"Honoring That Which is Worthy of Honor"
Reflections after Kathina at Abhayagiri Monastery (https://www.abhayagiri.org/)
The Discourse on Blessings (Maṅgala Sutta, Snp 2.4) lists as the first great blessing spending time with people worthy of honor:
"Not to associate with the foolish, but to associate with the wise,
and to honor those worthy of honor—this is the highest blessing."
One of the conditions for well-being we have the most agency over is who we spend our social time with, and what kinds of events we attend. This includes the media we consume and whose voices and views we listen to and take in.
This is not a shaming teaching about how we shouldn't like what we like, but it points to how transformative discipline works. It's not about forcing ourselves to do things we don't enjoy just because some judge (external or internal) says they're wholesome—it's about practicing becoming more sensitive to the pleasures of the wholesome. Once we do, we'll find that we just enjoy wholesomeness more than other kinds of entertainment. From there, the disciplines of practice become much easier, because the main instruction just becomes "do what helps you feel good."
