Hi everyone,
I’m new here, very nice to see everyone here. I actually created my account last Sunday, but after reading the Guidelines very carefully, I was afraid that the only things I’d like to share would violate something in the guidelines. Because I was in a bit of a crisis and could no longer rely on the Sangha community I practiced with. I created my account here in hope that I could continue to take refuge in the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha that are not just limited by my own community.
16 years ago when I decided to become a vegan, I also began to pick up the Buddhadharma by starting to read books from various Buddhist schools (Tibetan Buddhism, Nichiren, Soto Zen, and Plum Village) and watch Dharma talks given by different masters, such as Ajahn Brahm, Dalai Lama, Thubten Chodron, Pema Chodron, Tenzin Palmo, etc.; and casually apply them in my daily life.
I’ve been reading Bhante Sujato’s writings for some time, not sure for how long. I didn’t notice who wrote them at first, but the points of view expressed in these writings resonated deeply with me, and guided me when I felt extremely lost in life and in my Dharma practice.
11 years ago, I started to take the meditation and mindfulness practice seriously after coming back from a retreat in a Plum Village monastery in Thailand, by incorporating meditation practices into my daily routine.
8 years ago, in another retreat in the same monastery, I was asked by a nun in this tradition to translate a book by my master from my first language to English. Days turned into months, and months turned into years, and I decided I quit my job at the time to dedicate to finishing this Dharma book. Although the book never got published, I continued to receive requests to translate Dharma materials and other things for the monastic community from the monastics ever since.
Around 5 years ago, I decided to store all the translations that I did for the monastics and for myself, mostly Dharma talks and a few Dharma articles, on a website to offer myself a much-needed refuge to transform my own suffering at the time. The non-profit project that I’ve been working on every day was established as a result. It’s been running for almost five years now, and many pieces have been republished by the community in their newsletters, website, app, and a book.
However, two months ago, my community launched a project that uses AI to translate all of my teacher’s Dharma talks into English. The elder monastics who are involved in this project have been trying their best to hide this fact from everyone in their promotion and communication about this project. I know it uses AI because two years ago when this project was still in its incubation, a group of long-term lay practitioners who’s in charge of developing this project for the elders approached me and invited me to join in their effort to train the AI machine they were building to do exactly this. As someone who strongly supports Bhante’s views on “100% AI-free” contents, I refused.
At the time I thought the project was for internal use only and that they would need to human-review all the AI-generated translations before releasing them to the public (I still do not believe AI-generated translations that are already reviewed by humans are reliable). But as the truth unfolded two months ago when it was launched to the public, many of the translations (around 81%, i.e. a bit over 2,000 talk transcripts) were not reviewed. After the launch, many people have used these translations for their daily practice.
It really pained me to see a father of two use one of the unchecked translations to practice with other parents in a Mindful Parenting circle. I feel like I’ve been part of a community that cheats people to raise the money to continue using AI, pay for the data centers/servers and other unthinkable things that seriously affect the earth’s and people’s well-being.
I don’t know if they’ve secretly used my translations to train this AI machine or not since they started building this project. And on a side note, I’ve recently found out that the lay person who helped build and led many of my community’s projects has run an AI business of his own since 2023.
The point is, for the past two months, all the monastics whom I used to turn to when I had difficulties in my practice went silent on me when I voiced my concern in my private emails to them about this project and the future of those practicing in my master’s tradition. I no longer know whom I can trust in my community anymore. And I’ve been feeling so out of place the whole past two years since they began to build this project and invited me to join this project and I turned them down until today. I’ve had to suppress this feeling for so long.
Since the passing of my master, there have been many things done in and around my community that don’t agree with the teachings of the Buddha and my master. I’ve still kept in touch with the former monastics who disrobed from this tradition after the passing of my master, who shared with me in deep sadness many disturbing real stories and how much they wanted to continue being monastics but couldn’t.
I don’t understand why the need of using AI when human translated contents worked just fine. I’ve never put my name in any of my translations or needed recognition. I only need to have a true community to practice the Dharma with, a place of refuge where the teachings in all languages are real, i.e. the translations of the teachings are authentic, and everyone is not so much about fame and wealth seeking.
I am thinking of pursuing the graduate certificate in Buddhist translation in a Buddhist University, while searching for another community in order to continue practicing the Buddha’s teachings and continuing to translate my master’s teachings the way I’ve always done them. I’ve worked a part-time job to help me go with this endeavor.
Also, this may be irrelevant, but anything that was negative about my community, for some reason, will be completely removed from the Google Search results. I know there’s a communication team made up by one elder monastic and a few lay people in my community that takes care of this. Those tech-savvy lay people are the people in charge of building this AI project and I’m afraid they will sooner or later find this share of mine.
I am really sorry for the long introduction. I understand it will be moderated and can be removed by the moderators because it may be violating some of the forum guidelines. And I completely accept the consequence. I really appreciate the opportunity to join this forum. Thank you very much 
