbols. It became the bridge connecting one mind to another, and over time, facilitated the progression of cultures, the recording of histories, and the sharing of knowledge across generations. My old professor John Vervaeke referred to this as a psychotechnology - a tool fitted to human cognition that augments our ability to interact with the world. In essence - it extends our natural abilities, much like a hammer.

Another apt example is mathematics.

By using numbers and symbols, we've created a universal language that can describe everything from the orbits of celestial bodies to the patterns in a sunflower. Through mathematical frameworks, we've devised predictive models that have been instrumental in advancements ranging from engineering marvels to economic theories. We have brought the outer technologies inside. In the way that hammers change our outer interactions with reality, literacy and numeracy change our inner interactions.

This leads us to another level of understanding:

Level 3: Technologies transform the way we format information.

We filter our very sensory data through the technology we use. We almost immediately associate certain patterns of sensory data with well formed concepts - we filter reality through a linguistic lens. However, it wasn’t always like this, early humans had an experience of reality not mediated by linguistic categories. And yet, according to some philosophers, there are some primal or a priori filters that we can’t shake off.

“Space and time are the framework within which the mind is constrained to construct its experience of reality” Immanuel Kant

Space and time are technologies and one’s that, Kant argues, are fundamental ways we format information. We perceive outer reality as spatial - objects extend in space and things have dimensions. We perceive inner reality as temporal, objects have duration and order.

And yet, mystics across every tradition speak of something beyond space and time. The Christian God transcends both the causal and the temporal. The Buddhist Nirvana is unconditioned and not subject to birth, death, or time.

What, then, is truly fundamental? If technology augments the way we interact with reality by extending our capabilities both inwardly and outwardly - what are our innermost capabilities? What are we deep down and can we distinguish between our essence and its technological modifications?

Some say, we are primordially pure, unstained, bright awareness.

Chogyal Namkhai Norbu, one of the foremost Dzogchen teachers, employs the analogy of the mirror to elucidate the nature of this awareness…our true nature. Mirrors are clear, pure, and unobstructed. They can reflect myriad images without themselves being affected or changed by them. In addition, they possess an energy that enables them to capture the quality of the objects in front of them. Yet, no matter how long objects appear to linger, they eventually dissolve and never tarnish or alter the essential nature of the mirror. As such, we can now move to the following subtle and seemingly esoteric definition of technology.

Level 4: Technologies are temporally significant modifications of awareness.

If our fundamental ability is just to be conscious, then many things can be considered extensions of this awareness, aligning with our earlier definitions. Consider the analogy of a dance: if awareness is the stage, the content of that awareness is the dancer. Drawing from the ancient Samkhya philosophical tradition of India, these are likened to Purusha and Prakriti - the passive conscious witness and the active energetic performer. Conversely, Advaita Vedanta proposes a nondual view, suggesting everything as merely a variation of the core existence, termed Brahman. Our deepest identity is with Brahman - primordial ever-present awareness. The nature of Brahman, the subjective experience of recognizing our identity with the source, is existence, self-awareness of existence, and bliss. These three attributes captured succinctly in the Sanskrit word satcitananda.

In this sense - every moment where anything at all is happening, any perturbation of primordial quiescence, is technological.

Take, for example, the Buddhist practice of reciting mantras: repeated syllables meant to hone and sharpen the mind. Such repetitions help us tune into a particular mental frequency, leading to intense concentration. These repetitions, these mantras, are technologies of the mind - tools that modify our conscious experience. They bring our mind from a scattered state to a collected one.

Similarly, aren't all habits essentially internalized tools? Isn’t anything that we do repeatedly ultimately leading to a modification of consciousness? I emphasized "temporally significant" because I perceive even thinking as a technology. Yet, a bulk of our thoughts are disorderly and random. It's only when we give structure to these thoughts that they transform our experiences in meaningful ways.

“I swear to you that to think too much is a disease, a real, actual disease” Fyodor Dostoyevsky

Indeed Dostoyevsky speaks the truth. But if we picked up a hammer and never put it down our arm would become broken, destroyed, and diseased as well.

If we regard thinking as a tool, akin to a hammer, we can employ it judiciously. For instance, dedicating time to consciously send out thoughts of love and kindness to loved ones not only acquaints us with these emotions but also nurtures our compassionate nature and modifies our awareness, conditioning us to become kinder beings.

Easy to do right?

The gradual path of Buddhist training outlines various methods and techniques to achieve this level of mental mastery. If these topics interest you, I encourage you to click here and learn more about my online introductory course on Buddhist meditation.

These viewpoints ease my apprehensions about rapid technological changes. They enable a harmony between what I know to be true spiritual, and what is empirical fact in our current world. Importantly, these views force me to revist once again two powerful questions:

What am I really?

&

What is truly worth doing repeatedly?

It is as it is.