The Horse is Technology

Summary

The talk presents a Dharma teaching centered on mindfulness, emptiness, and the practical application of Buddhist wisdom to modern life, especially in the context of a Plum Village winter retreat and a dialogue with Google executives. It begins with a recitation from the Heart Sutra, emphasizing the Sangha breathing and chanting as one body, transcending the illusion of a separate self, and realizing that form is emptiness and emptiness is form. The teaching highlights the five skandhas, the absence of fixed selfhood, and the liberation that comes from perfect understanding. The recitation also invokes the mantra of Prajnaparamita and the aspiration to awaken all beings. The speaker then shifts to announcements and retreat guidance from Plum Village, describing the winter retreat at the Upper Hamlet in the Still Water Meditation Hall. The retreat is portrayed as the most beautiful time of the year because it lasts ninety days and allows deep practice, brotherhood, sisterhood, and transformation. The community will study applied Vijnaptimatra, or “manifestation only,” a form of Buddhist psychology that teaches there is no birth or death, only manifestation. The upcoming great ordination ceremony is introduced with the theme of Amrita, the nectar of immortality, and the 21-day retreat theme, “What Happens When You Die?” The speaker explains that Amrita refers to the taste of no-birth and no-death, and connects it to Amitabha Buddha, described through names meaning unlimited light and infinite lifespan. A major portion of the talk addresses retreat discipline and digital restraint. Participants are instructed to remain within the Plum Village compound, avoid personal email, and completely refrain from Facebook, iPods, tablets, films, and non-Dharma media. Computers are to be used only in the office when necessary. This is framed not as deprivation but as a practice that helps people return to themselves and stop running away from suffering. The speaker recounts that some monastics and laypeople have already recognized the drawbacks of social media and technology, including wasted time, distraction, and the tendency to seek stimulation rather than face inner pain. The talk then broadens into a critique of technology addiction and modern civilization. The speaker describes the Google visit on October 23, 2013, where approximately 860 monastics met with Googlers across three satellite locations. The day included walking meditation, tea, a guided meditation, mindful eating, total relaxation led by Sister Chan Khong, and a long discussion with Google executives and engineers. The central question posed by Google was how technology can become a force for integration rather than destruction, and how intention, insight, and innovation can support employee well-being, work-life balance, and care for Mother Earth. The speaker notes that Google’s own surveys showed declining emotional health and increasing distress among employees, reflecting a broader civilizational problem of burnout and overwork. Using vivid analogies, the speaker argues that technology has become like a horse or train that carries people without their control. The issue is not merely moral wrongdoing in the conventional sense, but a deeper form of harm: sacrificing one’s own life, family, and the Earth in the pursuit of wealth, power, and productivity. The talk insists that many people use technology, food, entertainment, and consumption to avoid confronting loneliness, fear, anger, and despair. This is linked to the Buddhist teaching on the four nutriments: edible food, sensory impressions, volition, and consciousness. The speaker explains that people often consume not from real need but to forget suffering, and that consciousness itself can be nourishing or poisonous depending on which seeds are watered. Seeds of compassion, joy, forgiveness, and tenderness can be cultivated, while anger, jealousy, and despair can also be reinforced by media, environments, and collective energy. The discussion of volition becomes especially important in the corporate context. The speaker argues that intention is the deepest source of energy and that a leader should not be driven only by money, fame, or power, but by bodhicitta-like aspiration: to help people suffer less, to reverse the direction of civilization, and to support healing and happiness. A leader who learns to go home to himself, care for his own suffering, and then extend that care to family and colleagues can create a healthier workplace and a more humane corporation. The speaker suggests that technology itself could be redesigned to support mindfulness, such as a phone that reminds a person to breathe, stop, and return to the present moment when anger or confusion arises. The final section emphasizes the non-duality of work and life. Mindful walking from the parking lot to the office, washing dishes, cooking, receiving guests, or seeing patients can all be life rather than mere labor if done with awareness and joy. The speaker describes calligraphy practice as an example of integrated mindfulness, where breathing, tea, ink, ancestry, and concentration all come together in a single act. Monastic life is described as consisting of four inseparable aspects: studying, practicing, working, and playing, each containing the others. The conclusion is that with training, one can transcend dualistic thinking and make every moment of work a moment of life, service, and practice.