Buddhism Online Courses - Pema Khandro

Pema Khandro discusses the power and purpose of online courses.

Recently an older monk came to see me. He is over seventy years old. He asked me to teach him how to teach western students. It took considerable time to go over many details. But after that he still asked to know more! He wanted to learn how to do slide show presentations on a projector. For him, embracing new technology is a natural expression of a life devoted to serving dharma. What an inspiration!

That got me thinking of a line from Patrul Rinpoche’s commentary to the Shantideva’s Bodhicharyavatara which discusses how the Buddha taught according to whatever the language of his students was, whether they where divine, underwater spirits, humans or whatever kind of being, he taught according to their own language, so that the meaning was fully accessible to them. How beautiful! Buddhism should be accessible to anyone who wants to study it.

When I first started doing webcast teachings, I felt hesitant to do it because no one was doing it. Now after a couple of years of doing it I have no doubt, the students who have taken the classes have had an unmistakable, tangible benefit. Technology should be used to help people make a deeper connection with the dharma. Technology can be a great support for learning. In a sense, this is the partnership of ancient technology for waking up and modern technology for connecting with knowledge . 

Now there are more and more web classes for Buddhist teachings out there. This has a great potential to make Buddhist teachings more available to different kinds of people than they were before. This way people who might not be able to travel due to the time, expenses, time away from work and family commitments… those people can still study Buddhist teachings! My wish is to make in-depth study available in this format. So that a parent of a young child, or someone working in a demanding career can still engage in serious ongoing Buddhist studies right in the midst of their life. I have students who study online with me from all over the world. Then they may come for retreats once or twice a year, but our study together can still happen on a monthly basis without distance being a limiting factor. 

Online courses lend themselves well to in-depth study of Buddhist philosophy and history – something that is sorely needed these days. This is Buddhism’s greatest resource, but it is often overlooked in the modern context. Meditation instruction is widely available and Vajrayana empowerments are also widely available. However, study of Buddhist philosophy and history is harder to come by. In Tibetan Buddhism’s traditional form, the rich intellectual and analytical tradition was always taught alongside contemplation and ritual.

The quality of our intellect makes a great difference in how we develop spiritually. Study of Buddhist philosophy and history can offer inspiration, clarity and practical knowledge for dealing with the mind. It is also very important for cutting through misconceptions, resolving doubts and opening up new perspectives. I think it grounds people’s practice, so that they don’t get too caught up in fantasies or mind trips, because they have a system of rigorous inspection to examine their own minds.

– Pema Khandro

Pema Khandro offers two ongoing online courses, as well as some other public classes on line every year. Visit our events page for a full schedule of upcoming online courses!