The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
The Buddhist Hour Radio
Broadcast Script 252
Sunday 24 November 2002
Glossary
Vihara: Buddhist Temple
Dharani:
The root of which is dhr, “to hold” or “to convey”,
ordinarily translated by the Chinese tsung- ch’ih, “general
holder”, or neng-ch’ih, “that which holds”. A
Dharani is considered as holding magical power in it or bearing deep
meaning. Dharani mostly consist of invocations and exclamations to
frighten away the evil spirits.
Maintain: Practise habitually
(a good, bad, etc., action); observe (a rule, a custom). Have ground
for sustaining (an action at law). Go on with, continue, persevere in
(an undertaking); go on with the use of (something).
Sustain:
Support the efforts, conduct, or cause of (a person); support (a
cause or course of action). Support the argument, maintain. Support
as valid, correct, or just. Be adequate as a ground or basis for;
substantiate, corroborate. Keep (a person, the mind, spirit, etc.)
from failing or giving away. Provide for the upkeep of (an
institution, estate, etc.)
This script is entitled:
The importance of
maintaining sustainable Temples
The Buddha warned of 32 things not suitable to be
discussed in Temple grounds.
We take care when we talk at our
Temple, to not slander others, to not lie and to avoid idle,
frivolous chatter and not to speak of these unsuitable topics. But at
times it is necessary to talk about some of the topics the Buddha
warned about, such as the weather, because we must stay aware of
weather conditions in order to be prepared to prevent and fight
fires. This is an Occupational Health and Safety issue in our
Country.
The task of building and maintaining Temples (Vihara)
belongs to the laity.
In the Australian worldly experience,
the absence of suitable viharas has meant that at times, some Monks
and Nuns occupied themselves with overseeing construction
techniques.
Because of clever western-world marketing, there
is a perception among the laity that the size and quality of a
dwelling, reflects the moral worth of a person or
organisation.
'Bigger is better' was well developed by mass
advertising in a European consumer society over the last two
centuries.
Each nation state built higher, larger buildings to
house commercial offices or government services.
For this
reason, when a question of the size of any building is considered
from this Western cultural frame of reference, there is a tendency to
go to extremes.
It is not enough to build a small functional
temple for some wealthy western persons, they may incline to build a
bigger or most lavish place.
One Asian Master who is building
a billion-dollar Temple in Victoria, Australia, told our Teacher it
was unlikely wealthy persons in his country would feel comfortable
building a small Temple.
Also, work has commenced on a very
large Tibetan Stupa and Monastery complex in Victoria,
Australia.
The conditioning of persons' minds is so nearly
complete, that there is no hesitancy in choice of the desirability of
having as many rooms as possible within a given structure, regardless
of cost outlay.
The belief system is so strong that a person
proposing fewer rooms within a given site structure would be
considered as lacking judgement.
In some locale Central
business development projects for private residential accommodation,
40 storey buildings are proposed to cover the high cost of land.
We
incline to the view that it is not a matter of the number of rooms,
but of right sizing to get the optimum use from a structure.
Right
sizing notions are entering the business spectrum of global culture
at present, so, it can be imagined that the 21st Century will bring
better resolution of dimensions and locations to fit the practice of
lower human traffic density, planned ahead of other construction
issues.
The role of technology may influence the sizing of
future Temples used for teaching Buddha Dhamma.
Monk and Nun
training in a given Temple could be from a central location via
Internet systems. The Sri Lankan government has agreed to become a
large service provider for such services.
A portion of each
future Temple will be equipped with a work-station of considerable
power to get uniform policies.
Now the cost of computing is
lowering, and Viharas can communicate with one another with ease, it
may be that Monks and Nuns may actually do less travel and,
therefore, do not suffer from disturbances associated with cultural
shock in a different Vihara.
Teachings in real time from great
Masters are planned to become commonplace because of multimedia
technology becoming more and more affordable.
It might be
thought that the strength and afford-ability of technology will
produce some remarkable changes in the influence of larger
Temples.
But the contrary may become true as a small Temple
can have the same capability as a large Temple to service persons
reading from the Internet.
For example, our modest Temple has
a more flourishing output in written Buddha Dhamma than some larger
Temples.
We obtain contributions from pundits in many
countries.
It may be that superior Monks and Nuns prefer the
free publication atmosphere of our modest Temple, than the strict
copyright conditions imposed by some larger organisations.
They
would certainly have longer life in such a suitable free Dhamma Dana
environment and may live to be 120 to 140 years old or more as a
result than if they did world tours to promote a copyrighted book of
Teachings.
John D. Hughes remembers with affection the
suitability of simpler Vihara constructions in Bangladesh villages
with superior Monks in attendance.
These Monks were trained in
the Burmese traditions of practice and run their Viharas accordingly.
Within one such Temple’s grounds, an ancient Bodhi tree stands
and individual stupas hold the relics of four generations of Teachers
in their tradition.
For archaeological research it is likely
that there must have been a series of Viharas in that same location
going back to the 12th Century.
In Bangladesh some years ago,
the only large dish connecting to Internet was destroyed by
terrorists.
When the operating costs of this small suitable
Vihara in Bangladesh are compared to the operating costs of some
large establishments built in Western countries, the natural
advantage of the Bangladesh Vihara becomes evident, provided
terrorists do not oppose new technology and can be contained.
There
are wise things that are done at our Centre to preserve the teaching
time.
Our Founder, John D. Hughes, has written a specific
dharani for protecting the development of Viharas (Buddhist Temples).
It was given as a gift to a great Chinese Master in Taiwan.
As
explained by Dr Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, “Dharani, the root of
which is dhr, “to hold” or “to convey”, is
ordinarily translated by the Chinese tsung- ch’ih, “general
holder”, or neng-ch’ih, “that which holds”.
A
Dharani is considered as holding magical power in it or bearing deep
meaning. When it is pronounced, whatever evil spirits there are ready
to interfere with the spiritual effect of a ritual, are kept away
from it... They (Dharanis) mostly consist of invocations and
exclamations. The invocation is an appeal to the higher powers, and
the exclamation is to frighten away the evil spirits. That the
practical result of these utterances is not to be judged objectively
goes without saying”.
Our Teacher recommends that the two
forms of the Dharani be placed in the Temple, one in the West facing
in an Easterly direction and the other in the East facing in a
Westerly direction.
The Dharani could be translated into
English to read:
Before the full moon wanes,
rebuild the
old Temple.
The ‘full moon’ at the highest level
represents the awakened mind of Lord Buddha.
At a medium
level, it represents the awakened mind of a range of noble persons
from Arahant to Bodhisattva.
At a lower level, it represents
the minds of ordinary persons or lay persons who are attempting to
follow the Middle Path.
Ordinary persons maintain and service
Buddhist Temples under the guidance of Noble persons. The Dana of
ordinary persons sustains the Noble persons. The life expectancy of a
Temple is related to the number of precepts (sila) held by the Abbots
of the Temple.
In ancient times, at times, the Noble persons
started by building small Temples. These Temples grew, by the efforts
of lay persons, over centuries, to become large national
treasures.
The word ‘rebuild’ suggests it is
necessary to have the right awakening to the light of Dhamma and not
fabricate some other religious practice under the guise of Buddha
Dhamma.
All persons should strive to make sure that authentic
Buddha Dhamma is practised. This Dharani destroys false doctrine.
It
is the task of Teachers and Students to organise plans to look after
the core business to maintain Temple safety and carry them out.
In
this country, to maintain safety, the Australian building standards
and Occupational Health & Safety regulations are required to be
followed according to law. We need to be aware of these regulations
and meet them.
It is important to develop a broad view of the
rationale of why our plant is built as it is.
The cetasika
saddha (confidence, trust, non-fogginess) is needed to build,
maintain and refurbish Buddha Dhamma Temples. Without confidence, the
place where the Buddha Dhamma is taught cannot remain as a suitable
practice location.
The 18 characteristics of a suitable place
for a Temple have been taught by Buddha:
It should not be
“A
large abode, a new abode,
One dilapidated, one near a road,
One with a pond, or leaves or flowers,
Or fruits, or one that
people seek:
In cities, among timber, fields,
Where people
quarrel, in a port,
In border lands, on frontiers,
Unsuitableness, and no good friend -
These are the eighteen
instances
A wise man needs to recognize
And give them full as
wide a berth
As any footpad-hunted road.”
To help
maintain a Temple's core business is every Member's business.
Over
the years we have increased Members’ awareness about regulations
in building, maintenance and refurbishment of our plant.
We
will not go into debt to implement infrastructure core business. We
wish to continue to increase our net worth of our infrastructure each
year.
In the future, we will buy a large store house at a
separate industrial local to prevent us building more storage area on
our site and losing garden space.
We recommend that every
Member participate to understand our infrastructure and help to raise
funds for our next series of planned infrastructure stages both
on-site and off-site.
Remember that Temples are places where
the Buddha Dhamma is taught. It is a special place where persons can
learn and practice Buddha Dhamma. Great merits can be achieved by
maintaining suitable Temples.
We have a satta-deva-manussanam
Temple for humans and Devas and Devatas.
When confidence in
the Buddha Dhamma is evident, there will be the will to maintain our
Temple in accordance with 18 characteristics taught by the Buddha and
our Temple will remain a suitable location.
We have a perfect
Temple – we wish to keep it that way.
We need persons to
help us to maintain our Temple.
If you wish to help us in any
of our Temple activities please contact our President, Mr Julian
Bamford on 9754 3334 or 0400 267 330.
We need persons to do
some digging.
May confidence in maintaining and helping a
suitable Temple arise in you.
May suitable persons agree to
help our Temple to continue.
The authors and editors of
this script are John D. Hughes Dip.App.Chem. T.T.T.C. GDAIE, Anita M.
Hughes, RN Div1, Evelin Halls,
Dip.For.Lang.Corres.
References
Buddha Dhyana Dana
Review, Vol. 8 No. 2
Brown, L. (Editor), 1993, The New Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford.
Suzuki, Dr
Daisetz Teitaro, Introduction to Zen Buddhism, 1974, Causeway Books,
New York, p 21. ISBN 0-88356-022-4
Document
Statistics
Words: 1754
Sentences:
84
Paragraphs:82
Characters: 8879
Averages
Sentences
per paragraph: 1.2
Words per Sentence: 19.5
Characters per
word:4.9
Readability Statistics
Passive Sentences:
21%
Flesch Reading Ease score: 47.9
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level
score: 11.4
Readability scores
When Word finishes
checking spelling and grammar, it can display information about the
reading level of the document, including the following readability
scores. Each readability score bases its rating on the average number
of syllables per word and words per sentence.
Flesch Reading
Ease score
Rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the
score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most standard
documents, aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70.
Flesch-Kincaid
Grade Level score
Rates text on a U.S. grade-school level. For
example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand
the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of
approximately 7.0 to 8.0.
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.
© 2002. Copyright. The Buddhist Discussion Centre
(Upwey) Ltd.