# Open Source Dharma Open Source Dharma is a newly conceived of open standard & network, whose aim is to encourage the flourishing of a transparent, collaborative, creative, & evolutionary ecosystem of dharma practice. {% embed url="" %} The **Open Source Dharma protocol & meta-network** serves as a radical alternative to [Proprietary Dharma™️](/view/proprietary-dharma) by making it easier for new forms of dharma to emerge. We do this by creating and maintaining an open protocol standard that incentivizes permission-less innovation, cross-lineage collaboration, and transparent organization around dharma community & practice. Think of it as [An Internet of Dharma](/view/internet-of-dharma), which is open to everyone, democratically self-governing, to use Peter Limberg's phrase, is a "wisdom commons." The Open Source Dharma standard offers a [suite of protocols](/view/osdharma-protocols) that brings more openness to more aspects of the Sangha activities. Any dharma teacher or community is welcome to join the Open Source Dharma movement by implementing any of these protocols in their communities of practice. # The Internet of Dharma Dharma, in the age of the network, is facing a crisis of irrelevance. Humanity is facing a meta-crisis of survival. Open Source Dharma is one response to these overlapping crises. In the West, during the later half of the 20th century, Buddhist Dharma was an *avantgarde* movement. It was made up of young artists and creatives who had an oversized impact on culture. These young people introduced contemplative values from the East into the mainstream West, while questioning conventionality in ways that shook the homogeny of the day. In the late 1970s a young molecular biologist, named Jon Kabat-Zinn, imagined a secular translation of the meditative methods he had learned from the Zen and Theravada Buddhist traditions. This translation became known as Mindfulness Based Stress-Reduction ("MBSR"), and it was taught as a medical intervention for those suffering untreatable chronic pain. It worked wonders where other interventions didn't. The [unbundling of mindfulness from Buddhism](https://art19.com/shows/buddhist-geeks/episodes/962521b3-d7e6-44b6-9f52-5764c64ca33b), and its further secularization, especially through [the contemporary dialogue](https://www.mindandlife.org/mind-and-life-dialogues/) between Buddhists & Scientists, birthed **the mindfulness movement.** Today, this movement continues to explode in relevance, even as it's beginning to show its [darker sides](https://medium.com/@meditateio/the-second-generation-of-mindfulness-e669318c03fc). ### McMindfulness 🍔 As many critics of have pointed out, the mindfulness movement is largely untethered from the same commitment to **selfless ethics** and **radical awakening** that Buddhist traditions have often aimed for. What's often called "McMindfulness" has been able to reach entirely new audiences because of this untethering, while becoming a hot bed of innovation for those willing to recombine mindfulness with other streams of human knowledge. Evolution is a process driven by recombination. Mindfulness-based technologies are also far more advanced, in terms of design, development, and adoption than Buddhist ones. This is because Mindfulness is a perfect bedfellow for what many call [late-stage capitalism](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/late-capitalism/524943/). The most technologically impressive mindfulness projects, mainly in the form of meditation apps, are backed by large amounts of private & institutional capital. Because non-judgmental mindfulness can be applied so flexibly, and in so many different contexts, in addition to being a genuine secular salve, it has also been co-opted by the very systems driving our planet toward the brink of a climate apocalypse. "The world may be ending, but at least we can breath through it." **The strength *****and***** weakness of mindfulness, it turns out,** **is its radical adaptability**. Many Buddhist institutions find these hyper-capitalist models to be out-of-sync with their deeper values, and so remain under-resourced and impotent. Many have become increasingly conservative, stodgy, and out of touch with present-day realities, even while what makes them most exciting, namely awakening, has yet to find its way into popular culture. And while the critics of the mindfulness movement make very good points, they don't often offer alternative visions. Instead they offer us a bittersweet combination of cynicism and romanticism. "This is all terrible, we should go back to the way it was." But there is not going backward, only forward, one moment at a time. ### What is Dharma? > "This is the best of gifts: the gift of Dharma." - [The Buddha](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/wheel238.html) The heart of dharma practice opens us to the profound **interconnectivity of life**. Realizing what Buddhists call emptiness means realizing that **we don't exist in isolation, ever**. The awakening of all beings is intimately intertwined. **Generosity**, far from being an ideal, is a natural response to the patently obvious. **Collaboration** is what we do when we realize our interdestiny. This may seem obvious, from a philosophical or even personal perspective, but how well are we actually doing, as a community, to realize this? On the whole, I'd say that **we're failing to actualize our interconnectivity**, and at creating spaces of **deep collaboration** and **true generosity** of heart. We're more caught up in the failings of traditional Buddhist institutions, and in preserving what's already dead, then we are in dreaming new dreams of what could be. It's ok to acknowledge this painful truth, and it's understandable, given how the structures and values of the larger systems we're embedded within are built on nearly opposite principles. That said, **we can and must do better**. We need new visions to light the way. ### **The Gift of the Web** > "This is for everyone." - [Tim Berners-Lee](https://youtu.be/cCE2EyV_IiY), Inventor of the World Wide Web **One of the visions we can find deep inspiration from, is the birth of the World Wide Web.** Launched in 1990, by an eccentric, humble, and open-hearted Brit named Tim Berners-Lee, **the Internet is interconnectivity made real**. While Tim could have easily commercialized the open protocols that made the web possible, he sensed that this was far too important for him, or anyone else, to own. He gave all of the protocols away to the public domain, essentially **gifting the World Wide Web to humanity**. ♥️ Even today, we have to fight for that gift, as the net becomes less and less neutral. Large private companies like Google, Facebook, & Amazon have continued to innovate on these original web protocols, but largely keep those innovations to themselves, creating walled algorithmic gardens that threaten to disconnect us from one another. As we enter a period of [runaway climate destabilization](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html), the internet simultaneously opens up the possibility of living without scarcity. With the growth of the [creative commons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xOK2aJ-0Js), new post-capitalist visions of abundance are coming online. This presents a huge opportunity for dharma-based projects to do things differently, to leverage our values as a strength, rather than seeming them as weakness. We can, if we so choose, retake the torch as innovators and influencers of culture. We can help inspire, not just better communities of practice, but a better planetary culture. That's what it's all about. We aim to actualize this vision by coming together and creating an **Open Source Dharma Protocol & Network**. Think of this protocol, and the ecosystem that could arise around and through it, as **The Internet of Dharma**. It's a new open protocol, just like the web, designed to help unlock deep collaboration and exciting new ways to practice. It's an *inruptive* vision, which is designed to destabilize withering hierarchies, empower peer-to-peer connections, lift up the most skilled and talented among us, so they can lift everyone else up. We invite you to contribute to this vision, by learning more in the pages ahead, and by participating in whatever way you can, because without you, this is only an idea. [Vince Horn](https://www.opensourcedharma.info/view/www.vincehorn.space) # What is Proprietary Dharma? Open Source Dharma serves as a radical alternative to Proprietary Dharma. > “Religious traditions are usually necessary for providing an understanding of our inborn potential and for showing us how to realize it. But when they claim proprietary ownership of that which we seek, they betray themselves and get in our way.” - **Reggie Ray**, *Touching Enlightenment* ## **What is Proprietary Dharma?** Proprietary Dharma includes all of the **traditional dharma** communities who keep secrets as a means of protecting their students from advanced teachings, their secret sauce from being stolen, or their social hierarchies from being disrupted. Proprietary Dharma also includes all of the **modern dharma** communities & systems, whose training materials aren’t free and open, but are rather put behind a paywall, or only accessible once one has completed a paid certificate or degree program. **Postmodern dharma**, which recombines traditional and modern elements, can be more or less proprietary, depending on which elements are utilized and how. ### **Traditional Dharma** In the case of traditional, conserver-style dharma, “the teachings” are often offered “free of charge” or are described as being priceless. This is one of the ways the beautiful spirit of generosity makes itself known in these dharmic traditions. Unfortunately, this same spirit of open accessibility isn’t usually present when it comes to accessing the “higher” teachings, or doing something which may fall outside of the orthodoxy. It certainly doesn’t apply when it comes to acknowledging & discussing actual experiences or attainments, or when it comes to the openness of the institutional structures. **Traditional dharma tends to be financially accessible, while being highly centralized and ideologically proprietary.** #### **🔗** Examples of Traditional Dharma: * [**S.N. Goenka's Vipassana Meditation**](http://www.dhamma.org) * [**Amaravati Buddhist Monastery**](https://www.amaravati.org/) ### Modern Dharma **What modern dharma forms share in common with each other is an attempt to integrate with modern secular values & systems**. Institutionally, modern dharma tends to operate in the capitalist mode, with many instances of centralized, for-profit institutional structures, where ownership and value flows upward toward equity holders. In the case of modern dharma, it’s often the case that much of the teaching material is free, but this free content is used as a gateway to paid content that exists behind some kind of paywall (aka the [freemium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium) pricing model). Most modern dharma sidesteps traditional discussions of attainment, as those higher levels of practice aren’t yet included in modern translations. Instead, the completion of degrees, or professional certifications, serve as a stand-in for personal attainments. **Modern dharma tends to be more ideologically open than traditional dharma, and structurally more democratic, though still centralized. One core characteristic of modern dharma is that they only make their teachings available for those that are willing, or able, to pay for access**. #### **🔗** Examples of Modern Dharma: * [**Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction**](https://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mindfulness-based-programs/mbsr-courses/about-mbsr/) (MBSR) * [**Headspace**](https://www.headspace.com) * [**Calm**](https://www.opensourcedharma.info/view/www.calm.com) ### **Postmodern Dharma** **Postmodern dharma** approaches blend and integrate a variety of traditional and modern elements together and apply these to a variety of different contexts. Where traditional dharma is interested in preserving ancient forms, and modern dharma is interested in integrating with modern economics, psychology, science, & technology, postmodern dharma is focused on integrating the critiques of post-modernism. These post-modern critiques include the **dismantling grand systematic narratives**, an awareness of how **systemic oppression** of marginalized groups works, and the **questioning of progress, rationality, & individualism** as the core values of a just society. Postmodernism, especially in its deconstructive mode, tends to be highly **relativistic**, **pluralistic**, and **egalitarian**. In its reconstructive, or **metamodern** mode, it begins weaving together new patterns of possibility. **Postmodern dharma tends to be ideologically fluid, and tends to emphasize decentralizing & distributing institutional forms, while placing an emphasis on openness, collaboration, integration, and justice for all.** **🔗 Examples of Post-Modern Dharma** * [**Meditation Coalition**](https://meditationcoalition.com) * [**Psychedelic Sangha**](https://psychedelicsangha.org) * [**SF Dharma Collective**](https://sfdharmacollective.org/) [Vince Horn](https://www.opensourcedharma.info/view/www.vincehorn.space)\ March, 2019 # The Collaborative Commons We consider this project to be part of a larger social & economic movement called the Collaborative Commons. {% embed url="" %} ### Dive Deep into the Collaborative Commons: {% embed url="" %} # Open Source Dharma Protocol The **Open Source Dharma protocol** seeks to make it easier new forms of dharma to emerge, by creating and maintaining **open standards** that incentivizes permission-less innovation, cross-lineage collaboration, and transparent organization. The main standard is around [Open Content](/standards/open-content) which makes teachings accessible and open to further iterations - that's the main standard to follow to be part of the Open Source Dharma movement. The second one is around [Transparent Ethics](/standards/transparent-ethics). There are also two optional standards around [Transparent Governance](/standards/transparent-governance) and [Transparent Finances](/standards/transparent-finances). ## Also See {% content-ref url="/pages/-Lk6NonLYKIK-XHHT93d" %} [Open Source Sanghas](/sanghas/sanghas) {% endcontent-ref %} # Open Content > “Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose (subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness).” - [The Open Definition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Definition) Open Source Dharma lineages **openly share teaching content**, in a way that conforms to the standard above, which itself comes out of the open source software movement. ![https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative\_Commons\_license](/files/-L_bagb785zaEwosVHEo) The “most open” [Creative Commons Licenses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license) meet this definition. With these licenses one can share content openly to the public domain, the most open possible license, and/or can require attribution (provenance), and/or require that others share any derivative content under a similarly open license, known as share-alike or copyleft. # Transparent Ethics Open Source Dharma is an **ethics-first standard**, meaning that any project claiming to be compatible with the open source dharma standard, must display **a public statement of ethics**, have clearly displayed **ethical protocols**, and an **open channel to report ethical breakdowns**. # Transparent Governance To increase transparency and participation, Open Source Dharma lineages may make their governance practices and agreements **transparent to the public**. This includes sharing as much information as possible on one’s operating agreement, as well as on the roles, accountabilities, policies, and governance structure of the organization. If an Open Source Dharma lineage doesn’t operate as a formal organization, but rather as a loose confederation of people, then the process by which your group makes decisions must documented and shared to meet this open governance requirement. # Transparent Finances Open Source Dharma lineages that operate using financial account(s) may provide a transparent accounting of their financial activity publicly. This includes, at minimum, a detailed quarterly report on all money coming in and going out of their accounts. This increased financial transparency is meant to reduce fraud, and increase trust for students, teaching colleagues, and those working on the organizational side of the communities. # Open Source Sanghas The following are a list of sanghas who have adopted Open Source Dharma protocols. [**Buddhist Geeks**](https://buddhistgeeks.org/) - Originally a podcast co-founded by Vincent Horn and Ryan Oelke, over a [complex history](https://www.buddhistgeeks.org/about) it grew into a whole network of dharma activities with a core mission of evolving dharma for the age of the newwork. It's at the origin of the Open Source Dharma movement. You can find a lot of their open content on their [guide](https://guide.buddhistgeeks.org/) and [YouTube channel](https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCsPYh5bq9lh354HQJCdNXVw). * [Teacher's Code of Ethics](https://www.heartofinsight.guide/ethics/teachers) and [Reconcilation Process](https://www.heartofinsight.guide/ethics/reconciliation) * [Holocracy Governance](https://meta.buddhistgeeks.org/about/holacracy) # Buddhist Geeks Buddhist Geeks was the founding community of the Open Source Dharma movement, seeding the movement. ![Buddhist Geeks 1.0: "The Podcast" (2006-2010)](/files/6y9lgBfqO5RIFUH7Q21g) ![Buddhist Geeks 2.0: "The Conferences" (2010-2014)](/files/wrsekbx25XDCveB0t1yy) ![Buddhist Geeks 3.0: "Death & Rebirth" (2014-2020)](/files/1m9EtZ5ZK7pZ7GQzkiwD) #### **Buddhist Geeks 4.0: "Meta-Regeneration" (2021-????)** We are here in service of the Evolution of Dharma, and here to support the uprising of a new generation of wisdom seekers and be'ers. With that in mind we enter into a new phase, or iteration, in which we're aimed at riding the great wave of web3 decentralization and generation of novel cryptonetworks, all aimed at generating efficient methods of distributed consensus, in order to bend the arc of what is possible with our dharma practice & life design. Local, resilient, bioregional networks of organization coordinating at a broader scales through new mechanicisms of ecoregional governance and shared ownership of new digital networks, owned and governed by their inhabitatants. # Suggested Tools Tools that make it easy to implement OS Dharma In this section, you'll find instructions for common and useful online tools to make it easier to collaborate around Open Source Dharma content. {% content-ref url="/pages/-L\_wgaqhJBbV\_q7JMMiK" %} [Gitbook](/implementation/gitbook) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-L\_wocKIwOpMt-s3jP6C" %} [YouTube](/implementation/youtube) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-L\_wojH7QbzTS\_XRojKE" %} [SoundCloud](/implementation/soundcloud) {% endcontent-ref %} # Gitbook [Gitbook](http://www.gitbook.com) is one of the most useful tools we've found so far, for sharing content in an easy to organize and digest form. Gitbook also syncs with Github, which makes it easy to collaborate. # Sharing Content on Gitbook To share on Gitbook, you'll want to [set-up an account](https://www.gitbook.com), and then begin populating your Gitbook with pages. You can embed content from other sources, including [youtube](/implementation/youtube), [soundcloud](/implementation/soundcloud), etc. Making the appropriate creative commons attributions on gitbook pages is as easy as copy & paste. # Connecting Gitbook to a Root Domain It's fairly easy and straight-forward to link your gitbook to a custom sub-domain (ex. ), but it's a bit more complicated to link a gitbook to a root domain (ex. [www.opensourcedharma.info](http://www.opensourcedharma.info)). Here we offer some instructions on linking your gitbook to a root domain, using iwantmyname.com, a standard domain registrar, and cloudflare, a company that offers various domain-related services. You can use other registrar services to do this, but in these instructions we'll only show you how to do this with iwantmyname.com. We haven't tested, or confirmed, this process on other registrars, so just be aware that this may not work exactly the same way on another service. ![](/files/-L_wi7WdeNqGhCl7wLt1) ### ### **Step 1: Set-up Web Forwarding** on iwantmyname ![](/files/-L_wjt3FUbUvxhl8lw3e) ![](/files/-L_wjxEUbriTUOsxUct1) ![](/files/-L_wk19hFVNeXENcRu7F) ![](/files/-L_wk3iYPxlp1x4s4qPr) ### ### Step 2: Add Site on CloudFlare ![](/files/-LueZoltOSMWlQUAkoBV) ![](/files/-LueZyZsgYtzJkfBxnCn) ![](/files/-L_wm47KaPJqHPGBJkVh) ![](/files/-L_wm8wbaAhfrqwY920f) ![](/files/-L_wmDFhGZMcDvwG6c_5) ![](/files/-L_wnybvoOhulXnDYxa6) ### ### Step 3: Setup CloudFlare Page Rules ![](/files/-L_wo1kkk_IBu5ZwoflA) ![](/files/-L_wo5uE36V8RblvMIFd) ![](/files/-L_wo94s9DhId1JfNV86) # YouTube It's possible to mark all of your content on **Youtube** as being **Creative Commons By Attribution**. When you edit the video, go to "**Advanced settings**" and then under "**License and rights ownership**" select **Creative Commons - Attribution.** ![](/files/-L_bgTTeIRddjbl7YF8W) # SoundCloud It's easy to share audio content on SoundCloud using an open creative commons license. [Read these more in-depth instructions](https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003566748-Creative-Commons), or watch the tutorial below. 📺 ![](/files/-L_bhRv6A3Ap1NxYEoxX) In order to fulfill our standard of openness, you'll need to unclick everything under the Creative Commons section, with the exception of "Attribution" and/or "Share Alike". Depending on how you want to [license your content](/standards/open-content), you'll check the appropriate boxes **Noncommercial & No Derivative** **Works** should be unclicked. # Open Source Dharma Open Source Dharma is a newly proposed open standard & network, whose aim is to encourage the flourishing of a transparent, collaborative, creative, & evolutionary ecosystem of dharma. ![](/files/-LmQ7jysRbpbm12lajNB) [Open Source Dharma](https://www.opensourcedharma.info/) is a newly proposed open standard & network, whose aim is to encourage the flourishing of a transparent, collaborative, creative, & evolutionary ecosystem of dharma. The Open Source Dharma protocol serves as a radical alternative to [Proprietary Dharma](/master/view/proprietary-dharma) by making it easier for new forms of dharma to emerge. We do this by creating and maintaining an open standard that incentivizes permission-less innovation, cross-lineage collaboration, and transparent organization. Think of it as [An Internet of Dharma](/master/view/internet-of-dharma). The Open Source Dharma standard has [3 ranks](/master/view/osdharma-ranks), each demonstrating greater openness & transparency in the project than the previous. Any dharma teacher or community is welcome to join the Open Source Dharma movement by implementing this protocol in their communities of practice. # The Internet of Dharma Dharma, in the age of the network, is facing a crisis of irrelevance. Humanity is facing a meta-crisis of survival. Open Source Dharma is one response to these overlapping crises. In the West, during the later half of the 20th century, Buddhist Dharma was an *avantgarde* movement. It was made up of young artists and creatives who had an oversized impact on culture. These young people introduced contemplative values from the East into the mainstream West, while questioning conventionality in ways that shook the homogeny of the day. In the late 1970s a young molecular biologist, named Jon Kabat-Zinn, imagined a secular translation of the meditative methods he had learned from the Zen and Theravada Buddhist traditions. This translation became known as Mindfulness Based Stress-Reduction ("MBSR"), and it was taught as a medical intervention for those suffering untreatable chronic pain. It worked wonders where other interventions didn't. The [unbundling of mindfulness from Buddhism](https://art19.com/shows/buddhist-geeks/episodes/962521b3-d7e6-44b6-9f52-5764c64ca33b), and its further secularization, especially through [the contemporary dialogue](https://www.mindandlife.org/mind-and-life-dialogues/) between Buddhists & Scientists, birthed **the mindfulness movement.** Today, this movement continues to explode in relevance, even as it's beginning to show its [darker sides](https://medium.com/@meditateio/the-second-generation-of-mindfulness-e669318c03fc). ### McMindfulness 🍔 As many critics of have pointed out, the mindfulness movement is largely untethered from the same commitment to **selfless ethics** and **radical awakening** that Buddhist traditions have often aimed for. What's often called "McMindfulness" has been able to reach entirely new audiences because of this untethering, while becoming a hot bed of innovation for those willing to recombine mindfulness with other streams of human knowledge. Evolution is a process driven by recombination. Mindfulness-based technologies are also far more advanced, in terms of design, development, and adoption than Buddhist ones. This is because Mindfulness is a perfect bedfellow for what many call [late-stage capitalism](https://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2017/05/late-capitalism/524943/). The most technologically impressive mindfulness projects, mainly in the form of meditation apps, are backed by large amounts of private & institutional capital. Because non-judgmental mindfulness can be applied so flexibly, and in so many different contexts, in addition to being a genuine secular salve, it has also been co-opted by the very systems driving our planet toward the brink of a climate apocalypse. "The world may be ending, but at least we can breath through it." **The strength *****and***** weakness of mindfulness, it turns out,** **is its radical adaptability**. Many Buddhist institutions find these hyper-capitalist models to be out-of-sync with their deeper values, and so remain under-resourced and impotent. Many have become increasingly conservative, stodgy, and out of touch with present-day realities, even while what makes them most exciting, namely awakening, has yet to find its way into popular culture. And while the critics of the mindfulness movement make very good points, they don't often offer alternative visions. Instead they offer us a bittersweet combination of cynicism and romanticism. "This is all terrible, we should go back to the way it was." But there is not going backward, only forward, one moment at a time. ### What is Dharma? > "This is the best of gifts: the gift of Dharma." - [The Buddha](https://www.accesstoinsight.org/lib/authors/nyanaponika/wheel238.html) The heart of dharma practice opens us to the profound **interconnectivity of life**. Realizing what Buddhists call emptiness means realizing that **we don't exist in isolation, ever**. The awakening of all beings is intimately intertwined. **Generosity**, far from being an ideal, is a natural response to the patently obvious. **Collaboration** is what we do when we realize our interdestiny. This may seem obvious, from a philosophical or even personal perspective, but how well are we actually doing, as a community, to realize this? On the whole, I'd say that **we're failing to actualize our interconnectivity**, and at creating spaces of **deep collaboration** and **true generosity** of heart. We're more caught up in the failings of traditional Buddhist institutions, and in preserving what's already dead, then we are in dreaming new dreams of what could be. It's ok to acknowledge this painful truth, and it's understandable, given how the structures and values of the larger systems we're embedded within are built on nearly opposite principles. That said, **we can and must do better**. We need new visions to light the way. ### **The Gift of the Web** > "This is for everyone." - [Tim Berners-Lee](https://youtu.be/cCE2EyV_IiY), Inventor of the World Wide Web **One of the visions we can find deep inspiration from, is the birth of the World Wide Web.** Launched in 1990, by an eccentric, humble, and open-hearted Brit named Tim Berners-Lee, **the Internet is interconnectivity made real**. While Tim could have easily commercialized the open protocols that made the web possible, he sensed that this was far too important for him, or anyone else, to own. He gave all of the protocols away to the public domain, essentially **gifting the World Wide Web to humanity**. ♥️ Even today, we have to fight for that gift, as the net becomes less and less neutral. Large private companies like Google, Facebook, & Amazon have continued to innovate on these original web protocols, but largely keep those innovations to themselves, creating walled algorithmic gardens that threaten to disconnect us from one another. As we enter a period of [runaway climate destabilization](https://www.nytimes.com/2018/10/07/climate/ipcc-climate-report-2040.html), the internet simultaneously opens up the possibility of living without scarcity. With the growth of the [creative commons](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3xOK2aJ-0Js), new post-capitalist visions of abundance are coming online. This presents a huge opportunity for dharma-based projects to do things differently, to leverage our values as a strength, rather than seeming them as weakness. We can, if we so choose, retake the torch as innovators and influencers of culture. We can help inspire, not just better communities of practice, but a better planetary culture. That's what it's all about. We aim to actualize this vision by coming together and creating an **Open Source Dharma Protocol & Network**. Think of this protocol, and the ecosystem that could arise around and through it, as **The Internet of Dharma**. It's a new open protocol, just like the web, designed to help unlock deep collaboration and exciting new ways to practice. It's an *inruptive* vision, which is designed to destabilize withering hierarchies, empower peer-to-peer connections, lift up the most skilled and talented among us, so they can lift everyone else up. We invite you to contribute to this vision, by learning more in the pages ahead, and by participating in whatever way you can, because without you, this is only an idea. [Vince Horn](https://www.opensourcedharma.info/master/view/www.vincehorn.space) # What is Proprietary Dharma? Open Source Dharma serves as a radical alternative to Proprietary Dharma. > “Religious traditions are usually necessary for providing an understanding of our inborn potential and for showing us how to realize it. But when they claim proprietary ownership of that which we seek, they betray themselves and get in our way.” - **Reggie Ray**, *Touching Enlightenment* ## **What is Proprietary Dharma?** Proprietary Dharma includes all of the **traditional dharma** communities who keep secrets as a means of protecting their students from advanced teachings, their secret sauce from being stolen, or their social hierarchies from being disrupted. Proprietary Dharma also includes all of the **modern dharma** communities & systems, whose training materials aren’t free and open, but are rather put behind a paywall, or only accessible once one has completed a paid certificate or degree program. **Postmodern dharma**, which recombines traditional and modern elements, can be more or less proprietary, depending on which elements are utilized and how. ### **Traditional Dharma** In the case of traditional, conserver-style dharma, “the teachings” are often offered “free of charge” or are described as being priceless. This is one of the ways the beautiful spirit of generosity makes itself known in these dharmic traditions. Unfortunately, this same spirit of open accessibility isn’t usually present when it comes to accessing the “higher” teachings, or doing something which may fall outside of the orthodoxy. It certainly doesn’t apply when it comes to acknowledging & discussing actual experiences or attainments, or when it comes to the openness of the institutional structures. **Traditional dharma tends to be financially accessible, while being highly centralized and ideologically proprietary.** #### **🔗** Examples of Traditional Dharma: * [**S.N. Goenka's Vipassana Meditation**](http://www.dhamma.org) * [**Amaravati Buddhist Monastery**](https://www.amaravati.org/) ### Modern Dharma **What modern dharma forms share in common with each other is an attempt to integrate with modern secular values & systems**. Institutionally, modern dharma tends to operate in the capitalist mode, with many instances of centralized, for-profit institutional structures, where ownership and value flows upward toward equity holders. In the case of modern dharma, it’s often the case that much of the teaching material is free, but this free content is used as a gateway to paid content that exists behind some kind of paywall (aka the [freemium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freemium) pricing model). Most modern dharma sidesteps traditional discussions of attainment, as those higher levels of practice aren’t yet included in modern translations. Instead, the completion of degrees, or professional certifications, serve as a stand-in for personal attainments. **Modern dharma tends to be more ideologically open than traditional dharma, and structurally more democratic, though still centralized. One core characteristic of modern dharma is that they only make their teachings available for those that are willing, or able, to pay for access**. #### **🔗** Examples of Modern Dharma: * [**Mindfulness Based Stress Reduction**](https://www.umassmed.edu/cfm/mindfulness-based-programs/mbsr-courses/about-mbsr/) (MBSR) * [**Headspace**](https://www.headspace.com) * [**Calm**](https://www.opensourcedharma.info/master/view/www.calm.com) ### **Postmodern Dharma** **Postmodern dharma** approaches blend and integrate a variety of traditional and modern elements together and apply these to a variety of different contexts. Where traditional dharma is interested in preserving ancient forms, and modern dharma is interested in integrating with modern economics, psychology, science, & technology, postmodern dharma is focused on integrating the critiques of post-modernism. These post-modern critiques include the **dismantling grand systematic narratives**, an awareness of how **systemic oppression** of marginalized groups works, and the **questioning of progress, rationality, & individualism** as the core values of a just society. Postmodernism, especially in its deconstructive mode, tends to be highly **relativistic**, **pluralistic**, and **egalitarian**. In its reconstructive, or **metamodern** mode, it begins weaving together new patterns of possibility. **Postmodern dharma tends to be ideologically fluid, and tends to emphasize decentralizing & distributing institutional forms, while placing an emphasis on openness, collaboration, integration, and justice for all.** **🔗 Examples of Post-Modern Dharma** * [**Meditation Coalition**](https://meditationcoalition.com) * [**Psychedelic Sangha**](https://psychedelicsangha.org) * [**SF Dharma Collective**](https://sfdharmacollective.org/) [Vince Horn](https://www.opensourcedharma.info/master/view/www.vincehorn.space)\ March, 2019 # The Collaborative Commons We consider this project to be part of a larger social & economic movement called the Collaborative Commons. {% embed url="" %} ### Dive Deep into the Collaborative Commons: {% embed url="" %} # Open Source Dharma Ranks The **Open Source Dharma protocol** seeks to make it easier new forms of dharma to emerge, by creating and maintaining an **open standard** that incentivizes permission-less innovation, cross-lineage collaboration, and transparent organization. The Open Source Dharma standard has **3 Ranks**, each demonstrating greater openness & transparency in the project than the previous. {% content-ref url="/pages/-L\_rQ\_otGnT7rMRAELcT" %} [1st Rank](/master/view/osdharma-ranks/rank1) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-L\_rQbUyzD4D\_1gfe-PH" %} [2nd Rank](/master/view/osdharma-ranks/rank2) {% endcontent-ref %} {% content-ref url="/pages/-L\_rQcjfMJ1Yw2xZBPIx" %} [3rd Rank](/master/view/osdharma-ranks/rank3) {% endcontent-ref %} ## Also See {% content-ref url="/pages/-Lk6NonLYKIK-XHHT93d" %} [Open Source Sanghas](/master/sanghas/sanghas) {% endcontent-ref %} # 1st Rank Generosity & blamelessness are the basis of the first rank. ![](/files/-L_ZMOte2C4_aBTvABUl) In the **1st Rank of Open Source Dharma** a dharma-related project will have [opened up some of their teaching contents](/master/standards/open-content), releasing them under an **open license** as **free cultural works**. In addition they will have a publicly posted, [transparent account of how they approach ethics &/or morality](/master/standards/transparent-ethics) in their project. That would include a **statement of ethics**, **clearly described** **ethical protocols**, and **an open channel** to report ethical breakdowns. {% content-ref url="/pages/-Lk6NonLYKIK-XHHT93d" %} [Open Source Sanghas](/master/sanghas/sanghas) {% endcontent-ref %} # 2nd Rank One can differentiate without splitting apart at the 2nd Rank. ![](/files/-L_ZMgD-wBTmr_tmGb8m) In the **2nd Rank of Open Source Dharma** a project will have met all of the requirements of the [1st Rank](/master/view/osdharma-ranks/rank1) plus have opened up [all of their public teaching material as free cultural works](/master/standards/open-content). In addition, a 2nd Rank project will have clearly detailed expectations about what’s expected of someone to [become a core contributor](/master/standards/core-contributors). Core contributors are those people who are able to **make/suggest/edit changes** to the core teaching corpus, and whose opinion carries extra weight within their respective communities. All 2nd Rank projects must also have a documented and workable means for [forking the entire teaching corpus](broken://pages/-L_bbgYjj40uzZd-KXOy) of their lineage. **Anyone must be able to fork your material**, which creates a technical means by which formal splits can occur. Interestingly, an open source dharma project could split, and still be hosting each other’s teaching material on their site, or still actively collaborating. # 3rd Rank In the 3rd rank the dharma of organization is luminously transparent. ![](/files/-L_ZMkBzd7HrIgbEfGFb) In the **3rd Rank of Open Source Dharma** a project has become completely transparent in its operations. Not only are it’s ethical systems clear, not only is all of the content freely available, not only are the expectations clear for someone who wants to become a core contributor, and not only can the entire source code of the project be forked, by anyone, but in the third degree the [governance processes](/master/standards/transparent-governance) and [financial activity](/master/standards/transparent-finances) of the project are transparently shared with the public. # Open Source Sanghas The following are a list of sanghas who have adopted the Open Source Dharma protocol. ## 1st Rank Sanghas * [**Heart of Insight**](http://www.heartofinsight.guide) - Co-founded by dharma teachers Emily Horn & Vincent Horn, Heart of Insight was the first sangha to have fully adopted the Open Source Dharma protocol. You can find all of their open content on the [Heart of Insight Guide](http://www.heartofinsight.guide) and you can find their [Teacher's Code of Ethics](https://www.heartofinsight.guide/ethics/teachers) and [Reconcilation Process](https://www.heartofinsight.guide/ethics/reconciliation). ## 2nd Rank Sanghas none yet ## 3rd Rank Sanghas none yet # Transparent Ethics Open Source Dharma is an **ethics-first standard**, meaning that any project claiming to be compatible with the open source dharma standard, must display **a public statement of ethics**, have clearly displayed **ethical protocols**, and an **open channel to report ethical breakdowns**. # Open Content > “Open means anyone can freely access, use, modify, and share for any purpose (subject, at most, to requirements that preserve provenance and openness).” - [The Open Definition](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Open_Definition) Open Source Dharma lineages **openly share teaching content**, in a way that conforms to the standard above, which itself comes out of the open source software movement. ![https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative\_Commons\_license](/files/-L_bagb785zaEwosVHEo) The “most open” [Creative Commons Licenses](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creative_Commons_license) meet this definition. With these licenses one can share content openly to the public domain, the most open possible license, and/or can require attribution (provenance), and/or require that others share any derivative content under a similarly open license, known as share-alike or copyleft. # Core Contributors Every Open Source Dharma lineage must have a clear pathway laid out for practitioners, describing what’s expected for them to become **Core Contributors** of the teaching corpus. Think of this as the open source dharma equivalent of a ‘lineage holder.’ Each sangha must determine for itself what this pathway looks like, and what it entails. With the integration of [Open Badges](https://openbadges.org) this core contributor status is recognized as a formal attainment. **This is the only required attainment in Open Source Dharma**. # Transparent Governance All Open Source Dharma lineages must make their governance practices and agreements **transparent to the public**. This includes sharing as much information as possible on one’s operating agreement, as well as on the roles, accountabilities, policies, and governance structure of the organization. If an Open Source Dharma lineage doesn’t operate as a formal organization, but rather as a loose confederation of people, then the process by which your group makes decisions must documented and shared to meet this open governance requirement. # Transparent Finances All Open Source Dharma lineages that operate using financial account(s) must provide a transparent accounting of their financial activity publicly. This includes, at minimum, a detailed quarterly report on all money coming in and going out of their accounts. This increased financial transparency is meant to reduce fraud, and increase trust for students, teaching colleagues, and those working on the organizational side of the communities. # Gitbook [Gitbook](http://www.gitbook.com) is one of the most useful tools we've found so far, for sharing content in an easy to organize and digest form. Gitbook also syncs with Github, which enables one to make an entire teaching corpus [forkable](broken://pages/-L_bbgYjj40uzZd-KXOy). # Sharing Content on Gitbook To share on Gitbook, you'll want to [set-up an account](https://www.gitbook.com), and then begin populating your Gitbook with pages. You can embed content from other sources, including [youtube](broken://pages/-L_bdOsXR7hJXQ_bCJo4), [soundcloud](broken://pages/-L_bgynrPC8vVbzlGllD), etc. Making the appropriate creative commons attributions on gitbook pages is as easy as copy & paste. # Connecting Gitbook to a Root Domain It's fairly easy and straight-forward to link your gitbook to a custom sub-domain (ex. ), but it's a bit more complicated to link a gitbook to a root domain (ex. [www.opensourcedharma.info](http://www.opensourcedharma.info)). Here we offer some instructions on linking your gitbook to a root domain, using iwantmyname.com, a standard domain registrar, and cloudflare, a company that offers various domain-related services. You can use other registrar services to do this, but in these instructions we'll only show you how to do this with iwantmyname.com. We haven't tested, or confirmed, this process on other registrars, so just be aware that this may not work exactly the same way on another service. ![](/files/-L_wi7WdeNqGhCl7wLt1) ### ### **Step 1: Set-up Web Forwarding** on iwantmyname ![](/files/-L_wjt3FUbUvxhl8lw3e) ![](/files/-L_wjxEUbriTUOsxUct1) ![](/files/-L_wk19hFVNeXENcRu7F) ![](/files/-L_wk3iYPxlp1x4s4qPr) ### ### Step 2: Add Site on CloudFlare ![](/files/-LueZoltOSMWlQUAkoBV) ![](/files/-LueZyZsgYtzJkfBxnCn) ![](/files/-L_wm47KaPJqHPGBJkVh) ![](/files/-L_wm8wbaAhfrqwY920f) ![](/files/-L_wmDFhGZMcDvwG6c_5) ![](/files/-L_wnybvoOhulXnDYxa6) ### ### Step 3: Setup CloudFlare Page Rules ![](/files/-L_wo1kkk_IBu5ZwoflA) ![](/files/-L_wo5uE36V8RblvMIFd) ![](/files/-L_wo94s9DhId1JfNV86) # YouTube It's possible to mark all of your content on **Youtube** as being **Creative Commons By Attribution**. When you edit the video, go to "**Advanced settings**" and then under "**License and rights ownership**" select **Creative Commons - Attribution.** ![](/files/-L_bgTTeIRddjbl7YF8W) # SoundCloud It's easy to share audio content on SoundCloud using an open creative commons license. [Read these more in-depth instructions](https://help.soundcloud.com/hc/en-us/articles/115003566748-Creative-Commons), or watch the tutorial below. 📺 ![](/files/-L_bhRv6A3Ap1NxYEoxX) In order to fulfill our standard of openness, you'll need to unclick everything under the Creative Commons section, with the exception of "Attribution" and/or "Share Alike". Depending on how you want to [license your content](/master/standards/open-content), you'll check the appropriate boxes **Noncommercial & No Derivative** **Works** should be unclicked.