Front Yard, Tricycle by Alixandria Kathleen

I’ve been fairly quiet on the whole buddhablogosphere brouhaha with Tricycle magazine and surprisingly so. You see, I’ve made a living out of social media, community building and cultivating conversations online. *Warning- Lots of self-reference here so if you’re loathe to navel-gazing or lots of ‘I’-chat- skip this post.

So here it is. My perspective:

To me, the exchanges that I see that come from participating in the online space are really not all that much different that what takes place in person. I’ve cried when reading about the loss of a family member as recounted on a blog and sent tonglen the author’s way. I’ve been thrilled when I’ve read about how reading about my experiences have helped others to know they’re not alone in walking the path. I read about folks experiences with as much interest over a mug of tea as if there were right there in front of me at my kitchen table.

I’ve never claimed to be a teacher, an enlightened being, someone who’s achieved high levels of realization or anything remotely close to this. I’ve worked through a lot of shit and I have so much more shit to work through. I’m an ego junkie. I gossip sometimes. I beat myself up often. I have thin skin and a monkey mind. I am the laziest meditator and practitioner.

I began to cultivate an interest in Buddhism back in 1994 and as someone who lived in a small town, I didn’t have many folks to interact with. Both Tricycle magazine and the Shambhala Sun were so valuable to me in that they gave me a feeling of community where a physical community didn’t exist for me. Their authors weren’t necessarily teachers per say, but ordinary beings who were also having trouble with practice or recounting moments of clarity with precision and delight.

This takes me to present day and the article in the Winter 2009 issue of Tricycle magazine titled ‘Dharma Wars’ by Zenshin Michael Haederle which asks “What is it about the Internet that turns Buddhist teachers into bullies?” I came away from reading this article thinking that it was sorely missing out in presenting some of the successful teacher-led online communities that have thrived over the years and came across as a diatribe dedicated to drive folks away from the potentially harmful internet into the comfortable arms of the editor-curated content provided by Tricycle magazine.

Don’t get me wrong. I really enjoy magazines. I also do enjoy reading blogs. <media middle way>

The article sadly perpetuates the mistaken belief that Buddhist teachers have to be held up to an ideal that we impose on them, rather than encouraging us to question everything. I certainly had come to many realizations and road-blocks when working through the stories I heard passed along about Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche and did read Stephen Butterfield’s expose on Rinpoche titled “The Double Mirror” (Forget a bit of rancor online – this was a whole book dedicated to the perceived shortcomings of a great teacher. Wowsa.)

The world has changed. Our communication tools have changed and we no longer are exposed only to media outlets for our information. We can now interact with stories and each other. Some people, whether they are Buddhist or not will decide to use this power for altruistic and compassionate goals whereas others will not be so mindful. Being online allows us to exercise the ability to take a moment before hitting ‘send’ and reflecting. No different then when we decide to engage in harmful speech in person. The container is no different. The mind is no different.

By shining the flashlight only on the negative, I believe that Tricycle may have acted with it’s own interests in mind (to sell more magazines, keep advertisers happy, obtain more traffic) and didn’t think of the hypocrisy inherent in using the internet to criticize behaviour on the internet. The media landscape has changed. Dissemination of information has been revolutionized. I can only hope that Tricycle decides to be a bit more in tune with the spirit of web 2.0 – openness, transparency and community rather than seeing it for a cash cow and a means to generate more revenue.

In closing, unfortunately not much by way of guidance had been given as to how Tricycle recommends Buddhists carry themselves online and granted, this isn’t their specialty. It would have been great to see a story or sidebar dedicated to providing advice on how to display mindfulness online and perhaps some reference to sutras that relate to the topic of right speech. Perhaps members of the buddhablogopshere wish to fill in the blanks on this area of the topic where Tricycle magazine failed to evaluate?

Questions:

Do you feel that you are mindful online?

Do you reflect on your posts before you hit send?

Are you your true self online?

Have you ever taken an online discussion offline out of not wishing to air the disagreement in public?

As mentioned on Dharmacore:

“Complete with samu (work practice), sanzen (video chat meetings with the teacher) and a forum for communication among members, the sangha has grown steadily. Now, a small group of us have joined Jundo in his latest experiment of an online Jukai ceremony. What is Jukai? This is an ancient Zen ceremony where a Buddhist student receives the precepts and takes refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma and the Sangha. It usually involves sewing a rakusu, a traditional Zen garment that my non-Buddhist friends have lovingly taken to calling a “Buddha bib,” and getting a Buddhist name from the teacher.”

I’d love to see collection of such initiatives all located in one area where sangha-less folk could view online activities going on in the digital world. Anyone up for collaborating on a wiki to collect all of the Buddhist podcasts, videocasts, online sanghas among other ‘digi-Buddhist’ activities and happenings?

Check out the full blog post with more details on this via this link.