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NAMO
TASSA
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'THE
BUDDHIST HOUR'
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Hillside
Radio 87.6 FM & 88.0 FM |
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The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast for Sunday 16 September 2001
The topic of today’s broadcast is: Buddha Dhamma Acting in Everyday Life
We like to be free from surprises. Because of this fact, we develop standard ways of behaving towards one another. They may not change for generations and look to outsiders as if we practice ritual for obtaining blessings. Indeed, we can see standard forms year in year out that are held because they work in practice.
Last Sunday, 9 September 2001, was Founder’s Day.
Founder’s Day marks the establishment date, 9 September 1978, of our not for profit organisation, the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. The Centre’s Incorporation as an Australian Public Company commenced on Friday 21 July 1980.
This year, Founder’s Day marked the 71st Birth Anniversary of our Founder and resident Teacher, Master John D. Hughes.
The theme for this Founder’s Day was: “Blessings for Improving Well Being”.
A compilation video of past Founder’s Days was played hourly on the day. This limited edition video is called “Blessings on Founder’s Day for Gods and Humans”.
The video contains many Blessings and shows a collection of images from past Founder’s Days, including slides from John D. Hughes’ Birthday celebrated in Shanghai, China, in 1983, photos from his Birth Anniversary in Bangladesh 1992, and a collation of videos from Founder’s Days in Upwey, Victoria, Australia that include Pali chanting.
It was decided to launch a video this Founder’s Day because many persons have a VHS player at home and therefore may easily play the video and receive many Blessings this way making the causes to access Buddha Dhamma.
Over the last twenty years our Members have cultivated blessings and sowed the seeds of blessings that enabled us to cherish and recognise those blessings in the form of this video.
This video is an historical record that clearly illustrates our key objectives which are: to introduce a philosophy of life based on Buddha Dhamma and to encourage the study, practice and realisation of Buddha Dhamma.
Today, our Teacher John D. Hughes and Anita Svensson, Director and Secretary, depart Australia to attend as delegates at the International Conference on Religious Cooperation held in Taiwan from 18 to 21 September 2001.
They will give copies of this video to official persons at this Conference. They will also provide brochures about our Centre; our internal newsletter, the Brooking Street Bugle; our international publication, the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review; our Ch’an Academy Multimedia CDRoms and other gifts.
Two of our Members spent approximately 90 hours to produce this video.
It is our culture to record how we do things in order to make it easy for others to do something similar should they wish to do so. Many skills and insights were gained during the process of producing the video.
Firstly, the relevant slides, photos and videos had to be found. In order to generate blessings for many beings, we must take great care to label and store items correctly to save valuable time and prevent things from getting lost.
Most videos were found in the IT store, two others were found in the Salon D’or. With the kind help of many Members, Devas and humans, the photos, stored in our library, were found quite fast. The slides took a bit longer. Our practice is to seek help from the Devas and Devatas.
The two Members, Pennie and Evelin, wrote a ‘Do List’ and Story Board that was placed on the reading room notice board to inform the Devas and Devatas and human Members of what is being done.
Next, Pennie and Evelin viewed 11 videos of past Founder’s Days edited the sections that were to go on the video. A detailed account of the video script was written. The script contained the date and name of each of the past videos that were being used, the counter number on the video of the relevant scenes, the dates and times of each event, specific slides, images and the text that was to be included.
All the materials needed to compile the tape were taken to Pennie and Evelin’s homes where they had the space and equipment to complete the work.
We thank Russell Yates who helped Evelin and Pennie, by providing his video camera, cables, a slide projector and his audio dubbing equipment for their use.
Before each working process at home, Pennie and Evelin chanted over a big bowl of water and flowers while offering light and dripping candle wax into the water. This is an ancient method of asking Devas and Devatas to come and join in the process and help. The chanting consisted of the Vandana for Buddha, the Triple Gem and the Sharing of Merits. This way many beings came and helped to produce the Blessings video.
To put it all together, text was created, printed and then filmed. A cloth was hung on a door serving as background for both text and photos. A little lamp was used to soften the light. The slides were projected onto the white door and also filmed directly onto a video tape.
Following this, two video players were connected via a cable. It was then a matter of creating a master tape with all contents in the right order by copying the various images from one tape to another. This was the longest process.
Lastly, some audio dubbing was needed to be done. The sound chosen for the images and slides was the Bell Puja previously produced by Members of our Centre and the Buddhist Fanfare as created by Bob Venier. This Buddhist Fanfare is a variation on the Vandana for Buddha. Bob Venier created this Buddhist Fanfare for our Teacher on his birthday in 1990.
Pennie and Evelin had a steep learning curve during the process of creating the video that involved not only acquiring new technical knowledge, but specifically learning to put Buddha Dhamma into action. They could see how their Teacher, John D. Hughes, has blessed and taught many beings over a long period of time. They could see their Teacher putting Buddha Dhamma into action.
Member’s and Friends attending Founder’s Day last Sunday also enjoyed the blessings from a photo board display of past Founder’s Day celebrations at our Centre and overseas.
Recording of pictures, either video or photographs, communicate volumes of information to persons. A picture can say a million words as it overrides language barriers.
If listeners would like to help us in preserving and sharing our heritage blessings then you may donate photo albums, video cassettes, a video camera tripod, VHS 8mm video camera and VHS video player with audio dubbing facilities that will help us with our next project - PHOTOLAN.
We need to scan photographs of our expertise into our PHOTOLAN and archive them into our PHOTOLAN database. The process of archiving and information retrieval are automated so that we can provide a photographic curriculum vitae on a person within 3 minutes.
Should you wish to make good causes to help your future internet studies, please contact us on (03) 9754 33 34. You can help us on this project through donation of equipment or by scanning our heritage photographs and preparing of indices at our Centre.
When you ring us, refer to this project as PHOTOLAN.
To fund our PHOTOLAN project we must raise monies and ask for free know-how of skilled internet persons.
If you have skills and qualifications or equipment to donate and can make the time to help, please contact us. The generosity displayed by your donation of time and/or equipment will help you overcome the culture of poverty. We believe in Dana, the practice of giving. Dana is the Pali word for many types of generosity with kind action.
We practice making causes to get IT systems by recycling our older equipment. For example, we have given computers to Buddhist monasteries in India and Bangladesh. Also, when we update our equipment, we give our older equipment to the Australian charity ‘PC's FOR KIDS’. This is Dana. They help in third world countries.
Another example of Buddha Dhamma in action is that we practice to create harmony.
One method of doing this is to emphasise the similarities you have with others in order to build commonality. This in turn helps you develop tolerance of the existing differences.
Our standard blessing practices bridge cultural communities.
When a Vietnamese family visited our Centre on Founder’s day, we worked to create harmony.
Our Members greeted them and waited on them. We seated our visitors and ourselves at a large table together and drank tea and other refreshments. Even though we were culturally different, we found commonality by recognising that they wished to be healed.
Drinking tea together is therapeutic to all.
At a previous visit, our Teacher and Members healed the grandmother who was experiencing pain in her head. The pain was identified as the pain experienced by Mothers. Mothers place their children’s needs before their own and suffer greatly. This Mother had suffered the trauma of war and would not let her children see her cry. The pain in her head was the result of millions of unwept tears. This is a common experience of all Mothers, they do not let their children see them cry.
Lead by our Founder, we made Healing Water to give to this Vietnamese family and Members and Friends attending this Founder’s day.
Giving out this healing water to our Vietnamese visitors shortened the cultural distance between us and personalised our relationship with them.
This is what we do when we attend the World Fellowship of Buddhists Conferences and other Conferences. We look at how we can act to increase our efforts in reducing distance between us and others.
Through our websites and our PHOTOLAN project, we are globalising our records and information for consultation by others who wish to do what we do. We can then connect like-minded scholars with like-minded scholars, and like-minded entrepreneurs with like-minded entrepreneurs, for mutual benefit and continuity.
We would like to thank Mr Opa from the Buddhist Foundation (Vic) Australia Inc. Mr Opa was our guest speaker on last Sunday’s program who talked about the Australasian Buddhist Conference scheduled for June 2002. The Conference’s theme is “Refine your Mind, Enrich your Life through Buddhist Teachings” and will provide key Buddhist scholars to speak. Thank you once again Mr Opa for your valuable time and information.
We dedicate the merit made from this program to our delegates to the International Conference on Religious Cooperation. May this conference generate peace within religions.
May you understand the importance of good action. May you come to understand cause and effect.
May you be well and happy.
This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Pam Adkins, Evelin Halls, Rilla Oellien, Anita 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.
References
No references were used in the compilation of this radio script.
Document
Statistics: 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. |