A Buddhist Response to AI: Studying Samsara, Practicing Kindness
Sign up for our 11-day video series with Lewis Richmond
Begins November 15, 2026
How should Buddhists view AI? As a threat or a tool? Something to avoid or something to study?
As AI becomes an increasingly unavoidable feature of our lives, how can Buddhist wisdom support us and inform how we think about and interact with it? How can we uphold our ethical and spiritual values given the speed and power with which AI is growing and taking over every aspect of the ordinary world? How can we remain good bodhisattvas, engaged in the world: watchful, practicing patient observation, and ready to ease or help in small or large ways as the opportunity arises?
Sign up for an 11-day series of emails containing reflections and contemplative practices to help us make sense of AI and respond wisely to issues exacerbated by AI, including deepfakes, the endless barrage of a questionably trustworthy news cycle, and unhealthy attachment to or caused by technology. We’ll also discuss what intelligence and aliveness means, and the supreme importance of kindness.
This series is available to Tricycle subscribers. If you’re not yet a subscriber, join here or see below.
Videos
Video 1: The Need for a Response
In this video we hear an overview of the series, which touches on the subject of each video, and we explore the unavoidable truth that a response of some kind is urgent.
Video 2: Studying Samsara
In this video, we explore the instinct to turn away from AI and the challenge and benefits of remaining engaged.
Video 3: Intelligence
In this video, we ask whether or not AI is intelligent, or just seems intelligent, and ask what kinds of intelligence are important for Buddhists to cultivate.
Video 4: Aliveness
In this video we investigate what it means to be alive, what wisdom means, and if AI has wisdom. We also ask if AI can follow the Buddhist principle of non-harm.
Video 5: Intuition
In this video, we explore intuition and how to connect with it. Where does intuition come from and who possesses it? And where does this leave AI?
Video 6: The Three Unwholesome Roots
In this video, we learn about the three unwholesome roots, also known as the three poisons: greed, hatred, and delusion. From there, we ask how AI can express the wholesome roots of generosity, loving-kindness, and wisdom instead of the unwholesome ones.
Video 7: It’s All a Deepfake
In this video, we discuss the prevalence of deepfakes versus Buddhism’s emphasis on sensation, in-person connection, and community.
Video 8: The Un-News
In this video, we contrast the nonstop news cycle we see on our screens with the news of our daily lives—with what actually happens to us, what is actually meaningful.
Video 9: Addiction
In this video, we define the root of suffering according to Buddhism: clinging. We ask why we cling, how to loosen our attachments, and the benefits that come from doing so, especially when it comes to attachments driven or exacerbated by AI.
Video 10: Kindness
In this video, we explore kindness, which Richmond calls our highest calling as human beings. Why is kindness a core Buddhist value and can AI ever be truly kind?
Video 11: The Bodhisattva Vow
In this video, we explore why a vow is so meaningful, and how the bodhisattva vow can guide us throughout our daily lives.
Your Teacher
Lewis Richmond
Lewis Richmond is a Buddhist priest, meditation teacher, and a transmitted disciple of Shunryu Suzuki Roshi. He is the author of five books, including the award-winning Aging as a Spiritual Practice: A Contemplative Guide to Growing Older and Wiser, and his essays have appeared in Tricycle, Buddhadharma, Turning Wheel, and Lion’s Roar. He teaches the Tricycle online course Aging as a Spiritual Practice and currently writes a weekly column for The Good Men Project.