Of course, Chen’s view on religion was developed in a specific circumstance. In the early 20th century, under the Western countries’ invasion and colonization, China was split in various territories, which brought endless civil wars and feudal system restoration. Facing the serious crisis, Chinese intellectuals considered the failure of traditional Chinese culture and political system, which constrained the development of China’s social progress and civilians’ consciousness. The way to save China from the crisis was to throw away old Chinese culture and adopted Western science and democracy to form a New Culture. In his latter publication, Chen realized that religion was the big part of the old culture, the New Culture, definitely, cannot be complete without it (Chen, 1920).

In recent years, the fast development of Chinese economy reinforces the advancement of science, many people are wondering what is the Buddhist perception towards it? As Wang (2008, p.29) notes that Buddhism is totally different with Christianity in terms of philosophy, logic, ethics, view of life and the world. The unique way to understand our life and to recognize the world formed the dialogue foundation between Buddhism and science. Huang (2008, p.95) and Yang (2008, p. 141) pointed out that Buddhism is never a religion of anti-science, in contrast, it always accompanies and digests the scientific findings or achievements for its development. This tradition carries forward not only in contemporary China but also in ancient India. Chan Master Shen Yan Shi (1987, p.36-54) also said Buddhism is different with science, but it’s very scientific. It emphases the importance of science, such as, one of the crucial skills for a Bodhisattva is to mater some skills in medical, construction and engineering areas in the ancient time.

In 1970s, when personal computers came into our daily life, we never thought it would become one of the main communication powers in the world. In 1990s, when the internet spread out in our “global village”, the whole world’s information technology has changed extensively. After only ten some years, to many people, computer and internet become the integral part of their lives. The sudden success in just about any field has become impossible without information technology. In farming, manufacture, education, medicine, entertainment, banking or whatever, information technology is apparently set to change everything that human beings do in advanced society. Initiation in the process of information handling, transmission, storage and retrieval is the key to future prosperity and to qualitatively different ways of life. Failure to proceed in this direction seems carrying dire consequence.

In the United Nation’s 2008 Vesak day celebration, delegates from all over the world, came to the agreement that internet has already been the important tool for information, exchange, dialogue and education between monastic community and lay Buddhist community, monastic community and non-Buddhist community, inter-communication within lay Buddhist community, and lay-Buddhist community and non-Buddhist community. Ven. Pannyavaro (2009), webmaster of Buddhanet which based in New South Wales, who proclaims that the new information technology requires us not only use the new methods to communicate and promote Buddhism, but also apply the new concept to gather online Buddhist community, and offer the new social value and spiritual food for the public.

As what McLuhan(1965, p.3-8) advocated almost half century ago, medium is the message, the extensions of man. What he stated is that the personal and social consequence of any medium, that is, of any extension of ourselves, result from the new scale that is introduced into our affairs by each extension of ourselves, or by any new technology. The new medium, like the Internet, is also being taken into account in the sense of the extension of man, which in turn on the one hand helps the progress of our society, but on the other hand creates some new problems in our time. With the increasing number of activities of individuals, organizations and nations being conducted in cyberspace, the security of those activities is an emerging challenge for society. The medium has thus created new potentials for criminal or hostile actions, “bad actors” in cyberspace carrying out these hostile actions, and threats to societal interests as a result of them (Hundley & Anderson, 1995-1996, p.19). Additionally, some other issues like online relationship, cyber identity, privacy, treating and piracies, rumors, false news, and to make things worse, porn and gambling, are the great concern of many scholars, parents, schools and even the whole society (Parks & Floyd, 2009). With the controversial development of information technology, Buddhist temples and Sangha communities face the new challenges in the information age. As Sheng Kai Shi (2008, p.147) pointed out that Buddhist temples have lost their walls in the internet age, wherever located in urban or rural areas, the tranquil monastic lifestyle has been confronted. Furthermore, because of people “hiding” their real identities, which lead to the difficulty to preserve the vinaya, “not speaking out of the others’ mistakes.” He also concluded that the characters of Buddhism in the internet age could be the following: the undifferentiated faith, the cyberised activities, and the communitised devotees. Thought, he did not give clear definitions of those characters, he tried to raise people’s attention about the chaos which was created by the internet, for instance, the unauthentic interpretation of the sutras, and the confusion of anyone’s “right to speak”. For him, to uphold a pure and simple image, Buddhist temples and Sangha communities should find the balance point while using internet, otherwise, Buddhism might become the “object of abomination.”

As words are the basic form of communication in people’s daily life, abstention from lying, slander, harsh or abusive language, and idle chatter are essential practice for every practioners. So, implicit in that Buddhist requirement is the understanding that there are must be such a thing as Buddhist communication. However, the Buddha constantly reminded his students that nothing is absolute, nothing is permanent, and nothing in this world is the “self”. There is not such a universal Dharma for universal sentient beings since everything is conditioned and co-dependent. Accordingly there is not a universal best way of communication for all individuals too. In a specific time-space, there might be one or some communication methods for an individual, but they may change in different conditions since everything is relative, changing and a “stream of becoming”. Buddhist communication is a relative communication, whatever makes the one awakened is the right communication.

Personally, I believe internet as one of the main powers which pushes the progress of the globalization. It actually does not globalised the nation states or nationalized the globe, but it globalised the individuals in a very deep sense. It brings the world affairs under an ordinary people’s observance, of course, Buddhist Sangha communities and laities are also included. Because of the trend, every individual with some basic computing literacy skills, would have no doubt to equally express, communicate, and conduct dialogues with anyone who is online. With this flat, equal and free nature of the internet, the traditional Sangha- and temple-centered communication style is being affected quite strongly.

To take an example of Chinese Buddhism, after the completion of monastic regulation in the Tang and Song dynasty, Buddhist preaching and communication primarily focused on Sangha and monasteries. Paying attention to the quality of Sangha communities, emphasizing Dharma assembly, Dharma preaching, routine cultivation, sutra translation, and the transmission of the Dharma linage, were the most important elements and activities of Chinese Buddhism.

Communications between Sangha communities and laities and within the communities were basically verbal. Chan practioners did not follow rigid teachings but find situational inspirations from their lives according to different people’s level of awakening. According to Conze (1951, p. 6), the Buddhist Chan School also promotes that everything one may see is ultimate false, false by mere fact that one says it. “Those who say don’t know; those who know don’t say.” In Chan School, silence alone does not violate the truth. If one say something, and it is astonishing to find how much the supporters of the Chan silence had to say, it is justified only by what they called “skill in means.” In other words, what one says may help other people at a certain stage of their spiritual progress. Thus, Chan is, in Buddhism, easily the chief communicative means of awakening. The stress throughout is far less on “doing something” by overt action, than on contemplation and mental discipline. For a long period of time, Chinese Buddhist Schools fundamentally relied on these styles, and situational teaching/inspiration plus book printing, sutra and sculpture circulation, and temple building for its development.

Throughout Buddhist history, the ways of communication have changed dramatically, from Sangha- and temple-centered preaching, activities and cultivation, to today’s technologically equipped speeches, events, and shows. The methods of Buddhist communication become increasingly diverse. It is true that the diverse of Buddhist communication will benefit more people in our information age. However, the process of commercialization, marketization and touristization of many monasteries might result in the deviation of Buddhist communication. Many monasteries, especially those located in the tourist spots, paid too much attention to their commercial needs but focus too little on what the devotees and public were pursuing. Buddhist temples were places for monks to live, practice, learning and teaching in the past. But today, the major function of those temples is for tourism. Since monks are busy serving tourists, less and less attention is being paid to other decent matters, such as meditation and teaching, which are supposedly the “right livelihood” for Buddhist monks (Wan, 2005, p.78-79).

Even thought there is no a universal best way of Buddhist communication for all individuals, we still need to pay greater attention to the information technology. In recent years, we have been enjoying the convenience which the information technology brings to us, meanwhile, we also have been distracted by its side-effects. Information overload and information repetition are some common problems for Buddhist websites. Additionally, some websites just make troubles for the users, they are neither inconsistent, nor “user friendly” or “ease of use” (Shuman, 2003). The repetition of information leads to the waste of human and natural resource, in the meantime, it makes a warning call to us to adjust, to use and to disseminate the resource wisely to break through the bottleneck of Buddhist communication in the Internet area.

As information technology has already deeply penetrated into our life, it is unreasonable to avoid or keep distance from it. A constructive way that some Buddhist associations and temple take is to build their quality websites to attract Netizens to know more about what is the “true” Buddhism. Moreover, to avoid some misleading information and false interpreting the Buddha’s teaching, some temples also assigned some “decent” websites for the devotees and public to access. Personally, I would suggest that Buddhist organizations should take the opportunity to begin its media literacy programme for both Sangha communities and laities. Media literacy is an informed, critical understanding of the mass media. It involves examining the techniques, technologies and institutions involved in media production; being able to critically analyze media messages; and recognizing the role audiences play in making meaning from those messages (Shepherd, 1993). With the ability, we can sift through and analyze the messages that inform, entertain and sell to us every day. This critical thinking skill could lead us immediately questioning what lies behind media productions, the motives, the money, the values and the ownership, and to be aware of how these factors influence content. With this ability and some necessary Dharma knowledge, Sangha communities and laities could easily distinguish what is decent websites to view and what should be put in the “blacklist”.

Last but not the least, as a practice-based religion, the traditional teaching, training, situational inspiring, teacher-student communication, face to face interaction, and “being the model” teaching and so on, are the true qualities of Buddhism, which cannot and may not be replaced by modern information communication. Of whatever means, of whatever advancement the technologies are, they are only the tools for us to reach our goal. While we employ these tools, we must have a clear mind, our centuries-old tradition, knowledge, experience, and theories are needed to carry on generation by generation, by only doing this, Buddhism will have no doubt to develop “scientifically” and “sustainability”.