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The Open Buddhist University

buddhistuniversity.net

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Re: The Open Buddhist University

#51

Post by readyplayeremma »

spondylosaurus wrote: post #37
readyplayeremma wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is all pretty awesome. However, with regard to search, the zero latency is indeed fast, and this is because it is client-side entirely. It appears to be hand written for this site. I think the quality of search recall and ranking could be improved though. It has zero tolerance for misspelling for instance, and cannot match partial words while you are typing the terms. Still, it is pretty cool. And open source to…

Looks like a static site built with Jekyll. Not sure which search plugin they're using here (it may be one of the default Jekyll plugins rather than bespoke code), but I've seen Jekyll sites that use Algolia for search results that are smokin' fast and extremely accurate.

The search code appears to be hand-written though. You can find the commit history for the core search functions here: https://github.com/buddhist-uni/buddhist-uni.github.io/blame...

It's kind of neat that they did hand write it in a way. A fun project I'm sure. And they even made it run in a worker to keep things even more quick and responsive.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#52

Post by r_singh »

I’ve learnt that every religion is a framework (school of philosophy) and even as an atheist I have benefitted from learning some mental models a few religions offer.

I would never brand myself or be a part of the cult though (claiming that one is better than the other or that everything said is holy). Even though one of things religions are good at is to also be to give people a sense of belonging to a community with similar virtues.

One of the mental models that has been particularly beneficial for me is the EightFold Path (also called Dharma Chakra or Dharma Wheel) that comes from Buddhism.

It basically says have the right view, thoughts, words, concentration, effort and action. Practising this keeps me in a virtuous cycle and makes feeling good feel like a self-fulfilling prophecy.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#53

Post by magicpin »

EddieEngineers wrote: post #44
jeremyt wrote: post #41

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’m confused. Are you saying that the content on the site is not accurate?

I googled and found they created the site with one years experience, or around three years at the moment. Take from that what you will.

That’s not really an answer.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#54

Post by esbeeb »

logicchains wrote: post #43
esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

That doesn't sound like a very Buddhist thing to say? I thought Buddhists were supposed to be about "no ego", not "don't listen to this guy because I'm more senior/got more titles than him".

Who's decision was it to call the website a "university"? Was that my decision, or his? The decision to call it a "university" is what makes me want to clarify what peer-perceived credentials he might have to that extent.

If you were considering enrolling in a university, would you look into the reputation of that university? I'll bet you would. You'd want to know what it's reputation is like. Well, I'm offering insights into that, and yes his seniority got pulled into that description. He's quite a junior monk to be running his own website. In the Theravada world, this would be almost universally discouraged (it isn't just me who feels this way): trying to run a website while still quite a junior monk. There's no way my own teacher would have approved of it. Theravada culture is conservative - guilty as charged there.

As to his wisdom: I've never actually lived with him, so I can't comment on what he's like. He seems astute enough from my dealings with him. No complaints from me, other than that choice of the word "university". These sorts of things - someone's wisdom - can only be seen with time. As to his choices of what he curates on his website: I agree there's a lot of great resources listed there. My tastes and his are a little different - which is to be expected - and I wouldn't say there are any "red flags" to speak of. It's a solid website. Please don't be discouraged from checking it out. I'm not trying to stop anyone from going explore it. Thanks for taking the time to check out Theravada Buddhism. :)

PS: I have a personal little indie website here: https://bhikkhu.ca/ ...but I don't go so far as to call it a "university". It's a personal website, which doesn't make itself out to be anything more than that.

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#55

Post by p-e-w »

esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

> So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt.

What does "authority" mean in a Buddhist context? From what little I know about it, Buddhism isn't like the Catholic church, where everything is a hierarchical pyramid with a single individual at the top, through which authoritative declarations can be made. Plus, schools like Theravada and Zen seem to differ quite significantly from each other, so an authority according to one might be a heretic according to the other. So how is authority assigned in practice, and is it universally recognized among all people who call themselves "Buddhists"?

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#56

Post by fredski42 »

supertofu wrote: post #24
jmfldn wrote: post #7

Thank you for this resource. I am a software engineer and Buddhism-curious, but I've never taken the plunge into full on practice. I think I would like to though. Over many years of reading about Buddhism, contemplating the teachings and listening to various teachers, my conviction is growing.

Highly recommend the Dhamma Talks given Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings on youtube and zoom by Clear Mountain Monastery https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCazJbUOGWBpBVXU8Rv2gwsws ). The two monks have both been ordained for over 10 years, youngish (30s), intellectual, progressive, and deeply compassionate. They are in the process of creating the monastery, and it's amazing and inspiring to watch the community…

The URL is broken. Can you correct please?

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#57

Post by eclectic29 »

fredski42 wrote: post #56
supertofu wrote: post #24

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Highly recommend the Dhamma Talks given Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings on youtube and zoom by Clear Mountain Monastery https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCazJbUOGWBpBVXU8Rv2gwsws ). The two monks have both been ordained for over 10 years, youngish (30s), intellectual, progressive, and deeply compassionate. They are in the process of creating the monastery, and it's amazing and inspiring to watch the community…

The URL is broken. Can you correct please?

Here you go: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCazJbUOGWBpBVXU8Rv2gwsw

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#58

Post by esbeeb »

p-e-w wrote: post #55
esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

> So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. What does "authority" mean in a Buddhist context? From what little I know about it, Buddhism isn't like the Catholic church, where everything is a hierarchical pyramid with a single individual at the top, through which authoritative declarations can be made. Plus, schools like Theravada and Zen seem to differ quite significantly from each other,…

>What does "authority" mean in a Buddhist context?

That's a fantastic question, and the short answer is: "given my expertise is in the Theravada world... how authority works is complicated". An overly simplistic answer is: the number of years of a monk's seniority is the easy and fairly-reliable gauge of a monk's authority.

It would take a good 1-hour Dhamma Talk for me to explain what I know. Most people would be bored, and possibly even uninspired after hearing the non-tldr answer. Do you really want the non-tldr answer?

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#59

Post by esbeeb »

fnordpiglet wrote: post #45
esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

I would note he’s not claiming to be a teacher or a dean or claiming anything other than: Khemarato Bhikkhu (Chief Librarian) I’d note also he’s not written anything of his own “teaching” but instead provides a curated set of texts. I think the wise thing to do in these situations is to carefully review what you’re going to criticize publicly to be certain your accusations are merited. As a lay student of Buddhism fo…

> Khemarato Bhikkhu (Chief Librarian)

...well then, it would make more sense to me, that he call his collection of very likeable, commendable Dhamma resources a "library", rather than a "university".

Re: The Open Buddhist University

#60

Post by esbeeb »

jeremyt wrote: post #41
esbeeb wrote: post #38

Actual Buddhist monk here (Ajahn Subharo), in the Theravada Thai forest lineage. Khemarato Bhikkhu - who is much more junior a monk than me, and is not formally any sort of Ajahn (teacher) yet - and myself both have Computer Science degrees, which are rare things for Buddhist monks to have. So take his authority to run a "university" with a huge grain of salt. He would get roundly mocked in subtle ways by senior Budd…

I’m confused. Are you saying that the content on the site is not accurate?

I've taken a look at only a small portion of all the things which he's posted on his site. So I can't vouch for everything there, giving all the content of the site a wholehearted endorsement or not.

From what I saw, yes, it seemed quite solid, and doesn't misrepresent Theravada views.

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