The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
Buddhist Hour
Broadcast 280
For Sunday 8 June 2003
Special
radio script addition: 7 Day Project List
This script
is entitled: “How we can renew our will to practice: The Way of
the Garden”
We think in terms of four
seasons.
Last Sunday 1 June 2003 marked the beginning of the
Winter season in Australia.
Each season, we ought to renew
our practice.
Today we are going to talk more about how to
renew our practice.
From 6 June 2003 to 10 June 2003 we are
offering our Winter Five Day Bhavana Course. Our main practice for
this course is "The Way of the Garden".
The garden
is the repository of the four seasons, the natural factors of change.
Our Chan Garden is a rather grand Teaching aide and because of this
function. The calligraphy on the four gates refers to it as a
“Heavenly Buddha Dhamma Garden”.
Within the
boundaries of our heavenly garden, human beings learn the first
fundamental of life, that all things change. Change means
unsatisfactoriness (in Pali - dukkha). Most beings wish to slow down
this natural deterioration caused by change. The modern world of
physics shows disorder increases with time because we measure time in
the direction in which disorder increases.
Our heavenly garden
is designed to calm and delight many beings. By being able to see the
four seasons from within our Centre, we maintain a healthy working
environment. Seeing the garden, and the changes, that the seasons
bring, ensures our Members do not suffer from fatigue and
lifelessness, which can occur when 'boxed' in a traditional
workspace. Most new plants are given to us as gifts.
Where
possible, the good things handed down to us by our forebears, such
as, for example, our garden structure ought to be preserved. Some of
our trees are estimated to be 200 years old.
This garden
attracts much wildlife including many possums, birds and insects. One
earlier student of our Centre reported an annual bird count of over
120 different species of local birds that visited our garden over the
four seasons. She was an English bird watcher.
The water ponds
we built here have saved the lives of many birds during drought and
bushfires. Our fruit trees and local berry bushes also provide food
for the birds.
In addition, we offer nutritious birdseed to
itinerant birds every day. We have a built a vast aviary without
bars. We pay no parrot tax, nor owl levy. Our tactics are affordable
because birdseed is donated or grow on our trees and shrubs.
As
the argon spectral band sets in the West, the birds settle down for
their evening rest and so do we because we, like them, have not gone
beyond circadian rhythms.
The “Way of the Garden” is
the “Way of Action”. Some persons lack the skills needed in
knowing what to add to the soil and how. They must learn by reading
suitable garden books.
The Way of the Garden is difficult to
understand and may be compared to bringing one hundred water brooks
under one bridge.
The ecosystem at our Centre is
complex.
The pH of the soil is controlled for allowing optimum
growth of many different plants.
Native ferns like clay have
a soil of pH 1.
Dull minds cannot recreate beautiful gardens
or concentrate on practice of the Chan Way of the Garden.
The
Way of the Garden also helps us understand such matters as the two
other fundamental properties of human existence, namely,
unsatisfactoriness (Pali - dukkha) and the lack of a permanent self
(Pali - anatta). The short time available does not permit us to
elaborate on the other methods whereby these two fundamental aspects
of human existence can be known, each for himself or herself.
Suffice to say, insights from the Way the Garden can extend
to wisdom concerning all three fundamental properties of material
existence. Direct knowing of these three properties leads to path
entry (Pali - sotapatti).
Even partially understanding the
ecosystem and four seasons opens up a whole new world of perception:
a world where we see a droplet of water as it is; a droplet of water
in Summer, a droplet of mist in Autumn, a droplet of frost in Winter
and a droplet of dew in Spring. We can see phase changes of
water.
Plants and our bodies run off water solutions of salt
and minerals. Many persons need to drink more water to be healthy. We
estimate 40% of Australians start to dehydrate every day. In summer
hot days, we recommend one litre per hour for vigorous outside
activity.
The Way of the Garden is difficult to understand and
may be compared to bringing one hundred brooks under one bridge. The
bridge represents the wisdom mind that understands that the process
of re-creating the garden is not just a mere folly but an active
training ground for developing the human qualities of loving
kindness, compassion, patience, generosity and trust.
Excavating
to the right level to bring a hundred brooks together under the one
bridge is an exercise in patience because no sooner have we damned
one brook than it overflows its banks, fed by the other brooks. It
was not the brook itself that overflowed but the watershed from the
other brooks.
Chan implies meditation and action that does
not overflow.
Wise persons use this method to remove
antisocial attitudes such as the culture of poverty and the culture
of ill health. When this training is successful the student
understands that the Centre’s garden is a Chan garden and many
benefits can be derived from working on it, in sometimes rigorous
conditions.
At our Centre, the Chan Teachers use many Buddhist
methods to drive the students sane.
However, we will only
teach those who have requested to be taught. We hope we earn your
trust sufficient for you to request to be taught by us. Unwholesome
minds cannot build beautiful gardens because of the outpourings of
the overflow of mental defilements make discord, not harmony.
We
desire to make the will for more causes for the long time
preservation of this suitable Dhamma environment for the practice of
Chan by building trust between involved people.
Patience is
the virtue that builds a foundation of tolerance.
Patience is
advised when any afflictions arise, internally or externally, of
body, speech or mind.
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 Temples in an appropriate manner with no killing.
We
have will to be 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 will
keep it that way. We need persons to help us with the will to
maintain our Temple.
If you wish to come to our Five Day
Bhavana Course, or if you would like to help us in any of our Temple
activities please contact us at the Centre on 9754 3334.
We
need persons to do some gardening.
We are happy that our
Teacher, John D. Hughes, will come home next Tuesday after being in
hospital. One of John's students, Alex Serrano, has written a poem
dedicated to John. It reads as follows:
The human is an actor
-
with his enthusiasm,
and energy,
he vitalises his
organisation.
With his actions, he
invigorates his peers.
With
his inspiration
he purposefully contributes.
In effect,
this
is merely the work of his
personality, applied to task.
By
Alex Serrano, 30 May 2003.
Members should study this wisdom
poem.
May confidence in maintaining and will to help a
suitable Temple and Chan Garden arise in you.
May suitable
persons get the will to agree to help our Temple continue.
May
you develop your will to be well and happy.
May all beings
develop the will to be well and happy.
This paper was written
and edited by John Hughes, Evelin Halls, Pennie White and Frank
Carter.
References
Buddhist Hour radio script 132,
11 March 2001: "Developing the Perfection of Patience",
http://www.bdcublessings.net.au/radio132.html
Buddhist Hour
radio script 197, 11 November 2001: "Misunderstanding the Four
Seasons", http://www.bdcublessigs.net.au/radio197.html
Buddhist
Hour Radio Script 252, 24 November 2002: "The importance of
maintaining sustainable Temples",
http://www.bdcublessigs.net.au/radio252.html
Fitzallen, Melva,
1992. “Understanding the Four Seasons; Understanding Ch’an”,
Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, Volume 2 No. 3, September 1992, pp. 4-8,
Melbourne: Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.
Hughes,
John D. Dip.App.Chem.T.T.T.C. G.D.A.I.E., Nicolas S. Prescott. BSc
(Hons). M.B.A. and Julie M.O'Donnell. “Comment on Three Years
and Three Moons Teaching of Prajnaparamita at the Buddhist Discussion
Centre (Upwey) Ltd.”, June 1995.
Hughes, John D.,
Dip.App.Chem.T.T.T.C. G.D.A.I.E., 1990, “Opening Speech: The Way
of the Brush and the Way of the Garden”, 4 Februray
1990.
SangPil, Park, 2001 “The Three Universal
Characteristics” Lotus Lantern Vol.3 No. 1 Autumn 2545 B.E., pp.
16-18, Korean Buddhist Chogye Order, Korea.
Counts
Words: 1342
Characters: 6379
Paragraphs: 58
Sentences:
87
Averages Sentences per paragraph: 1.5 Words per Sentence: 15.4
Characters per word: 4.6
Readability Statistics
Passive
Sentences: 18%
Flesch Reading Ease score: 64.9 Flesch-Kincaid
Grade Level score: 7.7 Colman-Liau Grade Level: 10.9 Bourmouth Grade
Level: 9.5
Readability Statistics
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.
7 DAY PROJECT LIST
Prepared by John D.
Hughes, Julian Bamford.
Published 6 June 2003
Period 6
to 12 June 2003
The Five Day Course - June 2003
Developing
the will - to be practical.
Our Teacher John D. Hughes will return home from
Maroondah hospital to our Centre and Temple at 33 Brooking Street
next Tuesday 10 June 2003.
The main task of the five day
course is to encourage Members to be practical and teach them how to
increase their volition (the will to do) by a factor of ten at least.
They will be taught to complete a task to our standards and not leave
the completion to others.
We thank the Venerable Members of
the Sangha, the Heavenly Devas and Devatas, all the Doctors and Staff
of Maroondah and Angliss Hospitals, Anita M. Hughes, Amber, Max and
Joel, our Members and the many Friends who have helped in many ways
with the recovery of our most Venerable Teacher John D. Hughes.
His
wife Anita Hughes' dedication saved his life.
In preparation
for his return we will over the five days of the Bhavana course, be
cleaning his living quarters and the Temple, ordering the garden,
this weekend putting up welcoming signs, hanging blessing flags,
chanting and making offerings on all the inside and outside altars to
strengthen the Buddha field.
The Bhavana Course skill set will
teach how;
to harmonise between Members’ Buddha Dhamma
practice by The Way of the Garden;
to encourage Members’ in
the way of fundraising;
Five Day Bhavana Course Priorities
including;
Planting and Weeding the Garden;
Chanting
Avalokitesvara Dharani, Heart Sutra and Quan Yin title 3 times
daily;
Offerings to Prajna Paramita and Deva of Learning and other
Protectors
Food offerings to Heavenly Monks: breakfast, lunch (by
11.30am) and evening;
Feed the birds that visit the Centre;
Vacuum
and dust bedroom, main hall, library and reading room;
Clean
amenities block and entrances;
Furniture and Altars
The
furniture in the Sariputta Room has been arranged and its walls and
ceiling dusted and cleaned.
The carpet cleaning will be done
by a professional cleaner.
It is intended to toparise the
large tree adjacent to the South Gate. New Members will be trained in
this skill.
The humus heap at the West end of the driveway
needs removing. The top layer to go to the tip, then spread the
remaining humus around the garden beds for Spring
planting.
Preparation of cameras is needed to record the
various events and techniques taught.
The will to write is
needed. Abhidhamma Paper No. 51 will be written and delivered at
7.30pm to 8.30pm Tuesday 10 June 2003. New Members can sit and learn
the approach we use to writing this Dhamma.
Also they can
start the Brooking Street Bugle 89 for publication 10 June 2003. This
is mainly cut and pasting from e-mails internal to the
organisation.
The nomination forms for the Annual General
Meeting election will be prepared.
The will for Members to
organise weekly rosters must be strengthened. There are nine
different rosters.
We will need to publish Longhair Vol 2. No
2.
Housekeeping skills that have been taught with recommended
occupational health and safety standards and learnt by Members will
be revised.
The John D. Hughes bedroom will be equipped with
medical material on loan from the hospital.
We wish to train a
few of our nurse Members to learn the caring skills from Anita Hughes
how to operate safely the caring equipment and schedules for John D.
Hughes.
There cannot be a reversion to the former methods of
Teaching used by our Teacher because it consumes too much of his
lifeforce.
Eight new Teachers who want to make merit are in
training as Teachers.
May our Centre develop the will to give
practical Teaching.
The will-to-do is a part of the Buddha
Path. It is called cetana in the Pali language and is one of the
seven enlightenment factors. The will to do is the basis of all
Buddhist development of the mind.
The complex nature of our
global centre operations demands persons who are practical in
tracking our support systems.
Today's radio
script: “How we can renew our will to practice: The Way of the
Garden”
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