| Today, modern computer culture and its superfluity of "answers" risks isolating us in a similar absurdity. Especially troubling is the rush to commercialize the Internet. However that turns out, even serious Buddhist practitioners, the progressive computer Don Quixote's among us, should not be fooled into thinking that computers will alter anything fundamental in the universe (the ultimate example of Avyakata). Experienced computer users will undoubtedly make important, even profound, observations about life. Computers will perform nearly miraculous manipulations of our world too. But, at best, these efforts necessarily will be secondary and derivative. The computer, as icon, is no different from any other icon. The physical, symbolic art form is not the thing that it represents. We ourselves, without computers, can assume our innate, natural Buddhahood, but it is simply not the nature of Buddhahood to be an object; it is impossible to objectify. |