Glossary

bala: Pali word translated as strength.
viriya: Pali word translated as energy.


Some events fade from our memory and are not remembered for a very long time, others are so remarkable we say:

“Where is the heart that doth not keep,
Within its inmost core,
Some fond remembrance hidden deep,
Of days that are no more?”
(Alfred Bunn, 1843)

Plato (370B.C.) said: "Excellent things are rare."

Such good things could be said of the inaugural Australasian Buddhist Convention held on 22 and 23 June 2002 at Camberwell Civic Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

This gathering of eminent and respected Teachers from different Buddhist traditions, and who reside both within Australia and as far abroad as the U.S. and Sri Lanka, was the first such event to be conducted on Australian soil.

Guest speakers spoke on the conference theme of “Buddhism: the Pathway to a Peaceful Mind” at the Convention.

This aim of the Convention was successful as many participants found their pathway to a peaceful mind.

This exceptional international event was an achievement for both the Buddhist community in Australia and the broader Australian community. We thank and congratulate the organisers of this event.

The Convention hosted some international members of the Sangha. Honourable members of Australian federal, state and local governments spoke at the Convention opening.

His Excellency, the Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Dr. Peter Hollingworth addressed the assembly, officially declared the convention open, and participated in the lighting of traditional Lamp Ceremony with other honourable guests.

A Sri Lankan Buddhist choir dressed in white chanted a traditional greeting.

Messages from His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama and Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi Mahathero were delivered by Venerable Monks.

The Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi Mahathero lives in Sri Lanka and was unable to attend due to ill heath. His disciple attended and taught his teachings in absentia.

Lama Choedak Rinpoche, Abbot of Sakya Losal Choe-Dzong, ACT, delivered a message for the Convention from His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama.

His Holiness wrote:

"The ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit humanity.

The forthcoming Australasian Buddhist convention will not only bring together respected teachers from a broad range of Buddhist traditions, but will also focus on practice, The Pathway to a Peaceful Mind.

My sincere prayers that your conference may be successful in contributing to a more peaceful and happier world"

The assembly was addressed during the Opening Ceremony by:

The Honourable Mr Phillip Ruddock, Federable Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs representing the Prime Minister of Australia, the Honourable Mr. John Howard;
Honourable Alan Griffin, representing the Federal Leader of the Opposition Honourable Simon Crean;
The Honourable Ms Julia Gillard, Shadow Minister for Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, representing the Leader of the State Opposition, The Honourable Dr. Denis Napthine;
The Honourable Mr J Pandazopoulos, State Minister for Multicultural Affairs representing the Premier of Victoria, the Honourable Mr. Steve Bracks, and Councillor Ms M Butler, Mayor of Boroondara.

The Venerable Monks chanted traditional Buddhist blessings.

A pioneer of Buddha Dhamma in Australia, John D. Hughes, accompanied by his wife Anita Hughes, attended both days of the Australasian Buddhist Convention as honoured guests.

Before the opening ceremony, John D. Hughes was presented to the Honourable Governor-General of Australia and greeted the Honourable Mr. Phillip Ruddock, Federal Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and Indigenous Affairs.

Members of our Centre played key roles on the Steering Committee of the Convention.

Dr. Ranjith Hettiarachi, a guest on this program, the Buddhist Hour, earlier this year, was Convenor of the Australasian Buddhist Convention.

Outstanding Speaker and Buddhist Scholar Dr. Ananda Guruge delivered the keynote address, "Contemporary Challenges and the Pathway to a Peaceful Mind" with great energy and strength (in Pali: viriya and bhala).

We apologise for any error in our recollections of the addresses presented here.

Doctor Ananda W. P. Guruge Bachelor of Arts (Hons); Ph. D., D. Litt. is the Dean of Academic Affairs and the Director of the International Academy of Buddhism of Hsi Lai University, Rosemead, Los Angeles County, California, USA and Visiting Professor of Buddhist and Peace Studies at California State University, Fullerton and Northwestern University, Evanstone, Illinois.

Formerly the Ambassador of Sri Lanka to UNESCO, France and the United States of America, Dr. Guruge is the Senior Special Advisor to the Director General of UNESCO.

Active in the international Buddhist Leadership, he is a Vice-President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and the Patron of the European Buddhist Union. His publications include 44 books in Sinhala and English and 130 research papers.

Dr. Guruge, Keynote Speaker and Chairman of the Convention, focussed on how we can apply Buddhist principles to the worldly aspects of our lives as lay practitioners.

The Buddha’s advice to married men who wish for a happy marriage is to buy their wives jewellery every so often. Dr. Guruge said when he repeats that piece of advice to his students at Hsi Lai University in the U.S.A. where he is the Dean of the Faculty of Buddhist Studies, they always protest. Nevertheless, Dr. Guruge stands by his advice, to which he partly attributes the success of his long happily married life.

Dr. Ananda Guruge also spoke about wealth, saying that in all his years of study of the Buddhist texts, he has never found one line that says there is anything wrong with possession of wealth. He spoke of the three pleasures of wealth. One of these is just to have the wealth, and the peace of mind and security it gives us as we face old age. The pleasures of wealth do not mean having the newest and largest television or other gadgets, that is, wealth is not synonymous with consumerism.

The Buddha recommended we should allocate 25% of our income for living, invest 50% in our business, and save 25%. If we feel that we do not have enough money, the answer is not to increase our income, but to decrease our consumption.

Dr. Guruge also noted that the Buddha spoke of the ways in which we ought to transfer our wealth to our children, saying that we should not leave our wealth to our children to get when we die, so that they receive a large lump sum which they are then prone to fritter away in the same way as if they had won a lottery.

Rather, we should help them at the times of their lives at which they need it, to educate them or to help them out when they start a business.

Education is the only thing we can really do for our children.

Dr. Guruge said if we only read one Buddha Dhamma text in our lives, we should read the Dhammapada.

Our minds can be at peace when they are free of remorse.

Dr. Guruge said that he finishes his day each day by reflecting upon his actions for the day, and with the wish that all beings be well and happy.

Venerable Maha Samai Navamal spoke on Sense Restraint of the five senses; seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling and the mind.

“Sense restraint is the training, sense restraint is the practice. Well guarded - it would bring true happiness, unguarded - great suffering.”

The following is based on recollections of a special address on "Virtue, The Foundation for a Peaceful Mind" by Venerable Sri Dhammananda Mahathero, presented by his pupil Venerable Mahinda Mahathero.

Venerable Mahinda Mahathero eloquently delivered his Teacher Venerable Sri Dhammananda Mahathero's message:

There is no rule in Buddha Dhamma that says you must abstain from all entertainment and ornaments.

He said people chose to, even for a short time to reduce the impact of sense impressions.

People who enjoy entertainments and ornaments are not to be condemned.

The precept is taken because we understand the benefits.

We practice to see things as they really are.

May you all be well and happy, always.

Venerable Mahinda Mahathero added a footnote to the message, saying that his Teacher paved the way for him.

His teacher has written many books and has thus saved him the time it would otherwise have taken for him to write books. Venerable Mahinda Mahathero emphasized the value of sila.

The Buddha text Silapitaka expounds that with sila and by sila, by virtues and by moral conduct one becomes free from remorse.

Venerable Mahinda Mahathero emphasized that sila is not a set of externally imposed rules, but rather a set of guidelines to train the mind, referring to sila as ‘training precepts’.

If your conscience bothers you when you sit in meditation do more good things.

When the mind is free from remorse you do not bring the bad things to mind.

Look at your minds to know if you have broken the precepts.

Then determined not to break them again.

Take the precepts again and again.

Go back to the Dhamma - back to the Precepts.

The mind will be able to let go... and develop Loving Kindness.

When Venerable Mahinda Mahathero attended a retreat in Sri Lanka he was brought to the Teacher and told to ask for forgiveness.

Initially, he thought the request inappropriate, as he had not met the Teacher before.

He was humble enough, however, to follow the instruction, which involved repeating certain words that he did not understand, and years later understood that in his long samsaric-existence he had met the Master in former lives.

It is desirable for us to go to a Master.

There are two aspects of sila – avoiding evil and doing good.

We can visualise fulfilling duties as a parent to child, as a friend to friend, as teacher to a disciple, and so on, in the six directions, the four points of the compass plus one above and below.

Reverence, respect, humility are qualities we ought to develop.

Virtuous is the pathway to happy peaceful mind.

The Venerable concluded his talk with five precepts (sila).

The five precepts are to
abstain from killing living creatures
abstain from taking what is not given
abstain from sexual misconduct
abstain from false speech
abstain from taking intoxicating drugs and liquor


The practice of sila through good conduct will lead you to good birth. Finishing is letting go of everything. The good conduct gives you wealth, good fortune through sila.

The practice of sila will help release you from suffering. Strive to have good conduct and you mind becomes peaceful through the practice of sila.

Once you take morality as your judge no unwholesome kamma will be made.

You become a good man or good woman. Even small actions come from moral persons.

A person who is calm and generous is unlikely to break the five precepts.

The five precepts are: no killing, no stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no intoxicants.

Generous people can have trouble because they lack morality.

When Buddha was a prince he had strong moral conduct. But, his living environment in the palace was not the place where you can have strong meditation.

When you have moral conduct, you have kindness to all beings.

When you are always mindful, you benefit afterwards and take good rebirth, such as, for example, in heaven.

Before any ceremony begin with five moral precepts then when you listen to the talk we have good moral base... you are practicing once five precepts apply to form, sound, and so on. If you are not mindful then delusion appears.

When greed, hatred and ignorance become close, we expose ourselves to troubles and are bombarded with distractions from television, radio and Internet.

Before you sleep or just after you awaken you can find a good time for meditation practice.

With eyes, nose, ears, nose, mind touching things all the time we have to be careful how we proceed.

If the house door is open, unguarded by mindfulness, then robbers can enter the house to steal things.

Happiness and wisdom can be lost if there is no mindfulness to guard it.

We should attend to the mind senses like a well thatched roof does not let rain and wind in.

Walking alone,
a forest Monk,
Once he is not too busy,
can concentrate well
No one is around in the deep forest.
Even a few moments of peace is hard to find.

The sound of songs or ladies could be bad for the practice of a Monk.
Once you can sit you can see any hate, greed or ignorance.
Witness a strength in your heart. Then, your mind can get better and better.

Disciples and the Buddha relax and sit alone

Ananda would make sure no-one would disturb the Buddha in the afternoon, when the Buddha rested.

Do not disturb a quiet Monk or you obtain very bad kamma.

You ought to practice everyday.

In morning the body is fresh so use body and mind to practice.

Suffering is in mind or memory. Happiness in mind of beings. Enlightenment in the mind of beings.

At least, when this body breaks up and goes back to the four elements the mind moves on. The best silence is in the mind.

When you see impermanence as “not you” then you can see “not you”.
The future life will be very happy.

Heaven birth arises from good moral conduct - it is beautiful, bright shiny. Generosity has a great impact on a person’s future state.

If we attach to this body; if we attach to others; we cannot see correctly. If we try to see things as they really are, we come to the truth. If you are good, good will come to you at death if you are bad, bad will come to you at death.

If you are stupid you cannot have good meditation.

Moral conduct, once practised for a long time, goes far and stays with you. Then you see the path.

The Venerable would like to encourage us to do our best.

In modern times, although Buddha Dhamma is increasing, we can lose monks to television, video and so on, that bombards young Monks and young Nuns.

Where can the Teaching grow?

All of us, the whole human race, have suffering. The Buddha Dhamma practitioners have the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Practice seriously in this age of decline for 2500 years.

The benefits of practice extend to friends and family for everyone, if we do our duty, we will be happy to have done it.

For metta or compassion the method of how to observe them properly is to use sense restraint.

May the Triple Gem, the Buddha, Dhamma, the Sangha look after all of you.

May all the Buddhas, Dhammas and Sanghas give you strength.


You can purchase videos and CD recordings of the Australasian Buddhist Convention at www.bfvaust.org

Next week, we will abstract more of this historical and exceptional event.


The authors and editors of this script are: John D. Hughes Dip.App.Chem. T.T.T.C. GDAIE, Leanne Eames B.A. M.A. and Pennie White B.A. Dip. Ed.



References

Bunn, Alfred (1873) The Bohemian Girl, Drury Lane, 27 November, cited in Mencken, H. L. (1991) A new Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principals from Ancient and Modern Sources, Alfred A Knopf, New York, p. 1021.

Plato, (c. 370) cited as a proverb in The Republic, IV, cited in Mencken, H. L. (1991) A new Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principals from Ancient and Modern Sources, Alfred A Knopf, New York, p. 1021.


Readability Statistics

Counts
Words: 2578
Characters: 12,727
Paragraphs: 150
Sentences: 150

Averages
Sentences per paragraph: 1
Words per sentence: 17.2
Characters per word: 4.8

Readability
Passive sentences: 9%
Flesch Reading Ease 57.5
Flesh-Kincaid Grade Level 8.9
Colman-Liau Grade Level 13.4
Bormuth Grade Level 10.6


Estimated writing and editing time: 6 hours


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