What Can I Do to Help? DharmaNet is a community of individuals, most of whom have never met each other but who share a vision of global community in the teachings of the Buddha. DharmaNet is a community garden, planting metta and lovingkindness, nurturing the Buddha Dharma. It is a labor of love. There are no paid workers here. Everything that happens in this online community is the fruit of volunteer efforts from people like you and me. DharmaNet could not grow, nor exist, without the goodwill and donations of time, energy and resources of the people who share this vision. If you find DharmaNet to be of value to you, please consider being active in nurturing and supporting this collective resource. How can you help? * Money * Obviously, it costs money to provide and to maintain this resource. Each sysop of a DharmaNet BBS pays long distance phone calls to help transfer mail from city to city, enabling this interlinked network of echomail dialogue, personal communications, Dharma text files, and more. Each sysop personally bears those expenses in promoting the common goal of interconnected communications. As the Director of DharmaNet, I have asked all sysops to voluntarily bear these costs and not to pass them on to you -- however, if you will continue this unbroken chain of generosity and offer financial assistance to a DharmaNet site that you participate in, it certainly helps these sites to continue and it helps keep alive that tradition of mutuality that has existed between Dharma centers and community for over 2500 years. Donations need not be grand sums of money. A monthly contribution -- the amount you would spend on a magazine that you read each month -- that can be a valuable help to your local Dharma BBS. BODY DHARMA ONLINE is the central hub for DharmaNet for the entire world. Its physical resources are at capacity and yet there is so much more to be done. With your help, the services here at BODY DHARMA can be improved to provide better service to you, as well as allowing new services to be developed. If you can, please donate. If you can't donate, we understand; please help in other ways. This garden is for your use -- and for your care. * Other Donations * We often have tools and resources sitting in closets and storerooms that could certainly be valuable to the community enterprise. Computers, modems, FAXs, printers, scanners, memory chips, hard drives, envelopes, stamps, paper, books, etc, etc. Nothing is inconsequential. If its not being used, please consider donating it to DharmaNet International -- we'll certainly find a use for it. DharmaNet International hopes to be incorporated as a not-for-profit charitable and religious corporation before the new year. This is another major expense but will allow future donations to be tax-deductable. * Education * In the few years that DharmaNet has been in existence, it has grown to have sites throughout the world. This has largely happened through word of mouth. If you find DharmaNet to be valuable to you personally, or you can see its potential value to the preservation and promotion of Buddhist values and understandings, or you just find it to be a "positive" project that you'd like to see grow, please tell your friends and colleagues. One of the biggest obstacles for people is overcoming the unfamiliarity with the technology. If you can help educate a friend about how to log on to a BBS, or tutor your boss in how to send an e-mail message or to search an online database, that is a tremendous help. Whenever you pass some fertile soil, drop in a little seed. * Become a DharmaNet Sysop * Our community is comprised of individuals from all parts of the world. If you'd like to help DharmaNet to grow, and to make Dharma freely accessible to anyone anywhere, and to utilize this work as a Dharma door, as a part of your own personal "practice", then consider becoming a DharmaNet sysop. All that is required is a willingness to work as a part of a community and to practice helping, giving. The hardware/software required is minimal and the experience comes from the doing. We have a very helpful collective of sysops who will be happy to assist and it is a quite rewarding way to practice Dharma in the world. * Share your talents or expertise * We all learn from each other. We all can help one another. If you have particular skills you'd like to make available, there most certainly exists someone who needs just that information or skill that you possess. The conferences are excellent places to practice compassion and sharing and to develop Dharma friends. And... DharmaNet International could certainly use both some legal counsel and accounting help in the coming months. * Appreciation * And just to say to a DharmaNet sysop, or to somewhat you met in an echo, that you appreciate the people, the effort, the vision, that makes up DharmaNet, really goes a long way. If all you can offer is to say "Thanks for being here and for doing what you're doing," that's a precious gift. I thank *you* for being here. May our work together benefit all beings. Namaste. Barry Kapke, Director DharmaNet International