What Does Being a Buddhist Mean to You
Re: Online Dharma
Can teachers effectively spread the dharma through cyberspace? Are social networking sites a tool for change or a waste of time? We asked Tricycle readers what they thought, and this is how they responded.
If Buddha were alive today, he would be blogging his teachings and holding web conferences. Well, he’s doing just that, in the form of living Buddhist teachers.
Glenda Gill
Homemaker and Buddhist Seminarian
Colleyville, TX
I doubt if social networking sites can be tools for change. Our social needs are satisfied by people, not technology. Is the dharma moving to the internet, or is the internet moving to the dharma?
Robert Lee Henschel, Jr.
Floral Designer
Minneapolis, Minnesota
I have been observing silence and non-attachment to society for ten years and just recently purchased my first computer. This medium is the greatest advancement for the dharma since the printing press was invented.
Robert Wallace
Security Officer
Victoria, British Columbia, Canada
I believe Buddhism is about deep connections between people, and this happens most profoundly for me when I meet a teacher or fellow students face to face.
Scott Abbott
English Teacher
Sydney, Australia
The internet has become an indispensable tool for communicating across boundaries, including continents, countries, cultures, and age groups. Like all tools, the internet is not perfect, but I have learned to take what is useful to me and leave the rest. The dharma on the internet is an excellent support to my Buddhist practice.
Alain Bernay
Software Development Project Manager
Perth, Western Australia
From experience both on the cushion and on the seat behind the screen, I feel that, for the most part, the dharma’s move to the internet is a marketing tool, and that is does not actually impact suffering or transform negative habits.
Barry Shapiro
Herbalist
Aviezer, Israel
I, for one, live far from any Buddhist center or sangha. The internet has afforded me the opportunity to study under many different masters and learn many different views. The Buddha's message is getting out there. It was never meant for a chosen few!
Howard Case
Medical Lab Technician
Marion, Indiana
The internet can be a support for our practice, but it is not a replacement. In searching for information or help, the virtual sangha is an immensely useful tool, but we still need to practice on the cushion and in real life.
Kevin McConnell
Occupation Quality Manager
Cupar, Scotland
If even a rock can preach the dharma, why not the internet?
Pat Burns
Retired
Congress, Arizona
Comments
Online Dharma
The Internet, like a zendo, is a tool to be used for good or for ill. But I freely admit I still have preferences, and I prefer the voice of my teacher resonating across a wooden floor, the special silence of sitting in a room full of gently breathing people, and the aroma of a rice casserole in the kitchen next to the meditation hall. And when you are looking directly into a person's eyes, there seem to be fewer opportunities for misunderstanding.
options
I agree that learning is best accomplished face to face. Given the option, I would choose this as well, but as far as I know, I do not have that option where I live now.
I am new to exploring these ideas on line. I look forward to exploring the potential of sharing using the internet.
wouldn't help
i believe the social networking sites wont help to spread the teachings of Buddha. social relations can only develop thru these sites.
On-line Dharma
Almost every time I check into this on-line community, I read something that quiets me, focuses me, if only for a while. Seems something's working....
Michol O'Leary
Any human to human connection works...
Social networking and the whole cybersphere is just another mode of interpesonal communication, so of course the message and spirit of Buddhism can be spread in this way.
Although I would argue that electronic forms of communication strip a lot of the intangible personal connections from speaking with others away, the spirit of a persons true self is always coming through.
Would Gautama use the internet tools today? Maybe. I'm not sure he would use them as the focus of some kind of online campaign to "evangelise", as some other religions do, but as a communication mechanism, the internet is little different at times to the written letter and to telephone calls.
While he may not have had a Facebook fan page, he would definately been an email user!
It's not about the media or medium, but the person at the other end.
Regards,
Frank
Stop Smoking Weed Blog
If the Buddha were alive
If the Buddha were alive today and have wireless internet or DSL also then he must design some blogs and teaches us the cause of our pain and the way to extinguish it, all is revealed in the four noble truths. The reason for our suffering is within ourselves, and the tools to get rid of the Resun is in what he called the Noble Eightfold Path:
* Adjusted Line and neutral perspective vision of things as they are.
* Straight Goodwill intention, sincere and tolerant attitude thinking first of others.
* Straight word: No slander, no fault to the truth, what comes out of our mouth should be for the common good.
* Action Line: Avoid doing what you do not want: love, compassion, enevolence toward all beings, since all are on the road.
* Straight life: Right way to earn a living and continuous appreciation for the work, allowing us to eat and keep learning.
* Straight effort, persevere, have patience and not get discouraged because the goal is never safe. Cultivating the will in the right direction.
* Straight attention: Keep your eyes open, choose freely what they are and do, everything is transformed into consciousness and happiness.
* Right concentration: The joy of meditation union with all stocks, the intuition of the sublime, the apprehension of the unknowable.
* Action Line: Avoid doing what you do not want: love, compassion, benevolence toward all beings, since all are on the road.
Thank you