The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast for Sunday 7 April 2002

Broadcast Script 219

Glossary

acrid: Bitterly pungent, irritating, corrosive; of bitter temper or manner.

eternalistic: A view based on belief of the eternal or everlasting.

galvanise: Stimulate (a muscle or a nerve) by a galvanic current. Now chiefly fig. stir into violent activity etc. by shock or excitement.

phenomenon: A fact or event that appears or is perceived by one of the senses or by the mind; esp. one whose cause or explanation is in question. An immediate object of perception ( as distinguished from substance, or a thing in itself). A very notable, extraordinary, or exceptional fact or occurrence; a thing, person, or animal remarkable for some unusual quality.

prosaic: Like prose, lacking poetic beauty; unromantic, commonplace, dull, as a prosaic life, person, view of things.

reciprocal: Of the nature of a return made for something; given felt, shown, etc., in return. Existing on both sides; mutual; (of two or more things) done, made, etc., in return.

Today's broadcast is entitled:

Friendliness and preparing the mind to be taught with fun

Last weekend, over the weekend holidays, our Centre ran a 5-day course. On Friday 29 March, Mr Franciso So conducted the Bhaisaijya Guru Vaitureya Prabha Rajaya Tathagata Puja (the Medicine Puja) prayer ritual at the Centre.

On Saturday 30 March, Members concentrated on bringing our library indexing up to date and we indexed 62 Buddhist journals we held for the first time.

This was fun.

Two former Protectors, images of which stood near our Main Gate for several years, requested that they wished to stop occupying their time with protecting the Centre and wished to study the standard course of training for Buddhist Monks. Their armour was taken off one of them and traditional Mahayana robes were sewn to fit. The whiskers and hair were removed from the Protector. During the evening of 31 March, the robe was fitted and the first Protector ordained as someone who wishes to abide by the laws (vinaya) of human Monks. Food offerings were done twice a day to this heavenly Monk, whose new name is Venerable Narada. His Protector name was Gog.

The second Protector’s name is Magog. For the second Protector to get a suitable form to practise Mahayana Buddha Dhamma, the triangular mark on his concrete forehead was sawn off before his face was painted gold.

The long friendship these two heavenly Protectors have developed over the years with our Members means there is near completed reciprocal ‘understanding’ between us. Buddha Dhamma is Deva Manussanam (for humans and gods) but Lord Buddha would not ordain Naga gods who masqueraded as humans with the saffron Theravada robes. We believe that the Mahayana robe to clothe the images is a suitable Buddha robe for the present case. The Buddha robe was designed and stitched by one of our long-time Members who is a trained art school teacher and has expertise in working with textiles.

Prior to the course, many of our altars were offered blessing water we had made, and offerings were also made at the 4-storey Nat House we had constructed.

This was fun.

The Venerable Tan Achaan Boonyarith, a Thai Monk of the Forest Order, wrote that the Highest Friendship is developed only when people have completed or near completed reciprocal "understanding" between each other - that no secret is left behind, that by totally seeing through the nature of things or the reality of the state or situation, can true friendship be realised.

In Pali we call this type of friendship kalyana-mitta. This highest friendship can only happen in Dhamma, as opposed to friendship based on kamma, causes and effects from past times.
The Venerable Achaan noted that the highest friendship is accompanied by true happiness. The truth never changes - what appears to be changing is the interpretation that ignorant people attribute to their worldly situations.

Unfortunately, there does not exist much true friendship in the world. It is highly valued by human beings, and even amongst animals or ghost spirits.

To have no sense of friendship among persons is already very bad, but sadder still is when one cannot have it with “oneself”. This ‘body-mind life’ is in reality just five groups (in Pali : panca khanda).

The five groups that make up this body-mind, are:

Rupam - form or body
Vedana - feeling or the sensation in the body
Sanna - our sense of existence, our perception or memory
Sankhara - all kinds of thoughts moral and immoral
Vinnanam - our consciousness, such as thinking or knowing with intention

These five groups all have the same marks of existence or characteristics. There are three marks of existence, namely:

Anicca - impermanence
Dukkha - sorrow, suffering and unsatisfactoriness
Anatta - no-self, no I, my, me

Those who were taught by the Buddha came to real friendship, which is simply that:
we are just a body-mind, five groups,
without any ignorance no wrong is done,
this is the path to true happiness, to true and wise friendships

All physically related things can be used to give use to moral states. From these come the knowledge of true and wise friendship by creating the conditions conducive to that realisation. This is adosa in Pali - meaning no hate.

If the moral conditions are good enough, the understanding of the reality of the true nature of things can be realised in a split second with guidance from a Teacher or Dhamma Text.
One of the major errors Buddha warned his followers against was the danger of eternalistic thought.

To take refuge in a friend is an error of mind. You must learn to be a friend to yourself. Your friend may die tomorrow and you may not know his or her place of rebirth and in any case he or she most probably will have forgotten everything they knew about you by that time. What happiness can be found in that?

There is friendship in the Dhamma amongst our team Members because our Teacher has been their kalyana-mitta friend over several decades. When our Teacher instructs his students, he is teaching them for the benefit of themselves and others. He sees potential in some of his students, that they are not able to see for themselves.

From a Buddha Dhamma point of view, a Dhamma Teacher is a true and wise friend.

True friendship is not an easy quality to develop as it is one of the more complex aspects of our culture. It is however, probably the most enriching part of a human life.

But the lack of friendship leads to war, killing and destruction.

When friendliness (adosa) is developed as a stable quality, may we learn to practice metta, loving kindness, towards one another and if we intend to stay in the world to help others, may we practice caga towards one another.

All sentient beings are composed of the mind phenomena of citta (consciousness) and cetasika (mental factors or mental aggregates). Sentient beings who exist with body or form have the phenomena rupa (matter or corporeality) in addition to the mind phenomena. Sentient beings who exist in formless realms (arupa heavens) have only the two mind phenomena.

In Buddhist terms, wholesome and unwholesome states of mind that make up our stream of consciousness are called cetasikas. To know this is fun.

As well as ‘mind and mental properties’, cetasikas could be described as mental factors, mental concomitants or mental adjuncts.

Over time, with the guidance of a Buddha Dhamma Teacher and much Buddha Dhamma practice, the various types of cetasikas can be recognised and understood.

During the course, the Students concentrated on the practice of the wholesome cetasikas of adaptability of mental states and adaptability of mind. These are particularly valuable for checking the efficiency of offerings to the different deities. To save time in offerings we used the expedient means of the Revised Mantra ‘Om Dhuru Dhuru Jaya Mukhe Svaha’ to ensure that correct offerings were made. It is much better in terms of conservation of merit expenditure to attempt three times without the use of the Revised Mantra, because the use of the Revised Mantra to correct offerings consumes a considerable amount of merit.

The wholesome cetasikas are cultivated as antidotes to the unwholesome cetasikas.

There are twenty-five wholesome cetasikas. The first nineteen wholesome cetasikas (in Pali: sobhanasadharana) are so called because they are common to all kusala moments of consciousness. They are:

1. Saddha, Confidence
2. Sati, Mindfulness
3. Hiri, Moral Shame
4. Ottappa, Fear of unwholesomeness
5. Alobha, Disinterestedness
6. Adosa, Amity
7. Tatramajjhattata, Equanimity
8. Kayapassadhi, Composure of mental states
9. Cittapassadhi, Composure of mind
10. Kaya-Lahuta, Lightness of mental states
11. Citta-Lahuta, Lightness of mind
12. Kaya-Muduta, Pliancy of mental states
13. Citta-Muduta, Pliancy of mind
14. Kaya-Kammannata, Adaptability of mental states
15. Citta-Kammannata, Adaptability of mind
16. Kaya-Pagunnata, Proficiency of mental states
17. Citta-Pagunnata, Proficiency of mind
18. Kaya-Ujukata, Rectitude of mental states
19. Citta-Ujukata, Rectitude of mind

The next group of wholesome cetasikas are the three abstinences (in Pali: virati cetasikas):

20. Samma Vaca, Right Speech
21. Samma Kammanta, Right Action
22. Samma Ajiva, Right Livelihood

The next two wholesome cetasikas are called the illimitables (appamanna) because their objects are without limit. They are:

23. Karuna, Compassion
24. Mudita, Sympathetic Joy

The last of the 25 wholesome cetasikas is called, in Pali, sobhana cetasika. This final cetasika is:

25. Panna, Wisdom

If we define merit as the fuel we need to develop and move toward wholesome minds and higher order knowledges, then the rate at which we generate the fuel, through carrying out many good actions, determines how quickly we can realise and follow the Buddha Dhamma Path. The inverse of this is also true - a lazy or slothful person by definition will not produce many good actions.

Sustaining wholesome cetasikas can be likened to having a large jar that you gradually fill, drop by drop, with sweet white nectars. As the jar fills, life becomes less disturbed and more peaceful.

Over time the old jar of acrid substance that we have filled many times over many lifetimes eventually shatters, and the unwholesome cetasikas vanish. This is the Path of Purity.

As a person advances in their practice, the degree of intensity, and the amount of activity they direct towards helping others increases. The practitioner’s capacity to help others eventually becomes more skillful and more effective.

The Great Dhamma Masters are of serene mind, even their imaginations are sane. The Buddha Dhamma Eightfold Path is the way out of insanity.

To be able to learn with understanding more that the mere words of Buddha Dhamma, persons must increase their vocabulary use to a minimum of 80,000 nouns. These are the words with substance that are ‘meaning-weighted’. A superb student will learn a significant number of new words each week.

The critical mass of language must be acquired before sufficient analysis can be carried out.

Our Centre is a focused learning organisation, designed to help students galvanise their verbal skills. Our Teacher, John D. Hughes, feeds his students the five styles of friendliness, practicality, professionalism, cultural adaptability and scholarship. This is fun.

Students who have cultivated these five styles are able to develop the speech mandalas needed to sustain the life and work skills required to communicate in this century. The 21st Century is a time of commercial and social velocity. Change occurs rapidly in every facet of peoples lives, whether they like it or not. The wise develop the cetasika pliability of mind (in Pali, citta-muduta) to a superior level that enables them to be successful practitioners of Dhamma.

Recently, Earth has seen industrial, scientific, economic, political, educational, medical, geographical, ecological and social changes greater than any known in history. These revolutions have not destroyed what went before, but taken cognisance of the good, rejected the outdated, revised its vested interests, and moved on. A similar revolution is taking place in spiritual matters also, the ability of communities to ‘decisively improve people’s quality of life, which requires boldness in thinking that shakes up convenient comfort zones’. Religion needs to be born again.

One great leader who had vision and the ability to translate vision into Right Speech (samma vaca) was the Buddha. The Buddha expounded a path of Wisdom, known as the Noble Eightfold Path that is timeless. His teachings were given with such clarity of vision and wisdom that more than 2500 years later upon hearing his words persons are awakened to the Truth. When wise people speak Dhamma the words are clear and sweet and they inspire students as much as when they were first spoken in India by the Buddha himself.

The recommended precepts remain as pertinent today as when they were first discovered 2500 years ago by Lord Buddha. The reason for this is that persons still harm other beings through their actions and speech, just as persons did thousands of years ago. Simply, this is because they are unaware of precepts effects on others. Without precepts, we are callous.

When we say religion needs to be born again we do not mean that we need to add to or subtract from the 227 rules of the Sangha.

What we say and do profoundly affects other people, and the Buddha’s Teachings constantly remind us of our learning responsibilities. These learning responsibilities involve the practice of the five, eight or more precepts combined with the learned practice of mindfulness.

Many persons wish to learn about the secrets of how to lower stress in their life about various things. We teach the methods set out in the texts.

But in practice, because poor unwise habits are strong, it is not easy for most of us to learn extra precepts. Ancient reasons come to mind to stall us: “this is too soon, too late, too hot, too cold, “ or whatever.

The full reasoning is as follows:

"Discipline is for the sake of restraint, restraint for the sake of freedom from remorse, freedom from remorse for the sake of joy, joy for the sake of rapture, rapture for the sake of tranquillity, tranquillity for the sake of pleasure, pleasure for the sake of concentration, concentration for the sake of knowledge and vision of things as they are, knowledge and vision of things as they are for the sake of disenchantment, disenchantment for the sake of release, release for the sake of knowledge and vision of release, knowledge and vision of release for the sake of total unbinding without clinging". (from the Venerable Bhikkhu Thanissaro's The Buddhist Monastic Code).

The skill of the Teacher may know the potential within each student to learn and practice and the merit they need to make to do so, which in most cases the student is unaware of, for if they were, they would have already done it by themselves.

By teaching the preciousness of human rebirth the Lord Buddha uncovered a coherent view of reality that became cause for his Teachings on generosity, morality and wisdom.

Putting the teachings into practice in one’s own life in this very human life and becoming a living example of the transformational power of the Buddha Dhamma is what it means to be in human birth and to enable good.

We live in a modern age where question and answer structure assumes the semblance of knowledge. The popular television quiz shows present a series of disjoint questions that do not lead anywhere in solving day-to-day at-home issues. They are random bits of information posing as knowledge. The two questions we are about to ask lead to fun and joie de vivre.

How do we practice offering on altars or the Nat House with fun?

First check the Deva or Devati is present or will be present shortly (within five minutes).

If the offering has not been accepted after three attempts, we should use the expedient means of the Revised Mantra ‘Om Dhuru Dhuru Jaya Mukhe Svaha’ to ensure that correct offerings were made. Bear in mind that in the interests of conserving merit it is better to attempt three times without the use of the Revised Mantra, because its use to correct offerings consumes a considerable amount of merit.

How have recent revolutions in industrial, scientific, economic, political, educational, medical, geographical, ecological, social and spiritual areas developed on what existed previously with a greater joie de vivre?

These revolutions have not destroyed what went before; they have incorporated the good, rejected the outdated, revised its vested interests, and moved on. This process requires communities to decisively improve people’s quality of life, which requires boldness in thinking that shakes up convenient comfort zones.

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness through cultivating true and wise friends.

May you cultivate wholesome cetasikas with fun.

May you cultivate the wholesome cetasikas in this very life.

May your defilements be annihilated by wisdom.

May you and your friends be well and happy and live in peace and prosperity.

May you come to understand what we wish to teach today, right speech through hearing this nonverbal transmission.

May you turn the purpose of learning into practice to find peace.

May you be well and happy.


Today's radio script includes a compendium of weekly broadcasts from 1 April 2001 up to and including 22 April 2001. You can find this radio script and previous scripts online at: www.bdcublessings.net.au
This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Leanne Eames, Evelin Halls and Pennie White.


References

Brown, L. (ed.). (1993). The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Oxford University Press, New York.

Mayson, Rev. C. (March, 2002) A Vision for South Africa. From e-PRAXIS Inter-religious E-mail Conference.

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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

Totals:
Words: 2710
Sentences: 136
Paragraphs: 86
Syllables: 3861

Averages:
Words per sentence: 19.9
Sentences per paragraph: 1.6

Percentages:
Passive Sentences: 37

Readability Statistics
Flesch Grade Level: 11.8
Coleman-Liau Grade Level: 15.3
Bormuth Grade Level: 10.9
Flesch Reading Ease Score: 53.9
Flesch Kincaid Score: 10.0


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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

© Copyright 2002. The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

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