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'THE BUDDHIST HOUR' RADIO BROADCAST
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KNOX FM 87.6 Sundays 11:00am to 12:00pm |
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KNOX FM RADIO BROADCAST 24 SEPTEMBER 2000 Prepared by: John D. Hughes, Anita Svensson, Pennie White and Vanessa Macleod. Today’s Program is called: Anniversaries for some, blanks for others. Your culture largely determines what anniversaries you celebrate. Our Centre has so many things to celebrate that we have to be selective about what we do, otherwise we would be celebrating endlessly. Many years ago, we often celebrated Members’ birthdays because some of them had never had a birthday party in their life. The key birthdays to celebrate are 20, 40, 60, 80 and 100, even 120, maybe 140. The main occasions celebrated annually at our Centre are Versak; Buddha’s birth, enlightenment and death anniversary; Founder’s Day of our Centre which is also the birth anniversary of our Teacher and Founder John D. Hughes; and Chinese New Year. The New Shorter Oxford Dictionary’s meaning of celebrate is to “1. Perform (a religious ceremony) publicly and in due form; solemnise; officiate at (the Eucharist) or 2. Observe (a festival, etc.) with due rites; honour or commemorate with ceremonies and festivities, etc. or 3. Make publicly known, proclaim; extol, praise widely”. (1) We do not celebrate by consuming intoxicants or excessive amounts of food. The first turning of the Wheel of the Dhamma by Lord Buddha to what were to become his first five Monks is so well known by followers of Buddha Dhamma as the full moon in the lunar month of Versak and its anniversary is well celebrated throughout the world. United Nations has included Versak on its annual list of sacred religious days. For some traditions, the anniversary of the second turning of the Wheel of the Dhamma that was initiated at Vulture’s Park is most observed. Tradition has it that the prajnaparmitta (the Teaching on the perfection of wisdom) was taught to 5000 Monks, nuns and lay persons and innumerable Bodhisattvas. According to Tarthang Tulku (writing in 1977), it is suggested that the fathomless aspects of the Buddha’s Teaching, generally referred to as the Dhamma, has numerous meanings, which include: 1. Any element of existence, or any observable fact 2. The Buddhist Path (knowledge-in-action) 3. The experience of enlightenment 4. Any non-sensuous object of the mind 5. Any wholesome thought or action 6. Life in general, or that which gives us sustenance, supports our bodily existence, and determines our span of life 7. The teachings of the Buddha and the Bodhisattvas (viz., the Sutras and Sastras) 8. The ceaseless process of becoming, or the phenomenon of change-origination 9. The taking of religious vows 10. Worldly law which maintains the moral dictates of society 11. The bearer of true and incontrovertible meaning, arriving at certainty 12. That which prevents rebirth in a lower form of existence 13. That which is ‘real’ in terms of absolute truth 14. The true and reliable refuge 15. That which is eternal and un-created, not subject to suffering, old age, and death, such as the bodhi-mind 16. The object of supreme knowledge 17. Used in the ethical sphere as merits 18. A religious denomination (2) So, even if we were to celebrate the anniversary of turning the Wheel of Dhamma, for example, we might well ask are we celebrating the first, second or third turning of the Wheel of Dhamma. If we base our celebration on one of the 18 meanings of Dhamma, we ought not comment on aspects of our good friends and companions who say they join us in the anniversary of that turning but who may well reside focused on something different to us, such as, another of the 18 meanings of the aspects of Dhamma. Each year, as you would expect, Members of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd uphold the tradition of celebrating Buddha's birth, enlightenment and death anniversary, as do the many Buddhist Temples and Centres in Victoria. Buddhist practitioners traditionally engage in meritorious activities on this day, such as making offerings to the Sangha, in order to pay respect to the Triple Gem, create causes for learning Buddha Dhamma and receive Blessings on this significant anniversary. This day, known as Versak (or Vesak), occurs on the full moon of the lunar month versak. This occurs in May. We get our moon charts from the Melbourne Planetarium. There are many other dates that are forms of anniversaries in the modern world. In our Teacher’s case, the date of renewal for his passport comes up later this year so the necessary form was obtained, photographs taken and the fee paid to bring the new passport. Since our Teacher is visiting Thailand in early December for the World Fellowship of Buddhists’ 21st General Conference, this is important. For some of our Members, the notice to pay council rates comes on a regular basis as do the dates of mortgage or rent payments. Regular timed patterns occur with telephone, electricity and gas payments too. For many persons, periodic time markers occur to get to the type of anniversary we have for regular dental and medical checkups. New types of modern information culture time markers include payments on the renewal date for websites and payments to online subscriptions, like the Wall Street Journal. The time markers from former cultures that we had in past lives may lie dormant till some event triggers a memory of the old anniversary. We all know the many stories of our friends or acquaintances who have visited a foreign land arriving just in time for some ancient festival and somehow knew they had to join in whatever was happening. For adults to learn well from such events there are three so called “critical consciousness” that need to arise after affective, discriminate and judgmental reflectivity. These may be classified as conceptual, psychic or theoretical reflectivity. The flaw in some types of the “old culture” (where group members sought to “feel good” group synergy experience) was it fostered conceptual and psychic reflexivity but discounted theoretical reflectivity. While this culture trains “antisocial” persons to friendliness, it cannot lead them to scholarship. So, we maintain the position that if we are to celebrate anniversaries about anything we ought to arrange them to be orchestrated to give the majority of players at least three approaches of mulling over the occasion without discounting theoretical reflectivity. The same considerations apply when we write about our activities and place them on our websites. In an annual report and position paper prepared by our Teacher and published on 20 June 1994, our Teacher showed that the relationship taxonomy for Buddhist relations started with dana (generosity), followed by adosa (active friendship), then lead to building good will. (3) From a store of good will, it is possible to build trust from which long term accord could arise. This five-stage process has been followed with gusto by our Members over the last six years. Between 1992-1994, our Teacher warned that Members who resisted making choices to change their cultural direction towards the information age and who did not obtain PC skills would find themselves without managerial weapons of influence for the five styles of our organisation. He predicted that Members who resisted theoretical reflectivity may well feel marginalised and out of touch by 1995 to 1997. This happened and these laggards are no longer with our organisation today. In 1994, our Teacher set a benchmark to target by the year 2000 (at the latest), at least one million persons per year coming to use our computer-based online Buddhist information system. We are closer to developing and measuring the technology that tells us how close we are to bringing this about. We have now five websites running with much Buddhist data. What we need to install is methods of getting regular measurements of how many weekly visits happen on each site. In recent weeks, our webmaster has found ways to improve the new sites’ ability to download colour photographs at greater speed. She and her helpers are prepared to spend the next six months of their spare time working to improve the quality of content and image and style of each site. They have enhanced our websites with faster search engines and more photographs collected on our database. So, this year, when we celebrated the anniversary of Founder’s day at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. on the 9th September, we planned to capture the occasion in forms that go onto our Internet websites as quickly as possible. This day marks the founding day of our Centre and the birth anniversary of our Teacher and Founder John D. Hughes. This year our celebrations began in the morning of 9 September 2000 with breakfast. Members then took the opportunity to make special merit by offering Dana lunch for visiting Sangha. Many inspiring speeches from Buddhist Leaders, Visitors praising our Teacher in 10 languages, and the spectacle of 70 pigeons being released were recorded as usual. But, this time, we can share the sense of the celebration far beyond a few thousand readers of our international Journal when it is published. We can give details of the sights and sounds and happiness of the occasion by making it available at low cost on our Internet site. The degree of the significance of this particular anniversary is enhanced. A poem written by an Australian poet for the occasion can be published. The new technology is cost efficient
and can be made retroactive in terms of anniversary events. One
proposal is to collect poems written for our Teacher and publish
them. It is the practice of our Teacher to arrange processes which cause specific ‘events’ to occur from time to time, including his birth anniversary, so many persons make merit contingent on the event. An anniversary may occur in another country and our Teacher becomes part of the event by attending and speaking at the event. For example, our Teacher attended the International Buddhist Leaders and Scholars Conference which was held in Sri Lanka in 1984. It was one thousand years earlier that a similar conference was held so it was an anniversary in a sense. He was invited by the Buddhist Association of China to visit in 1983. 0n 2l December l972, the Australian Government of that time established diplomatic relations between China and Australia. It was appropriate that the 10th Anniversary of the establishment of links with China was marked by an invitation for our Teacher to visit China. This visit was a cultural exchange, funded by the Australia-China Council. The process of recognition and establishing cultural exchanges has progressed well between the two countries. He was a delegate at the WFB General Conference in Taiwan in 1992. He attended the Atisa Dipankar Srijnan 1000th Birth Anniversary in Bangladesh in 1983. Whilst there, he met with the Secretaries of some private orphanages to discuss the possibility of encouraging further foreign aid to assist them with their worthy project. He visited many Buddhist organisations in Bangladesh in later years. He attended the WFB General Conference in Bangkok in 1994. Our Ch’an Academy was opened on 6 February 1986. Many celebrations of this event have been made over the years. The Ch'an Academy’s first anniversary was on 6 February 1987. To commemorate the first anniversary of the Ch'an Academy, which is annexed to the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., a garden party was held on 6 February 1987. An impressive display of Ch'an Paintings by resident Teachers and Students were exhibited in the Ch'an Hall, together with examples of traditional Calligraphy. The eminent Dr.Constant Wong, who opened the Ch'an Academy during inaugural celebrations on 6 February 1986, praised Teachers and Students for their dedication in achieving and maintaining the aims and objectives of the Ch'an Academy. Special recitals on the Japanese wooden flute, the shakihatchi were given on the second anniversary of the Ch'an Academy on 6 February 1988. On the fifth anniversary of the Ch’an Academy a television documentary program was filmed at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Mr. Peter Scott of Eastern Regional Access Television filmed a demonstration of Ch'an painting by resident Ch'an Teacher, Melva Fitzallen, to illustrate, on film, the grace and rarity of the Ch'an path. The 7th anniversary of the Ch’an Academy was on 6 February 1993. Members of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. intensified their Ch'an practice to make the seventh anniversary of the Ch'an Academy celebrations extend over the summer season. At the material level, a Ch'an surround wall was built on the Northern side of the Buddha Rupa in the Centre's garden; a photographic history of our Ch'an practices was arranged in the Ch'an Hall section of our Venerable Dr. Viriyananda Bhikkhu Meditation Hall; the Centre's Southern Gate was repaired, enhanced with the auspicious sign of two golden fish and a memorial stone plaque inserted into its structure. Meditation courses have been held from the 27 December to 31 December each year. On 27 December 1987, the five day meditation course, which was held at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd, had its tenth anniversary. On his 75th birthday anniversary, Ajarn Manivong was elected as a Patron of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Our title "Patron" is reserved for Monks and Nuns. The Venerable Ajarn has stayed here on several occasions. He was at the Centre on his 72nd birth anniversary on 21 March 1993. To celebrate this anniversary, the position of our Dhamma Wheel was moved from its former site to a new position between the flag poles carrying the Australian flag and the Buddhist flag. The reinstallation makes it immediately visible from entry through the main southern gate. Our committee members and students arranged for a joint celebration of Ajarn's 72nd birth anniversary and the completion of the first translation of his Dhamma book, The Way You are Looking For - A Manual of Insight Meditation. A Life Membership Certificate was given to Pia Prescott on her first birth anniversary, celebrated at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. When we review what we do we always have a vision of improvement. To use any diagrammatic representation of any series of complex processes involving decisions of what we will see as worthy of anniversary celebrations in the future tends to oversimplify. In reality these things are fluid; it is often difficult to separate them. It does not follow that when we make a list we ought to give equal weighings year in, year out. Schools of learning, such as our Centre, in the broad sense, are influenced by the changing cultural mix of Australian society and the changing family structures, economic circumstances and the technological development of our society. The ideological responses to these and other relevant issues are reflected in government policies and initiatives on education which impact on schools in various ways. Such policies and initiatives either enable or constrain school activities and thereby effect the professional development of Teachers. In a narrower sense, the communities served by the school also have an impact. The “local” community is a formation of intersecting elements including location, social class, ethnicity/Aboriginality, family structures and religion. Since the student population is drawn from the community and very often the teachers as well, it is a major source of the values expressed in the school. Teachers from outside the community sometimes contest values they find in the school and seek to change them. (4) Our Centre has always been able to provide first rate information from our third rate library we have built up over the last four decades. But we do not loan our rare books. We respect copyright and will not steal by photocopying or scanning most of a work. We have a task of supplying good information on our websites, so what we are to do is to abstract about 6000 books from our collection and provide that information to the world of learning. When we acheive that, we will have new anniversities to celebrate - our 1000th rare book abstracted and put on line. Please help us in this grand project and share in that celebration. May you come to help many persons by helping us. References 1. Brown, L. (ed.), The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, 1993, Clarendon Press, Oxford, p. 358. 2. Tulku, T., Crystal Mirror (Volume V), 1977, Dharma Publishing, California, p. 23. 3. 1994 Annual Report and Position Paper, A Relationship Taxonomy For Buddhist Relationships, John D. Hughes Collection Development Sub-Committee, Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. 4. National Board of Employment, Education and Training, Workplace Learning in the Professional Development of Teachers, Commissioned Report No. 24, January 1994, Australian Government Publishing Service, Canberra, p. 27. NB: Some information for this radio script was gathered using ISYS Query, a LAN based search engine we have at our Centre. Disclaimer:
As we, the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., do not control the actions of our service providers from time to time, make no warranty as to the continuous operation of our website(s). Also, we make no assertion as to the veracity of any of the information included in any of the links with our websites, or an other source accessed through our website(s).
Accordingly, we accept no liability to any user or subsequent third party, either expressed or implied, whether or not caused by error or omission on either our part, or a member, employee or other person associated with the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.
For more information, contact the Centre or better still, come and visit us. |
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