Sweetjoni’s Weblog

I read the article “Digital Dharma” from Wired magazine. It was an interesting article, discussing a group of Buddhists who have been transcribing Buddhists text to CD-Rom. It also talked about the distribution of the CDs. The Buddhists ask for a $15 donation, but will waive that and send you the CD for free if you don’t want to donate. They also were really excited when they found people started putting the text from the CDs online. They loved that, becuase its now on the net, no one in particular can own the information. Its everyone’s and no one’s at the same time.

I thought that was a really interesting point. It can be applied to most of the internet in general. The internet is so cool because its a personal and shared experience at the same time. You contribute to and consume material that is online. Because you can access almost anything, information is free for everyone and no one at the same time.

In relation to religion, I think the internet is changing the way people define religion. I think people are starting to turn it into a completely personalized experience. From e-churches, to online communities, to religious hypertext documents, people form their own practices which fulfill what they look for in religion.

I think that publishing the Buddhist texts online is great. It gives people access to material that would have been more difficult to find otherwise. A lot of these texts have been buried for many years and have been smuggled out of Tibet. Due to wars and various country’s occupations of other countries, many texts have been destroyed. The restoration and publication of the Buddhist words will forever protect them from being destroyed completely. Documenting these texts is important for philosophical, as well as historical reasons.

-Joni