The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast for Sunday 23 December 2001
Broadcast Script 203

Glossary

whirligig, rapid circling movement, something characterised by a constant frantic activity or change, a whirl.

The topic of today’s broadcast is:
A compendium of previous broadcasts

How can a person find the Buddha Dhamma teaching?

It is clear from all texts that a person’s chances of this happening is very slight.

Inherently, there is no discrimination of right and wrong in human behaviour; but people, people of ignorance; imagine such distinctions and judge them as right or wrong.

Having a human body is like changing clothes every day; one day you are Australian, the next day you are Korean if you learn from the mindset of a Korean Master, and the next day you are French if you happen to be learning in that language, or German if you are learning in that language.

But this Buddha Dhamma is one pure and clear thing and never changes its subject matter.

People of great accomplishment are held in high regard in every society.

Wise persons move through life in well-ordered paths by a series of what appear to be easy steps, and this allows them to give ‘story breaking’ proclamations almost suggestive of them having knowledge of the way things will unfold.

They have vision of what they want to do and it would seem that all wise persons have at least two traits in common.

One is the will to do the task of their choice to completion and the other we will call ‘the perfection of patience’.

It is Buddha’s Teaching not to associate with fools, and we take this advice as a prime value.

While the majority of such foolish persons exhaust their libido (their lifeforce) watching the champions from the sideline or a television screen, they are unlikely to formulate an easy path to emulate their heroes.

This is what the wise people know about turning thought into action that many others do not. Wise people understand the law of cause and effect, in other words, they understand how to act to put in place the supporting factors for the achievement of projects of any magnitude.

Unwise persons look at the final outcome without understanding the process or map or path that was followed to get there.

Birth as a human being is a consequence of great meritorious actions in a past life. It is not a reward or punishment by a God or devil that we come to bad births, it is what we do as we live our everyday life. Our present situation is the result of causes created by our own actions in the past. In the Dhammapada the opening verse is “All that we are is the result of our thoughts; it is founded on our thoughts and made up of our thoughts. With our thoughts we make the world. If a man speaks or acts with a harmful thought, trouble follows him as the wheel does the ox that draws the cars’.

Earthly life is so important that all Buddhas elect to be born human for their final struggle and awakening.

One European scholar estimated it will take Buddhist scholars four hundred years just to complete unfinished business in the Dhamma scholarship fields.

This is likely to be true if the old-fashioned ways of mapping out thinking in 3rd order or 4th order knowledge is adopted. Traditionally this has been the learning genre of the European University scholars. In itself it is fine - but for us it means that there is never going to be enough funds available for Buddhist scholars to follow their paradigm of what they think or feel needs to be done.

At our Centre, we choose to network and train Buddhist Scholars who can operate in 5th or 6th order knowledges, which was the preferred mode of many of Buddha Dhamma’s classic writers in ancient times.

We believe this may be an effective form to achieve what must be achieved and do what will benefit the few and bless the many.

When the World Buddhist University was first proposed, key Members at our Centre recognised that at long last here was a viable proposition for something that was extremely important that had been missing from the world.

Throughout Buddhist history, international effort concentrated on forming knowledge networks to amass ‘cultural capital’ into peak gateway terminals at created centres of learning. Many great examples have existed, such as the revered Nalanda University. In these places could be found persons who, having networked with other places, could obtain the fruits of humility, contentment, gratitude and opportune hearing of Dhamma on a regular basis.

Work is something we all do as humans.

Persons run into big trouble when they practise unwise ways of earning an income. These facts about work are buried away somewhere in your past memories and are knowable. They make sense. From time to time, we Buddhist followers must engage in joint work activities with other groups of persons. For example, we work with the management of the radio station in their studio.

Actions for peace is part of the work religions ought to do on a regular basis.

A most peaceful state can be obtained from sober persons. As Buddha Dhamma practitioners, we hold the precept of abstaining from drugs and intoxicants, unless they are medically prescribed. We make sure to maintain an intoxicant free environment at our Hall of Assembly.

In a similar manner, we believe it is better be avoided alcoholic drinks in a work environment.

By much hard work, good quality control and clever marketing, Australian wines have achieved wide local and overseas acceptance. Market demands are rising each year.

Many investors find something alluring in the possibility of having their family name associated with a wine product. In many ways, the whole process is thought to be surrounded with a certain style.

Changing good food (grapes) to wine is not considered right livelihood by our Centre.

It is not the sort of investment we would seek.

It is likely more dull persons will be born in Australia or come to live in Australia drawn by the availability of more local wine, cheaply available.

Events are predictable because of present causes.

In Australia, there is no pure one culture, but rather highbred mixtures in a range from total denial of any family responsibility or obligation to obsessive clinging to the family unit as the one and only refuge that matters. Both these extremes cause considerable emotional suffering over as many as four generations of family members that could involve a hundred or more persons.

Even in a nuclear family with one or two children it is becoming apparent that the birth rate is falling.

Just because you are working hard does not mean you are doing the right things. It is more important to be doing the right things - than to be doing things right.

Being born to an Australian family denotes some form of attachment to parents and siblings. We inherently adopt our family’s culture which can create circumstances where it is difficult to learn Buddha Dhamma.

To balance family life and the Dhamma, the Dhamma should be given priority. As long as the attachment to family is dominant, this attachment has the capacity to stop persons from learning Buddha Dhamma. Nevertheless, this does not mean we abandon helping our family.

In the Buddha’s sermon on What is True Blessedness, titled the Mangala Sutta, the Lord Buddha stated that ‘to wait on father and mother, to cherish wife and child, to follow a peaceful calling; this is true blessedness’.

At our Centre, persons have the opportunity to make the necessary causes to be born in a family culture that enables the practice of Buddha Dhamma in future lives.

Fundraising ‘per se’ has never been the prime objective of our existence. Our key objectives are to introduce a philosophy of life based on Buddha Dhamma and to encourage the study, practice and realisation of Buddha Dhamma.

We understand that should fundraising become priority number one, soon we would abandon the strategic focus of our organization, ‘that the Buddha Dhamma be taught’.

A very high priority is given to the supply chain management of good, censored information that is fit for use as we deliver it to many persons.

More and more our strategic focus is to deliver this good, censored information from different websites on the Internet.

The censorship is necessary to ensure that the information is non-sexist, non-ageist and non-racist and is conducive to the well-being of the many and for the supreme awakening of the few.

Our commitment is that we raise sufficient funds to gather, edit, produce, organize and deliver this magnitude of good information within this time frame.

The value of the Internet lies in connecting masses of like-minded niche audiences.

It is clear we need more and more qualified researchers in this information age.

Analysing and presenting information using our protocols, speaking in a culturally appropriate manner and the ability to work within time and resource constraints is vital.

There is no beginning of ignorance caused by craving but, there can be an end to ignorance and ultimately the destruction of ignorance if the right techniques for training the minds are followed. But along the Path we need to get the correct instructions that are presented step by step with higher and higher bases in logical untangling of certain propositions that are not clear.

The sequence of dependent arising has to be explored and one way to approach this is to explain the working of intentional action and a result. The operation of the Law of Intentional Action and a result involves time. They are not concurrent things - intentional action takes time to mature into result. There is the suggestion that the Law of Dependent Arising operates at two levels - as a structural principle, where time is not involved, and as a sequence involving time.

But if you have little faith or little trust in logic, you are unlikely to follow instructions. Some persons have trouble in remembering what they read. It is a if their minds are jammed full of trivial and have no space to remember new knowledge presented to them.

You decide you are sick of the clutter and desire to do something about it to reduce it. You then work to find the available space you need to have for what it is you want to store.

Designing just for extra storage space in indicative of persons possessing narrow view. Plans must incorporate strategic thinking that encompasses the broader perspective or the total mandala of storage.

We adopt the broader view or functional mandala as part of our strategic planning. You cannot achieve this by the method of transactional processing which involves only data collection.

In the creation society of the 21st century, goods already exist, we have food, and we have information. In such a society, human beings will see sensibility, that is deeper interpersonal relationships, and we have entered into an age in which people are seeking to operate in a cooperative manner in their use of networks and so on.

Even though different religious groups may have a variety of different theories and methods of practice, there is no doubt the Buddha Dhamma now tries to communicate a message of “by some method or other” or “somehow”.

In its attempt to convey this message, Buddha Dhamma has used discourses, narratives, stories with a certain point or punchline, and even tile block prints. In other words, religion has unmistakably always been at the front line of the media of a particular age. Accordingly, we believe it is significant, and only natural, that all Monks and Nuns be involved with multimedia.

In addition, all religion has always been virtual.

Human beings possess both a virtual world, for example a paradise world or a Buddhist world as well as the real world in which we live.

When you compare the two, we dwell more in the virtual world. The world that exists within our own hearts and the external virtual world as typified by the Internet engage in a process of fusion and expansion. Religion plays the role of navigator of that virtual world.

Buddha Dhamma has existed continuously for some 2500 years and has reputedly produced many benefits for its practitioners in a harmonious way. It is also the fastest growing religion in Australia.

At our Centre we help some persons who are ‘down on their luck’, and if they become stronger we teach them to make their own ‘luck; through cause and effects.

Members at our Centre help themselves by keeping five precepts and making merit by helping others.

Is there right knowledge that can help some persons?

The Buddha Canon, known as the Tripitaka in Pali, comprises of three collections of teachings.

The first collection, the Vinaya Pitaka, is the book of discipline, containing the rules of conduct for the monks and nuns and the regulations governing the Sangha.

The second collection, the Sutta Pitaka, brings together the Buddha’s discourses spoken by him on various occasions during his 45 years of teaching.

The third collection is the Abhidhamma Pitaka which contains the Buddha’s ‘higher’ or special’ doctrine.

The Abhidhamma is said to hold the essentials of the Buddha Dhamma without the need of conventional terminology.

A study of Abhidhamma can be useful to us in coming to terms with the nature of our life and understanding it in the way of momentary events as respective factors of consciousness, mental factors and the objects of consciousness. Wholesome moments are distinguished from unwholesome moments in such a way that we can understand the difference between the two and thus enable us to see the difference between all the different moments of life - to know that the moment of seeing is different from the moment of hearing, that hearing is different from thinking what we hear, that tasting is not the same moment as smelling, that even taste is not the same as tasting, and so on.

According to Abhidhamma philosophy, there are two types of realities. One is conventional and the other is ultimate reality. Conventional realities are made up of conventional modes of expression like persons, living beings and whatever object making up that part of mental life which has not been analysed.

Abhidhamma philosophy maintains that the mode of being of these notions is essentially conceptual and they are not expressive of any inherent irreducible reality but rather mental constructions which we wrongly assume to be true.

We can discover ultimate realities from correctly performed analysis of our experiences.

The whirligig of time is pleasant to a few artists, vagabonds, seers; and for these select few, if they bother to talk about it, their talk seems to lift us almost into a heaven world.

Why is it that such persons can maintain strong ‘traditions’ without and static or nostalgic backwardness because they can live a full life open to transformation of their circumstances because they have the skill in means to override conscious and unconscious forms of resistance - towards homogenisation, towards devaluation, towards marginalising by those who fear difference. They escape what you could describe as the “frog’s perspective” - a kind of double vision.

They are not alienated from the human race - they do not suffer decentering of their mind by any aspects of postmoderninity. These are the bodhisattvas who bless the human world because they can. Some of our Members have taken vows to follow this path.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.

Today’s radio script is a compendium of our weekly broadcasts from 28 May 2000 to 30 July 2000. You can find this radio script and previous scripts online at www.bdcublessings.net.au.

The authors and editors of this script were: John D. Hughes, Leanne Eames, Evelin Halls 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

Total:

Words: 2624
Sentences: 126
Paragraphs: 82
Syllables: 4065

Averages:

Words per sentence: 20.8
Sentences per paragraph: 1.5

Percentages:

Passive Sentences: 24

Readability Statistics:

Flesch Grade Level: 11.8
Coleman-Liau Grade Level: 11.3
Bormuth Grade Level: 10.1
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 54.1
Flesch-Kincaid Score: 10.5

Readability Statistics

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Flesch Grade Level: Flesch Grade Level indicates the Flesch Reading Ease score as a grade level. See the Flesch Scoring Table.

Coleman-Liau Grade Level: Indicates the grade level of the document based on the average number of letters per word and number of sentences per 100 words.

Bormuth Grade Level: Indicates the grade level of the document based on the average number of letters per word and per sentence. These scores indicate grade levels ranging from 6.3 to 11.6.

Flesch Reading Ease Score: Indicates how easy the document is to read based on the number of syllables per word and number of words per sentence. These scores indicate a number between 0 and 100. The higher the score, the easier the document is to read. See the Flesch Scoring Table.

Flesch-Kincaid Score: Indicates the grade level of the document based on the number of syllables per word and number of words per sentence. This score predicts the difficulty of reading technical documents, and is based on Navy training manuals that score in difficulty from 5.5 to 16.3. It meets military readability specifications MIL-M-38784 and DOD-STD-1685.

Flesch Scoring Table

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May You Be Well And Happy

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