The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast for Sunday 6 January 2002

Broadcast Script 206

Today's program is called:

Revisiting the first Buddhist Hour Broadcast:
Anthems and Fanfares you may be looking for

Within the last three years we have presented over 200 Buddhist Hour live radio broadcasts.

The first Buddhist Hour program was broadcast on 22 February 1998 and is titled Anthems and fanfares you may be looking for.

Master John D. Hughes produced, presented and taught Buddha Dhamma live for this broadcast.

Three Members chanted the Vandana for Buddha and Triple Gem in Pali, and the Dedication of the Merits and blessings in English.

The variations on the Vandana for Buddha, Buddhist Fanfare composed by Bob Venier, The Australian National Anthem and the World Fellowship of Buddhist theme song were broadcast on this occasion.

Master John D. Hughes also discussed the origin and meanings of the Buddhist chanting and fanfares.

The Buddhist Discussion Centre holds the copyright of the Buddhist Hour Broadcasts.

Copies of the radio scripts are available to read in our library.

We have preserved the Buddhist Hour radio programs on audio cassette from the very first program.

From 25 June 2000 our weekly scripts have been available on the Internet at www.bdcublessings.net.au

We will now play for you about half of the first Buddhist Hour program, broadcast on 22 February 1998 called Anthems and fanfares you may be looking for...

Good morning and welcome to the Australian Buddhist Hour.

My name is John Hughes. I am from the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. A. C. N. 005 701 806. Our Hall of Assembly is at 33 Brooking Street Upwey.

Today's program is called: Anthems and Fanfares you may be looking for. The equivalent of a Buddhist Anthem sounds like this...

Namo Tassa Bhavagato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa

Namo Tassa Bhavagato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa

Namo Tassa Bhavagato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa

So, I'd like to thank Anita, Lyn and Julie from the Buddhist Discussion Cente (Upwey) Ltd. for chanting Namo Tassa live to air today.

The word anthem was coined in late Latin times, the period from about the second to fifth century of the Christian era around 200 to 500 A.D. The Latin word antiphona for antiphona refers to a composition, in prose or verse, sung antiphonally, that is, an antiphon.

Later it came to mean a composition in unmeasured prose, usually from the Scriptures or Liturgy, set to music for sacred use.

The modern meaning of the word is used loosely in poetry: any song of praise or gladness. Also, since 1591, the word was used of the English National Anthem. Technically, it is a hymn.

It is a hymn requesting God to save the King or Queen and to save from what is not clear but you can think about that.

In Australia, under the direction of the English military, it was natural enough to sanction the English National anthem or hymn to God as our own national melody.

Traditionally, the Queen is toasted by the army protocols with either port or water. Since Buddha Dhamma practitioners do not use alcohol, we salute the Queen with water.

It is a generally accepted fact that folk music of various races and nations differs in some more or less subtle way and that these differences can be accepted as expressing distinctions in national or racial feeling.

We have been living in a period which has seen some great historic empires split into their racial constituents.

When this happens, generally there is a backward looking attempt to conserve their political and linguistic independence by the more conscious expression of national feeling, and the deliberate adoption, to that end, of the melodic and rhythmic idiom of folk song and folk dance.

It should come as no surprise that a hybrid form has been used mixing some bars of the original with some bars of Advance Australia Fair.

Please enjoy this version of the National Anthem Advance Australia Fair played by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra with the Australian Opera...

What do you understand on hearing these words and music?

What arises that you are aware of maybe some series of remembered events. Your recall is different to others.

Hearing the sound is not all that occurs. Some series of your internal minds are at play with self talk. One of the minds that deals with perception that goes about producing some form of the past happenings is called "sanna" in Pali, the ancient Buddha Dhamma language.

It is awareness as perception of the five physical sense-objects and of mental objects.

Sanna is the awareness of objects' distinctive marks (eg. when one perceives blue, yellow, etc.) and so, if, in repeated perception of an object, these marks are recognised, sanna functions as "memory".

So usually we do not translate "memory" because if you think about it, you can understand that you use perception to picture what you are going to do tomorrow or next week or next life.

So because we are human our perceptions tend to be convincing and it may be that the sanna record is blurry to say the least.

Because all beings experience sanna as part of their mental makeup, even heavenly beings, some of you may intuitively grasp why the Buddha could see, without error and explained over 2500 years ago, that omniscience cannot occur with any being.

For the highly trained mind, it is possible to have enough insight to know things as they really are, have knowledge about properties of matter and the various types of minds can be known without doubt.

The numbers of items the Buddha's pure mind could know within one second could not hardly be counted, item by item, but certainly runs to multiple billions of events; past, present and future.

The Buddha made an interesting statement to the effect that, although there never appeared to be a beginning to the various minds none of them have a permanent existence and not even one atom of matter can be permanent because all things rise and fall into and out of existence.

This is in accordance with modern quantum physics.

You need tenacity to look at things until you know them as they really are.

The sanna arising in hearing the national anthem is accompanied by something else. It is called vedana in Pali.

Vedana translates as feeling.

Feeling (vedana) can be pleasant or unpleasant. There is a third type, which many persons do not experience, and that is feeling can be neither pleasant nor unpleasant.

Obviously, identifiable components of your various minds always seem to include sanna and vedana.

So sanna and vedana operate with a lot of effect as these two, the chief operators of the mental world of human beings, are turned into activity by the Australian National Anthem or Hymn.

This program of the Buddhist Hour is brought to you from the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd, a Regional Centre of The World Fellowship of Buddhists.

We are broadcasting from KNOX FM. The time is..........

Today's program is "The Anthems and Fanfares You are Looking For".

My name is John Hughes.

You may wonder if there is a Buddhist anthem or songs.

Although you may have heard Buddhist Monks and Nuns chant many things; you ought to know the words cover Buddhist Instructions and Blessings.

Songs, in the sense of popular favourites, have superficial words so you can just relax and waste time. Songs are therefore, not in Buddhist practice. In fact, the nearest Buddhists have to an international tune that peak Buddhist Organisations agree on, is the theme of the WFB composed about 20 years ago and sang at their biennial conferences. The singing follows the performance of the national anthem of whatever country holds the WFB Conference.

This year, the WFB Conference will be held at Wollongong in NSW.

So, in Australia, you will hear the Australian National anthem followed by the WFB song. Here it is...............

Once again your sanna perception operates and your feeling operates but in a different manner to that of our national anthem.

Anthems represent a powerful set of sounds which can induce combinations of sanna to reinforce noble sentiments, such as love of this country, or love of an organisation.

The mind is chief in the sense that, at times, it can determine what arises to the accompaniment of certain sounds.

Therefore, if we take care of our mind, and do not weaken it with drugs, we can pay attention to what we are hearing and whatever propaganda is being spread. Then we can do much better than animals who can be conditioned by sound using Pavaleon methods.

So the first thing you had better understand if you think about learning about Buddha Dhamma Teaching methods is that mindfulness of a higher order is needed so you do not look for mere conditioning by ritual.

Depending on your past causes, your thoughts that arise now must be coming to you with some satisfaction due to your pleasant feeling because of how your hearing consciousness is operating at present.

Now if unpleasant feeling arose within you, I presume you would switch to another broadcast channel.

So, if you really wish to learn, you must learn to note when unpleasant feeling is arising and find out what the sanna is examining. When you do this, perhaps you find out it is nothing to do with what I am saying. Rather it is something you have done which is playing with what you are hearing and thus, the content is not to your satisfaction.

However, if you examine the script I am presenting you may note I make no claims that what I tell you will be invariably pleasant to hear. Sorry! So, to inspire persons like you to keep learning rather than tune out if unpleasant feelings arose, I had an Australian musician write a Buddhist Fanfare.

It is called the Namo Tassa Theme Fanfare and it makes for pleasant feeling.

Here it is...

Now that you are freshened up, you may wonder about the title Namo Tassa to name the piece written a few years ago.

For thousands of years throughout the world, Buddhist practitioners have chanted a Vandana or Praise/Respect for Buddha like this:

Namo Tassa Bhavagato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa

Namo Tassa Bhavagato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa

Namo Tassa Bhavagato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa

Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Dhammam Saranam Gacchami

Sangham Saranam Gacchami

Dutiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Dutiyampi Dhammam Saranam Gacchami

Dutiyampi Sangham Saranam Gacchami

Tatiyampi Buddham Saranam Gacchami

Tatiyampi Dhammam Saranam Gacchami

Tatiyampi Sangham Saranam Gacchami

Thank you

So that was the first Buddhist Hour program called Anthems and Fanfares you may be looking for, broadcast on 22 February 1998.

Members who listened to this broadcast on 1 January 2002 learned much by revisiting this first Buddhist Hour broadcast.

Some students talked about how listening to this broadcast reminded them that the Buddhist Teachings are akaliko. Akaliko is a Pali term that means timeless. So the students were reminded that the Buddha's Teachings are timeless.

Many Members expressed a strong sense of gratitude towards our Teacher, Master John D. Hughes. So we thank him for teaching us and request that he please continue to teach us.

May our Teacher Master John D. Hughes be well and happy and continue to teach Buddha Dhamma.

We thank Master John D. Hughes for establishing the Buddhist Hour radio broadcast and for being the Executive Producer from the very first show.

On 1 January 2002, a CD-ROM version of this very first Buddhist Hour broadcast was prepared by Pennie White and presented to Master John D. Hughes.

You can purchase this CD-ROM for $22.00 including GST.

This cassette is sold subject to the condition that it shall not be reproduced in any form whatsoever without permission in writing from the publishers.

Your purchase of this CD-ROM will mean you can listen to Buddhist Teachings and you will be helping us by contributing to the costs of running our weekly Buddhist Hour broadcasts.

May we continue to preserve Buddha Dhamma Teachings.

Thank you for your active attention.

May you be well and happy.

May all beings be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Lisa Nelson 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

Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (1998) The Buddhist Hour: Anthems and Fanfares you may be looking for, Melbourne.

Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (2002) Brooking Street Bugle, Issue 73, Melbourne.

Statistics

Total:

Words: 2004
Sentences: 109
Paragraphs: 99
Syllables: 2885

Averages:

Words per sentence: 18.4
Sentences per paragraph: 1.1

Percentages:

Passive Sentences: 28

Readability Statistics:

Flesch Grade Level: 8.9
Coleman-Liau Grade Level: 12.3
Bormuth Grade Level: 10.3
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 61.4
Flesch Kincaid Score: 8.9

Readability Statistics

Display’s statistics about the document's readability, such as the Flesch Grade Level and Flesch Reading Ease Score. These statistics help you determine if you are writing at a level your audience can understand.

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

(Reference: Lotus Word Pro Help Files)

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May You Be Well And Happy

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