Buddhism: Reflections on the Blogisattva Awards

Sunday marked a first in most of our worlds: the Blogisattva Awards hosted by Tom over at Blogmandu. My initial reaction (see #9 here) to the nomination(s) was a kind of ‘wow, how odd… but nice’.

For the most part I think this is how other bloggers took it as well (Tyson was happily surprised, Eric at Virtual Zen observed his ego swell). However, the comment section under the announcements post did receive some less-than-positive remarks. One nominee, Amadeus, commented:

“You are trying to sell your awards competition as Buddhism, something not at all compatible. Blogisattva, not to be confused with Bodhisattva? Some joke huh?” (here note: this is just one part of one of many of Amadeus’ comments, so getting the full context would be profitable)

One commenter noted:

“Taking notice of the flatterer turning vicious, I suspect these unjuried awards will mean nothing in the end.” (here)

And, well, you can read other comments if you wish. On the other hand, nearly all of those nominated were pretty gracious and humble about the whole thing (my favorite winner’s post is James’ at the Buddhist Blog), and many had streams of kind congratulations from readers and friends.

In reading all of this, three things came to mind. First and most obvious was the ego, that nasty little bugger, the asmi-mana, or conceit-I-am. Second is the notion of hierarchy in Buddhism; and third is the power of the blog for Buddhists, and for Westerners in general.

Like Eric, I saw my ego expanding, while appreciating the recognition. I know there were moments when I wanted to win, though I didn’t go so far as to size up opponents (oops) co-nominees to prognosticate my chances of winning for each category. I do apparently have a drive for competition, and the awards nominations brought that drive to my awareness to be observed and perhaps, dispelled a bit. So while my ego was stirred up, in my case it was done in the right way to get me to ‘sit with it’ rather than react to it. This may not have been the case for everyone.

Hierarchy in Buddhism isn’t really any specialty of mine (all I know is that I’m the most enlightened person I know), but it did come up a bit in the comments to the nominations at Blogmandu. All forms of Buddhism recognize an ultimate level of personal non-duality, that is, of a level of existence where we are all perfectly equal (you, me, Buddha, and Hitler). That level is variously our Buddha-Nature, our emptiness, our appearance here in samsara, our potential for radiant universal love, and so on. But for those of us who don’t spend every minute on this level, hierarchy will naturally arise. In philosophical-talk, we could say that hierarchy is a descriptive fact, not a normative one. That just means that while hierarchy is here, and is a real part of samsara, including Buddhism, it is not what we aim for or say ought to be. We all need a certain level of self-esteem, self-confidence, and self-love in order to begin the path to self-transcendence. (so just accept that I’m better than you)

Finally, I’m even less of an expert on the prospects of a future of blogging in America. Here again is probably where hierarchy is very helpful. Where would you be without Google, which ranks the sites of the web and promises to bring you only the most relevant (unless you’re in China, where you’ll get whatever the government wants you to see)? Tom’s site, Blogmandu, is a lovely service, bringing together relevant material from countless Buddhist-themed blogs each week. Technorati and others provide a similar service, but lack the human touch (the guy who can come on to your blog to argue with you about Buddha-Nature and quantum mechanics and Hegel and Ken Wilber)… The key to the survival, and perhaps even the actual relevance of the Buddhist blog will be folks like Tom who select from our drivelings something worthwhile, encouraging our efforts, and refining our methods.

It may sound egotistical, but I want to be read, and by lots of people. But I also see my blog (as with my mind) in need of a lot of work before it can be worthy of and useful to many people. I don’t aim to impose my thoughts on the world, but rather to share and to dialogue for mutual spiritual benefit. Life is too short (and human birth to precious) for all of us to sit in front of a computer just taking in, or just throwing thoughts out there for no one to see. At the same time, though, we all need to be wary of the potential for escapism into the blogosphere – take time to sit, to talk with real people, to walk in the woods – all of this will enrich what you say here and hopefully what you say and read here (speaking of the internet) will likewise enrich the rest of your life.