PureInsight | February 6, 2006
[PureInsight.org] Lao Zi said, "Five colors make a man blind, five sounds make a man deaf, and five tastes make a man lose his sense of taste. Riding and hunting make a man wild with excitement." (From Chapter 12 of The Classics of Tao and Virtue (道德經) It means that excessive pursuit of sensual pleasures is harmful to one's physical health and morality. Modern scientists have now validated Lao Zi's doctrine. According to a New York Times report on September 6, 2006, MP3 players can damage one's hearing because many such players can reach potentially damaging volumes, and many users habitually crank the sound up that high. [1]
"While most people covet the hours of nonstop music and the snug earpieces, those features, and others, are also the reasons the players may hurt your hearing." [1]
"Dr. Brian Fligor of Harvard Medical School looked at a variety of headphones and found that, on average, the smaller they were the higher their output levels at any given volume control setting." [1]
"Compared with larger headphones that cover the entire ear, some insertable headphones, like the white ones sold with iPods, increased sound levels by up to nine decibels. That may not seem like much, but because decibels are measured in logarithmic units, it can mean the difference between the noise output of an alarm clock (about 80 decibels) and that of a lawnmower (about 90 decibels)." [1]
"The other problem, a second study found, is that insertable headphones are not as efficient at blocking background noise as some larger ones that cover the ear, so there is more incentive to turn up the volume." [1]
"To be sure, no one is certain what levels of noise the average MP3 listener is experiencing. But a large study of iPod users between 18 and 54 in Australia last month might provide some insight. The study, by the National Acoustic Laboratory in Sydney, found that about a quarter of the people surveyed kept their iPods at volumes that could cause long-term hearing damage." [1]
According to a report by New Scientist on August 12, 2005, "Researchers have finally found evidence for what good Catholic boys have known all along – erotic images make you go blind. The effect is temporary and lasts just a moment, but the research has added to road-safety campaigners' calls to ban sexy billboard-advertising near busy roads, in the hope of preventing accidents." [2]
Apparently Lao Zi was right when he said, "The five colors make a man blind, the five sounds make a man deaf." Excessive pursuit of sensory stimulation can cause damage to one's health and morality. In fact, traditional Buddhism and Christian scriptures have similar doctrines.
Mr. Li Hongzhi said, "What's a good person? What's a bad person? The violence and pornography promoted by society's mass media machines and published in all sorts of newspapers and magazines have been instilled in your head. Yet people like to see them, read them, and watch them. The more of them you absorb, the more you become like them. Don't watch, see, or read those things. You should watch, see, and read good things. As you absorb more and more good things you become a good person. Your behavior is controlled by your mind. People don't consider education important and don't give weight to teaching the younger generations; that's a crime against the whole society." (From "Falun Buddha Fa: Teaching the Fa at the Conference in Europe")
References:
[1] The Claim: MP3 Players Can Cause Hearing Loss: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/09/06/health/06real.html?pagewanted=all
[2] NewScientist.com: Erotic Images Can Turn You Blind: http://www.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=dn7845
Translated from: http://www.zhengjian.org/zj/articles/2005/9/27/33995.html
