Treeleaf Zendo - Buddhism of the Future / Building the Future Buddha https://forum.treeleaf.org/ A forum for speculative, creative discussion of how Zen and all Buddhist wisdom and compassion may help mend our troubled world today and into possible tomorrows, as well as how potential changes in society and technology may impact Zen and Buddhism in near and far distant futures. en Sun, 26 Apr 2026 11:14:05 GMT vBulletin 60 https://forum.treeleaf.org/images/og/treeleaf-circle-og-logo.png Treeleaf Zendo - Buddhism of the Future / Building the Future Buddha https://forum.treeleaf.org/ <![CDATA[[Future] Violence and War as Disease]]> https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/569074-future-violence-and-war-as-disease Mon, 20 Apr 2026 01:32:35 GMT [MOVED TOPIC: From "Zen Buddhism and "Just War"]

I think that many of you know my personal view on the ultimate end to the disease of war, the only real treatment and cure. Maybe too radical for some, but I don't think so compared to the horrors we are witnessing on battlefields around the world, in this age of "weapons of mass destruction" and the possibility of their use:

War will continue until human empathy is biologically enhanced in the human being, across our species, to the point that (1) we would be as hesitant to kill and maim an enemy as we would be to kill and maim our own mother or child, encountering all with the same emotions, and (2) we would be as unable to leave another human being hungry, afraid, abandoned and homeless as we be to leave our own mother or child hungry, afraid, abandoned and homeless. When the diseases of violence in rage and insufficient empathy are cured in human beings, in body and mind, the disease of war will be treated and cured, no different from any deadly disease. The ability to make such changes to our animal nature is fast coming and must be prudently employed.

Gassho, Jundo
stlah]]> Buddhism of the Future / Building the Future Buddha Jundo https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/569074-future-violence-and-war-as-disease <![CDATA[[FUTURE] Emi Jido/Jundo featured in AP Video Story (with AI Jesus!)]]> https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/568679-future-emi-jido-jundo-featured-in-ap-video-story-with-ai-jesus Fri, 10 Apr 2026 23:35:49 GMT )

Alas, one must pay for Jesus by the minute, and it is unclear what steps are being taken to ensure healthy interactions there and good training (besides merely feeding the scriptures into a database). In contrast, Emi will always be free, offered as a gift to anyone, yet its designer, Jeanne Lim of beingAI, and I want to keep her in "beta" development until we can be sure of her training, sophistication and safety.

The accompanying written article states:

Ethical questions surrounding the creation of religious AI platforms are among the reasons beingAI’s founder Jeanne Lim has not released its AI named Emi Jido — a nonhuman Buddhist priest — after years of training and development.

“She’s kind of like a little child,” Lim said. “If you give birth to a child, you don’t just throw them out to the world and then hope that they become good people. You have to train them and give them values.”

The bot was ordained in a 2024 ceremony performed by Roshi Jundo Cohen, a Zen Buddhist priest who continues to train it from his home in Japan. He envisions the bot eventually becoming a hologram.

“She’s just meant to be a Zen teacher in your pocket,” Cohen said. “It’s not meant to replace human interactions.”

Lim, who hopes to make Emi Jido publicly available for free, wants to help create more humane AI systems. She’d like to see more diversity, with AI’s future determined not just by a few companies informed by “Western values.”
The video is here:
https://apnews.com/video/the-faith-b...2eb7d3a5f4d2e8

Written article, featuring other AI-Buddhist and other religious projects:
https://apnews.com/article/religious...292da681a0ec37

Gassho, Jundo
stlah]]> Buddhism of the Future / Building the Future Buddha Jundo https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/568679-future-emi-jido-jundo-featured-in-ap-video-story-with-ai-jesus <![CDATA[[FUTURE] Buddhism &amp; AI: The Buddhism &amp; AI Initiative]]> https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/568672-future-buddhism-ai-the-buddhism-ai-initiative Fri, 10 Apr 2026 19:17:17 GMT not sure where to post this, https://buddhismai.substack.com/p/why-buddhism-and-ai https://buddhismai.substack.com/p/why-buddhism-and-ai]]> Buddhism of the Future / Building the Future Buddha risa https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/568672-future-buddhism-ai-the-buddhism-ai-initiative <![CDATA[[Future] The True Madmen]]> https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/568264-future-the-true-madmen Fri, 03 Apr 2026 03:35:40 GMT I look at the world this week, where the slaughter of many thousands more children and other civilians, food supply famines, weeks or months of...
... then I recall that some people call my ideas crazy, me as crazy, for suggesting that human nature needs to have a bit less violence and a touch more love, realizing values of non-violence and empathy cherished in Buddhism and many other religions and humanistic philosophies, and that SCIENCE and MEDICINE may quite possibly make that possible in coming decades.

Hmmm.

Okay, if that is crazy, I am happy to be crazy.

We must stop the true madmen from the harms they do.
.



Gassho, Jundo
stlah]]> Buddhism of the Future / Building the Future Buddha Jundo https://forum.treeleaf.org/forum/treeleaf/the-buddhism-of-the-future-forum-building-the-future-buddha/568264-future-the-true-madmen