Religion Dispatches
* September 9, 2013
* 12:45PM
Buddha as Scientist, Entrepreneur & Self-Improvement Guru
Post by _Michael Schulson_
(http://www.religiondispatches.org/contributors/michaelschulson/)
The political satirist Tom Lehrer says that his genre became obsolete when
Henry Kissinger won the Nobel Peace Prize. I’m afraid I had a similar
reaction when I first heard of _Buddhist Geeks_
(http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/)
, a conference organizer and “cloud-based _sangha_
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sangha) ” designed to facilitate “conversations
on the convergence
of Buddhism, technology, and global culture.” In other words, the devotees
of some of the most distracting, mindfulness-destroying, desire-driven
innovations in the history of our culture were now plotting to _disrupt
Buddhism_
(http://www.buddhistgeeks.com/2012/02/bg-247-disrupting-the-awakening-industry/)
. Any commentary, honestly, seemed obsolete.
As a service to readers, though, I decided to withhold judgment and plunge
into the most recent Buddhist Geeks annual conference, which was held in
Boulder, Colorado last month—and, until last Sunday, stored in a virtual
forum by the good folks over at Tricycle magazine. After watching talks about
“
mindful media,” “upgrading the mental operating system,” and the links
between Spiderman and Buddhist teachers, among other topics, I can offer four
general truths—none of them especially noble—about the emerging realm of
Buddhist geekhood.
1) Buddhist geeks really are quite geeky. They make a lot of Star Trek
references, and love to cite neuroscience research, most of it about the
effects of meditation on the brain. Less superficially, they embody the geek’s
dream that everything can be solved with hard work and intellect. Above all,
the Buddhist Geeks talks I watched were deeply practical, with little
emphasis on escaping the cycle of suffering and rebirth, and much more
emphasis
on using Buddhism to relax the mind and channel entrepreneurial energies.
2) Buddhist geekiness comes in a few distinct forms. This observation comes
by way of Ann Gleig, a scholar of Buddhist geekiness brought in by the
Buddhist Geeks Conference to talk to Buddhist Geeks about what it is that
makes them Buddhist Geeks.
Gleig argues that some Buddhist Geeks see Buddhism as a technology.
Illustrating this point, conference speaker Gary Weber argues that, for
millennia, the human operating system had “very poor signal to noise ratio,
high
energy consumption, high bandwidth consumption—nothing much good about it. This
is about 76,000 years old.” Then Eastern traditions came along and offered
an upgrade.
Other Buddhist Geeks, according to Gleig, see Buddhism influencing our use
of technology. This includes things like a more mindful approach to
technology, or the “contemplative design” of websites that don’t do everything
in
their power to distract readers by, say, gratuitously using _hyperlinks_
(http://www.roughtype.com/?p=1378) .
Still other Buddhist Geeks, says Gleig, want to apply Buddhist ideas to
entrepreneurship and other geeky pursuits. In one talk, for example, venture
capitalist Jerry Colonna tells a story about the legendary Buddhist figure
Milarepa defeating a group of demons. “When I first read this story,” he
explains, “it was obvious to me that this was about business. It was about
leadership.” Later, Colonna, who works as a coach for entrepreneurs, recasts
the Buddha as the ultimate coach for (you guessed it) entrepreneurs:
To me dharma teaches us to live in that gap of hope without attachment. To
believe that you can take on an entrenched institution or power structure,
knowing that 99.99% of the enterprises fail and you get up and you do it
anyway.
In other words, Buddhist teachings of non-attachment can help you gain
what you desire in the field of business.
3) None of this is new. _Since the 19th century_
(http://yalepress.yale.edu/book.asp?isbn=9780300159127) , Westerners enchanted
with Buddhism, and
Buddhists trying to justify their practices to the West, have been describing
the Buddha as a kind of proto-_scientist_
(http://www.tricycle.com/feature/scientific-buddha) —someone who built a
strictly empirical, rational,
non-theological system to end suffering. This scientific precision might come
as
a surprise to the millions of people who have practiced Buddhism in agrarian
societies, premodern cities, and syncretistic, deistic traditions over the
past millennia. But it provides an appealingly pragmatic view of Buddhism;
one that, apparently, is ripe for transfer to the digital age.
4) Some of the material is inane. I don’t just mean that the stripping
away of 2,500 years of context from a tradition should raise eyebrows (perhaps
it should, but it is nevertheless admirable that people continue to look
for calm, growth, and meaning in a wired world).
Buddhist Geeks seem fundamentally unwilling to consider that there might
be dimensions to technology, besides that pesky distractingness, that should
concern us. At times, this blend of self-improvement culture, Buddhism,
and technology can lead to outrageous and unfounded optimism. In a talk on “
Mindfulness and Media,” for example, media consultant Megan Miller suggests,
without any irony, that technologies like Google Glass will make us more
mindful of our technology use. I have no idea how the seamless integration
of the internet into our field of vision will help us be more aware of its
effects. Judging by the amount of support she gives to this claim, Miller
doesn’t, either.
On the whole, though, the Buddhist Geeks seem like earnest people eager to
play with ideas and make their mark on the world. Much as you might worry
when you read about how Buddhist practice is being _deployed as a self-help
tool_
(http://www.nytimes.com/2012/04/29/technology/google-course-asks-employees-to-take-a-deep-breath.html)
for the Google engineers who _pry into
our private lives_
(http://www.slate.com/blogs/business_insider/2013/08/14/gmail_security_google_says_users_have_no_legitimate_expectation_of_privacy.html)
, it’s hard (at least for this geeky writer) not to feel affection for a
group of people whose role model seems to be a fusion of Siddhartha and
Spock.
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