In the modern world, we can instantly see actions here having effects on the other side of the planet, and how the way that we produce energy and products has an effect on our environment, globally. The reality of our inter-connected nature is striking, and the inter net has mirrored that, shedding light on how tangible our connections really are.
Roshi Glassman is a true Zen Master, his teachings have been called controversial, especially when he started sharing them. He teaches that sitting is not the only form of practice, but that social engagement is another form one might practice Zen. Like Thich Nhat Hanh, he believes and teaches that participating, being engaged, you know, trying to “save the girl”, is Zen.
“As long as you are ready to save the girl, however it pops up, that’s a kind of activism.” Bernie
I asked Bernie What he atributed to Buddhism’s continued growth in western culture, what attracted him to Zen? He started to tell me that there are “two parts” to this answer. There was the phenomena of the sixties, when Buddhist teachers were arriving in this country as it was going through major social and cultural changes. We talked a little bit about how the sixties involved some limbering up, chemically, by some that found their way to Buddhism, and some experienced a sense of unity that was hard to define in western terms.
Today “what’s attractive about it now”, he continued. “Buddhism, the enlightenment experience, is an experience of realizing the inter-connectedness of life. So if we talk nowadays that’s the inter net.” and “The notion that everything is inter-connected is pretty much common sense”
When you take a moment and look at it Bernie is right, the inter net kind of does represent a lot of what Buddhism has to say about inter-being or dependent origin. When you log on, you log onto the entire world wide web, you become part of the larger the whole. In a material sense your computer actually becomes part of the net, it depends on the whole rest of the web to function as part of it. Your computer becomes the inter net, and the inter net becomes your computer, they are deeply inter-connected, and what happens to one happens to all. What you download on the net, becomes available anywhere on the net, and what’s on the web becomes available at your computer.
He likened the inter net to Indra’s Net. Indra’s net is a metaphor used in Buddhism, and other traditions, to help grasp the concept of inter-connectedness. It appears in the Avatamaka sutra, it basically describes an infinite web, a net that has gem at every intersection, and on every facet of every gem in the net, can be seen a reflection of every other facet of every other gem.
“Far away in the heavenly abode of the great god Indra, there is a wonderful net which has been hung by some cunning artificer in such a manner that it stretches out indefinitely in all directions. In accordance with the extravagant tastes of the deities, the artificer has hung a single glittering jewel at the Net’s every node, and since the net is infinite in dimension, the jewels are infinite in number. There hang the jewels, glittering like stars of the first magnitude, a wonderful sight to behold. If we now arbitrarily select one of these jewels for inspection and look closely at it, we will discover that in it’s polished surface there are reflected all the other jewels in the net, infinite in number. Not only that, but each of the jewels reflected in this one jewel is also reflecting all the other jewels, so that the process of reflection is infinite.” “The Avatamasaka Sutra” Francis H. Cook: Hua-Yen Buddhism : The Jewel Net of Indra 1977
“The inter net is a manisfestation of that, and it brings it closer to people” Bernie.
If you consider your computer as a gem in that web, then then it does resemble Indra’s Net, each computer monitor(facet) reflecting all the other facets in the web. Our servers become nodes, our computers gems and our CRTs facets, while not actually infinite, it does have that feel. And as our lives, hopes and imaginings become more and more uploaded to the web, we start to see how we are like those gems also.
With the inter net, we can see our selves reflected in the hopes of those engaged in the Arab Spring, and they can look into the web and see the promise of a freer society. Some have argued that inter net access is fueling peoples quest for freedom in places where they may never have had an inkling that it could be that way. Now they can see around the world, see how communities can be free from dictatorship, how they too can participate in human progress.
Just take a look at us Dudeists, far flung across the globe, but with the opportunity to interact with each other in real time. The inter net is a big part of our genesis and growth, the wisdom of the Dude may be ancient, but in this modern age the speed at which we can share and build on it is astounding . I thank the eggheads everyday, those that dreamt up and built this modern wonder. I thank them for all the wonderful friends it has allowed me to make, in places I may never get to visit in person. This miracle of material inter-being has given us all the chance to explore our personal inter-being with the world and each other.
