Welcome to my musings, views and all things Buddhism

 

After years of deliberation, I have finally decided to reactivate my Buddhist blog. Originally called "Lotus Seeds", it was meant to share Dhamma teachings and talks which I have given at temples. I have lost counts on the number of Dhamma sharings and talks that I have given over 30 years, but it's probably in the hundreds.

In this rebirth, the blog is now renamed "Bodhi Mandala" and instead of just posting my talks and sharings, I will (when time permits) express my views and opinions on areas of concern such as dogmatism, sectarianism, life as a Buddhist in Malaysia, Dhamma outreach and technology and state of the Buddhist situation primarily in Malaysia.

The Buddhist Channel

Over the years also, due to my work in the Buddhist Channel (BC - https://buddhistchannel.tv/), I have been exposed to news makers and situations which directly or indirectly have impact on Buddhist development here and elsewhere. The BC has enabled me to network with similar news makers from all the over the Buddhist world. These international meetings and conferences have opened up my eyes and mind in many ways, and thereby enriching experiences by way of ideas sharing and network integration. The BC also sponsored some visits by teachers and monks to Malaysia, and thereby opening up our local communities to the outside world (these visitors have expressed their utter surprise on how vibrant the Malaysian Buddhist communities are!).

Over the last 15 years or so, I've seen how tech platforms such as social media and mobile phones have changed the way the teachings have been disseminated - for good or bad! The implications of such technology explosions are manifold, and I think being at the forefront of web technologies (by virtue of being an owner of a web development company), I do have some ideas on how we as a community can come together and face them (in a productive way).

Budblooms

Amongst the tech application which have been applied for the community is the hosting of Bhante S. Dhammika's writing through the BudBlooms portal (http://budblooms.org/). BudBlooms is kind of special because some of the eBooks hosted there are ePub versions which are suited to be read on mobile gadgets. With ePub versions, one can either read the texts or activate the audio versions where you get a voice to read the text for you. 

eLearning Courses

As a victim of the Covid-19 pandemic, the All About Buddhism eLearning course (http://allaboutbuddhism.org/) has been put on hold due to the lack of funds. Nevertheless, whatever funds collected for the project thus far have been used to setup the Learning Management System (LMS). This Buddhist centric LMS (called Sutta Boost - https://suttaboost.org/) is now hosting its first Sutta study materials, namely the Mangala Sutta (Discourse of Blessings). More sutta learning courses will be uploaded soon.

Buddhist Tourism

Another area of development (which came unplanned and unexpectedly) was my involvement in Buddhist related tourism. It started off with the portal Buddhist Travel (http://buddhistravel.com/) which subsequently grew into the Buddhist travel scene in a most natural and unexpected way. An example would be my co-authorship with Datuk Seri Victor Wee in the UNWTO publication, "Buddhist Tourism in Asia: Towards Sustainable Development" (https://www.e-unwto.org/doi/book/10.18111/9789284421619). If not for the Covid-19 pandemic, Buddhist Travel would have been a co-organiser of the International Buddhist Tourism Conference (IBTC - http://buddhisttourism.org/) which was planned to be held in Chiangrai, Thailand. The UNWTO publication was slated to be launched there, but with the Covid-19 pandemic still in fiery mood, the launch has been put off.

And so, here we are... I hope you will be both informed and entertained with this blog. As we grow in Dhamma, I feel it would be useful to document that growth as well. Hopefully, someone somewhere will pickup some nuggets and use it to grow the Dhamma elsewhere. In the age of recycling, nothing is wasted. Perhaps we can all join in here and share thoughts and ideas, so that we can all grow together.

May everyone be well and happy. Stay safe!

 

 

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