Tactics for making persons aware of kammic debt
22 July
2002
Prepared by John D. Hughes, Anita Hughes, Julian Bamford,
Evelin Halls, Rilla Pargeter and Pennie White.
Planning
actions have been put in place to increase Members’ merit
towards future learning by increasing present awareness of their
Kammic debit.
This will be considered under five examples
involving greed (lobha) and ignorance (moha).
1.0 Refinement of
paper handout delivery.
A person who is enjoying receiving
paper handouts of Dhamma without paying any attention to kamma has
somanassa- sahagatam ditthigata-sampayuttam asankharikam ekam:
meaning, one consciousness, unprompted, accompanied by joy, and
connected with wrong view. This is a citta state rooted in lobha
(greed).
When teaching this year the key question was, “How
do Members replace the consumption of merit brought about by their
physical consumption of paper handouts received?”, with the
warning that if this is not done they will be unable to receive an
education based on printed material based learning (books, journals,
web site, CD-ROMs) in future times.
The loss of merit our
Organisation experienced by the cessation of publishing the Buddha
Dhyana Dana Review last year on paper (because of a $20,000
Australian dollar per annum printing and postage costs), cut off a
source of returning paper handouts to the world.
Quite often
in the past, our written paper handouts were identical to what was
published in the paper version of Buddha Dhyana Dana Review.
We
have arranged for a web site www.bddronline.net.au to electronically
publish new issues of our Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, with the added
value of supplying hundred of colour photographs to illustrate the
activities. Now we are producing volume 12 number 2 having 50 pages
of text online to date (22 July 2002).
The payment of this web
site comes out of general funds in the same manner that some of the
payment of the paper publication of Buddha Dhyana Dana Review.
As
a rough first approximation, we say that money spent out of general
funds blesses all Members equally because their collective efforts
allow the organisation to function.
We are optimistic about
our new policy.
This year we estimate that web site delivery
of page views (equivalent A4) is 290% of paper page views delivered
by the paper publication of Buddha Dhyana Dana Review.
The
basis for this calculation for this year to date, the total page
views of the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review online from two websites was a
total of 2621 paper views. We gave out 907 pages of paper information
of articles appearing in the Reviews to Members.
Next
financial year, we estimate this figure to be 610% of the paper page
views of our paper publication of the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review
handouts, and within two years, this page view should be 2470% of the
paper pages handed out.
It is unlikely we will give out
twenty five times the present paper handouts at our Centre within two
years. In fact, we will most likely be heading towards more online
distribution and reading on screen.
So there is a steady loss
in replacing the kammic debt of the hand out consumption of paper
learning by Members and the web site and other sources (such as
email) can deliver 9000% of the page views to web site users and when
we publicise this, then we believe Members will become more heedful
of the kamma involved in paper handout delivery.
When they
think of the kamma involved as this handout is the labour of many
beings and so on. Members can reflect on this blessing akusala
component of their minds ought to vanish or contract and be replaced
with some kusala (perhaps a sense of gratitude?) state.
Consider
what happens when our Members pick-up our standard paper chanting
sheets when they chant in Suite 1, or pick-up puja sheets and suttas
when they undertake Pureland pujas. The Pureland pujas’
copyright is held by other publishers so we cannot reproduce the
Pureland pujas on our web sites without infringing copyright, which
we will not do. Hopefully, we will explore ways and means to get
permission to place these suttas on our web site.
Person
reading textbooks in our library are encouraged to buy copies of the
text they read to add to the library collection.
In the case
of Prajnaparamita, persons were encouraged to donate their personal
copies of the text to the library. We obtained eight copies by this
method. For the persons donating their personal copies, they went
some way towards balancing their kammic debt accumulated by their use
of the printed text.
The fact that we videoed teaching
sessions and intend to copy these tapes helps reduce the kammic debt
to some extent.
We print about 20 to 30 paper copies of the
Brooking Street Bugle per issue and five copies are placed in our
library as well as the text being placed on our web site
www.bsbonline.com.au and a paper copy is sent to the State Library of
Victoria.
These paper copies are generally paid for out of
general funds so that the kammic retribution for use of this
publication is covered to about 5%. The person physically
photocopying and collating the Brooking Street Bugle, (provided the
text used does not have to reprinted due to spelling errors),
probably breaks even on kammic terms.
Dhamma books translated
by our Teacher are available for sale, but only one member has
systematically sold these. The text is one of the references in
Adhidhamma classes. The text of this book is available on our web
site at www.bdcu.org.au . If Members made every effort to sell copies
of this text they could help replace the publications costs involved
in the years past.
This year we have been printing A3 signs to
prompt and remind Members of coming events, what is to be done, and
what is to be attended to.
Only a few persons are involved in
the printing and placement of these signs.
We think that if
they entered a Heaven World next life, it may be unlikely that they
will be able to read them. For most Members there would be serious
kammic debt to these signs.
Next financial years we will
involve more Members to equalise this system. These signs are for
internal use only to inform the local Devas and Devatas and do not go
onto our web sites.
2.0 Refinement of physical surroundings
within which the Teachings occur.
We do not like clutter of
the premises.
There are eight cittas (consciousness of the
senses or awareness of an object) rooted in greed. We doubt if most
Members could use the citta upekkha-sahagatam ditthigata-vippayuttam
asankharikam ekam: meaning one consciousness, unprompted, accompanied
by indifference and disconnected with wrong view.
When they
think of off-site storage, being aware of this type of consciousness
could be thought of as reasoning about kamma you consume by having
off-site resources with neutral feeling, but still appreciating the
lack of clutter on the premises.
A considerable amount of
storage of archives have been placed at four different sites off the
premises. We have yet to devise a method whereby Members can reduce
their kammic debt of these Members who provide valuable off-site
archive places.
One suggestion is we buy a large warehouse
having about four times our current off-site storage, and Members
fund the purchase of this building. We prefer ownership to
rental.
Over the last year, the Library and office area have
been refined. We intend to re-carpet and refurbish Suite 1 this
year.
We think more comfortable seating is required in Suite 1
when used for teaching purposes and more comfortable seating is
required in Suite 2 when it is used for teaching
purposes.
3.0 Refinement of our support systems to modify
recalcitrant cultures of Members.
At our Centre, on most
Tuesdays, two to four different Teachers will teach Abhidhamma
practice in at least two small classes at the same time.
We
wish to make it easy to learn.
If a participant has too much
repeated difficulty learning in one class, it is possible for him or
her to apply to be taught in the other class.
Participants who
do not follow these guidelines will get three written warnings and
will be offered counselling. Ultimately, persons may be suspended
from both classes. There is no appeal from such a decision under the
Equal Opportunity Act.
Religious institutions are not subject
to the Equal Opportunity Act 1995: “Part 3. When Is
Discrimination Prohibited?” The Act states that nothing in Part
3 applies to section 75 Religious Bodies, section 76 Religious
Schools, and section 77 Religious Beliefs or Principles. The Equal
Opportunity Act 1995, Version No. 035. Act No.42/1995 incorporating
amendments as at 1 January 2002 can be viewed at URL
www.dms.pdc.vic.gov.au
4.0 Refinement directed toward team
teaching.
Our President supports all our team teaching
endeavours. The year before last we had two foci Teachers. This last
year more adaptive foci occurred at our Centre. They are now four
foci.
They are the four members of our Teaching Team, three
female and one male, who have worked together for some years at our
Centre. For some years, they have conditioned themselves to work
together in pairs. They had learnt the common nomenclature we use;
that is, a polygot Pali/English understood by Buddha Dhamma
Practitioners overseas.
We publish regular Pali/English
glossaries.
We unify English as a Second Language.
We
regularly write and publish recollections of Teachings at our
Centre.
The four foci communicate with each other rapidly and
accurately. They have learned the strengths of every student in the
historical past and present.
They can all write about
Teachings articulate within our Five Styles of delivery. These are
Friendliness, Practicality, Professionalism, Cultural Adaptability
and Scholarship.
They are teaching Abhidhamma for the next
nine years.
The Abhidhamma covers all areas of knowledge. One
of the requirements to learn Abhidhamma is that students develop a
knowledge framework into which they can store and from where they can
retrieve, what they have learnt.
It is recommended that
participants rote learn the 100 classifications of the Dewey Decimal
system (4) to use as a knowledge frame work for storage and retrieval
of the Abhidhamma knowledge they learn.
Participants must read
voraciously.
Participants are expected to read our Buddha
Dhamma texts and handouts given on a weekly basis. Participants must
increase the amount of data they handle.
Also they ought to
read the Buddhist Hour weekly radio broadcast, the Buddha Dhyana Dana
Review, the Brooking Street Bugle, Longhair Australia News,
photographs, reports, papers and any other written materials
published on our web sites and elsewhere.
Much of our material
is available online on our web sites, so that participants can
research off-site. We will also prepare CD-ROMs for offline
reading.
Reflection of these events shows there are many
chances for greed (lobha) to arise in these processes over the next
nine years.
5.0 Refinement of translations of commentaries
used.
When being taught there are two types of ignorance or
delusion (moha) that cause trouble. One is accompanied within
indifference and gives to itself sceptical doubt about the Buddha,
the Dhamma, the Sangha and the training. This is termed vicikicca.
The other is accompanied by indifference and connected with
restlessness. These two cittas are of equal strength.
A
person who is having doubt about kamma and its affect will have a
moha-mula citta by the name: “Upekkha-sahagatam
vicikiccha-sampayutta citta”.
A person is listening to a
lecture but he does not understand a word because his mind is
restless. What is his citta?
Is it a moha-mula citta. The
name is “Upekkha-sahagatam uddhacca-sampayutta
citta”.
6.0 Lessons Learnt
Members find it easy
to believe that you can avoid making light of not having studied
Buddha Dhamma enough.
Members do not find the notion of kammic
debt in other Australian popular religions such as popular
Christianity, or atheistic systems.
At our Centre, you learn
about what you must do to create sustainable teaching conditions and
the causes needed for learning the Abhidhamma in the heaven worlds.
References
Dr. Mehm Tin Mon, The Essence of
Abhidhamma, Yadanir Min Literature, Yangon, Union of Myanmar, 1995.