Author Topic: Buddhist Temples Advertising For New Talents?  (Read 3858 times)

icy

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Buddhist Temples Advertising For New Talents?
« on: April 02, 2015, 09:04:06 AM »
Buddhist Temples can learn from this case the fastest way to attract new talents to work for them.  You will be surprised how many suitable applicants you could attract within the shortest possible time from around the world.  Isn't it strange that a Buddhist Temple could appeal to many young talents?  Well, I am not.  There are many young people out there who have seen and experienced life to want to seek meaningful lifestyle to quench their quest and yearning to be liberated from the insanity of samsara.


Millennial temple's advertising for new media talents gets viral

A 1,500-year-old Buddhist temple has become a hit online after an advertisement recruiting new media talents received more than a million clicks and 4,000 applications worldwide within five days.

The advertisement, which combines music, cartoons and humorous wording, was posted by Donghua Zen Temple in Shaoguan City of south China's Guangdong Province. It offers eight posts, including application operation, user interface design, new media communication and IT maintenance.

It was first posted five days ago on the temple's official account at Wechat, China's most popular social network and went viral through retweets.

"Half a month in the forest relaxing your nerves and half a month in the city. Easy, flexible, full of freedom, what are you waiting for? Our Buddha needs you!" the advertisement reads.

"The response is far more than our expectation," said Liu Fen, 35, one of the masterminds behind the advertisement. "A new mail came within one or two minutes."

Wang Yingyao, 28, who is a freelance copywriter for Chanel and Lancome, is one of the applicants that include overseas Chinese from Italy and Russia. The salary will follow the market price, according to the temple.

"I was attracted by their innovative approach and I personally am interested in Buddha's wisdom," said Wang. He said the advertisement is direct, simple and not mysterious, totally different from his impression about temples.

Liu, a layman Buddhist at the temple, said most of the 12 staff at the temple's Culture Department are young people, who feel the old approach to promote Buddhism are not adaptable to the mobile Internet era.

"Young people nowadays do not like reading bulky books or answering strangers' calls," said Liu, who worked in a cell phone manufacturing factory in Shenzhen City before she came to the temple half a year ago.

"Time is fragmented now. If we want them to better understand Buddhism, we need to build new media platforms to serve them," she said.

The temple outsourced the cartoon and scenario application to make the advertising more professional and appealing, according to Li.

Those newcomers will help us build three technical platforms: a quality official website, a more efficient Wechat official account and a social network for real interaction for Buddhism followers, said Li.

"Promoting Buddhism is not limited in forms," said Li."If we want the young people to get in touch with Buddhism, we need to use the language and approach that they can accept, otherwise we will lose them."

Master Huike, head of the temple's culture department, knows nothing about apps or user interfaces but he supports his young colleagues' innovation.

"The government advocates the rejuvenation of traditional culture and Buddhism is part of it," said Huike. "As a temple, we respond to the government's call and adapt to the development of times."

"Whatever tools we are using, the core will never change," he said."Spread the goodness and kindness of the Buddhism all over the world."

http://www.china.org.cn/china/2015-04/01/content_35219120.htm?

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Re: Buddhist Temples Advertising For New Talents?
« Reply #1 on: April 02, 2015, 09:46:39 AM »
Motivation is to "Spread the goodness and kindness of the Buddhism all over the world." This is a great motivation to advertise creatively to appeal to the younger generation to embrace the teachings of Buddha. Buddha do not need one to convert to Buddhism or put them at a disadvantage if do not do so. Buddha has found methods to relief life's sufferings and would like to share with many, whether they are Buddhists or not. Who does not want to end suffering and experience happiness ?
More so in this aeon of the kaliyuga where the minds of humans have degenerated drastically (this was also a prediction of the Buddha 2600 years ago). Many young minds are disturbed by the negativity in samsara and wishes to find answers to their existence or methods to more peace and joy. By turning to the teachings of the Buddha they can understand better how their mind works, how the minds of others work. They will also learn to realise their strengths and weaknesses and to take on Buddha's methods on how to increase their strengths to benefit others and how to reduce their weaknesses in order to reduce harm to others. Imagine if  this simple unlearning and relearning process in each person's mind is successful we would have a much better world to live in. As Stephen Hawkings said : (http://www.livescience.com/49952-stephen-hawking-warnings-to-humanity.html)

"The human failing I would most like to correct is aggression. It may have had survival advantage in caveman days, to get more food, territory or partner with whom to reproduce, but now it threatens to destroy us all. For example,a major nuclear war would likely end civilization, and could wipe out the human race, Hawking added. When asked which human quality he would most like to magnify, Hawking chose empathy, because "it brings us together in a peaceful, loving state."

 Empathy, compassion, kindness and love are some of the major teachings of the Buddha. Hence, we have to rejoice to see that temples and Dharma centres are working hard to attract more people into Buddhism. Buddha's teachings is the best "medicine" for this very degenerated world.