About Us
OUR STORY
Where It All Started
Origin
Before the Covid pandemic, propagation of Buddhism was trudging along with old customs and traditions. Printing of Dhamma books, monks having to travel long distances to the venues invited by devotees to give Dhamma talks or meditation retreats and devotees visiting physical temples and monasteries to give offerings were the norm. This is not a problem in Buddhist countries like Myanmar, Sri Lanka and Thailand. However, for other countries like Singapore, Malaysia and Indonesia, there is a serious lack of monks to serve the huge Buddhist communities in these countries. As tradition plays a very important role in Theravada Buddhism, it also proved to be a huge hindrance for adoption of new propagation avenues especially through digital means. The founder had tried to push for e-learning of Buddhism in 2 prominent temples in Singapore and Malaysia but to no avail. Due to lack of support, he had almost given up on his idea of building an e-learning platform for sharing the Dhamma.
Turning Point
As shown in the Yin Yang diagram, there will always be a glimpse of hope in the most despairing situations. The turning point came when the Covid pandemic broke out in 2020 worldwide. People were forced to go online to do everything due to lockdowns. The previously rejected initiatives like e-learning website, webinars and online meetings were so thoroughly implemented worldwide that even extremely traditional Buddhist temples and monasteries had to adopt them or risk depleting their fund reserves for a seemingly never-ending pandemic. 2 years later, the founder decided to launch Refuge In Dhamma to further the e-learning trend and make use of the wide variety of online services to build an extensive e-learning platform for sharing the Dhamma.
OUR VISION
What We Believe
The Dhamma should be applicable to all human beings regardless of gender, race, religion and nationality. It is a truly egalitarian way of life that promotes a joyful living in the midst of peace.
1. We value egalitarianism in all aspects of society.
2. We seek to share the Dhamma through digitised avenues.
3. We pursue integration of the Dhamma in our daily activities.
4. We seek to share and practise the true Dhamma by filtering out all embellishments and superstitions.
OUR PURPOSE
What We Wish To Achieve
Pedagogy
Traditional Buddhist pedagogy is limited to using only one type of our 5 senses at any one time. For example, listening to Dhamma talks uses the auditory sense while reading a Dhamma book engages the visual sense. However, in recent research1, it is shown that engaging a single sense organ while learning is less effective and not efficient. The modern way is to use Multimodal Learning Pedagogy for the best Retention Of Information (ROI)2.
In order to implement Multimodel Learning, Refuge In Dhamma will be using some of the strategies as described in this article3:
1) Blended learning
Learners can use the online resources on Refuge In Dhamma to learn at their own pace. When ready, they can join our onsite or online real-time meditation courses. The courses not only allow verification of the Dhamma through real practice, they also let learners clear their doubts.
2) Use of multimedia and open educational resources
At the start, Refuge In Dhamma offers blogs and hybrid meditation courses. As we grow, more resources will be available for learners to use. Our Content Roadmap shows the various developments planned. We will also provide links to other educational resources, secular knowledge notwithstanding, as demonstrated in this webpage.
3) Anywhere, anytime, any size learning
The real benefit of an e-learning platform is that users can learn anywhere, anytime and the amount of knowledge to take in at any one time. There is no need to sit for 1 hour straight, listening to a Dhamma talk and forcing yourself to remember at most 20% of the information presented. Learners have the freedom to dictate the time and place for learning to take place. They can learn alone or with family and friends. They can take 1 day, 1 week or 1 month to finish reading a blog. The flexibility is there.
OUR LOGO
Refuge In Dhamma
Nibbana
The acronym ‘RID’ comes from the first letters of ‘Refuge In Dhamma’. We hope that anyone who takes refuge in the Dhamma will be able to RID themselves of Greed, Anger and Ignorance in order to attain Nibbana.
Noble Eightfold Path
There are eight leaves above the letter ‘i’ signifying the Eight-Fold Noble Path, which is the only Path to attain true freedom, Nibbana.
Triple Gem
BUDDHA
As Purple colour symbolises royalty, we use it in the logo to represent the Buddha.
DHAMMA
Evergreen plants have green leaves that do not fall off in winter. Hence, we use this colour to represent the Dhamma, an eternal law of the universe.
SAṄGHA
Orange colour is used to represent the monks’ & nuns’ communities as this is one of the recognised colours for monastic robes.
OUR TEAM
Our Leadership
Founder
I am a Theravada monk who trained in Myanmar for 2 years before leaving, in search of other meditation methods. In the following years, I traveled to various Buddhist temples and monasteries in Asia and met with different people of varying backgrounds, as well as monks from different lineages. This broadened my view on how different people practise the Dhamma. I hope these experiences can let me present the Dhamma with a different perspective in Refuge In Dhamma.
Having a Masters degree in Curriculum Planning helped a lot in all phases of content creation in RID. I designed RID to be a Learning Platform instead of just a normal blogging website. All the resources available on RID will be geared towards facilitating the ease of learning and practising the Dhamma.
WHAT’S NEXT?
Content Roadmap
In order to cater to different learning aptitudes, Refuge In Dhamma is always seeking a variety of ways to deliver quality content. We will be bringing the following content to our audiences in the near future.
Video Discourses
A picture is worth a thousand words and a video is worth a million pictures. We will be creating videos on abridged versions of Buddha’s discourses to help the learning and understanding of the Dhamma more easily.
Social Media
Social media is the best way to gain viewership and RID will be venturing into the social media space with new and different content. These content will help to arouse interest in Buddhism and be fun at the same time.
Progressive Courses
We want to help meditators progress in their practice. As a start, we are only offering Beginners’ Meditation Courses but we will slowly implement Intermediate and Advance Courses to allow serious practitioners the opportunity to reap the full benefits of meditation.
WHAT’S NEXT?
System Roadmap
In order to implement the Content Roadmap, Refuge In Dhamma needs to make sure the system is capable of handling the workloads.
Server
Upgrade from Shared Hosting5 to Virtual Private Servers (VPS)6 for better performance especially during high loads, scalability and more customization freedom.
Hardware
Upgrade to more recent and powerful hardware to enhance workflow and improve the ability to create high quality content.
Software
Upgrade to paid software when necessary for more features, enhanced workflow and ability to create high quality content.
Manpower
Hire professionals to create high quality content and set up hardware that is beyond the expertise of Refuge In Dhamma.
References
- Engaging Students through Multimodal Learning Environments: An Indonesian Context
- What Is VARK Multimodal Learning? +Examples, Types, Tips (2021)
- A New Pedagogy Is Emerging… and Online Learning Is a Key Contributing Factor
- Why is the color purple associated with royalty?
- Shared web hosting service
- Virtual private server