Radio
Broadcast 231 for Sunday 30 June 2002
on Hillside Radio 88.0
FM
This script is entitled: A remarkable event to
remember
Glossary
bala: Pali word translated as
strength.
viriya: Pali word translated as energy.
Some
events fade from our memory and are not remembered for a very long
time, others are so remarkable we say:
“Where is the
heart that doth not keep,
Within its inmost core,
Some fond
remembrance hidden deep,
Of days that are no more?”
(Alfred
Bunn, 1843)
Plato (370B.C.) said: "Excellent things are
rare."
Such good things could be said of the inaugural
Australasian Buddhist Convention held on 22 and 23 June 2002 at
Camberwell Civic Centre, Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
This
gathering of eminent and respected Teachers from different Buddhist
traditions, and who reside both within Australia and as far abroad as
the U.S. and Sri Lanka, was the first such event to be conducted on
Australian soil.
Guest speakers spoke on the conference theme
of “Buddhism: the Pathway to a Peaceful Mind” at the
Convention.
This aim of the Convention was successful as many
participants found their pathway to a peaceful mind.
This
exceptional international event was an achievement for both the
Buddhist community in Australia and the broader Australian community.
We thank and congratulate the organisers of this event.
The
Convention hosted some international members of the Sangha.
Honourable members of Australian federal, state and local governments
spoke at the Convention opening.
His Excellency, the
Governor-General of the Commonwealth of Australia, Dr. Peter
Hollingworth addressed the assembly, officially declared the
convention open, and participated in the lighting of traditional Lamp
Ceremony with other honourable guests.
A Sri Lankan Buddhist
choir dressed in white chanted a traditional greeting.
Messages
from His Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama and Venerable Bhikkhu Bodhi
Mahathero were delivered by Venerable Monks.
The Venerable
Bhikkhu Bodhi Mahathero lives in Sri Lanka and was unable to attend
due to ill heath. His disciple attended and taught his teachings in
absentia.
Lama Choedak Rinpoche, Abbot of Sakya Losal
Choe-Dzong, ACT, delivered a message for the Convention from His
Holiness The 14th Dalai Lama.
His Holiness wrote:
"The
ultimate purpose of Buddhism is to serve and benefit humanity.
The
forthcoming Australasian Buddhist convention will not only bring
together respected teachers from a broad range of Buddhist
traditions, but will also focus on practice, The Pathway to a
Peaceful Mind.
My sincere prayers that your conference may be
successful in contributing to a more peaceful and happier world"
The
assembly was addressed during the Opening Ceremony by:
The
Honourable Mr Phillip Ruddock, Federable Minister for Immigration and
Multicultural Affairs representing the Prime Minister of Australia,
the Honourable Mr. John Howard;
Honourable Alan Griffin,
representing the Federal Leader of the Opposition Honourable Simon
Crean;
The Honourable Ms Julia Gillard, Shadow Minister for
Immigration and Multicultural Affairs, representing the Leader of the
State Opposition, The Honourable Dr. Denis Napthine;
The
Honourable Mr J Pandazopoulos, State Minister for Multicultural
Affairs representing the Premier of Victoria, the Honourable Mr.
Steve Bracks, and Councillor Ms M Butler, Mayor of Boroondara.
The
Venerable Monks chanted traditional Buddhist blessings.
A
pioneer of Buddha Dhamma in Australia, John D. Hughes, accompanied by
his wife Anita Hughes, attended both days of the Australasian
Buddhist Convention as honoured guests.
Before the opening
ceremony, John D. Hughes was presented to the Honourable
Governor-General of Australia and greeted the Honourable Mr. Phillip
Ruddock, Federal Minister for Immigration and Multicultural and
Indigenous Affairs.
Members of our Centre played key roles on
the Steering Committee of the Convention.
Dr. Ranjith
Hettiarachi, a guest on this program, the Buddhist Hour, earlier this
year, was Convenor of the Australasian Buddhist
Convention.
Outstanding Speaker and Buddhist Scholar Dr.
Ananda Guruge delivered the keynote address, "Contemporary
Challenges and the Pathway to a Peaceful Mind" with great energy
and strength (in Pali: viriya and bhala).
We apologise for any
error in our recollections of the addresses presented here.
Doctor
Ananda W. P. Guruge Bachelor of Arts (Hons); Ph. D., D. Litt. is the
Dean of Academic Affairs and the Director of the International
Academy of Buddhism of Hsi Lai University, Rosemead, Los Angeles
County, California, USA and Visiting Professor of Buddhist and Peace
Studies at California State University, Fullerton and Northwestern
University, Evanstone, Illinois.
Formerly the Ambassador of
Sri Lanka to UNESCO, France and the United States of America, Dr.
Guruge is the Senior Special Advisor to the Director General of
UNESCO.
Active in the international Buddhist Leadership, he
is a Vice-President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and the
Patron of the European Buddhist Union. His publications include 44
books in Sinhala and English and 130 research papers.
Dr.
Guruge, Keynote Speaker and Chairman of the Convention, focussed on
how we can apply Buddhist principles to the worldly aspects of our
lives as lay practitioners.
The Buddha’s advice to
married men who wish for a happy marriage is to buy their wives
jewellery every so often. Dr. Guruge said when he repeats that piece
of advice to his students at Hsi Lai University in the U.S.A. where
he is the Dean of the Faculty of Buddhist Studies, they always
protest. Nevertheless, Dr. Guruge stands by his advice, to which he
partly attributes the success of his long happily married life.
Dr.
Ananda Guruge also spoke about wealth, saying that in all his years
of study of the Buddhist texts, he has never found one line that says
there is anything wrong with possession of wealth. He spoke of the
three pleasures of wealth. One of these is just to have the wealth,
and the peace of mind and security it gives us as we face old age.
The pleasures of wealth do not mean having the newest and largest
television or other gadgets, that is, wealth is not synonymous with
consumerism.
The Buddha recommended we should allocate 25% of
our income for living, invest 50% in our business, and save 25%. If
we feel that we do not have enough money, the answer is not to
increase our income, but to decrease our consumption.
Dr.
Guruge also noted that the Buddha spoke of the ways in which we ought
to transfer our wealth to our children, saying that we should not
leave our wealth to our children to get when we die, so that they
receive a large lump sum which they are then prone to fritter away in
the same way as if they had won a lottery.
Rather, we should
help them at the times of their lives at which they need it, to
educate them or to help them out when they start a business.
Education is the only thing we can really do for our
children.
Dr. Guruge said if we only read one Buddha Dhamma
text in our lives, we should read the Dhammapada.
Our minds
can be at peace when they are free of remorse.
Dr. Guruge said
that he finishes his day each day by reflecting upon his actions for
the day, and with the wish that all beings be well and happy.
Venerable Maha Samai Navamal spoke on Sense Restraint of the
five senses; seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling, feeling and the
mind.
“Sense restraint is the training, sense restraint
is the practice. Well guarded - it would bring true happiness,
unguarded - great suffering.”
The following is based on
recollections of a special address on "Virtue, The Foundation
for a Peaceful Mind" by Venerable Sri Dhammananda Mahathero,
presented by his pupil Venerable Mahinda Mahathero.
Venereable
Mahinda Mahathero eloquently delivered his Teacher Venerable Sri
Dhammananda Mahathero's message:
There is no rule in Buddha
Dhamma that says you must abstain from all entertainment and
ornaments.
He said people chose to, even for a short time to
reduce the impact of sense impressions.
People who enjoy
entertainments and ornaments are not to be condemned.
The
precept is taken because we understand the benefits.
We
practice to see things as they really are.
May you all be well
and happy, always.
Venerable Mahinda Mahathero added a
footnote to the message, saying that his Teacher paved the way for
him.
His teacher has written many books and has thus saved
him the time it would otherwise have taken for him to write books.
Venerable Mahinda Mahathero emphasized the value of sila.
The
Buddha text Silapitaka expounds that with sila and by sila, by
virtues and by moral conduct one becomes free from remorse.
Venerable Mahinda Mahathero emphasized that sila is not a set
of externally imposed rules, but rather a set of guidelines to train
the mind, referring to sila as ‘training precepts’.
If
your conscience bothers you when you sit in meditation do more good
things.
When the mind is free from remorse you do not bring
the bad things to mind.
Look at your minds to know if you have
broken the precepts.
Then determined not to break them again.
Take the precepts again and again.
Go back to the
Dhamma - back to the Precepts.
The mind will be able to let
go... and develop Loving Kindness.
When Venerable Mahinda
Mahathero attended a retreat in Sri Lanka he was brought to the
Teacher and told to ask for forgiveness.
Initially, he
thought the request inappropriate, as he had not met the Teacher
before.
He was humble enough, however, to follow the
instruction, which involved repeating certain words that he did not
understand, and years later understood that in his long
samsaric-existence he had met the Master in former lives.
It
is desirable for us to go to a Master.
There are two aspects
of sila – avoiding evil and doing good.
We can visualise
fulfilling duties as a parent to child, as a friend to friend, as
teacher to a disciple, and so on, in the six directions, the four
points of the compass plus one above and below.
Reverence,
respect, humility are qualities we ought to develop.
Virtuous
is the pathway to happy peaceful mind.
The Venerable concluded
his talk with five precepts (sila).
The five precepts are to
abstain from killing living creatures
abstain from taking what
is not given
abstain from sexual misconduct
abstain from false
speech
abstain from taking intoxicating drugs and liquor
The
practice of sila through good conduct will lead you to good birth.
Finishing is letting go of everything. The good conduct gives you
wealth, good fortune through sila.
The practice of sila will
help release you from suffering. Strive to have good conduct and you
mind becomes peaceful through the practice of sila.
Once you
take morality as your judge no unwholesome kamma will be made.
You
become a good man or good woman. Even small actions come from moral
persons.
A person who is calm and generous is unlikely to
break the five precepts.
The five precepts are: no killing, no
stealing, no sexual misconduct, no lying, no intoxicants.
Generous
people can have trouble because they lack morality.
When
Buddha was a prince he had strong moral conduct. But, his living
environment in the palace was not the place where you can have strong
meditation.
When you have moral conduct, you have kindness to
all beings.
When you are always mindful, you benefit
afterwards and take good rebirth, such as, for example, in heaven.
Before any ceremony begin with five moral precepts then when
you listen to the talk we have good moral base... you are practicing
once five precepts apply to form, sound, and so on. If you are not
mindful then delusion appears.
When greed, hatred and
ignorance become close, we expose ourselves to troubles and are
bombarded with distractions from television, radio and
Internet.
Before you sleep or just after you awaken you can
find a good time for meditation practice.
With eyes, nose,
ears, nose, mind touching things all the time we have to be careful
how we proceed.
If the house door is open, unguarded by
mindfulness, then robbers can enter the house to steal things.
Happiness and wisdom can be lost if there is no mindfulness
to guard it.
We should attend to the mind senses like a well
thatched roof does not let rain and wind in.
Walking alone,
a
forest Monk,
Once he is not too busy,
can concentrate well
No
one is around in the deep forest.
Even a few moments of peace is
hard to find.
The sound of songs or ladies could be bad for
the practice of a Monk.
Once you can sit you can see any hate,
greed or ignorance.
Witness a strength in your heart. Then, your
mind can get better and better.
Disciples and the Buddha relax
and sit alone
Ananda would make sure no-one would disturb the
Buddha in the afternoon, when the Buddha rested.
Do not
disturb a quiet Monk or you obtain very bad kamma.
You ought
to practice everyday.
In morning the body is fresh so use
body and mind to practice.
Suffering is in mind or memory.
Happiness in mind of beings. Enlightenment in the mind of beings.
At
least, when this body breaks up and goes back to the four elements
the mind moves on. The best silence is in the mind.
When you
see impermanence as “not you” then you can see “not
you”.
The future life will be very happy.
Heaven birth
arises from good moral conduct - it is beautiful, bright shiny.
Generosity has a great impact on a person’s future state.
If
we attach to this body; if we attach to others; we cannot see
correctly. If we try to see things as they really are, we come to the
truth. If you are good, good will come to you at death if you are
bad, bad will come to you at death.
If you are stupid you
cannot have good meditation.
Moral conduct, once practised for
a long time, goes far and stays with you. Then you see the path.
The
Venerable would like to encourage us to do our best.
In modern
times, although Buddha Dhamma is increasing, we can lose monks to
television, video and so on, that bombards young Monks and young
Nuns.
Where can the Teaching grow?
All of us, the
whole human race, have suffering. The Buddha Dhamma practitioners
have the path leading to the cessation of suffering. Practice
seriously in this age of decline for 2500 years.
The benefits
of practice extend to friends and family for everyone, if we do our
duty, we will be happy to have done it.
For metta or
compassion the method of how to observe them properly is to use sense
restraint.
May the Triple Gem, the Buddha, Dhamma, the Sangha
look after all of you.
May all the Buddhas, Dhammas and
Sanghas give you strength.
You can purchase videos and CD
recordings of the Australasian Buddhist Convention at
www.bfvaust.org
Next week, we will abstract more of this
historical and exceptional event.
The authors and editors
of this script are: John D. Hughes Dip.App.Chem. T.T.T.C. GDAIE,
Leanne Eames B.A. M.A. and Pennie White B.A. Dip.
Ed.
References
Bunn, Alfred (1873) The Bohemian
Girl, Drury Lane, 27 November, cited in Mencken, H. L. (1991) A new
Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principals from Ancient and
Modern Sources, Alfred A Knopf, New York, p. 1021.
Plato, (c.
370) cited as a proverb in The Republic, IV, cited in Mencken, H. L.
(1991) A new Dictionary of Quotations on Historical Principals from
Ancient and Modern Sources, Alfred A Knopf, New York, p.
1021.
Readability Statistics
Counts
Words:
2578
Characters: 12,727
Paragraphs: 150
Sentences:
150
Averages
Sentences per paragraph: 1
Words per
sentence: 17.2
Characters per word: 4.8
Readability
Passive
sentences: 9%
Flesch Reading Ease 57.5
Flesh-Kincaid Grade
Level 8.9
Colman-Liau Grade Level 13.4
Bormuth Grade Level
10.6
Estimated writing and editing time: 6
hours
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sentences.
Averages
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sentences per paragraph, words per sentence, and characters per
word.
Readability
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written in passive voice, as well as other readability
indexes.
Passive Sentences
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sentences written in passive voice.
Flesch Reading
Ease
Computes readability based on the average number of
syllables per word and the average number of words per sentence.
Scores range from 0 (zero) to 100. Standard writing averages
approximately 60 to 70. The higher the score, the greater the number
of people who can readily understand the document.
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The score in this case indicates a grade-school level. For example, a
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document. Standard writing approximately equates to the
seventh-to-eighth-grade level.
Coleman-Liau Grade Level
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grade level.
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characters and sentence length in words to determine a grade
level.
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