Do what is asked of you and take personal responsibility

In the first half of the 12th year of training at the Monastic Academy for the Preservation of Life on Earth, Soryu gave a 40 class lecture series called “Buddhism for AI”. This lecture series was to be filmed for later distribution. It was Soryu’s job to give the talk, and various residents were responsible for other aspects of the project, such as preparing the physical space, video, and audio in such a way that the content could be shared in a virtual format. As such, the lighting had to be good (and consistent), the camera angles had to be good, the sound quality had to be good, and this had to be true for the whole room, as the audio and video recordings were meant to capture anyone who spoke. Despite the fact that residents were responsible for these aspects of the project, they were consistently failing to take responsibility for managing their parts, and Soryu would have to repeatedly ask them if the lighting was okay, if the camera angle was the same, if the lecturn with his notes was in the correct spot, if the audio was being recorded, and if the video was being recorded.

During one course lecture, Soryu asked the curriculum designer Bodhi to speak on standardized tests given his expertise in education, and the recordist did not notice this as a cue to get the mic ready to record him. Then someone pointed it out to her and she hurried to get the recorder ready. The sound was then being recorded but the camera person did not take this as a cue that the video also needed to be recorded until Soryu said something to him.

Soryu used this as an opportunity to point to this important aspect of the training that is doing what is asked of us while also taking personal responsibility. Doing responsibility is harder in this training than in most places. It is very difficult to simultaneously become no one and also become someone. We are constantly being asked to find the unification of non-doing and doing, non-action and action.