Buddha Meets Techno

It amazes me that Japanese Zen is constantly innovating to stay relevant and appeal to today’s practitioners, yet Western Buddhists are so hung up on living out an imagined Buddhist past. Japanese Buddhists of various sects have entertained such innovations as Robot Bodhisattva Kanon, full on techno-music and light shows in a shrine run by a DJ monk, funk renditions of the Heart Sutra, and this guy, Yogetsu Akasaka, who has his own YouTube channel and performs traditional Buddhist chants in a futuristic techno-style. C’mon people, let’s innovate!