Hot Takes || By Beth Hinnen, Certifed Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher
These days, it feels like things are happening at the speed of light. No matter what is on your news feed, chances are you are seeing headlines by the handfuls come across minute by minute. Each headline typically proclaims this event is a “disaster,” an “atrocity” with “long-term impacts,” or it is “epic,” “unprecedented” and a “long time coming.” For the same event. Such headlines seem to categorize various facts one way or another. And if we trust a news source, we often agree without reading much further.
And that’s fine, only, it leads us to be whipsawed back and forth throughout the day. We follow a headline down a rabbit hole to worse and worse outcomes. Or we go the other way, and follow another headline up and up to giddy heights of euphoria. Either way, we end up crashing. We get all tangled up in how other people see the world and then restlessly follow that feed to make sure we are up to date on the latest stance, whether it has changed … or not.
What we may not realize is that our interior dialogue works the same way. It tells us how to think and act based on very little investigation. The same mind that convinces me to binge watch TV until 3 am, can suddenly turn around and beat me up for doing just that. When the mind suggests the idea, it doesn’t usually bring out a laundry list of why it’s a good plan, and yet, it gives tons of arguments about why I deserve to do it. And often I cave because frankly, it’s just easier. I’ve done it more times than I can point to.
For me, social media now feels like an externalization of the mind. I find myself clicking and following the link to the thing that gets me the most angry … or reinforces my cherished opinions. A few months ago, I ended up lying in bed for three hours one morning, doomscrolling, and that was after I had meditated. I do not often question whether the information source is accurate. Yet, over the past few months, I’ve noticed a weight on my shoulders, a heaviness around my heart that wasn’t there six months ago. So I decided to start questioning even my most respected media sources. Is what they are saying true, or more relevant, accurate? What is opinion and what is fact?
I read a meme recently that said, “News used to tell you that something happened, then you had to decide what you thought about it. Now it tells you what to think about it, and you have to decide if it happened or not.” This resonates with me. I’ve started to realize that subtly, the news has become more about opinion than facts. Sure, based on an actual event and from there, rolls into a story given the writer’s own personally held beliefs. Now, it doesn’t make the person wrong … it just gives me pause to ask myself, what is my opinion about all of this? What does someone else say, what beliefs does the “other side” hold?
The Buddha gave a very famous talk to the Kalamas, a group of people who were being taught by a handful of very demanding and rigorous ascetics and Brahmins. In essence, they were telling the people how to be and act. Enter … the Buddha. The people immediately ask him what are they to do? Who should they believe? And these are great questions! Given that one of the definitions of belief is — something held as an opinion (usually a very strong one!) — it is not always true that what we believe is accurate. Going back to the binge watching episode, a part of me believes I’ll really benefit staying up until 3 am — it’ll be fun! I’ll love it — however, a part of me knows, maybe only subconsciously, that it is not a good idea, not beneficial, and I’ll pay for it physically, emotionally, mentally, or all of the above.
So the Buddha taught the Kalamas to trust their own experience. If they experience an action as wise and skillful, to trust that over what someone is telling them, even if that someone claims to be an expert. Back to binge watching, my experience is that it is not helpful … so why do I get talked into it? Because I react and don’t respond. Instead of taking a beat, and really exploring all the implications of staying up late, like checking in with my body to find out how tired it is, and considering my schedule the next day and the demands it entails, I cave to what I hear, “stay up … watch the series … you need to find out what happens next!” There is urgency, and honestly, manipulation. The mind refutes all my half-hearted arguments, and just demands my cooperation.
Lately, I’ve begun to recognize such subtle physical sensations and really, overt mental bullying. And, it feels to me like I’m experiencing it now externally. Social media feeds me “hot takes,” a kind of “this is it! Believe it or else!” and leaves no room for exploration, a direct contradiction to what the Buddha offered the Kalamas, what I call the positive side of FAFO (here, please read as feel around and find out). How does it feel mentally and emotionally to be whipsawed by both internal (the mind) and external (social media) sources? To be told how to think and how to react? Does it feel caring and respectful … or does it feel punitive and demeaning?
What I really want in such moments is to come back to my own experience. Sure, media tells me the world is failing/excelling in this moment, but if I take a breath … I can instead open to a wider perspective, and include myself in this same picture. I do not have to fail or excel, or let my mental landscape track with the how the world is being presented to me at this moment. Instead, I can recognize my own well-being, my own experience as balanced and clear, and from there respond with more compassion, clarity and strength. If I let “hot takes” determine my outlook, I will continue to be knocked off kilter, rendered reactionary, and in general, lose my ability to help the very situations I am inspired to assist! The biggest “hot take” for me right now is … slow down, breathe, … refrain from believing everything I hear … and know my greatest impact comes from responding … and not reacting, which probably looks more like helping my neighbor, calling a friend going through a challenging time, speaking with people about their own strength and capacity … and not adding fuel to the fire of “hot takes.”
About the Author: Beth Hinnen came to the spiritual path from the corporate world. After experiencing impermanence and greed, she left to study Yoga and has over 1,000 hours in Yoga teacher training, and ended up specializing in the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali, spiritual scripture that closely aligns with Buddhism. From there, she studied Zen Buddhism for over ten years, including in-person, month-long monastic retreats, until she earned certification, in January, 2023, as a Mindfulness and Meditation Teacher with Jack Kornfield and Tara Brach. Currently, Beth is a co-leader of the IMCD Council, and on the Teachers Collective, as administrator. She hosts a Meetup group called Yoga Meets Buddhism, and for the past three years, has held an online Dharma Wednesdays class that discusses the Yoga Sutras while also bringing in Buddhist teachings, along with Sufi poets, Christianity, Judaism and other spiritual paths that reinforce the words of Sri Swami Satchidananda, the founder of Integral Yoga where Beth studied. “The truth is one, the paths are many.” More information about Beth is at www.samayaco.org.
