[Tveabuti]

Hi all,

I am finding Buddhism Without Boundaries really useful for my teaching of sixth form students as per introductions forum. I have been blown away by the detail and depth of your answers. I have just made you a favourite on Facebook. Do you know if there are any Buddhists who Twitter? I don't normally have much time for social networking but we are starting to use Mahara at college and as it's the holidays I thought I would do some more research. Buddhism Without Boundaries is my favourite Buddhism site. I have spent a bit of time looking at some of the forums and am getting drawn in, even if I don't always have time to post. xxxxxxxxxxxxx

[brilkyPlayday]

Hi Lizzie,

Lovely to hear from you again and I'm delighted that you're finding some benefit from the website !

I don't know much about Twitter because I'm not a member there.

with metta,

Aloka-Aloka :hug:

[rsdefwgxvcfdts]

Sorry, I don't tweet either!

[Michmant]

If it helps people then great. I am afraid I am not a twitterer nor am I on Facebook. I simply do not have the time.

[GVsdJZ2H]

Thank you for your warm comments on BWB, Podgerl.

Like the others who have posted here, I'm not one for the social networking sites. There must be Buddhists on Twitter, but it's not structured much for question-and-answer, I think.

It will be interesting to hear how you get on with Mahara. Is it just used within the college, i.e. not public? Is it intended as a teaching resource, or primarily for student use?

Woodscooter.

[ElegeExcest]

I'm not one for the social networking sites.

Neither me... too much out from the internet to do.

[MinisuipGaicai]

I have spent a bit of time looking at some of the forums and am getting drawn in, even if I don't always have time to post

Hope you can maybe find a little time to join in occasionally !

[fetesiceWaist]

Looks like you're into 'Twanga' huh LOL (For the 'blur' ones...its the 'Sangha' or Community of Buddhist Twitter peeps...I know I know...cheesy huh)
Try these... 1 2 and 'caution' here: 3

[jinnsamys]

wonder how many subscribers to BWB are also subscribers to social networks,for sure l am not.

[bQXHsKzS]

[...]for sure l am not

Sure... Im a little reticent about social networks...

[Rabbahpuptiopp]

I used twitter for a while but found that most of the tweets were either spam or links to facebook status updates. Oh and there's heaps of dubious Buddha quotes tweeted.

[Agitoligflise]

I have a twitter account but I don't post much on it. I do follow some dharma teachers and I find it can be a nice reminder throughout the day to keep practicing.

[Pharmaciest2007]

Neither facebook nor tweeter... and some sort of aversion about chat rooms... I know it is odd.

[quottrethew]

Hi Woodscooter.
Mahara is like facebook but just for individual colleges and unis. It has a forum and a blog section and students can send messages and post comments on people's walls just as they would in Facebook. I don't think it is available to the public because our college had to subscribe, but you can look. The advantage is they can upload lots of work on there and I don't get my e-mails clogged up with essays. Also you can see what each individual has done. It is great for Buddhism because they can add lots of bright colourful pictures to their essays: one of their assignments was to find different pictures of Buddhas and say how they represent different attitudes to the Buddha in Theravada and then the five dhyani Buddhas and the Taras in Mahayana. Buddhism is so colourful it is great to be able to exploit this. I also get them to put youtube videos on where they are relevant. I am looking into podcasts and stuff too at present so they get a multisensory approach and are not just writing essays in black and white! Am loving seeing their minds open to the ideas. Today, one of my students said he thinks that the ideas in the Matrix can be related to Theravada Buddhism and he quoted "People are not ready to be unplugged" as most people are too involved in all their attachments to stop and contemplate the Buddha's significance. Wow!

As for Twitter, I am not surprised by your comments. I don't have time for it either, but I would be interested in having a short Buddhist tweet every so often in order to stay topped up with Buddhism!!!!!

Thanks to all those who replied. xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

[MattJargin]

Hi David,

This is what I was looking for. Would you have any names of dharma teachers who tweet so I can have a look, as a novice tweeter who actually doesn't have time for it but would make time if it was for Buddhism!

Many thanks. xxxxxxxx

[CreativeAcrobate]

Hi Kaarine,
I think you are right not to waste time on these things. I am intrigued by "The end of certainty". Can you tell me about it? I love books and they are my virtual world. xxxxxxxxx

[JJascaxal]

hi Fletcher,

Yes, you have to check out who is qualified to make statements and who are they quoting? As per Wikipeadia, how can you check the accuracy of twitters? It all seems very dumbed down to me. My students have to read Oxford scholars like Gombrich to quote in their essays to they get an informed opinion. Twitter does not seem very Buddhist somehow but I am interested in what David said.

xxxxxxxxx

[surefireinvest]

Thanks Aloka-D. It is my treat during break and in the holidays. xxxxxxx

[chadnezzrr]

hi frank

is it a no-no because of the risk of attachment? I am very naive and not a Buddhist as such, but would imagine that the addictive nature of social networks as used by our young people would be a drawback for many a practising Buddhist. Even as a non- Buddhist I feel the need to meditate after a day at work on the computer to clear the mind of all that stuff.

xxxxxxxxxx

[Druspills]

I love books and they are my virtual world. xxxxxxxxx

I like your phrase. You have made me to admit that I have a virtual world too! Yes, I love books. I am starting The End of Certainty. Seems to be a good book because I am a fan of Ilya Prigogine.

Theoretical Physics spread into two main branches because of two great physics: Einstein and Bohr. The first one, IMO, got lost in fairy tales about rulers that do not play with dice, time traveling machines and the like and his theoretical heritage was taken by Stephen Hawkins who get entangled, too, in a speculative mess between god and the laws of physics.

The imagined solution for this has been the concept of "Intelligent Design" that ends in the same thing: Determinism. Determinism is the intellectual son of Religion and has gone far away from his mother to live between philosophers like Gabriel Marcel, Henri Bergson and the like and some theoretical physicists, evolutionary biologists, a bunch of sociologists, etc.

The other branch, with which I agree, was founded by Neils Bohr and developed a much more practical sense of doing and explaining quantum physics with out rulers, time machines and other Harry Potter like physics that became a dead end for this field of knowledge.

From Bohr to the present we can found outstanding people like Enrico Fermi, Richard Fynman, Stwart Bell, John Wheeler, Angelo Besso, the founder guys of the extraordinaire field of Complexity at the Santa Fe Institute in California, etc. Between all them there is Ilya Prigogine who has explored Thermodynamics of living systems, death and the arrow of time.

The End of Certainty is critical review against the saying of Einstein that time is an illusion; that Newton and Einstein were caught into the same basic idea: A Timeless Deterministic Universe that can be accurately predicted, where time is reversible and meaningless.

For Ilya this is not the case. For him, time is irreversible and must be taken into account. The Bohr's branch of theoretical physics, taken further by Ilya, understand things as non-Deterministic but not meaning pure chance and chaotic behaviour. This non-Deterministic universe is founded in the laws of physics where time is real. That is not about Determinism, but Probability. More less this is what the book is about.

Just look at this. Take for example the Deterministic germ that has plagued our understanding. In the realm of a god that do not play with dice everything can be determined and this has a psychological effect of being safe. Religions do the same thing. Karma (the Pali Kamma is slight different from the sanskrit Karma) when understood in terms of deterministic behaviour make us thought that every time we do something we deserve something perfectly determined but we do not say, that there is just a high probability to get something. The second one understands Karma as a complex evolving system in a non-deterministic way. This slight shift brings us a completely different approach to life and things we do, and face us into how we take for granted many stuff that is not so.

When the dice are thrown they obey the laws of physics but there is no certainty about the final outcome , just a probability of occurrence; this makes life really enjoyable and, maybe, Einstein's god is amused with dice games. So, even being god, once the dice have been thrown, nobody can reverse the event, and Probability appears in the scene with a joyful laugh.