Tenchno Buddha!

This past weekend I attended the Techno Buddha Conference at the new IBS building right behind my Church in Berkeley. It's the second annual conference and I went last year and thought that this is a good way to reconnect w/ my religion. It was weird, I had a good time last year and wasn't really looking forward to the event until I got there. Once I got there I was really excited for the day's activities. Registration was $30.00 and this included: Breakfast, Lunch, Dinner, Breakfast, and all the workshops.

The morning started off w/ Breakfast in the kitchen then we went upstairs to the Hondo for Opening Service. Our Dharma Talk was lead by Rev. Harry Bridge. He spoke about Buddhism and the relationship it has to technology, specifically the Internet. Are the tools good or bad and how we can relay the message to our generation of Internet, email, texting savvy people. He even had emailed his talk to himself and referenced his iphone whenever he needed. In Buddhism there are a lot of old school people that will probably never adopt to technology, which is why it's been so hard to share our message to a bigger population. After the Dharma talk we broke out into different discussion groups.

Each discussion group consisted of about 15 people. I was the dinosaur group and stayed in the hondo w/ Rev. Bridge facilitating. I was very lucky/unlucky to have one very passionate/intense member in our group that started the conversation off. You could tell that Buddhism meant a lot to him and he expressed how intense the teaching meant. To him it shouldn't matter how the message is displayed. All that matters is what we teach. I agree that we should be teaching good things, but I also think that they way we teach them is equally important. That since times are changing we should adopt to those changes. If our age group finds most of their interests on the Internet, then we should be on the Internet. The Buddhist community that I grew up with is shrinking. So, what can we do to help it grow? If you think about any type of learning, the way the message is conveyed is equally important. When I went to college I generally learned better in smaller classrooms w/ intimate teachers. I think I almost failed two of the classes I took that we in big lecture hall w/ teachers that are really smart but have a hard time explaining their message in a way most people can understand. This is the same way I feel about Buddhism and it's teaching. At first you need to find what people are interested in, then explain your message so that its easy to understand, if they're interested then they'll keep coming back for more.

After our discussions we broke for lunch. Shoyu Weenies and Fried Rice!! One of the main goals of the conference was that it was interactive and that we learned and did everything. All of us were split into groups and we had to make our own fried rice. There were 5 people in my group, three from Central California. Lunch was really nice. I gave me a chance to get to know some of the other members a lot better and sit w/ people I normally wouldn't sit with. Once lunch was cleaned up we all broke up into our perspective workshops.

The first workshop that I attended was Interpersonal Communication with Cindy Rivera. Cindy is a therapist that work mainly on relationships. This workshop was really good in making you realize what is the best way to approach someone. What type of things you really need to do. I've been to a couple of communication classes and the one thing that she stressed a lot was listen. Something I am not good at. I always have something to say and usually want to interrupt someone while they're talking. It's definitely something I realize and need to work on, but it's hard! Even when she was talking I wanted to keep asking her questions before she was done.

The next one I went to was a self defense class. It was nice to be able to get up and stretch and get some movement in my day. I've been trying to work out consistently and with the conference it made it a little hard, so self defense was a nice change from sitting. We learned how to kick, flick, and run away. All I can say is don't ever attack me. I know where the pressure points are and you will be badly injured if you try. To make sure we wouldn't harm anyone, he made us take an oath saying we wouldn't use anything we learned for evil.

The final workshop that I attended was w/ my Uncle Artie and it was on How to Explain Buddhism to your friends. It was a really good workshop that made you think how we all have similarities and differences. We never really answered the question of How to explain Buddhism to your friends. But we did do an exercise that really got us thinking. We had to stand up and say one thing you think only you have done and then another thing that you think everyone has done. Some were really deep and some were not (like mine). I said I think nobody has gone to a Greek wedding and has done that Greek dance.(yeah and nobody in the room had done that) For what I thought everyone has done I said, Worked at a Bazaar. When you are at a Buddhist conference sometimes the crowd is easy.. haha.

After the workshops we all went to Thalassa's down the street for Happy Hour and then headed back to IBS for Dinner. SHABU SHABU.. or Chicken Misutake. SOO DELICOUS.. and it was a really good interactive dinner. The groups were small (4 people) and we all really got to know each other. Overall it was a really good time. I hope we can continue to grow the conference and grow the group.