Stuart: What do you think is in store for us in this millennia?

Paul: I suppose as Vajrayana Buddhists we have the blessings of a timeless and positive perspective. In relative terms, I would say that it probably could be a fairly dark beginning to this coming millennia, with hopefully a bright finish. We are probably moving into fairly challenging times. That sounds like a cliche and probably could be said at any time, but it does seem like we have some pretty profound challenges on our hands. The obvious challenges that spring to mind are the poverty divide, the environmental degradation and the spiritual desert. I think these things are going to make pretty heavy demands on us. If we do not address them, it could be a fairly a black beginning to the next millennia. We can put our faith in bodhisattvas. Good quality bodhisattvas pop up all the time. Therefore, one can look positively and optimistically to the future.

Stuart: Do you believe in the apocalypse scenario?

Paul: If one looks back on the twentieth century, it was fairly apocalyptic. But if we think of the traditional sense of the apocalypse, with cataclysmic arrivals and all these great happens, maybe environmentally we are in for a few of those in the future. I think mother Gaia - this beautiful earth of ours - will teach us our lessons. We are going to be facing some pretty big challenges in the next two to three hundred years, unless we really get our act together. Not to mention further into the future. If we see things in apocalyptic terms, we can look to spiritual leadership. I was just thinking about this other day - it is significant that the XIV Dalia Lama has come onto the horizon as a global spiritual leader. I look forward to the fifteenth, sixteenth and seventeenth Dalai Lamas. I think they will be exquisite.

Stuart: What do you think about the globalisation of the economy, cultures, religions and the role of the internet?

Paul: On the one hand, globalisation is a unifying process that is pulling us all together. There was that chummy little phrase 'the global village,' that was an attempt placate ourselves with the notion of this lovely warm community. I think globalisation is going to present us with a number of major problems however. The poverty divide is truly going to be a problem for us. I regard September the eleventh as very much an expression of that sort of divide emerging. I do not think that is going to go away in a hurry. President Bush and all his power cannot resolve that problem for us. The poverty divide and environmental degradation are going to be huge global problems. We could see ourselves moving towards some sort of global government to resolve these problems, but governments are notoriously reactive and not pro-active. If you look at the history of government, it has not been very inventive or visionary. Therefore, I think globalisation is going to present as many problems as it is going to resolve.

On the question of the internet, it is interesting that David Murray, the managing director of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia, said as recently as last week that Information Technology has created a horror for the banking industry. He said he gets three thousand e-mails a day and many are charged with legal implications. Pre-internet, there were a certain number of filters that sifted the information so that it was manageable. Now those filters have been removed and we have an information explosion. Computer buffs say 'Garbage in, garbage out' and by heavens, we are certainly getting some garbage out! I am someone who has deliberately chosen to get all screens out of my life. No computers - I am not surfing the net.

Suellen Fuller
Caretaker - Maitripa Contemplative Centre

Stuart: What do you think is in store for us in this millennia?

Suellen: Well there is obviously more chaos in the world. Terrorist attacks have been going on. When you see the news, there is just so much more violence and chaos taking place in the world today. There are a lot more people in the world also and a lot more hardship. I think governments are going to have to take a far more compassionate attitude towards people seeking asylum. I can understand they are frightened of chaos, but if there is something that can be done to help sort out some of the problems then we have a responsibility to do something about that. Things seem to be a lot worse than they need to be.

Stuart: Do you believe in the apocalypse scenario?

Suellen: I am more from the school of thought that anything is likely to happen. It is really hard to know what will happen in the world as far as the apocalypse goes. Will the world end with a bang or a whimper - or both? It is hard to say. There are a lot of opportunity for bangs! It is good being a caretaker of a Dharma centre. It is good to know that there are alternatives for people to do positive things and positive practise, rather than despair about the possible apocalyptic scenario.

Stuart: What do you think about the globalisation of the economy, cultures, religions and the role of the internet?

Suellen: Globalisation of economies has been going on for a while now. It makes it difficult for people with small businesses or small farms to survive, when they are in competition with globalised corporations. These globalised corporations have a huge effect and can cause a lot of suffering for people when they collapse. Globalisation of cultures makes everybody the same, yet people are not the same; they are actually really diverse. People need to be allowed to keep their own cultures, but also relate to the world as a whole. I suppose this is where the internet is good for information. However, it also sems cluttered with a lot of things, which makes it very confusing. However, I think it is just the way the world has always been. There have always been a lot of irrelevant things going on, which cause us to get caught up in stuff that is not really important. Then we miss what the real issues are. An example of this was when the media focusing on the 'children overboard' scenario during the last election. The campaign was not focusing on any of the real issues that are important to people, it was just aimed at getting elected by side-tracking people on the issue of xenophobia; by playing into people's sense of fear and insecurity.