Students in the Global Buddhisms: Past, Present, and Future engage in a discussion.
Students in Global Buddhisms: Past, Present, and Future, a course taught by Andrew Housiaux, Instructor and Chair in Philosophy and Religious Studies, participated in an optional assignment where they were challenged to give up their phones for a week. One of the concepts that students studied in Housiaux’s class centered around stretching themselves out of their comfort zones to prompt introspection and thoughtfulness.
“We read a text by Mingyur Rinpoche, a contemporary Tibetan teacher who talks about ‘adding wood to the fire,’ the choice to deliberately seek out challenging situations in order to learn more about oneself and to help one’s understanding move from a more theoretical one to a more embodied and immediate one,” wrote Housiaux in an email to The Phillipian.
Although the challenge was inspired by a contemporary teacher, the essential beliefs behind it stem from the core principles of Buddhism. One student, Saumik Sharma ’25, commented on the connection between modern-day technologies and millennia-old tenets.
“The premise behind [the challenge] is something that most Buddhists in the world believe in, which is detachment. That’s one of the main tenets to achieve enlightenment, which is the goal of Buddhism. To reach enlightenment you need to be detached from worldly indulgences, so not using your phone is a way of practicing that. Traditionally we did not have phones, so it’s definitely not part of the tradition. But I think that it does reflect the Buddhism philosophical tradition of detachment,” said Sharma.
Despite the completion of the challenge, several students continued to give up their phones. Bianca Morales ’24, one such student, noted how the challenge offers a chance for participants to change their phone habits.
“I honestly had been wanting to decrease my screen time for a while and so [the challenge] was just a good opportunity to really get to do that. It fascinated me and I wanted to see what it would be like to live by ‘adding wood to the fire.’ It’s been really nice actually. I don’t regret it at all. It was just peaceful. A lot of [the time] we go on our phones to try to escape from things, but sitting in our emotions can really be rewarding in ways that we don’t recognize because we’re not used to it,” said Morales.
One of the obstacles that students faced after giving up their phones was finding a way to stay in communication with the people that they would normally contact. However, Kian Burt ’24 highlighted how the loss of digital communication allowed him to find special opportunities to connect with people in-person.
“Giving up my phone, I can no longer connect people immediately. I can no longer contact my parents, and I’m a day student so they’re interested in when I’m coming home. I also don’t have social media anymore, so I can’t scroll on Instagram when I’m bored. Most days, if I’m by myself in Silent, I’ll go to [Paresky] Commons and I’ll just find someone to sit down to eat and catch up with. It’ll usually be someone I haven’t talked to in a while, which has been nice to catch up with people I don’t know as well. I feel that I’m free a bit, just a tiny bit more free,” said Burt.
Chris Wong ’24 described a similar experience to finding himself engaging in more in-person interactions. Wong remarked on how the challenge gave him an opportunity to reflect on the daily impact his phone had on his life, whether it be his discomfort with idleness or questioning the reasons that prompted him to use his phone so often.
“I think that the biggest change comes from when you’re alone at night and back in your dorm and you’re faced with this loneliness and all by yourself. I think that’s a point where you have unease and feel uncomfortable. I saw myself interacting with people more, I went to my friends’ rooms more. I guess that in itself is also a realization of that feeling of discomfort whenever you’re idle… It certainly makes you think about why you use your phone. Why are you drawn to it? What does it say about you? Forcibly removing yourself, creating a spike in your life, something you can kind of pay attention to like discomfort, you create an opportunity to see yourself in a different light,” said Wong.
