From your hands to your heart
Digital Dharma Books and smart ways to enhance your reading, listening and contemplation of Dharma
As technology continues to develop and pace of life seemingly increases, many modern Kadampa practitioners and teachers are finding ways of leveraging technology such as mobile phones, tablets and e-readers to enrich their Dharma studies.
From the volume of books being shipped out daily from Tharpa distribution centres around the world, it is clear that holding a printed Dharma book in our hands remains a deeply cherished experience when reading and studying the illuminating works of Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso Rinpoche. However, as daily routines get busier and we increasingly experience life-on-the-go, digital editions of our Dharma books enable us to take advantage of more opportunities in our busy routines to familiarise our minds with the meaning of Buddha’s teachings. Our daily commute to work, waiting for the kids to come out of school, travelling abroad or relaxing in the evening, are all times when people commonly turn to their mobile devices. How much more meaningful if the device we turn to becomes a window that reveals Buddha’s wisdom to us through our Dharma ebooks.
Benefits of digital Dharma books:
- Easy to carry wherever you go
- Access your Dharma library anywhere
- Highlight sections for study and memorization
- Annotate text with your own notes for study and teaching preparation
- Listen to Dharma audiobooks as well as reading ebooks
- Search and cross-reference keywords and phrases across your entire Dharma library
Regardless of what format we choose, or what device we carry, the most important place to keep our Dharma library of course, is within our heart. Technology such as ebooks, audiobooks and mobile devices can help us take advantage of new opportunities in our busy routines to familiarise our minds with Dharma but if we cannot remember the Dharma, it will not touch our heart, move our mind or transform our life.
The truly smart way to enrich our Dharma study, is to memorise the meaning of our Dharma books so we can train sincerely in contemplation and meditation as Venerable Geshe Kelsang Gyatso explains in The Mirror of Dharma with Additions.
The purpose of training in contemplation is to make the meaning of the instructions touch our heart so that we can easily make progress in training in meditation. If we do not sincerely practise training in contemplation our Dharma understanding will remain only intellectual. Thus, it will have no power to solve our daily problems of uncontrolled desire, or attachment, anger, ignorance and other delusions. Understanding this we should apply great effort to sincerely practise training in contemplation.
As an extension of Venerable Geshe-la’s extraordinary vision that everybody in the world has access to Buddha’s teachings, Tharpa is continuously working to provide digital editions of each of his 23 books as well as many Sadhana’s and booklets in the wake of an increasing demand.
