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50 EASTERN HORIZON | REFLECTIONS
Dr Wong has been teaching
Buddhism regularly in Malaysia Buddhism in the
and abroad for the last two
decades. He had also spoken at
several conferences on Buddhism Internet Age
held in various countries. He has a By Vincent Horn
MBBS from University of Malaya,
and obtained post-graduate
qualifications in Internal Medicine. As we plunge more deeply into the Internet Age, the question of how
He has written books on medicine rapid technological innovation is changing our understanding and
which are widely used by doctors practice of Buddhism naturally comes to the fore.
and in universities. In 2016 Yin
Onn wrote a book on Buddhism None of us is exempt from the challenge of maintaining presence in
titled, “Walking in the Buddha’s the midst of an always-on digital environment. Each of us must figure
Footprints”. out how to live with a barrage of e-mails, social media updates, news
articles and other information, and try to make some sort of coherent
meaning out of it all.
For modern dharma practitioners, one question likely to arise in
the midst of such an influx of stimuli is this: how do the practices of
mindful awareness, lovingkindness and concentration relate to this
light-speed Internet age? Is this new epoch making it harder or easier
to realize the truths of the dharma here and now? After exploring
the convergence of Buddhism, technology and culture over the past
eight years through a project called Buddhist Geeks, I’ve come to see
the emergence of three trends that could radically shape the future
direction of Buddhism in the Internet Age.
1. Cloud-Based Sanghas
The first trend is something that many of us are already familiar with.
It started with the rapid growth of the Internet in the mid-’90s and
has continued unabated since. This trend has to do with the way that
Buddhist sanghas are going virtual. It started a couple of decades
