Meet "Mindar" The Buddhist "Robot" That Teaches Buddhism

The humanoid robot is modeled after Kannon Bodhisattva, the Buddhist Goddess of Mercy. The robot’s name is Mindar and it gave its first speech on the Heart Sutra, a key scripture in Buddhist teaching. The Japan Times reported that the teachings spoken by the robot offer a path to "overcome all fear, destroy all wrong perceptions and realize perfect nirvana.”

The robot was unveiled at Kodaiji Temple in Kyoto to share Buddha's teachings in plain terms. Mindar is modeled after buddhist goddess of mercy, Kannon. The deity transforms itself into different forms to help people and “This time, Kannon changed into an android”.

Mindar the Buddhist robot preaches in Japan, and is shaped like Goddess Kannon

Mindar the robot was created by the temple and MR. Hiroshi Ishiguro, a professor of intelligent robotics at Osaka University,and. It was built by Tokyo-based A-Lab Co.

The humanoid robot, or android, started reciting Buddhist writings to worshippers at the 400-year-old Kodai-ji temple in Kyoto earlier this year. 

It combines a robotic body of moving metal parts — looking a bit like the T-800 in the movie "Terminator" — with a face, hands and shoulders of flexible silicone. The android is meant to represent Kannon: a bodhisattva, or archetypical Buddhist deity, who embodies mercy.

The human monks at the temple say the robot bodhisattva will grow ever more "wise." 

"This robot will never die, it will just keep updating itself and evolving," head monk Tensho Goto told AFP. "That's the beauty of a robot. It can store knowledge forever and limitlessly."

The temple robot recites passages from the Heart Sutra, one of Buddhism's most well-known scriptures. "You cling to a sense of selfish ego," it preaches to worshippers. "Worldly desires are nothing other than a mind lost at sea."

The robotic Kannon has cost almost $1 million to develop, in a project undertaken by the temple and Hiroshi Ishiguro, a robotics professor at Osaka University.