Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

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pilgrim
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Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

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Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work for future posterity!
Targeted Funding Amount: US$ 4,500 (MYR 18,450)
Funding Duration: 14th - 25th January, 2020

Bhante Shravasti Dhammika is a Australian born monk who has dedicated his life to teaching and studying Buddhism for the past 40 years. Born in Australia in 1951 into a Christian family and converted to Buddhism at the age of 18, Bhante Dhammika went to Thailand in 1973 with the intention of becoming a monk and from there to Laos, Burma and finally to India.
For the next three years, he traveled around India learning yoga and meditation and finally ordained under Venerable Matiwella Sangharatna, the last disciple of Anagarika Dharmapala. In 1976 he went to Sri Lanka where he studied Pali at Sri Lanka Vidyalaya and later became one of the co-founders of the Nilambe Meditation Centre and one of its teachers. He has spent most of his time in Sri Lanka and Singapore.
He currently resides in Australia where he is cherishing his time in solitude. During this time, he intends to commit to research and publication of new materials, one major work being the life of the Buddha as described in the Tipitaka.
For the last 40 years, Bhante Dhammika had written over 25 books and scores of articles on Buddhism and related subjects. His most popular books are "Middle Land, Middle Way" and "Good Questions, Good Answers".
As Bhante Dhammika is coming to 69 years old in 2020, he wishes to have his work preserved in posterity for the good of this and future generation of Buddhists. The Buddhist Channel has taken up his wish and will now invest to make it a reality.
The project requires upgrading and converting existing web based content into appbooks (Epub3) and database (MySQL).
Total project costs is US$ 4,500. The project will involve the development of 1 eBookshop and 2 Apps
For details and donation info, please visit:
http://buddhistchannel.tv/dhm.html
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Khalil Bodhi
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

Pilgrim,

Thank you for the opportunity to provide Dhammadana. Mettacittena! :anjali:
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
My Practice Blog:
http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com
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pilgrim
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by pilgrim »

In case anyone is concerned about the authenticity of this appeal, I can vouch for it. In fact, I initiated it after speaking to Bhante and then I roped in Buddhist Channel to work on it.
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DNS
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by DNS »

Excellent! Glad to hear that. He is a very prolific writer, with some 30 books or more in print and multiple online resources (his blog, buddhism A to Z, etc). His Good Question, Good Answer book is in multiple languages in print and online.

https://dhammawiki.com/index.php/Shravasti_Dhammika

https://www.goodquestiongoodanswer.net/
Scroll down to see all the different languages; there is even Arabic!

His teachings and writings are primarily based from the Pali Canon, but he is more of a general Buddhist, rather than any specific tradition and anyone from any tradition would find his material useful.

It will be good to see all of that preserved.
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pilgrim
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by pilgrim »

A few years ago , I raised funding to print and distribute thousands of his book "Good Question Good Answer" in Khmer (Cambodian), Vietnamese, Chinese, Nepali, Hindi, Lao and Assamese (an indian language) . They were very popular with the public .
SarathW
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by SarathW »

I tried to make a donation and attempted twice.
The security challenges do not let me pass the test on two different computers.
I hope they manage to collect the required funds anyway.
:anjali:
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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robertk
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by robertk »

I have similar concerns for Nina Van Gorkom's books- she is 92.

they are in print and online.
And availble for free download at many websites .
But most of these websites are kept by individuals ( mine for instance).

The only one I know of that "looks" potentially long term is this one. see example link
https://archive.org/details/AbhidhammaInDailyLife

But I really know nothing about it: it might close down tommorow.
You seem to know about this matter, could you give some info about the way you are preserving the venerable's books and why this should ensure a fairly permanent solution.
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by SarathW »

Good point Robert.
In my opinion, the internet is the most unreliable way to preserve Dhamma.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by DNS »

SarathW wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:05 am I tried to make a donation and attempted twice.
The security challenges do not let me pass the test on two different computers.
I hope they manage to collect the required funds anyway.
:anjali:
Me too. I tried making a donation but couldn't get past the captchas on several attempts. I'll try with a different browser.
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by DNS »

SarathW wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 9:00 am Good point Robert.
In my opinion, the internet is the most unreliable way to preserve Dhamma.
Here is the best way, but it's costly, I imagine:
https://dhammawiki.com/index.php/Kuthodaw_Pagoda

At this temple it's engraved on 729 marble slabs.

However, I think the internet is good too as long as it is downloaded on enough devices and enough servers, someone could always re-upload it to a new site as web sites go down, no longer get funded, etc.
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Khalil Bodhi
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by Khalil Bodhi »

All conditioned phenomena are impermanent. The internet just happens to be more impermanent than marble slabs. :tongue:

I'm always excited by the opportunity to offer Dhamma dana however. Let's hope the Venerable Dhammika's sites don't go the way of the Venerable Samahita's.

Mettacittena,

Mike
To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to cleanse one's mind — this is the teaching of the Buddhas.
-Dhp. 183

The Stoic Buddhist: https://www.quora.com/q/dwxmcndlgmobmeu ... pOR2p0uAdH
My Practice Blog:
http://khalilbodhi.wordpress.com
SarathW
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by SarathW »

DNS wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:20 pm
SarathW wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:05 am I tried to make a donation and attempted twice.
The security challenges do not let me pass the test on two different computers.
I hope they manage to collect the required funds anyway.
:anjali:
Me too. I tried making a donation but couldn't get past the captchas on several attempts. I'll try with a different browser.
I heard that crowdfunding is available only for Americans!!
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
SarathW
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by SarathW »

DNS wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 4:23 pm
SarathW wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 9:00 am Good point Robert.
In my opinion, the internet is the most unreliable way to preserve Dhamma.
Here is the best way, but it's costly, I imagine:
https://dhammawiki.com/index.php/Kuthodaw_Pagoda

At this temple it's engraved on 729 marble slabs.

However, I think the internet is good too as long as it is downloaded on enough devices and enough servers, someone could always re-upload it to a new site as web sites go down, no longer get funded, etc.
In my opinion, the best way to preserve Dhamma is by memorisation.
If a child memorise a verse, it will last his lifetime. Say 80 years.
“As the lamp consumes oil, the path realises Nibbana”
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pilgrim
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by pilgrim »

robertk wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:28 am I have similar concerns for Nina Van Gorkom's books- she is 92.

they are in print and online.
And availble for free download at many websites .
But most of these websites are kept by individuals ( mine for instance).

The only one I know of that "looks" potentially long term is this one. see example link
https://archive.org/details/AbhidhammaInDailyLife

But I really know nothing about it: it might close down tommorow.
You seem to know about this matter, could you give some info about the way you are preserving the venerable's books and why this should ensure a fairly permanent solution.
My friend happens to run the Buddhist Channel in collaboration with a person in Germany where the servers are located. He has agreed to host the files on these servers. I don't know how much it costs to maintain this but imagine it can't be much. I think the cost of the project mostly goes to the initial work of file conversion and such. So I think once the site is up, it'll continue as long as he or someone else continues to maintain them.
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robertk
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Re: Crowd Funding to Preserve Bhante Dhammika's 40 years of work

Post by robertk »

pilgrim wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 10:45 pm
robertk wrote: Wed Jan 15, 2020 8:28 am I have similar concerns for Nina Van Gorkom's books- she is 92.

they are in print and online.
And availble for free download at many websites .
But most of these websites are kept by individuals ( mine for instance).

The only one I know of that "looks" potentially long term is this one. see example link
https://archive.org/details/AbhidhammaInDailyLife

But I really know nothing about it: it might close down tommorow.
You seem to know about this matter, could you give some info about the way you are preserving the venerable's books and why this should ensure a fairly permanent solution.
My friend happens to run the Buddhist Channel in collaboration with a person in Germany where the servers are located. He has agreed to host the files on these servers. I don't know how much it costs to maintain this but imagine it can't be much. I think the cost of the project mostly goes to the initial work of file conversion and such. So I think once the site is up, it'll continue as long as he or someone else continues to maintain them.
:anjali: :anjali: :anjali:
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