My thoughts on Attending the EBTI/CBETA Conference 2008

Compassion and Wisdom Exercised Together, Harmony and Respect in Co-existence: My thoughts on Attending the EBTI/CBETA Conference 2008

    The long-expected EBTI/CBETA Conference 2008 started on Feb. 16th. During the two-day conference, we could not only understand the development of Buddhism and Information around the globe, but also witness how Taiwan is in the leading role in this domain. Dr. Lewis Lancaster from the University of California, Berkeley, spoke in the keynote address, The State of the Art in Digital Humanities, about the goal and benefits of combining Buddhism with Information Technology. Although this is a brand new area, both scholars of Buddhism Studies and religious masters who propagate the true dharma ought to face the advent of this new digital era.

    Ven. Master Sheng Yen once said, “The development of technology should not betray humanity.” In this conference, we have seen that CBETA has also launched Version 2008. We can see the design is based on humanity in every updated version of CBETA, which is the reason why CBETA has been well-received. Dr. Christian Wittern from Kyoto University stated ideas like "scholar's workbench," "System for Markup And Retrieval of Texts (SMART)" with the same hope of placing humanity on top of technology. That is also the spirit of this conference-- The State of the Art in Digital Humanities.

 

 

Lecture of One Language Benefits All; Digital Era Revives Ancient Translation Workspace

 

    The advantages of the digital era are shown through the development of digital Buddhist texts—fast, convenient and far-reaching. Take the multilingual search function of TLB for example, we will get results of digital Buddhist texts in four different languages: Pali, Sanskrit, Tibetan and English. By integrating different sources, a modern researcher of Buddhist Studies is able to clear his desk of piles and files. The trend is to directly present the essential and necessary information. Integrating and exploiting all kinds of languages possible is the common goal for every researcher in this domain.

    People with different abilities of learning and different backgrounds vary in their capabilities of understanding. Through the integration of different languages, we come to realize the essence of equality in Buddhism. The digital era revives the translation workspace of Ven. Master Xuanzang. We are now in the era when all heroes from different places assemble to contribute his effort to propagate Buddhist sutras.

 

Multicultures Coexists in Harmony and Respect; Virtues Deepened by Following Buddha’s Footsteps

 

    In addition to digital Buddhist texts, integrating Buddhist digital archives was one of the main issues. The success of WIKI leads us to think that rather than building one’s own pyramid separately, it is more meaningful to combine our efforts in making one pagoda, and that we should reflect on the meanings of Buddhist texts once again. Digital Buddhist archives in Chinese, English, Japanese, Korean, Pali and Sanskrit are all being constructed in this moment. Attendant scholars expect to integrate Buddhist archives as the next step. Another goal of this conference, which is to create "Integrated Buddhist Archives" (IBA), aims at establishing a team with concrete cooperative projects to assist in the Buddhist Studies in every place.

    In order to employ the technology of the digital era to benefit the humankind, developers must have insight to foresee the needs of users for the sake of inventing tools for the future. Although Information Technology advances rapidly, one must abide by the central thoughts of Buddhism to actually benefit all human beings and to make the wheel of dharma keep on turning for all eternity.

 

Landscape Embodies Dharma; Digitization Speaks with Wisdom

 

    The Poster & Demo Session in the conference, co-organized by the Center for Art and Technology from Taipei National University of the Arts, enables every attendant to experience the wonders of digital preaching. All exhibitions are projected interactive effects, which felt like reality. In fact, everything in this world is a projection of inner desires. All we see in this world is created by the heart.

    The advent of the digital era brings a new artistic way of presentation. The produced and conditioned transience can also enriches our sentiment for humanities. Aside from the wisdom by text, the new exploitation of digital art shows the eloquence of Buddhism.

 

Exercising Compassion with Wisdom, Bearing Undeterrable Equality in Mind; Showering Rain of Dharma on All Sentient Beings

 

    Dr. Ching-chun Hsieh put a beautiful end to the conference with his address-- Hope for the Lotus. All the attendants agreed to achieve interoperability of digital Buddhist texts. When the Buddha attained enlightenment, he saw a scene of three kinds of lotuses, and wanted to teach human beings to have Buddha’s wisdom and therefore appeared in the world for the mission. The combination of Buddhism and Information ought to preach the Buddha’s teachings for all kinds of people so that ever human being is able to uncover his true self in the way most suitable to himself.

    The dialog between Buddhism and Information is a result of compassion and wisdom exercised together. The advent of the digital era is not only an influence of technology but also a sign of undertaking the mission in this time—equality without deterrence. The employment of Information Technology to practice the Buddhist’s spirit of giving happiness to the many, offering compassion for the world means true compassion and wisdom, which is also the reason why the Buddha came to this world; that is, to help all sentient beings attain Buddhahood.