The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives
Radio Broadcast
on Hillside 88.0 FM
Broadcast 309 for Sunday 28 December 2003
Glossary
ardour (ardor): (a feeling of) ardent
passion or desire; eagerness, intensity of feeling; a fierce or
burning heat; fire; a radiant spirit
fallacious: containing a
fallacy; deceitful; deceptive, misleading; causing disappointment,
delusive
imputable: that may be imputed to; chargeable,
attributable; liable to imputation; culpable
inure: in use, in
practice; accustom or habituate to, harden or render impervious; put
into effect or operation, practise, perform; take effect, come into
operation; accrue
vituperate: blame, abuse, find fault with,
in strong or violent language; vilify, revile
This
script is entitled: Happy New Year.
What happy seeds will each of
us sow in 2004?
Down through the ages people have written
again and again about the search for happiness.
In 340 B.C.
Aristotle noted: Happiness is at once the best, the noblest and the
pleasantest of things.
In 1672 Richard Cumberland stated:
there is no other way by which the individual can attain to his own
happiness than that which leads to the common happiness of all.
Henry Moore stated in 1667 that happiness is that pleasure
which flows from the sense of virtue and from the consciousness of
right deeds.
His Holiness the Dalai Lama said: "whether
one believes in religion or not, whether one believes in this
religion or that religion, the very purpose of our life is happiness,
the motion of our life is toward happiness."
The Dalai
Lama has repeatedly emphasised that inner discipline is the basis of
the spiritual life. It is the fundamental method of achieving
happiness.
Buddha Dhamma practitioners understand the Law of
Cause and Effect and live their lives making good causes for their
future happiness.
The merit made by our members' chanting at
the start of this program is dedicated to you finding the way to
create your own happiness in 2004.
Thank you for having us at
your place.
We wish to thank Hillside FM Radio station
management for their help and support over the last five years,
particularly this year during the illness and loss of our Founder
John David Hughes.
We dedicate the merit of this program to
the staff of Hillside FM radio.
We wish to come together with
them again and again to bring the Buddha Dhamma to persons like you,
now and in the future.
The present and future results that we
each experience arise from past causes made by actions done by body,
speech and mind.
The general belief is that one will be happy
once we get what we want.
If we were granted a wish, would it
not be better to wish that we were so contented that we didn't need
any more wishes?
If you continue to do what you always have
done you will get the same results you have always got. You need to
find out - do you want the same results, or do you want something
different?
To get different results you first need to change
your actions - in body (physical actions), speech and mind (in
thought).
A helpful affirmation is:
Generate the
intention
Arouse the energy
Make the effort
Apply the
mind
Put ardor on top
So, if you want different results in
the present or future to what you currently experience, you ought to
change your current actions.
The Buddha taught persons to make
causes using body, speech and mind to come out of suffering and come
to happiness.
The Karma Sutra (translated as the Sutra on
Cause and Effect) is called, by the Lord Buddha, the Golden
Precepts.
It has changed the lives of many who read it for it
explains the direct results of causes. Here is the reproduction of
the Karma Sutra:
"At one time, at a gathering attended
by 1,250 followers, the Venerable Ananda, after circling thrice with
folded hands around the Buddha and bowing with respect, asked:
"In
the present Dark Age, where the majority of our people are indulgent
in unrighteousness, disrespectful to the Lord's Teaching, undutiful
to their parents, immoral, miserable and sordid, among them some are
deaf, some blind, some mute, some idiotic, some are handicapped in
other aspects, and most people inured to killing, how could we
understand the cryptic and fundamental principle or causes that have
brought about this reality and what consequences each individual is
to suffer eventually for his or her deeds. My Lord, would you kindly
explain these to us?"
The Enlightened One then answered,
"Listen carefully, I will now expound the Law of Karma.
Because
of karmic effects inherited from previous lives, some people are
poor, some rich, some happy and some miserable.
These are four
rules inseparable in obtaining happiness and prosperity for your next
life. They are:
1. Be dutiful and respect our parents.
2.
Respect the Buddhas, the teachings of Buddha (Dhamma) and the
Buddhist Monks (Sangha).
3. To abstain from killing and set free
sentient beings.
4. To abstain from eating meat and be
charitable".
The Buddha proceeded on the Karmic Sutra:
"Destiny is aggregate karmic effects from the past. To
believe in and practise this Sutra will bring you eternal prosperity
and happiness".
Learn the Law of Karma expounded as
follows:
To be able to hold office in the government is a
reward for your building of Buddha Images in previous lives. For
building Buddha Images is likened to molding yourself, and to protect
the Tathagata is protecting yourself.
To be able to hold a
high-ranking position in the government is reward for you putting
gold on the Buddha Images. To be a public officer cannot be taken for
granted, for without practising Buddhism it will not happen to you.
Your present enjoyment of various transportation facilities
without getting foot-worn is a reward for your help in the
construction of bridges and roads in your past life.
To donate
clothing to monks will ensure you are well provided with clothing in
future lives or in your next life. (This refers to the offering of
Saffron Robes during Kathina Festival).
To be free from
hunger and starvation is the result of your providing food to the
poor in your previous life.
To be miserly and unwilling to
help the needy gives rise to future starvation and lack of clothing.
To have ample housing is a reward for donating food to
monasteries in your past life. (Offering of dana to the Monks).
To
build temples and public shelters will give you future prosperity and
happiness.
For your respecting and offering of flowers to
Buddha's altar in the past, the reward is being pretty or handsome.
To abstain from eating meat and to pray constantly to Buddha
will assure you to be reborn a very intelligent child in your next
rebirth.
To have a good wife and son is reward for your
disseminating Buddha's teaching in your past life.
Furnishing
Buddhist temples with hangings and tapestries will enable you to have
a good marriage in your next rebirth.
To have good parents is
a reward for your respecting and helping those who were lonely and
desolate in your past life.
Being a bird hunter in your
previous life has resulted in your being an orphan now.
To
have plenty of children is attributable to your setting birds free in
your previous life.
To be heirless now is the result of
destroying flowers habitually in your previous life.
Your
longevity is due to setting free sentient beings in your past life.
Being short-lived is the result of committing too many
killings in your previous life.
To steal the wife of another
man will cause you to have no spouse in your next rebirth.
In
your previous life, by being disrespectful to your husband has
resulted in you being a widow now.
To be a serf at present is
the result of being ungrateful in your previous life.
To
covet another man's wife will cause you to have no spouse in your
next rebirth.
To distort the truths habitually will cause you
to suffer blindness in your next life.
To have a wry mouth is
due to your intentionally blowing candles before the Buddha's altar
in your past life.
To vituperate your parents will cause you
to be reborn a deaf mute in your next birth.
Being a
hunchback is a punishment for jeering and laughing at the Buddha's
followers in your previous life.
Having disabled hands is the
result of committing evil with your hands in the past life.
Your
being lame is imputable to your being a robber in your previous life.
For your denying of your debts in your previous life is the
result of being born a horse or an ox.
To be reborn a pig or
dog is the punishment for your deceiving and hurting others in your
previous life.
Suffering of constant illness now is the
result of offering flesh to the monks in your past life.
To be
free of illness and diseases and be healthy is a reward for offering
drugs and medications to save the sick and wounded in your past life.
Your present imprisonment is the cause of your relentlessly
perpetrating evil in your previous life.
Plugging snake-pit
and mouse holes habitually will cause you to starve to death in your
next birth.
To intentionally poison a river or water source
will cause you to die of poison in your next life.
Being
forlorn and friendless is the punishment for being unfaithful and
deceitful to others in your past life.
Disrespecting Buddha's
teaching will bring you constant starvation in your next rebirth.
To spew blood is the punishment for eating meat while praying
to Buddha.
To have attended Buddhist Instruction with levity
in your previous life is the cause for your present deafness.
To
be afflicted with ulcers is the punishment for offering flesh before
the Buddha's altar in your past life.
To have bad bodily odor
is the punishment for selling incense with dishonesty in your
previous life.
To hunt animals with rope and net will
predestine your death by hanging in your next birth.
Being
unduly envious and jealous in your past life is the cause for your
being lonely or bereft of spouse at present.
To be struck by
lightning or burnt by fire will be the punishment for dishonest trade
dealing. (For example, cheating with the scales, overcharging
customers, supplying inferior quality goods and charging for quality
goods).
Being attacked and wounded by wild beasts and snakes
tells you that those creatures were your enemies in your previous
life.
Whatever you do will come back on you, so accept
whatever justice and retribution that happens to you.
Be not
mistaken that karma is fallacious. You will live to bear the
consequences of your deeds, either within this lifetime or in your
future life.
Should you doubt the virtue of practising
Buddhism, look and see the happiness of the Buddha's followers.
Past karma determines your present destiny. Present karma is
to mold your next life.
Whoever slanders this Sutra will not
be reborn again a human being.
Whoever accepts this Sutra will
witness the truth.
Whoever writes this Sutra will prosper in
successful lives.
Whoever carries this Sutra will be free
from mishaps.
Whoever preaches this Sutra will become a very
intelligent person in successive lives.
Whoever recites this
Sutra will be well-respected by people in his or her next rebirth.
Whoever distributes this Sutra free to all will become a
leader to humanity in his or her next life.
If karma did not
produce effect, what prompted Wu-Lin, a dutiful son, to rescue his
mother under grave danger by journeying to Hades realms to save his
mother's soul from punishment by the Hell soldiers?
Whoever is
faithful to this Sutra will not fail to witness the eternal paradise.
The Law of Karma works forever, and the fruit of good deeds
will come in due course. The Buddha taught that "all things
spring from a cause" and he clearly laid down the nature of good
and bad karma. Karma is action; it refers to the fruits of action as
well as the effects of causes and so on.
If there is a cause,
an effect is inevitable, where there is an effect, there must be a
cause.
From beginning of time, there has been a chain of
three cycle cause and effect (karma) rotations in human existence and
these karmas have been continuing and will continue in human
lifetime. It seems that these three existences (past existence,
present existence and future existence) must obey the Law of Cause
and Effect - karma.
Life is governed by 70% past existence
and 30% present existence, therefore, the life span of an individual
cannot be changed but his or her luck can be changed depending upon
his or her behaviour and everyday actions.
Buddha has said:
"If you wish to know the past, then look at the present
which is the result of it", "If you wish to know the
future, then look at the present which is the cause of it", "By
karma the World moves, by karma men live and by karma are beings
bound, as by its pin the chariot wheel rolls. By karma one attains
glory and praise, by karma bondage, ruin and tyranny. Knowing that
karma bears fruit manifold, why say, 'In the World karma does not
exist?'
Having spoken the above Sutra to Ananda and the
followers, The World- Honored One added, "there are innumerable
examples of Karmic Law, but I have only mentioned a few".
Then
Ananda said, "Until the end of the present Dark Age, most human
beings would have, through successive lives, accumulated countless
misdeeds because of their ignorance of the karmic consequences, but
thanks to our Lord and the Sutra he has so kindly given us, whoever
writes and reads, prints and distributes this Sutra, upon praying to
the Buddha, will be blessed with eternal happiness and be admitted to
see Amitabha Buddha, Kuan Shih Yin P'usa and all other Buddhas in the
heavenly paradise".
After Ananda spoke, all Buddha's
disciples and followers felt ecstatic and enlightened and after
bowing respectfully and vowing to abide by this Sutra, took their
journey home".
Over 2500 years later, the Dalai Lama
wrote in his book 'The Art of Happiness':
'One begins by
identifying those factors, which lead to happiness, and those factors
that lead to suffering. Having done this, one sets about gradually
eliminating those factors which lead to suffering and cultivating
those which lead to happiness. That is the way.'
To make good
conditions for ourselves we first need to know what makes good
condition and what makes unfortunate conditions. Lucky for us the
Buddha has set out rules of personal conduct, that when followed are
said to lead out of suffering to true happiness.
Living your
life according to the Noble Eight Fold path, knowing the Four Noble
Truths is a sure recipe to happiness.
We invite you to start
your personal search for happiness with us online at
www.bdcublessings.net.au.
May you find your own happiness in
2004.
We wish you and your family long life and good health,
harmony, happiness and prosperity for the New Year and always.
This
script was written and edited by Julian Bamford, Evelin Halls, Leanne
Eames, Anita Hughes, Lisa Nelson, Julie O'Donnell and Pennie
White.
References
His Holiness the Dalai Lama and
Cutler M.D., Howard C. "The Art of Happiness"1998.
Australia. ISBN 0 7336 0858 2.
A New Dictionary of Quotations.
Selected and Edited by H. L. Mencken. New York. Alfred A. Knopf.
1991
1. Karma Sutra, Ming, Kuan, Popular Deities of Chinese
Buddhism, 1985, Kuan Yin Contemplative Order, Malaysia.
2.
Xian, Sheng, Journey To The UnderWorld, 1987, Tan Temple Tai Chung,
Taiwan.
MAY ALL BEINGS RECEIVE BLESSINGS FROM THE BUDDHAS,
ARAHANTS, BODHISATTVAS, DEVAS AND NAGAS
By Alphonsus Marie Ee
(Feng Shui Consultant). On behalf of my Teacher Venerable Phra Khu
Gunasilaporn (Chief Abbot), Wat Uttamayanmuni (Thai) Temple,
Singapore.
Brown, Lesley (Editor), 1993, "The New Shorter
Oxford English Dictionary", Clarendon Press, Oxford
Buddhist
Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd, "Buddhist events during other
religion's holy days", Buddhist Hour Script 117, Broadcast Date:
Sunday 24 December 2000, LAN 1 file reference i:/km/radio/radio117,
May be accessed at URL http://www.bdcublessings.net.au
Buddhist
Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd Reviewing the last Millennium",
Buddhist Hour Script 118, and Broadcast Date: Sunday 31 December
2000, LAN 1 file reference i:/km/radio/radio118, May be accessed at
URL http://www.bdcublessings.net.au
Counts
Words:
2480
Characters: 11874
Paragraphs: 122
Sentences:
120
Averages
Sentences per paragraph: 1.1
Words per
Sentence: 19.0
Characters per word: 4.6
Readability
Statistics
Passive Sentences: 7%
Flesch Reading Ease score:
61.1
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score: 9.4
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.
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