..續本文上一頁Luhan(1965, p.3-8) advocated almost half century ago, medium is the message, the extensions of man. What he stated is that the personal and social consequence of any medium, that is, of any extension of ourselves, result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology. The new medium, like the Internet, is also being taken into account in the sense of the extension of man, which in turn on the one hand helps the progress of our society, but on the other hand creates some new problems in our time. With the increasing number of activities of inpiduals, organizations and nations being conducted in cyberspace, the security of those activities is an emerging challenge for society. The medium has thus created new potentials for criminal or hostile actions, “bad actors” in cyberspace carrying out these hostile actions, and threats to societal interests as a result of them (Hundley & Anderson, 1995-1996, p.19). Additionally, some other issues like online relationship, cyber identity, privacy, treating and piracies, rumors, false news, and to make things worse, porn and gambling, are the great concern of many scholars, parents, schools and even the whole society (Parks & Floyd, 2009). With the controversial development of information technology, Buddhist temples and Sangha communities face the new challenges in the information age. As Sheng Kai Shi (2008, p.147) pointed out that Buddhist temples have lost their walls in the internet age, wherever located in urban or rural areas, the tranquil monastic lifestyle has been confronted. Furthermore, because of people “hiding” their real identities, which lead to the difficulty to preserve the vinaya, “not speaking out of the others” mistakes.” He also concluded that the characters of Buddhism in the internet age could be the following: the undifferentiated faith, the cyberised activities, and the communitised devotees. Thought, he did not give clear definitions of those characters, he tried to raise people”s attention about the chaos which was created by the internet, for instance, the unauthentic interpretation of the sutras, and the confusion of anyone”s “right to speak”. For him, to uphold a pure and simple image, Buddhist temples and Sangha communities should find the balance point while using internet, otherwise, Buddhism might become the “object of abomination.”

　　As words are the basic form of communication in people”s daily life, abstention from lying, slander, harsh or abusive language, and idle chatter are essential practice for every practioners. So, implicit in that Buddhist requirement is the understanding that there are must be such a thing as Buddhist communication. However, the Buddha constantly reminded his students that nothing is absolute, nothing is permanent, and nothing in this world is the “self”. There is not such a universal Dharma for universal sentient beings since everything is conditioned and co-dependent. Accordingly there is not a universal best way of communication for all inpiduals too. In a specific time-space, there might be one or some communication methods for an inpidual, but they may change in different conditions since everything is relative, changing and a “stream of becoming”. Buddhist communication is a relative communication, whatever makes the one awakened is the right communication.

　　Personally, I believe internet as one of the main powers which pushes the progress of the globalization. It actually does not globalised the nation states or nationalized the globe, but it globalised the inpiduals in a very deep sense. It brings the world affairs under an ordinary people”s observance, of course, Buddhist Sangha communities and laities are also included. Because of the trend, every i…

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