Most of my spiritual teachers have been against television.And I fully understand why.The values being promoted are often wrong and contrary to religious teachings in all the spiritual traditions.As well,many people get addicted to T.V. ,especially the unemployed and the indolent.This can easily lead to a form of chronic ,mild depression or even social and employment paralysis.as well.Combined with drinking beer or smoking pot one can end up easily in a dead-end life-style.

Despite these obvious disadvantages,I,myself,have found my attempts to abstain from this activity completely both fruitless and even counterproductive.The first time I heard someone else on the spiritual path defending the same point of view occurred while I was in Jordan.This story is second-hand as I was never able to meet the persons involved but I have little doubt about its overall veracity.Sheikh Abdur-Rahman Shaghouri,the sheikh of Sheikh Nuh was in Jordan for surgery one year,accompanied by his wife and daughter.The daughter in question was extolling the benefits of television-watching ,much to the shock and horror of Sheikh Nuh’s wife,Um Sahl.It seemed to fly in the face of everything Sheikh Nuh was teaching .In fact the Sheikh Nuh considered even photographs as haram,let alone television!

I was,unfortunately, not party to this discussion so I do not know what Sheikh Abdur-Rahman’s daughter was presenting as arguments for T.V. Nevertheless I have come up with my own list;

1. Relaxation.In the evening ,after a long day’s work,often enough one is depleted.I find myself not having enough energy to do my spiritual practices or even to read something serious .So I use the television to wind down.Maybe in secular society,people have a beer or as the French like to do they have a 5-7 at the bar.This is not permitted in our tradition.So T.V becomes a benign substitute.
2. Combating loneliness. I once did a sabbatical in Tunisia to be close to my Sheikh of the time.Because I had neither family nor colleagues in the country ,I had to spend a lot of my time alone.Even my landlord who was very tight-fisted under most circumstances understood my point when I said I needed the cable connection because of being alone.It was one of the few expenses he accepted to incur after I pointed out my dilemma to him.
3. Syncing.This is the most subtle perhaps.Getting into sync with the world around us.The world around us and its interactions are generally very coarse(‘kathif’ is the Arabic term as opposed to ‘latif’). If you try to engage this vibrationally coarse world from a meditative posture,most of the time it will just run you over.If you need an image to capture this,imagine talking to Trump about the need to be kind lol.So,often enough,we need a bridging technique.Television can be just that bridge.The personalities on the screen are generally highly worldly and at the same time highly functional in that space.They can help us overcome our sensitvities and softness,and overcome them we must.
4. Information     Yes,information.We could even say knowledge!I remember a discussion I had with one of my anti-T.V., anti internet sheikhs about what happened on 9/11.He thought the attackers had entered the cockpit with guns! Now,that might seem like an unimportant detail but for me it indicated how out-of -touch he had become with the world around him.Then there was all the conspiracy theories around the founding of ISIS which are still out there,believe it or not!Personally, I didn’t believe any of them.And then PBS came out with a documentary on its series Frontline and it was all perfectly clear,more or less as I had conceived it, but with full documentation.So ,if you choose carefully,you can find many informative documentaries on various cable channels. Shekh Nazim used to particularly like the nature shows about animals.I’m sure he would have loved the David Suzuki series if he were still alive,May his soul be elevated.              N.B. I am not giving television a blanket approval .and there are certain times when it is best to avoid it.Nor am I encouraging people to become addicts.But I am saying that it is probably alright if you can dose it properly. One hour /day may be about right.None is necessary or appropriate if there are friends and family visiting. And a little more may be fine if you are sick or particularly stressed out.                                                                                           Please feel free to comment-for or against the use of television.I would like your feedback.Salaams,Ibrahim