The May issue of Bearing Witness: the Free Newsletter on Western Socially Engaged Buddhism explores the role of online technology in the world of SEB. It includes my first-hand coverage of the Wisdom 2.0 conference and perspectives by activists, scholars and leaders of Buddhist organizations including Roshi Joan Halifax (Upaya Zen Center), Soren Gordhamer (Wisdom 2.0), Vince Horn (Buddhist Geeks), Alan Senauke (Clear View Project), Chris Queen (Zen Peacemakers) and Kate Crisp (Peacemaker Institute and Prison Dharma Network). Stay tuned to this blog to explore questions regarding this complex and controversial topic. Key questions from Chris Queen’s introduction:
Articles in this month’s Bearing Witness raise provocative questions for socially engaged Buddhists. Despite the power of the web to alert us to the suffering of beings around the world, are we spending far too much time staring at screens in darkened rooms? Are typing and clicking, texting and Googling truly Buddhist practices, in the way that meditating, chanting and serving are? Is “high tech” a substitute or a supplement to “high touch”? Can the virtual activism of Second Life avatars be compared to the bodily service of flesh-and-blood bodhisattvas?
