Digital Dharma - Buddhism and the Internet

On Wednesday, I was one of many who attended a talk, "Digital Dharma: Buddhism and the Internet," that was held on Chico State's campus. Before listening to the panel of speakers, I had no idea how big of a thing Buddhism on the internet had become.

Our keynote speaker, Charles S. Prebish of Utah State University, gave examples of many of the different websites and their functions. I found the amount of different reasons and/or needs represented in these websites very surprising. They ranged from being purely informational to providing an online world, complete with temples and avatars, and everything in between. One of the bigger issues that he brought up was the commodification of Buddhism and if it's affect on the religion and the community was a good or bad thing. There are many sites that promote themselves as companies who will sell anything from books to crafts dedicated to Buddhism. Prebish even brought up a site that was dedicated to helping Buddhists find a relationship, much like match.com or eharmony.com. The argument is ongoing about whether this type of website helps the religion grow in the number of truly dedicated believers or not. It also brings up the question of where the line is drawn for what can still be considered a true religious experience and what is just a gimmick. Does it depend on the medium or service offered?


Some of the other speakers on the panel gave a little more information about what Second Life, the online avatar world, is and how Buddhists use it. It is like most other online simulated interactions in that you make your character and can go around in this world to do things, like practice your religion, and meet people, perhaps other Buddhists. A Buddhist belief is that life is impermanent...Second Life is like an extension of this belief because it is impermanent in the same way. But the question, "Do people see what is represented in Second Life as being sacred even though it is not real life?" was brought up and it was stated that some devotees believe that they are different. One of the possible reasons for this might be that in this online world, you are able to send your avatar to a temple to meditate. Is this "extension" of yourself giving you the benefits of meditation if you aren't doing it yourself? Some say that it depends on the person, the medium, and the amount of engagement. As you can see, a lot of debate has circled this topic. What do you think?

I wanted to attach links to the websites that were talked about at this panel so that you can go check them out for yourselves and get a taste of how big Buddhism online has become. I did not mention all of these in my blog, but they were mentioned in the panel, so I thought I'd share all of the ones I managed to copy with you. You will find the links below.


www.buddhanet.net
http://blogs.dickinson.edu/buddhistethics/
http://www.jbeonlinebooks.org/Buddhism/
www.h-net.org/~buddhism
www.buddhistchannel.tv
www.dharmamatch.com
www.dharmacrafts.com
www.angryasianbuddhist.com/
www.secondlife.com   (you have to look up Buddhist Center because this is not a site dedicated to just Buddhism)
www.blogisattva.org/