Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Casual conversation between friends. Anything goes (almost).
Post Reply
a_human_being
Posts: 7
Joined: Wed Jul 25, 2012 10:06 am

Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Post by a_human_being »

What do you guys think about the idea of putting dharma material in analog and/or digital media, put this in airtight, weatherproof, waterproof, maybe even fireproof, containers and hide these at various places (dig down deep in the earth, hide in caves etc) with the intention that maybe sometime in the future, when most dharma might have been lost due to nuclear war or whatever, it could be found and benefit people?

This could be done at many different levels of effort and budgets. We wouldn't know which would "survive" anyway, and which would be able to be understood by any eventual finders in the future, be it due to language or the chosen medium. So, the more people just ...putting some dharma on a cheap usb stick or printing a couple of pages on their printer with the basics of buddhism, putting it in some box and try to waterproof it and dig it down or something... the higher the chance of some of these "dharma treasures" for the future surviving to maybe one day be found by someone who really needed to find it. That would be a happy thought. :namaste:

What would cost most would be the "time capsules" I guess. Beyond that, usb sticks are cheap for example. If digging down analogue media, for example books, one could take them apart and laminate every single page to further provide protection against time and the elements (well I hope that laminating paper really does provide better longtime protection and that the laminate itself will not speed up the decomposition of paper!).

Thoughts?
Sherlock
Posts: 1202
Joined: Sat Jan 28, 2012 3:14 pm

Re: Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Post by Sherlock »

Little guarantee that current digital media would still be working when they are rediscovered.
Caz
Posts: 543
Joined: Mon Mar 14, 2011 12:49 am

Re: Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Post by Caz »

A good Idea, It would be more appropriate for Sutra Material !
Abandoning Dharma is, in the final analysis, disparaging the Hinayana because of the Mahayana; favoring the Hinayana on account of the Mahayana; playing off sutra against tantra; playing off the four classes of the tantras against each other; favoring one of the Tibetan schools—the Sakya, Gelug, Kagyu, or Nyingma—and disparaging the rest; and so on. In other words, we abandon Dharma any time we favor our own tenets and disparage the rest.

Liberation in the Palm of your hand~Kyabje Pabongkha Rinpoche.
Malcolm
Posts: 42974
Joined: Thu Nov 11, 2010 2:19 am

Re: Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Post by Malcolm »

There is no need for this.

The sublime Dharma arises from the intrinsic sound of Dharmatā. That is always present, just as awakened beings are always present to communicate it. Hence, the treasure tradition.
ram peswani
Posts: 245
Joined: Sun Mar 20, 2011 7:53 am

Re: Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Post by ram peswani »

[*]
Malcolm wrote:There is no need for this.

The sublime Dharma arises from the intrinsic sound of Dharmatā. That is always present, just as awakened beings are always present to communicate it. Hence, the treasure tradition.

yes
User avatar
kirtu
Former staff member
Posts: 6997
Joined: Mon Jan 18, 2010 5:29 pm
Location: Baltimore, MD

Re: Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Post by kirtu »

Sherlock wrote:Little guarantee that current digital media would still be working when they are rediscovered.
We can engineer a storage device to last up to 10 M years. As long as technical civilization continues they will be able to read it.

Kirt
“Where do atomic bombs come from?”
Zen Master Seung Sahn said, “That’s simple. Atomic bombs come from the mind that likes this and doesn’t like that.”

"Even if you practice only for an hour a day with faith and inspiration, good qualities will steadily increase. Regular practice makes it easy to transform your mind. From seeing only relative truth, you will eventually reach a profound certainty in the meaning of absolute truth."
Kyabje Dilgo Khyentse Rinpoche.

"Only you can make your mind beautiful."
HH Chetsang Rinpoche
vajrahorizon
Posts: 67
Joined: Sat Aug 11, 2012 2:04 am

Re: Hiding "Dharma treasures" for future generations to find

Post by vajrahorizon »

Whether current technical civilisation will continue is one of the great questions of the age.

VH
Post Reply

Return to “Lounge”