Salvific machine: Robotic afterlife and technological Nirvāna

Abstract

This chapter investigates the intersection of Buddhist spirituality and robotics through the analysis of Mindar, a robot embodiment of the Buddhist divinity Kannon, or the Bodhisattva of compassion. Mindar not only performs the Buddhist pursuit of liberation from suffering but also embodies the faith in technology's potential to resolve contemporary crises. The chapter unfolds through four dimensions of Mindar's salvific enactment: (1) Mindar's consecration within Buddhist rituals and material culture, granting the robot a salvific agency; (2) its performances of the Heart Sutra, transmitting salvific Buddhist teachings on impermanence and emptiness; (3) its salvific role in revitalizing Japanese Buddhism as a contemporary symbol of Buddhism's rebirth; and (4) its therapeutic effect on individual viewers, especially in the pandemic context. Through the concept of "technological nirva?a," the chapter examines how the pursuit of spiritual enlightenment and the faith in technological redemption are intertwined in Mindar's enactment as a robot Bodhisattva. The analysis extends to Mindar's performances of nirva?a in the music video "Re:Buddha," where its glitching, disintegrated images and the disruptive electronic sounds attest to the spiritual salvation-nirva?a-attained through the acknowledgment of technology's fallibility. Thus, "technological nirva?a" unveils the tension and paradox in the convergence of technology's salvific promises and Buddhism's vision of the ultimate liberation, manifesting a technologized mediation of Buddhist enlightenment as both fragile and transcendent.