Buddhist-Meditation-Systematic-and-Practical

another; the pursuit of fame; money gained by wrongful
methods, and the exalting of physical beauty, as in the
elections for Miss Europe, Miss World, etc., so easily
leading to the degradation of the individuals taking part.
Science has also developed many instruments of
communication, which also lead from one desire to the
next, thus: a bicycle is not enough, buy a car; even a car
is not enough; go more quickly by plane. Now all
barriers of distance are broken down and a person can
easily be in contact with the whole world. In spite of
being able to do everything so easily and quickly,
people are not happy. For them every day becomes a
struggle and tension mounts up in mind and body. We
can see how common this is from the number of books
dealing with "relaxation." People want to relax because
they are tense, but such books do not get to the root of
why they are tense; they only tell people very common
things and there is nothing satisfying in them. There are
no books of this sort in China.
If you want more reasons for meditating and taking
refuge in the Buddha, then think of all the terrors of
modern so-called civilization. Medical science is now
very well developed; so well, that people now have no
fear of disease from casual sexual relationships. They
can commit these immoral acts without fear of
consequences, so they become more lustful. There need
be no children from such unions, so people become
even more unrestrained. Newspapers often print
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