Recently a friend of mine in India introduced me to NotebookLM, which he had been using to produce Telegu Dhamma explainer videos to his audience, mainly in Andhra Pradesh, India.
As I was reading Kathryn Ann Tsai’s Lives of the Nuns at the time, about the lives of the earliest Buddhist nuns in China, I uploaded the first of the stories to see how it would work out.
I eventually made three videos, but was disappointed by the output, as it often mixed in Roman Catholic nuns and Christian symbols in the videos, which was not, of course, wanted here. And it wasn’t possible to re-edit.
I then asked it to produce slide decks of the same, and these were much better, not least because it was possible to edit them and take out unwonted materials, etc. But I also found I sometimes had to ask it to produce two versions, and then chose the best of them.
I eventually had it produce life stories of twelve nuns, which focus on those who passed on the lineage, the discussions surrounding its validity, and the particular sanctity of some of the nuns.
I found it also gives a good idea of 4th and 5th century China, and the society within which these nuns lived and fulfilled their aspirations. I have now published the results, and am working on other projects, which I will say more about later.
For now, I hope you find these stories as inspiring as I do.
