The future of the Dharma is already unfolding in the lives, questions, struggles, and aspirations of younger generations. Around the world, young people are coming of age amid rapid technological change, ecological uncertainty, economic precarity, social fragmentation, and unprecedented pressures on mental health and well-being. At the same time, they are encountering Buddhism in new and evolving ways, from meditation apps and online communities to popular culture and emerging technologies such as AI.

BDG’s special issue, The Future of the Dharma and Younger Generations, seeks to explore how Buddhism is being received, reimagined, practiced, and transmitted to and by young people in a changing world. This issue will examine the many ways in which Buddhists are responding to the needs of younger generations, while also asking how younger Buddhists themselves are reshaping the Dharma for the present and future.

The challenges facing the next generation are profound: digital distraction and loneliness, anxiety and climate grief, social injustice and polarization, and the increasingly complex relationship between human consciousness, technology, and meaning. Yet these challenges also invite renewed reflection on some of Buddhism’s most enduring insights, truths such as interdependence, the power of compassion and ethical responsibility, and the quest for liberation from suffering.

We hope that you will join us in exploring how the Dharma can continue to offer refuge, resilience, and clarity for younger generations, while remaining alive to their creativity, questions, and calls for transformation. This special issue will be updated regularly with essays, interviews, reflections, and reports from Buddhist communities around the world.

Please check back in again, this page will be updated regularly.