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NAMO
TASSA
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'THE
BUDDHIST HOUR'
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Hillside
Radio 1620 AM, 87.6 FM & 88.0 FM |
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The
topic of today’s broadcast is:
To be learned about anything means you have to have heard much. As the Buddha said: “One who has heard much and learned much is daring and confident he (or she) wavers not. It is like having a friend with you day and night who guides you to good directions.” To help us learn, we chant a lot, beginning with “Namo”. Namo praises our Teachers and protectors. In the Tao Te Ching, the Chinese book of Changes, it is written: When the
mandala governs, the people are hardly aware that it exists...
The knowledge of how to use mandalas to guide learned actions is ancient. Students at our Centre are guided in making sufficient merit and the right causes to learn how to construct mandalas over time and to let them dissolve again after the knowledge on them has been turned into action. The Teacher uses skill in means to help the students understand how to construct and learn to use mandalas under the control of “namo”. The Students work within the mandalas constructed whether they are aware of them or not. Poorly constructed thought mandalas lack “Namo” so they may be missing some information or have contradiction. The Teacher helped students to come to awareness of chanting before making the mandalas they constructed with their thoughts and actions over the recent five day bhavana course held at our Centre. One powerful “Namo” teaching exposed self-made obstacles placed on their poor mandalas that prevented Students from following carefully constructed mandalas. Carefully constructed mandalas from a “Namo” basis include an invitation to turn thought into action. You may be aware that the most commonly used general equation y=mx+c can generate a mandala of a straight line or slope. Where is the “Namo” here? It is respect for all mathematics and Teachers. From your childhood maths study, you may recall that y=mx+c is the formula for a straight line where m is the gradient or slope and c is the y-intercept, cutting point on an x - y axis. The y quantity is the dependent variable and the x quantity is the independent variable. When plotted on a Cartesian plane, this formula y=mx+c creates a linear mandala series. It is not bounded because there are no limits on the values. A material (mandala) of knowledge, a mathematical formulae for example, gives 2nd or 3rd order knowledge of the subject because tasks can form relationships, linear in nature. Students are taught to avoid the mindless chanting of first order knowledge; of asking, “What is the value of y? What is the value of x? What is the value of m? What is the value c?” They have no value until we give them value. Then we concretize a single straight line from an infinite set. Put simply, we make one real visible case to examine. As long as we do not change values, it can be the same. This is comforting, unfortunately however, values change over time in the real world. One student at our Centre, Alex Serrano, made the right causes to work in higher mandalas by composing the Sonnet for John D. Hughes’ Birth Anniversary 1998: This is quality writing of the grand style. Alex writes: These
pressures around about endanger me, Make
Merit! Where is the “Namo” here? It is respect for the Teacher’s instruction. What this means is to continue to make merit, no matter what. An article called “Human Beings’ Harmony based on the meaning of Catuh-Samgraha-Vastu and the idea of interpersonal relations”, by Lui Chang-wei from China appears in the Special Edition of the 3rd International Conference on Buddhist Education. We would like to share with you his mandala of interpersonal relations paraphrased from his text beginning with his quotation of the Maha Prajna Sutra: When All Bodhisattvas, Mahasattvas diligently cultivate Bodhisattva’s practice, they use Catuh-samgra-vastu (four all-embracing Dhamma) to absorb and gather in immeasurable sentient beings for benefiting them. What are the Four Dhammas? They are (1) dana (2) pleasing speech (3) conduct profitable to others (4) co-operation with and adaption of oneself to others. Instructed by the Buddha, all Bodhisattvas transform and teach living beings, they are perfect in these Dhammas. Lui Chang-wei concludes this article saying: From the beginning of tribal life, human beings had co-operative characters to live and work together. Nowadays, business and industry are highly developed, interpersonal relations based on co-operation become increasingly important. Human beings’ mutual concern and assistance is the source of harmonious existence. The meaning of our Buddhist Cutuh-samgraha-vastu incidentally corresponds with the idea of interpersonal relations. Here Lui Cheng-wei shows that the ancient mandala for Bodhisattvas is reflected in the recent mandala for interpersonal relations we teach at the Centre, this mandala gives superior work skills. Members are taught to chant and understand “Namo”. Members at our Centre develop a high level of interpersonal relations because they are trained to cultivate a mandala of the five styles of friendliness, practicality, scholarship, professionalism and cultural adaptability. For those who understand “Namo” and practice our five styles mandala, Members improve their interpersonal relations in their home, places of work and other environments. Most artistic creating processes uses some sort of mandalas. Composing quality jazz music requires third order knowledges of what boundaries of key and blue notes are appropriate, anything else is a wrong note. Classical works by Mozart and Beethoven, for example, were composed with third order knowledge. At that time, the boundaries of existing mandalas were rebuilt to include thirteenths which are a form of dischord. Hundreds of years later, this chord was used in Be-Bop. Much more “Namo” understanding of merit is needed to reach fifth order and beyond knowledge mandalas. Without much merit, the abhidhamma (higher knowledge) cannot be known. Buddhist texts describe twelve non-linear levels of knowledge. In The Dhammapada, there is a story about a son of a banker who lived in Savatthi. This young man asked the bhikkhu who used to come to his house for alms what he should do to be liberated from the ills of life. The bhikkhu instructed him to divide his property into three parts; one part to do business with, one part to support the family and one part to give in charity. He did as he was told and again asked what should be done next. So he was further instructed: firstly, to take refuge on the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha) and to observe five precepts; secondly to observe the ten precepts; and thirdly, to renounce the world and enter the Holy Order. The young man complied with all these instructions and became a bhikkhu. As a bhikkhu, he was taught the Abhidhamma by one teacher and the Vinaya by another. Being taught in this way, he felt that there was too much to be learnt, that the disciplinary rules were too strict and too many, so much so that there was not enough freedom in the way of life of a bhikkhu. He thought that it might be better to return to the lay life. As a result of doubt and discontentment, he became unhappy and neglected his duties. He also became thin and weak. When the Buddha came to know about this, he admonished the young bhikkhu, ‘If you can only control your mind, you will have nothing more to control; so guard your mind.’ The young bhikkhu in the story accumulated much merit in order to hear the higher Dhamma. On hearing the teachings his appreciation of “namo” for the teacher and teachings were absent and doubt arose in his mind and consequently he was unable to learn higher knowledge at that time. Students are taught to appreciate the scholarship of Teachers. Slandering Teachers of any sort destroys “namo” and is an unwise action. So what can the Students at our Centre do to stop themselves running away when they have access to the higher teachings but keep slandering Teachers? The answer is they put themselves in such a double bind and must leave the Centre. To access higher order knowledges, students can follow the example of the Student who dedicated the Sonnet for John D. Hughes’ Birth Anniversary 1998 to the Teacher and the action step “Make Merit, Make Merit, Make Merit”. Many Students did not have enough merit to follow the advice given to the young man by the wise bhikkhu in the story Guard your mind; to take refuge on the Triple Gem (Buddha, Dhamma and Sangha) and to observe five precepts; and to observe the ten precepts; and to renounce the world and enter the Holy Order. They must be content with lesser works till they understand the meaning of “Namo”. Generating “Namo” means praise and respect for Teachers. A few of our Students become Monks for about a week or so. Students at our Centre are taught to maximise their merit before becoming a Monk. As the student becomes brighter the merit they make is compounded because they can remember what it takes to create and learn on useful mandalas. Without depth of understanding of “Namo” their future learning is limited. To prevent this, we chant NAMO at the announcement of each broadcast. It cleans the minds suitable for learning. May you come to think in useful mandalas this life. New learning mandalas are hard to conserve. One mandala platform of great merit ceased this week. It was ARB which stands for Australian Review of Books. We praise the publishers for funding this beacon of Australian literary criticism. It was a monthly supplement to the Australian Newspaper. Great local scholars and thinkers wrote for this publication their essays and were well paid, a dollar per word, for such writings. The average Australian literary journal has a circulation of about 2000 per issue. ARB had a circulation of 120 000 per issue. The ARB ran just under four years. Part of the publication costs were paid for by the Australian Council who gave $200 000 a year at set-up. After two years, the grant stopped and the Australian Newspaper publishers funded the publication. The supplement did not pay its way. Our Teacher has archived each issue so we can still use them for reference material. To help our learning and wish for well constructed discourses we say “Namo ARB” with feeling. Then the writings never die and continue to be of use to us. May you be well and happy and read well and learn much. This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Evelin Halls, Vanessa Macleod, Lisa Nelson, Amber Svensson and Pennie White. 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.
Document Statistics: Totals: Words:
2136 For more information, contact the Centre or better still, come and visit us. |
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This Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It
contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for the purpose of
research and study. © Copyright. The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. |