Buddhist Geeks are Talkin’ ’bout my generation
I just listened to a two part interview series that the Buddhist Geeks conducted with Buddhist author, teacher and translator Ken McLeod speaking to the circumstance of the experience of a generational gap that can sometimes occur between students and teachers and wanted to share some observations with you as well as my own experiences.
What I appreciate about Ken McLeod’s style of teaching is that he asks a lot of pointed questions to get you thinking about why it is you feel the way you do, your motivations, the experience that you are encountering and the potential reasons behind this. His drawing out method brings about some profound realizations when you are open to scratching a bit beyond the surface.
McLeod touches upon the idea of there being the potential for family dynamics at work in the student-teacher relationship which is something I never really thought about until now, but in retrospect, do see how this has manifested within my circles or have witnessed this in dealings I’ve seen during practice weekends I’ve partaken in over the years. I think our psychological make up is such that there are times that we unknowingly project all sorts of trips on each other. The generation gap can be quite similar in that we can potentially lay our trips within this perceived generational gap ie: considering the grey hairs (note- I’m greying so I’m not calling anyone out) to be technologically behind or less open to different and emerging practice methods and styles. In turn, the grey hairs may call out the youth for perverting the original true dharma and believe that no real truth can be found via digital tools and techniques.
A rich discussion and debate occurred in this podcast series and one that I encourage you to check out as it’s valuable for us to have this conversation within our dharma centers to ensure that a nice balance is struck and we are providing our younger members with the ability to navigate the constantly evolving landscape of tools that can both server to distract as well as enhance our lives as Buddhists.
Personally I felt humbled to hear that McLeod studied Tibetan in order to study with his teacher as I’m often complaining about the silliest and most trivial things that keep me from study and practice so this indeed put me “on notice” as Steven Colbert would say. I can’t really speak to whether my generation has more distractions than the previous one as I think that once could be just as distracted by television, consuming VHS and cassette tapes of teachings, rather than meeting up with each other in meat space. It was somewhat heartening to hear that McLeod touched upon his feelings of a generational gap as well in his path. This is a true demonstration that it’s part of our practice to work to navigate with all opportunities and obstacles, be that large or small.
I encourage you to check out the podcasts and feel free to leave any comments on whether you notice a generational gap, a technological gap or if this is all hokey. I think it’s an important dialogue given the rapid pace of change that’s going on around us.
