The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast for Sunday 17 March 2002

Broadcast Script 216

Glossary

analysis: the resolution or breaking up of something complex into its various simple elements; a statement of the results of such an operation, critical examination of a literary or musical composition in order to bring out essential elements or structure; the resolution by application of logic of complex structures, facts, propositions and concepts into their elements.

castigate: inflict suffering on to punish or subdue; chastise; rebuke severely. Reduce in intensity, moderate. Correct, revise and emend (a literary work etc.)

cognition: the action or faculty of knowing, including perceiving, conceiving, etc.

exchequer: original (now history), the Government department responsible for the receipt and custody of the money collected by the departments of revenue. Now, the Government’s account a the Bank of England whose balance forms the Consolidated Fund.

intrinsic: situated within, interior, inwards, inherent, essential

lemma: something taken for granted or assumed, theme, argument, title; the argument or subject of a literary work, prefixed as a heading

perturbation: the action or an instance of perturbing someone; disturbance, disorder, commotion

precipitous: steep. sudden, rash, precipitate.

prolixity: the quantity, state, or degree of prolix; long duration, lengthy, protracted.

publish: make generally known, declare or report openly, announce, disseminate

remuneration: reward, recompense; payment, pay.

Today's broadcast is entitled: Publications fit for study

By studying the history of publishing, we are impressed by the thoughts of the background that influence the decision to publish a Review fit for study.

The first number of the Edinburgh Review appeared on 10 October 1802, published by Archibald Constable in an edition of 750 copies at five shillings a copy. It was a roaring success.

Critics writing for the Edinburgh Review were soon to receive higher remuneration that had ever been paid to a professor that had hitherto served as a catch -all for assorted hacks and penny-a-liners whigs and tories alike were afforded.

Yet John Clive considers the real origin of the Edinburgh Review must be sought in the numerous clubs and learned societies that carried on the intellectual traditions of Edinburgh’s golden age- the period of the Scottish enlightenment of the mid-eighteenth century.

We publish three types of study publications fit for study on a regular basis.

Perhaps the best known sentence ever published in the Edinburgh Review is that which Jeffery used to open his review of Wordsworth’s Excursion : ‘This will never do.’

Yet before too precipitously castigating the critic as imperceptive, and dismissing him as an eighteenth-century survival unable to recognise the new currents of romanticism, it is well to balance ‘This will never do’ against some of his other verdicts, such as this concerning Wordsworth, Southey, and Coleridge: ‘There is a fertility and a force, a warmth of feeling and exaltation of imagination about them, which classes them, in our estimation, with a much higher order of poets than the followers of Dryden and Addison; and justifies an anxiety for their fame, in all admirers of Milton and Shakespeare.’

Longwinded authors presented another constant problem.

Sir George Cornewall Lewis took over the editorship of the Review in 1852 (William Empson edited it immediately after Napier’s death) and achieved a measure of immortality not as Palmerston’s Chancellor of the Exchequer, which he became in 1855, but as the author of the saying that ‘life would be tolerable, but for its amusements’. He remarked plaintively: ‘Prolixity is the bete noire of an editor. Every separate contributor has some special reason to write at length on his own subject.’

Our editors face these same problems as those in the olden days.

The first issue of our publication Longhair Australian News Volume 1. Number 1 was printed on 11 January 2002. Twenty paper copies were printed and published by the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

There were 52 pages of A4 paper in the first edition. Longhair Australian News can be found on our Internet site www.bsbonline.com.au.

The real origin of the Longhair Australian News must be sought in the network of nine Buddha Dhamma Webmasters who look after the eight websites of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. in the Information Age.

They needed to communicate with one another by emails, both internal and external to keep themselves involved on how uploading data onto the eight websites were proceeding.

Technical aspects of software were shared, personal computer back-up updates and services were needed to be known.

More and more Buddha Dhamma teachings at our Centre have been transcribed to text for Internet. Our internal text retrieval system (ISYS) removes many publishing difficulties.

If our students wish to work in groups and individually, the whole class would probably follow one course or series.

There remains a demand for "core" course books alongside the demand for a variety of topic books, learning kits and visual aids.

Quality books in Australia are not cheap.

With the Australian dollar at 52 cents to the US dollar, multiple copies of quality overseas books cannot be provided.

We cannot afford to fund many copyright publications.

In a time when we wish to introduce rapid curriculum change and educational innovation as publishers of small monographs written by our production teams, we can give to our Members a balanced and experienced view of modern methods without importing expensive foreign materials or infringing copyright. We own the copyright for texts we have produced.

The lemma for our Longhair Australian News is ‘You shall know by experience’ which was written down in the Latin form ‘Experiundo scies’ by Terence in circa 160 B.C.

Our network of Buddha Dhamma writers and Webmasters are not strangers in the publications world.

They have been developing their scholarship through the production of many publications fit for study by Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. including the quarterly international journal the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review (now online), the fortnightly Brooking Street Bugle (now online) and the weekly Buddhist Hour radio broadcast scripts (now online).

Our Buddha Dhamma publications have always been printed for free distribution and are fit for study.

Our flagship for research purposes, the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review has been published for over ten years with up to 80 pages per issue and has built up readership in over 40 countries.

Demand became so great for this review as printing costs and postage costs escalated that it was decided in the year 2002 to publish only in the online form.

The Buddha Dhyana Dana Review is online at www.bddronline.net.au and www.bdcu.org.au.

The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. has been writing radio scripts fit for study and has been broadcasting weekly for over four years.

We enter the text of the broadcast script before the Sunday broadcasts onto our website www.bdcublessings.net.au.

We are quite happy to quote the best words we find and we know clearly that a developed analytical mind is one of the rarest of possessions and above all others deserves the name 'scientific'.

The analytical mind can examine critically in order to bring out essential elements or structure. Analysis is a cognitive learning process.

The word cognitive comes from the Latin word meaning ‘to know’, and this is what cognitive learning is about - how people come to know about their world. In fact, people acquire, store, and organise information even when they are not required to do so.

It may be worthwhile here to consider two specific types of cognitive learning: the learning of cognitive maps and learning by observation.

Human beings form cognitive maps of their physical environment. If you are driving to work in the morning and encounter a road block you can probably find a new route to work even if you have never traveled the alternative route before. This is because you have formed a cognitive map of the area your work is situated in.

Especially among human beings, a great deal of learning takes place without any direct reward or punishment, simply as a result of our observing the behaviour of other people. This important process of learning is called learning by observation or modeling.

We are careful who we select when we are learning by observation.

An additional way in which human beings learn - sometimes overlooked because it is so obvious - is with words. Words can provide powerful and efficient ways of teaching and learning new behaviours.

Language is the primary means by which we communicate with other people - the way we give and receive instructions, learn and teach, share and socialize. In addition, we use language as a means of formulating out thoughts and views of the world. Clearly language is much more that a set of sounds. Whether English, Hungarian, or Vietnamese, a language is a system of symbols that can be used to represent our activities, our thoughts, and our worlds. How this system works, and especially how each of us comes to acquire it is one of the most fascinating questions one can ask about the human mind.

A mind with insight may become analytic by nature. We draw strength from our peers.

Our Centre is a regional centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and an associated centre of the World Buddhist University. We are happy to be able to contribute to the World Fellowship of Buddhists and the World Buddhist University publishing activities.

Over time, we receive and respond to many requests for specialist papers for Buddha Dhamma publications.

So what is the moral effect of involving ourselves with the World Fellowship of Buddhists and the World Buddhist University publishing activities?

Let us interpret the word "moral" in an earlier and more liberal sense. 'Moral' is properly that which pertains to, or affects, our mores, the Latin name for ;ways', our whole character, or mental breeding, or to put it more simply, our tone.

That 'tone' runs through not only all we do, but all we think and feel. It spontaneously determines our attitude to all we see or hear. Nothing is more indicative of a person's culture or tone than what he or she finds interesting. Hence, we become 'ethical'.

So, we are saying that our membership of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and association with the World Buddhist University is good for our 'tone'.

The Greeks rated persons as imperceptive or insensitive if they lacked this tone. They were stupid or dull-witted, tactless, gross and represented a vulgarian.

To those hard and harsh materialistic persons who are arising in the materialistic age we call them Philistine.

Such persons prefer the loud and common to the fine and become ingrained with crude psychological dullness and movies culture. Such persons assert they know what they like and leave it at that.

We intend to raise the tone in Australia by the systematic propagation of the best of Buddha's Teachings because we know it works, because it gives a particularly wide and deep culture-unusual knowledge, insight, sense of trueness and fitness and a sympathetic response to good things, and it is fit for study.

What we are after is attainable as a great law of culture that we can learn to express by the expansion and clarifying of our thinking and feeling through propagation over the local radio stations and our Internet sites.

This is our Dhamma Dana.

Naturally, we do not expect that all Australians will agree but we are not here to dictate but merely to suggest and show the Way to the masses. The surest way of learning to appreciate the Buddha Dhamma is by earlier association with its most perfect examples.

As with literature, the effect is increased tenfold when you not merely redefine work to right livelihood but also put it into practice.

We do not kill.

The question is not whether a writer is excellent for his time and country, but whether he or she remains always everywhere excellent. We can read ancient texts and feel their freshness now.

While assessments of importance of a writer's work may depend upon a subjective interpretation, there are at least three questions we may ask in order to have a more objective approach.

1. What is the written work's importance?

What are its intrinsic qualities and expressive vitality, as measured by the aesthetic norms contemporary with and proper to the work itself - form, line, composition and so on?

2. What is the written work's historical importance?

What is its significance, its innovative or non-innovative style and its effect on other authors, artists, scholars and others ?

Assessments of this kind are still focused on the object, however extend beyond the written work itself to its involvement with other works, the 'perturbations' set off by the 'main signal'.

3. What is the written work's critical importance?

First, how does it appear in commentaries, critiques and art works, contemporary and later, which tell its historical and critical history as seen by observers in direct contact with the author, the work, and the culture?

Second, how is it affected by recent 20th and 21st century criticism and historical importance?

Evaluation of 'importance' suggests a movement of ever-larger concentric circles radiating from the given work outward and touching all relevant material.

We can talk to Members of the World Fellowship of Buddhists who have memorised the ancient texts and when they express them it is a if we are hearing the living voice of the Buddha teaching us.

They never bore us with light conversation or awkward conversation brought about through lack of ideas. Some great authority once said, "read no book until it becomes famous".

Presumably, he was addressing students to direct their energies away from reading trivia and towards substance.

We wish to challenge many Australians and others to stop wasting their time and enfeeble their faculties with third rate literature when we can publish first rate literature written by living scholars.

May our Teacher Master John D. Hughes be well and happy and continue to teach Buddha Dhamma and produce publications fit for study.
May you know the sources of your learning fit for study.
May you associate with persons who raise your tone.
May you stop wasting your time.
May you read many famous books fit for study.
May you be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Evelin Halls, Rilla Oellien, Anita Svensson and Pennie White.


References

Briggs, Asa, (ed.) 1974, Essays in the History of Publishing, Longman Group Ltd., London.

Fu, Marilyn and Shen, 1987, Studies in Connoisseurship, Third edition, the Trustees of Princeton University, USA.

Hughes, John, D., 2002, “In Praise of Fifty Years of Flavours and Interest Generated by the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB)”, in The WFB Golden Jubilee Commemorative Book, Headquarters, World Fellowship of Buddhist, Printing house of Thammasat University, Bangkok, Thailand, pp. 29-37.

Rubin, Zick and Mc Niel, Elton, B., 1981, The Psychology of Being Human, Third Edition, Harper and Rows Publishers, New York.


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: 2159
Sentences: 109
Paragraphs: 77
Syllables: 3280

Averages:
Words per sentence: 19.8
Sentences per paragraph: 1.4

Percentages:
Passive Sentences: 28

Readability Statistics
Flesch Grade Level: 12.3
Coleman-Liau Grade Level: 13.5
Bormuth Grade Level: 10.6
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 52.2
Flesch Kincaid Score: 10.5


Readability Statistics

Displays 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.

(Reference: Lotus Word Pro Help Files)


Disclaimer:

As we, the Chan Academy Australia, Chan Academy being a registered business name of 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 another 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 Chan Academy Australia (Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.)

This Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for the purpose of research and study. 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".

For more information, contact the Centre or better still, come and visit us.

May You Be Well And Happy

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