NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMASAMBUDDHASSA
Chan Academy is a registered trading name of the
Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.
33 Brooking St, Upwey, Victoria, Australia, 3158.
A.C.N. 005 701 806 A.B.N. 42 611 496 488
e-mail: wbu@bdcu.org.au
website: www.bdcu.org.au
Phone: (03) 9754 3334
Founder’s Day Celebration
9 September 2004
‘Fellowship and Friendliness’
Written by Julian Bamford BA App Rec.
President Chan Academy Australia
Our precious Founder John D. Hughes was our kalyana-mitta friend, a true friend in the Dhamma. whose knowledges were vast. He was full of loving kindness, always ready to lend a helping hand, and to show people the way out of suffering.
When he founded the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. A.C.N. 005 701 506, John had in mind that the organisation policy should be constantly stressing that lifetimes of learning are needed by most persons for the completion of the Middle Path.
Simply expressed, this means that it should be based on the cultivation of friendliness, practicality, professionalism, cultural adaptability and scholarship.
Since the inaugural meeting of this Centre on 9 September 1978, many, many people have been given food and shelter, clothing, material aid, monetary assistance, work opportunities, work skill training, educational guidance, counseling and advice in career paths.
In the Fo Shuo Pei Sutra it is written:
Some friends are like great mountains.
Birds and beasts flock there
as if to a golden mountain,
their fur and feathers reflect its light.
Greatness gives greatness to others
and shares their joys and blessings
In a book by Master Hsing Yun titled ‘Being Good - Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life’ the Venerable wrote:
‘Some friends are like great mountains. They are capable of supporting forests and animals on their slopes. They are tolerant of everything that passes over them and will allow anyone to live near them. They do not object to bad weather, and even after years of violent storms they remain largely unchanged.
All of us should seek to be like this, and if we are fortunate enough to find friends like this, we should treat them with the utmost respect and consideration. Patience, tolerance, compassion and the ability to be a good friend are the traits of a Buddha and when they appear in people, they should be revered just as if they were aspects of the Buddha, for that is what they are.
Friends who are like the earth.
Great good fortune and great wealth
cause all to offer their respects.
If the wealthy one is generous and helpful,
they all will be grateful as well.
Some friends are like the earth. They are patient and expansive. They can hold anything. They are the source of life and a foundation for all things to grow upon. It is ‘great good fortune and great wealth’ of someone who is talented and virtuous. When such a person is generous with his or her abilities, they will be like the earth in that many people will be able to learn from him and many people will be nourished by him. If such a person also happens to be wealthy, then he will be even more able to help others.’
Master Hsing Yun wrote that ‘it is important that all of us strive to be like the mountains and earth in our friend ships, and it is important that all of us fully appreciate these qualities in others wherever we discover them.’
When you have found a true friend
you have found the best thing in life
and life will no longer seem so evil.
from the Ekottarika Agama.
Our practise of friendliness is materialised in many ways at our Centre.
During the last two decades, we have been privileged to attend upon many Buddhist Monks and Nuns who have visited or lived at this Centre.
Without doubt, we have the will to continue such beneficial deeds for decades to come.
Over many years we have had Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhist organisations visited our Centre as part of their New Year Celebrations. Our Members enjoy this valuable opportunity to meet, pay respect and offer dana to visiting Sangha and their Students.
It is by our successful learning of the Buddha Way that we established new and lasting friendships based on morality and fellowship with one another.
As with each of our five styles, it is through morality training in the Five Precepts that the practise of friendliness is generated in all our good actions.
In a letter some years ago to our Centre Members, from the Venerable Tan Achaan Boonyarith, a Thai Monk of the Forest Order, he noted that the Highest Friendship is developed only when people have completed or near completed reciprocal "understanding" between each other. That no secret is left behind, that by totally seeing through the nature of things or the reality of the state or situation, can true friendship be realised. In Pali we call this type of friendship, kalyana-mitta.
This highest friendship can only happen in Dhamma, as opposed to friendship based on kamma, causes and effects from past times.
The Venerable Achaan noted that the highest friendship is accompanied by true happiness. The truth never changes - what appears to be changing is the interpretation which ignorant people attribute to their worldly situations.
The Buddha once advised his Monks, "one should keep close company with a spiritual friend (kaliyana-mitta) less one falls into the habit of doing evil. By keeping close contact with a spiritual friend one is finally convinced of one's considerable growth in learning, dana, insight - knowledge and wisdom.
There is friendship in the Dhamma amongst our Members because our Teacher has been their kalyana-mitta friend over several decades. When our Teacher instructed his students, he was teaching them for the benefit of themselves and others. He saw the potential in some of his students, that they were not able to see for themselves.
The Sigalovada Sutra says good friends have four basic characteristics:
If they see us doing wrong, they will speak up.
They are kind to us.
They take joy in helping others.
They do not abandon us in time of need.
Master Hsing Yun wrote that these four points reveal the very basic attitudes that are crucial not just in friendship, but also for making progress in Buddha Dhamma.
There is little in life that is more important than the people we choose to call our friends. These are the people who help us grow and whom we are bound to help in return.
The Abhiniskramana Sutra states:
If you spend your time with good friends,
your karma will mingle with their good karma
and even if you appear to gain nothing in this life,
you will have created the causal conditions
for liberation from all suffering.
May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness through cultivating fellowship and true and wise friends.
May you and your friends be well and happy and live in peace and prosperity.
May our precious Teacher John D. Hughes be well and happy.
Thank you very much.
References:
Master Hsing Yun. ‘Being Good - Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life’. Weatherhill New York USA 1998.
ISYS sourced papers from our John D. Hughes Collection heritage database:
ISYS Search (1/16/96)
ISYS Search - from page 68, December Six Day Bhavana Course (11/25/97)
ISYS Search - from BUDDHA DHYANA DANA REVIEW (12/31/98)
ISYS Search - from Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (8/28/96)
ISYS Search - from document dated (1/12/96)
ISYS Search - from Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (8/26/96)
ISYS Search - from page 18/19 Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (12/28/98)
ISYS Search - from (10/27/80)