Quotes concerning "Internet Buddhism"

[Coemgenu]

I don’t wish to disparage the endeavour of spreading the dharma over the internet.

Rather, I would like to notice something, if others may allow me:

Internet Buddhism is distinctly not RL Buddhism.

This is my favourite quotation from the Pāli Canon (a non-EBT quotation) concerning Buddhisms that one distinctly and only encounters on the internet:

These learnt, they became intoxicated with pride, thinking to themselves—“The Supreme Buddha knows just the Three Pitakas, and we know them too. So what is the difference between us?”

-Ja 245

Anymore quotes that particarly apply to the modern phenomenon of “Internet Buddhism”? I can’t think this is the only one.

[aconlan]

@Coemgenu

distinctly and only encounters on the internet

I’m a bit confused. How does the passage you quoted apply distinctly and only to the internet? It seems there are many people on the internet who do not hold this view and many people who hold this view outside of the internet.

@Coemgenu

Internet Buddhism is distinctly not RL Buddhism.

Did you mean Right View?

Maybe I’m not understanding what you mean by “Internet Buddhism”?

[Feynman]

@Coemgenu

Internet Buddhism is distinctly not RL Buddhism.

RL = Real Life? A acronym used mostly on the internet.
Is that a real life joke or a bit of distinctive internet irony?

For a less rhetorical question: In your mind do all threads on suttacentral.net fit into your conception of “internet Buddhism”?

@Coemgenu

These learnt, they became intoxicated with pride, thinking to themselves—“The Supreme Buddha knows just the Three Pitakas, and we know them too. So what is the difference between us?” – Ja 245

Obviously some persons, who we identify as Buddhist, were thinking such things 20 + centuries before the internet.

Ja 245

[Jhana4]

I think Internet forums are often a great detriment to Buddhism, but can be a great tool if Buddhists use Internet forums as an opportunity to practice Right Effort in response to offensive content.

Most of the time, I just see never bookish people with low emotional intelligence getting into hair splitting contests out of boredom or reacting emotionally like children.

[Feynman]

@Jhana4

Most of the time, I just see never bookish people with low emotional intelligence getting into hair splitting contests out of boredom or reacting emotionally like children.

For nearly everyone, there are some “difficult issues” which will cause us to speak and respond “like bookish people with low emotional intelligence”.
The internet seems to bring out this behavior a bit more than in other social situations but it does occur frequently outside of the internet context.

I have the thought experiment where everything I said was recorded, transcribed and publicly posted. Doing the first two for a time might be a very educational practice.

Some communication coaches strongly suggest recording and sometimes transcribing important conversations for latter review and reflection. Researchers do it as part of the research methodology.

Research into this topic is explained more in these posts:

What is Narcissism?

Aṅguttara Nikāya 3. Book of the Threes 101. The Dirt-washer QUESTIONS: Is it reasonable to read “not wanting to be despised” as meaning wanting to be thought of as competent? And also wanting to think of oneself as competent? POSSIBLE PARALLELS with WESTERN RESEARCH Threat to our competency as a driver of unproductive and counter-productive speech. Harvard social psychologist Chris Argyris spent much of his career studying the factors that made for productive and counter-productiv…

A Hierarchy for disagreement

The URL to: is http://www.paulgraham.com/disagree.html Paul Graham is a computer scientist and noted entrepreneur – which explains something of the nature of his suggestions. Particularly worthy of note is Graham’s discussion of his highest level “refuting the central point”. A key to this level of productive disagreement is to explicitly identify what you think the central key point or points are. It is important to emphasise that while some of these principles may seem obvious and a…