The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
Buddhist
Hour
Script No. 382
Broadcast live on Hillside 88.0 FM
on
Sunday 22 May 2005CE 2548 Buddhist Era
This script is
entitled:
Buddha Dhamma and Challenges in the 21st Century
Part II
Last week we presented the idea that Versak, the
celebration of the birth, death, and enlightenment of the Buddha, is
a great opportunity to recall the kindness and effort of the many
beings who brought us the Dhamma. We also proposed that it is an
opportunity to turn our minds towards the future of Buddhism, towards
what challenges it may face, and also, the opportunities that the
communication age can offer.
In preparation for this, Master
John D. Hughes wrote a paper entitled ‘Buddha Dhamma and
Challenges in the 21st Century”.
In last week’s
program, we discussed the key importance of information technology as
a means of sharing the Buddha Dhamma with a global audience.
John
D. Hughes outlined important concepts such as the need for closer
relationships between eastern Buddhist Scholars, the evolvement of an
English Buddhist heritage, and also the need to abolish illiteracy
from the world.
Today’s program focuses on the ways in
which smaller temples can sustain themselves, and how through the use
of information technology, the Dhamma can be preserved and shared
with many generations to come.
We will now continue the
reading of ‘Buddha Dhamma and Challenges in the 21st Century’.
We hope that in doing so, we can shed some light on the challenges
and opportunities Buddhists face in the coming age of communication,
and inspire them to take action.
10. The Role of Immigration
in Spreading Buddha Dhamma
In a world where immigrants are
increasing, both within a given country and from a given country to
another country, it is difficult to believe that future migrations of
the educated Buddhist elite will not occur towards the richer western
countries of the world.
With increasing population growth, it
is assumed that the present tendency for Buddhist refugees to settle
in richer countries will increase year by year.
On the
assumption that Australia, Canada, France, Germany, Italy and the
U.S.A. have sufficient land and infrastructure to continue to
generate more wealth in the 21st century, it appears likely these
places could accept any Buddhist refugee Monks and Nuns.
By
way of example by simple karma might suggest that Canada and France
seem obvious places for immigrant persons, such as the Vietnamese,
who have a background of French colonial cultural history.
The
complex reasons for the suggesting of other western countries is
outside the scope of this paper.
There does not seem to be
much limit to the absorption of qualified Monks and Nuns into these
societies.
It is a torturous path to see at what point demand
and supply could be said to be balanced because, if in excess, the
educated player could migrate to another country.
For example,
Myanmar (Burma) has a long history of great Masters and
Scholars.
The amount of important Burmese texts that remain to
be translated into the English language is likely to be
extensive.
If the karmic conditions that allowed relocation of
English speaking Mayanmarese Scholar Monks to other countries was
studied against the colonial past, it is probable that a number of
English speaking Mayanmarese Scholars and Monks could be expected to
relocate into English speaking countries in the 21st Century.
Apart
from war as a cause, a natural disaster on a medium scale such as a
virus in crops in Myanmar could drive potential immigrants to seek
haven in other countries.
11. Building and Maintaining
Sustainable Temples
It would be nice if more sustainable
Temples, able to last 500 years or more, could come into
actuality.
The western world has a tendency to go to excess in
good things. It expects to have an increasing living standard year by
year.
Some tend to like to believe that the world is really a
very nice place.
This belief is reinforced by high living
standards and superior medical systems.
The basis of these
things leading to good life is thought to be made possible by good
government regulation, not individual kusala kamma coming from the
individual’s own good actions.
Buddhist morality, which
is not given as commandments from a creator God, challenges and
clarifies the raison d’être of notions of the Ten
Commandments derived form the Christian canon.
The moral
training is not God given but can be deduced from a knowledge of
cause and effect.
There is some common ground in practice of
morality between various religions and all can converge with
compassion. Buddha Dhamma does not end training with the development
of compassion.
The limit to wisdom development does not go
beyond the ten Perfections.
For example, there is not need for
an Arhat to build a temple.
The task of building and
maintaining temples belongs to the laity. In the western world
experience, the absence of suitable viharas has meant that certain
Monks and Nuns occupied themselves with construction techniques that
may be rated too lavish for the functions required.
As Buddha
Dhamma becomes more widespread, the need to generate good causes in
this life becomes better understood.
Because of clever
marketing, there is a perception that the size and quality of a
dwelling, whether private or business, reflects the worth of a person
or organisation.
‘Bigger is better’ is not
questioned by mass advertising in a consumer society.
For this
reason, when a question of the size of any temple is considered from
the western frame of reference, there is a tendency to go to
extremes. It is not enough to build a small temple for some western
persons, they must build the biggest or most lavish to rival the
luxury of a Hilton Hotel.
The conditioning of person’s
minds is so nearly complete, that there is no hesitancy in choice of
the desirability of having as many rooms as possible within a given
structure.
The belief system is so strong that a person
choosing a lesser number of rooms within a given structure would be
considered as lacking judgement.
It is not a matter of the
number of rooms but of the right sizing to get the optimum use from a
temple structure. Right sizing is entering the business spectrum of
Global Culture at present, so, it can imagined that the 21st century
will bring better resolution of temple dimensions and locations to
fit the practice that is planned ahead of construction.
12.
The Role of Technology may affect the Sizing of Temples Used for
Teaching Buddha Dhamma
Monk and Nun training could be helped
from a central location via Internet systems. A portion of each
future temple may be equipped with a workstation of considerable
power.
As the cost of computing lowers and viharas can
communicate with one another with ease, it may be that Monks and Nuns
actually do less travel and, therefor, do not suffer from
disturbances associated from cultural shock.
Multiple
teachings in real time become commonplace because of multimedia
technology becoming more and more affordable.
The strength and
affordability of technology will produce some remarkable changes in
the influence of larger temples.
A small temple will have the
same capabilities as a large temple to service persons reading from
the Internet.
It may be that superior Monks and Nuns prefer
that atmosphere of small size viharas.
Without doubt, they
would certainly have longer life in such a suitable environment and
Teachers may live to be 120 to 149 years old or more.
Their
teaching period may be multiplied by an equivalent time factor of
more than 50,000 at least. This is a combination of an increased life
span and the ability to guide 100 or more groups simultaneously.
There are several persons in training at present who either
this life or next life can attain to this capacity.
The author
remembers with affection the suitability of simpler vihara
constructions in Bangladesh villages with superior Monks in
attendance.
These Monks were trained in the Burmese traditions
of practice and run their viharas accordingly. Within the temple
grounds, an ancient Bodhi tree stand and stupas hold the relics of
four generations of teacher in their tradition. It is evident that
there must have been a series of viharas in that specific location
going back to the 12th century.
Were teaching to be conducted
by the Abbott of such a temple by multimedia to a global audience,
the project would be well suited for the practitioner and it would be
affordable to maintain and operate.
When the operating costs
of this small, suitable vihara in Bangladesh are compared to the
operating costs of some large establishments built in western
countries, the natural advantage of the Bangladesh vihara becomes
quite evident.
Quality of guidance appears in different parts
of the world because of past conditions and cannot be manufactured
through wealth alone.
13. Concepts about Sharing Resources
Equally
It is not possible to share resources equally.
In
ancient times, the Chinese had by no means the same ideas as
Europeans who came to their shores on the subject of
commerce.
Kouan-tse, a celebrated economist of the Celestial
Empire, who lived more than two thousand years ago, expresses himself
thus: “The money which enters a kingdom by commerce only
enriches it in the same proportion as that which goes out. There is
no commerce permanently advantageous but the exchange of things
useful and necessary. The trade in articles of pomp, elegance, or
curiosity, whether carried on by exchange or by money payments,
supposes the existence of luxury; now luxury, which is the abundance
of what is superfluous among certain citizens, supposes the want of
necessaries of others. The more horses the rich put to their
chariots, the more people will have to walk on foot; the more their
houses are vast and magnificent, the more those of the poor are small
and miserable; the more their tables are covered with dainties, the
more people there are reduced to eat only rice.”
This
notion has been left behind in modern times but it is evident that
balance of trade must have some meaning.
There is an
attractiveness in facilitating quality Teaching regardless of
national boundaries. It might be that economic rationalism of some
sort would exclude high overhead temples from offering their services
because their costs could be out of proportion to what is offered
elsewhere.
At that point, the reputation and desirability of
using Monks and Nuns to 'Show the Way’ within the backdrop of
their smaller viharas would be empathised with by many persons.
The
energy of utilisation of a good resource regardless of its locality
is a property of modern management. As the global new service, CNN,
has shown, it does not take that much energy to deliver visual images
from anywhere in the world to anywhere else in the world.
The
will to achieve such quality guidance ought to come from
practitioners in the western world who may not be content with the
conventional wisdom, the larger the organisation, the higher the
quality of the product.
Westerners will become more
discriminating of what they wish within the 21st century and this in
turn will raise the discrimination level of traditional Buddhist
countries.
Japan could become revitalised by the commercial
exploitation of the new technology and the availability of suitable
Teachers in many underdeveloped countries.
Since this
represents a New World market for a product that will bless persons,
it is feasible that any country in the world could exploit the
obvious advantages of this path.
Th author wishes that parts
of Australia could generate the intention and raise the energy to
reach this objective within the 21st century.
The energy with
which westerners build their Viharas is commendable, but not enough
energy is poured into sustaining the structure after it is built. It
is as if they do not wish for future generations to have anything to
do! They want to present a ‘perfect’ building as soon as
possible. There is no patience in this practice and the only outcome
is great wealth in a future life for the persons engaged in this type
of building.
Buddha Dhamma does not limit a person to
continue to develop the four qualities of the mental state of the
Brahma World beyond a certain development.
A combination of a
spreading of teachings by Ajarns and well-written Dhamma literature
to back up such teaching, within the last two decades have
de-mystified question of why one should take refuge in the Triple Gem
in at least one of the four possible ways.
14. The Future
Distribution of Dhamma
Within the materialistic western world,
some scientifically trained persons reject eternalism by considering
that the belief in an eternal creator God is unscientific.
Other
persons live within a nihilistic framework by rejecting the notion
that rebirth and redeath are not the norm.
In some cases, this
challenge has encouraged Buddha Dhamma collaboration by university
professors and graduates, and the last decade has seen the emergence
in publication of many translations of classic well-written Buddha
Dhamma.
This material has been traded in printed form as a
world commodity. Affordable costing makes material widely available
and in many cases, due to the generosity of many organisations,
written Dhamma is available for free distribution.
In
addition, Dhamma materials are appearing in electronic formats on
Internet and as compact disks readable by computers.
Communication
by electronic mail will become so widely available at low cost, it
would be possible and likely that the WFB would link together their
Regional Centres to compile a World Register of Monks, Nuns and Lay
Dhamma Teachers with examples of their current training methods.
Webmasters could run these systems with voice systems from
either their present location or anywhere else worldwide.
As
more and more persons will work from home in the information age, and
home entertainment increases in convenience, some persons could
become disinclined to leave their home.
For such persons, a
demand for Buddha Dhamma equivalent culture piped into their home may
become the norm.
With ‘convenient’ web systems
using voice synthesis, it would appear likely that known texts could
be verbalised by virtual Monks and virtual Nuns.
A
cost-efficient ‘convenient’ web system would be an
offshoot of a commercial system that would appear with universal
language skills to overcome the need to use the English language as a
world language.
The ‘convenient’ Web systems could
address national audiences on request in their own Dhamma languages
at any time day or night.
In time, for such an audience, it
may become difficult for those living Monks and Nuns and laypersons
who wish to compete against the synthetic Web voices.
Those
who incline to speak ‘live’ would need some very pleasant
speech to hold the attention of persons with restless time-driven
minds who may be conditioned not to travel from their work-wired
homes.
15. More Future Challenges for Buddhist
Followers
There is more wealth to build, maintain and deliver
services to and from Buddhist Institutions.
This wealth has
caused fundamental changes in the structure and distribution of
communities.
Much of this is being driven by a confluence of
factors which are shaping the world of the next century in terms of a
more global community and market place.
Patterns of demography
and distribution of wealth may also be expected to change which will
set increased pressures on global resources including the
environment.
At the same time, the human qualities of
covertness and greed do not appear to have substantially abated and
are likely to also continue into this new century.
This will
create an evolving set of challenges for Buddhism to both recognise
and adapt to so that it may continue to flourish.
What are
these challenges?
We are seeing the proliferation of
information and communications technology which is extending into
almost every corner of the globe.
The cost to access these
communication channels is coming down rapidly making them accessible
on a scale that has not been possible before.
We are also
seeing a convergence of communication technologies in which
computing, television, telephone and interactive multimedia are
coming together merely as different enablers of communication through
the recognition that the basis of all these technologies is digital
technology.
Accompanying this is an increasing concentration
of communications media ownership that will be powerful in both
informing and shaping the global agenda.
Richard H. Brown,
Chief Executive of Cable and Wireless PLC, states they are the most
international company in the World by having substantial operations
in 55 countries and a presence in over 70.
They are arranging
for a single dedicated management team that will target multinational
companies directly instead of operating through the national
companies.
Part of their plan will be to sink their roots in
markets where they can really make a difference and take control of
their destiny.
What this means is that the Cable and Wireless
team must practice a form of global multiculturalism having values
which use logic to help build momentum in an industry which is
open-ended.
It is this very open-ended nature of the industry
which allows it to overcome lack of direct eye consciousness by
giving, in an affordable form, what can be considered a world-wide
‘celestial eye’ substitute for many persons.
16.
The Power of Storage-Area Networks (SAN)
The impact, intensity
and apparent realism of fiction has always had power to guide the
formation of views.
Under the 227 Vinaya rules, Monks and Nuns
are advised to avoid watching or listening to common plays pageants
or theatre where dancing persons move their bodies to music.
In
ancient times, such shows were not frequent in the countryside so it
was not too difficult to observe this rule.
The significance
of the intense development of SANs at present is a guarantee that
such entertainment will be easy and affordable in many, many places
in this century.
It does not take much vision to see that
suitable feed stock for the future SANs is ready in the marketplace,
held by copyright.
So apart from re-runs of sporting events,
persons who have tested positive to popular global appeal in the 20th
century would extend their global shelf life with ‘spin off’
marketing on SANs.
Risk-free appeal may last several
generations because exposure to the deceptive charm of popular
singers, such as, the Three Tenors or Spice Girls equivalents is held
to be conducive to pleasant feeling.
The global availability
of an audience that wishes to share a common delusion equivalent to
specific virtual seduction by sight or sound and other major
theatrical sense base spectacles is a strong reason to develop
product.
When product is mass-produced for a complete market
profile, it means it would be nice from the producer’s point of
view if present conventions of what is accepted as suitable juvenile,
vis-à-vis adult products, was left unquestioned.
By
linear projection of what would have been considered suitable for
general exhibition 50 years ago and what is considered suitable with
the same rating today, it can be predicted that the present ratings
for ‘mature adults only’ and so on will vanish in many
countries.
In the entertainment industry, there appears to be
little hard evidence to suggest that any person went bankrupt by
allowing bad taste to prevail in their presentations.
It may
be difficult for children educated from birth in a permissive society
which allows them to view the full content of the future SANs to make
sense of a precept prohibiting viewing of such subject matter.
As
an indicator of this trend, the author has noted that popular music
groups are used at fund raising events in local temple grounds even
while the Monks and Nuns are still in residence.
17. Buddha
Dhamma Networked Data Storages
The educational potential of
networked Buddha Dhamma data storages (SANs) could be very high.
It
is suggested that by using skilful method and means and without much
effort the possibility of setting up 21st Century Buddha Dhamma
network sites ought to be investigated by interested Centres of the
W.F.B.
To be commercially viable, perhaps it could reward
viewers financially (with the equivalent of frequent viewer points)
and emotionally (by being polled for their response to the
instructional material).
From the author’s experience in
setting up our Buddha Dhamma site at www.bdcu.org.au this year (1998)
and our Local Area Network, it can be sated that, provided Dhamma
practitioners believe they are certain their organisation can master
technology, they can do it.
SANs are being developed which
permits high-speed access to multiple storage displays, where such
items as video clips might be archived.
Research of SAN is
moving quickly and it is most likely SAN will replace the need for
face to face contact with live Teachers who can teach logic.
The
character of search engines developed to date can find more
references that are held in local libraries and automatic translation
of foreign texts appears to be nearly ready for key word searches at
an affordable cost.
This ends the second part of ‘Buddha
Dhamma and Challenges in the 21st Century. We encourage our listeners
to tune in next week for the conclusion.
May you be well and
happy.
May the Buddha Dhamma be preserved and shared around the
world.
May we take up the opportunity to use technology to many
people’s benefit.
The paper ‘Buddha Dhamma and
Challenges in the 21st Century’ was written by John D. Hughes.
The script for the program was prepared and edited by Alec Sloman,
Anita Hughes, Leanne Eames, Leila Igracki, Frank Carter, Julie
O'Donnell and Helen Costas.
Document Statistics.
Word
count: 3817
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