The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast for Sunday 27 January 2002
Broadcast Script 209

Glossary

Taxonomy: classification, especially in relation to its principles or laws

Endowment: an attribute of mind or body; a gift of nature

The title of today's broadcast is:
Creating the causes for future happiness

Our Teacher has shown that the relationship taxonomy for Buddhist relations starts with dana (generosity), followed by adosa (active friendship), leading to building good will.

From a store of good will, it is possible to build trust from which long term accord could arise.

By understanding at least a few of our own past lives and deaths before we were born human this life, we can learn the causes that brought us to this present condition, and gain an insight into that of our ancestors.

Whatever birth they have come to, may they find peace.

There is a saying that, 'A teacher for knowledge is easy to obtain, one for morality is hard to find'.

In Chinese educational history, the scholastic tendencies demonstrated under the civil service examination system of old China meant that scholars became obsessed with gaining official recognition and neglected moral principles. The so-called 'Master' was one who could help a scholar prompt his official rank. Therefore, the relationship between Masters and students was totally dependent on mutual benefits, and the spirit of teaching deteriorated accordingly.

'A teacher of morality' refers to an expert or professor in teaching techniques whose inner nature and behaviour can be a demonstrative example for ordinary people; thus it is difficult to find a good teacher such as this.

Nevertheless, in Buddha Dhamma there are teachers of morality simply because of the Ten Perfections that are needed to be cultivated, and the second of these Perfections is sila in the Pali language, which is generally translated as morality in the English language.

Many human beings wish to improve and are willing to allot time and energy to work in return for rewards.

The Buddha taught the Ten Perfections as a method of self-development.

Morality (Sila) is the second Perfection of the Ten Perfections.

By the practice of morality you come to peaceful rebirth in wealthy places like Australia.

We have developed in our Members persons who are flexible enough and patient enough to work through problems and are educated, credible, significant and professional enough to work together in teams. They have to deal with considerable pressures, but can stomach the risks and enjoy the art of conflict resolution that always appears wherever Buddha Dharma is being propagated.

It must be remembered that there are certain types of persons who work to destroy the morality associated with religious teachings. But in the long run as the Dharma ending age gets darker and darker these persons succeed in destroying the Buddha Dharma in the human world 2500 years from now. After that time because the suitable locations have been destroyed and human beings are born with bad dispositions, they are not teachable so therefore Teachers do not take birth to show the way. The marks of the destruction of the Buddha Sasene (the teaching era) have been described by Buddha how stepwise the conditions needed for learning are destroyed.

Money alone will not fix up the conditions for teaching about the four Noble truths.

What we are doing right now is more important than who we were in the past.

Even though the past may account for many of the inequalities we see in life, the outcomes could change at any moment.

You need not focus on your karmic past too much otherwise you can become obsessed by it.

Your karmic opportunity lies in the present to act in a wiser manner.

We want to live like human beings, not as animals. What is the point of getting human birth and then choosing to live like animals?

Do not become enmeshed with persons who do not keep precepts because while you are with them, you have no time to meet people who do keep precepts.

Stop wasting your precious, valuable, hard-to-obtain human life.

Very high cognitive orders can remove any tendency towards depression, and loving relationships can be maintained between persons holding many precepts, but for persons who do not hold precepts, the future of their relationships is bleak.

We encourage our Members to develop better work cultures, whatever their occupation.

This means they willingly give time to their job, and occasionally a little extra.

They are encouraged to join professional groups and cooperate with various individuals and groups whose joint efforts are often needed.

They are willing to get involved in the nitty-gritty, if need be.

They will move the chairs, clean the coffee pot, and dirty their hands if that is what is necessary to get the job done.

They are willing to tolerate what they cannot change, and strongly work for those things they can change to render better service and quality.

They are willing to work harder, care more, complain less and love their profession long after other folks have given up.

These things are learnt and practiced by the good Members at our Centre as they continue to write and present our radio scripts over the four seasons.

If you wish to help yourself to develop in these areas, please come and help us.

In Buddha Dhamma meditation practice, the outside world is put down and the inside mental world is examined.

Naturally, the inside world has not got work as number one because it deals with what is outside of us such as work. Few persons have a paid job to examine their inner world. We are not paid at work to get to know our likes and dislikes; we are paid to attend to the task at hand.

It is not through work we obtain a niche in Buddhist society, it is through increasing our awareness to examine the marks of true existence.

The teaching of the Buddha showed us how to always maintain awareness of our actions and our minds.

If we are constantly acting in a way which is learned or seen to be proper, then our focus is going to be on other person's reactions as opposed to our own actions.

Abiding in our true Buddha nature allows us to be simply and gently aware, and if one is always mindful then our actions and responses will always be appropriate.

Through his untiring analysis work, our Teacher at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., John D. Hughes, has provided the means of practical entry into the Study and Practice of Buddha Dhamma for many beings. Throughout Australia and overseas, his publishing activities help persons from all walks of life begin to get a measure of the benefits of living the Middle Way.

John was born in Australia in 1930 this very life. When John awoke at Versak in 1955 it was not too early or too late for him to develop the resources and skills needed to help persons find the Buddhist Path.

In those days, there were no suitable Halls of Assembly with Buddha images to practice the Middle Way open to the Australian public. He was determined to help bring the material needed for activities resting upon the simple thought "that Dhamma be taught". By hard work, he built a Temple at Upwey designed to maintain and prolong the availability of the Buddha's Teachings in this Dhamma-Ending Age. He has written and edited much Dhamma Teachings in the English language. His great efforts include the provision for eight specialised websites to publish material needed.

His magnificence in doing these actions is a kammic result of innate endowment, plus the special hard work of embodying and expressing altruistic attitudes of the Middle Path. He is living proof that because something is correct, each of us is capable of achieving it and blessing many persons in many countries.

You have merit. It is the accumulated reservoir of millions of past wholesome activities done with mind, body and speech. It is a kind of supply chain which supports our mental and emotional existence and our physical collection of body aggregates, on another level like money in several banks. We can never get all the banks to pay out at the same time.

Right now you are in the Dhamma supply chain, but will you be in the Dhamma supply chain tomorrow and in the future?

If we spend all our money we have in one bank and cannot access the money in the other banks quickly, we will get to a stage where we will have no cash flow and become insolvent.

What happens then?

Similarly, on a psychological level we need to replenish our psychological bank accounts, so that stored up mental energy is available for us to use in whatever way we see fit from one or the other of our bank accounts, that's if we can access a suitable level of mind content. Some say there is a consciousness storehouse called the alaya whereas other schools do not acknowledge the existence of the alaya.

This stored up mental energy can be used for many things.

We cannot take our material possessions with us because the body is subject to decomposition, but the positive mind tendencies we have accumulated and operated in this one existence will serve us well in the future times. Merit has a 'use by' date. You use it or you lose it.

What did we do to be in the supply chain of hearing, reading and seeing Dhamma? We make the effort to supply you today, because if we want to stay in the Dhamma supply chain, first we read Dhamma, use it ourselves, and then transform it and pass it on in many forms, such as the radio broadcast script, the actual 'Buddhist Hour' broadcast, and the weekly uploading of the radio script onto our 'Blessings' website at www.bdcublessings.one.net.au with the strong intention for it to be used by many.

The 16th anniversary celebration of the Ch'an Academy will be held on 6 February 2002. The Ch'an Academy was opened on 6 February 1986.

May you preserve your own happiness, and have harmonious relationships.

May listening or reading these words be a cause for your future to contain the blessings and teachings of the Buddha Dharma.

May you be part of the Dhamma supply chain.

May you be well and happy.

Today's radio script is a compendium of our weekly broadcasts from 10 September 2000 to 19 November, 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 and Leanne Eames.

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

1994 Annual Report and Position Paper, A Relationship Taxonomy For Buddhist Relationships, John D. Hughes Collection Development Sub-Committee, Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

Stenhouse, Lawrence. 1976. An Introduction to Curriculum Research and Development. London, Heinemann Educational Books Ltd, pp. 163-165.

Document Statistics

Total:
Words: 1804
Sentences: 84
Paragraphs: 71
Syllables: 2648

Averages:
Words per sentence: 21.5 Sentences per paragraph: 1.2

Percentages:
Passive Sentences: 21

Readability Statistics:
Flesch Grade Level: 10.8
Coleman-Liau Grade Level: 11.7
Bormuth Grade Level: 10.6
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 57.3
Flesch-Kincaid Score: 10.1

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

(Reference: Lotus Word Pro Help Files)

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May You Be Well And Happy

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Permission is given to make printouts of this publication for FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY.

Please keep it in a clean place.

"The gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts".

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