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From Indra's Net to Internet - Communication, Technology, and the Evolution of Buddhist Ideas (Hardcover)
Loot Price: R2,323
Discovery Miles 23 230
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From Indra's Net to Internet - Communication, Technology, and the Evolution of Buddhist Ideas (Hardcover)
Series: Contemporary Buddhism
Expected to ship within 12 - 17 working days
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Buddhism is gaining popularity among Internet users at a faster
rate than any other religion. In this sweeping and ambitious
intellectual history, Daniel Veidlinger traces the affinity between
Buddhist ideas and communications media back to the efflorescence
of Buddhism in the Axial Age of the mid-first millennium B.C.E. He
uses both communications theory and the idea of convergent
evolution to show how Buddhism arose in the largely urban milieu of
Axial Age northeastern India and spread rapidly along the
transportation and trading nodes of the Silk Road, where it
appealed to merchants and traders from a variety of backgrounds.
Throughout, he compares early phases of Buddhism with contemporary
developments in which rapid changes in patterns of social
interaction were also experienced and brought about by large-scale
urbanization and growth in communication and transportation. In
both cases, such changes supported the expansive consciousness
needed to allow Buddhism to germinate. Veidlinger argues that
Buddhist ideas tend to fare well in certain media environments;
through a careful analysis of communications used in these
contexts, he finds persuasive parallels with modern advances in
communications technology that amplify the conditions and effects
found along ancient trade routes. From Indra's Net to Internet
incorporates historical research as well as data collected using
computer-based analysis of user-generated web content to
demonstrate that robust communication networks, which allow for
relatively easy contact among a variety of people, support a
de-centered understanding of the self, greater compassion for
others, an appreciation of interdependence, a universal outlook,
and a reduction in emphasis on the efficacy of ritual-all of which
lie at the heart of the Buddha's teachings. The book's
interdisciplinary approach should appeal to those interested in not
only Buddhism, media studies and history, but also computer
science, cognitive science, and cultural evolution.
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