And an addendum to the addendum: Lopez refers to some Buddhist sources and modern authors, but does not mention any AI scholars or ethicists. Here’s a few, you should follow them!

@abeba.bsky.social
@irisvanrooij.bsky.social
@timnitgebru.bsky.social
@emilymbender.bsky.social

My Calcifer was also with me for this auspicious post.

#Boran_Kammathana #theravada #theravadin #Buddhism #buddhist
Kate Crosby, Gendered Symbols in Theravada Buddhism

We trade buddhism for Capitalism, and we ask for a culture of subjugation.

I would much rather keep my 'superstitious' religion, with it's gender-transcending monks. It's feminine buddhas, it's nature reverence. Gods, demons & all

Keep theravada "weird", friends!

#buddhism #Buddhist #Theravada

We very nearly lost a core, critical part of theravada and buddhism as a larger whole.

it's worth asking then, what are we losing when colonialism ousts the 'old meditations' and the ritual context they are in? What are we trading for colonial rationalism dressed up as buddha dhamma?

It is thanks to practitioners, like Nai Boonman, that jhana was preserved.

We can "prove" meditation does something now with machines. But prior to this, the concern of colonial forces was that because they couldn't see it- nothing must be happening.
#buddhism #buddhist

This sort of rationalism, contrary to the name, also encourages more irrational behaviour. We all know now the phenomenon of 'jhana-bros' online, people appropriating buddhist transformative states for clout.

But we nearly had jhana removed from theravada as superstitious during the reforms.

That colonialism would then spur on reformist movements in Burma, Thailand and out into Sri Lanka. Heritage buddhists were pressured to make their religion more 'rationalistic' in order to appease foreign powers.

This rationalism however has ignored and even lost much of the beauty of theravada.

This is a colonialism that was born of western interaction with SEA countries, believing that one could find a superior version of protestantism to be remade from Theravada.

An immediate example here is Phra Malai! A bodhisatta-arahant who is effectively the Theravadin version of Jizo Bodhisattva.

Why is it that we tend towards believing modernly, that theravada is some form of asian buddha-protestantism, with the pali canon being the sola scriptura?

Colonialism.

Kyoto has a fair amount of Kumano related shrines, this one is called Imakumano Shrine. The major attraction is the giant camphor that's prayed to as a kami of health and longevity. There's also various paintings and sculptures around the shrine showing different Kami.