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Script 347 for Sunday
19 September 2004
Glossary:
Periapt: amulet, lit. hung around;
occurring around
Atrophy: Waste away, degenerate, reduce in
size.
Sunyata: Emptiness, suchness
Sankappa: Thought
This script is titled:
Celebrating Fellowship -
Founders Day 2004 (Part 2)
On Thursday 9 September we celebrated Founders Day at
our Temple at 33 Brooking Street, Upwey, Victoria, 3158.
The
occasion marked our first Founders Day without the presence of our
Teacher and Founder, the late Master John David Hughes. It is with
great joy that we were able to continue this tradition in the way he
intended.
Our Centre was blessed by the attendance of Sangha
Members as well as special guests Dr Ranjith Hettiarachi, Buddhist
Foundation (Australia) Victoria and Master Andre Sollier of Mitcham,
Victoria.
The Sangha members who visited during the morning
of Founders Day were:
Venerable Liv Peo, of Wat Buddharam,
Springvale, Venerable P. Kassapa, of Rockhill Hermitage, Sri Lanka,
Venerable Phra Khruvinaithorn Tanee, Abbott of Wat Dhammarangsee,
Forest Hill, and Venerable Monks from the same Temple Phra Sirinat
Marathes, Phra Subin Hongsahat and Phra Ekl Souvanlasy, Wat
Dhammarangsee, and Venerable Upatissa, of Sakyamuni Sambuddha Vihara
Temple in Berwick, Victoria.
Korean Nuns Dae Wol Sunim and
Sang Hoo Sunim of the Bob Gaesa Temple in Rowville visited during the
afternoon.
At 10.30 am, Venerable Sangha Members were welcomed
with an official welcome address given by Mr. Julian Bamford,
President of the Chan Academy Australia.
The welcome was
followed by the reading of five papers on our five styles;
Friendliness, Practicality, Professionalism, Cultural Adaptability
and Scholarship.
On last week's broadcast we read to you the
welcoming address and the first two papers presented, which were on
our styles of Friendliness and Practicality. Today we present the
papers on our styles of Professionalism, Cultural Adaptability and
Scholarship.
The full text of each paper will be available on
our website at www.bddronline.net.au Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, Vol.
14 No.5. Photographs of the celebration will also be available
online.
Our Vice-president of International Dhamma Activities,
Pennie White, spoke on the style of Professionalism.
"Welcome
to this auspicious occasion, Founders Day 9 September 2004.
Professionalism is the third of our five styles devised by
our Founder Master John D. Hughes. The five styles are friendliness,
practicality, professionalism, cultural adaptability and scholarship.
The five styles form the mandala of our Public Relations image.
The
image and style of our Members has improved over the last two years
enabling us to foster wide spread recognition of our Centre as one of
the most professional performing World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB)
Regional Centres.
Attendance by senior Members of our Centre
at World Fellowship of Buddhists conferences over the past decade has
heightened their attention to the wealth that is required to fund
such peak International events.
In recent years, five of our
Members have spent short periods of time as Buddhist Monks at Temples
in Melbourne.
These overseas and local experiences have
transformed and concentrated their minds into recognising the need to
put into practice our third style - Professionalism.
The seven
attributes of a profession are a complex occupation, extensive
training, licensing, professional organization, a code of ethics and
selflessness of Members of the profession.
We have been
working towards the professionalism of our Members who drive our
management systems for some time. This means each Member must become
multi-skilled in his or her approach to our organisational
requirements as stated in our aims and follow our sense of
direction.
In practice, this means much merit making, and the
will to do assorted tasks.
While it is necessary to be
profitable and build assets in accordance with the materialistic
models of business, we are becoming more and more aware that we need
to change our indicators that measure work as output to prosper and
manage an e-business information culture.
One indicator we
devised about five years ago, broadly classed under the term
"professionalism", refers to the ratio of Members engaged
in critical management decisions and actions that give more work as
output and streamline the work as input.
Five years ago, one
in twenty of our Members was engaged in critical management decision
planning and actions of work as output, with one webmaster. The other
18 were engaged in work as input that was not seen in our
publications. At one time, we ran an offset printer. Because we were
not experts, printing consumed too much time and expense. Now we
print offsite by a professional printer because onsite printing of
thousands of pages is not our core business.
Today, one Member
in two is involved in critical management decision planning and
action and eight webmasters give work as output.
Six years
ago, we had one website. In retrospect, we see that it was managed in
a non-productive manner because of the delayed response time of work
as input, which delayed adding new material as work as output with
the webmaster offsite.
Our production of work as input has
been streamlined.
The advantages of in-house webmasters to
streamline work as input have been discovered. Today, we have ten
well-managed websites with quick upload capability (generally within
24 hours) to give work as output. We have more Members in training
who will soon be able to operate our information technology systems
and will be able to service our two local area networks (LAN). We
have expanded our LAN in part to a WAN (Wide Area Network) because we
place 70 percent of our key management information on our various
websites. The other 30 percent of information is confidential.
Our
Professionalism includes censorship that does not depend on a caste
system; nor is it ageist, sexist, or racist.
We say our
professionalism increases as we balance development by working
closely with technical persons.
We do not mind becoming
overtly dependent on overseas educational materials for study, but we
aim to generate new education material of significance in
Australia.
At present, apart from internal management reports,
we publish about two significant papers per week as output.
We
wish to raise our output to average four significant papers per
week.
If we can achieve this objective we would be well
content with the directions of our professionalism.
Wisdom
means that our in-house shopkeeping must display professionalism as
an invariant quality in all e-mail and e-commerce activities and is
much more profound than a mere in-house dictum that saves money. Our
outer and inner activities must align.
It is this centralising
concept that ensures that as all our knowledge and good practical
techniques are delivered to an even wider international audience
within a consistent image and style which are our five styles, it
must be censored to be right. The five styles are professionalism,
practicality, scholarship, cultural adaptability and
friendliness.
Extensive and ongoing training is always
necessary to stay abreast of the dynamic changes in the world.
Ultimately, professional behaviour comes about because an individual
feels an obligation to serve others fairly.
The satisfaction
of helping others is one of the most important rewards of being
professional.
We believe our methodology to be sound in
accordance with Dhamma principles.
May we apply the five
styles in all our activities."
Our next paper,
written on the fourth style of cultural adaptability, was presented
by Leanne Eames.
"Welcome to the Venerable Sangha,
Members, Friends, Family and other guests here today who have joined
us to celebrate Founders Day.
The fourth style element is cultural
adaptability, since Australia is a multicultural society and the
Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. has many contacts with
organisations in overseas countries.
Recently I was listening
to the Melbourne AM radio station 774, and I heard a sociologist
talking about multicultural society. He made the comment that
"societies can be multicultural, but individuals are not."
So
what does it mean to be culturally adaptable? It means that we should
have equanimity to other cultures.
It may not be possible to
be multicultural as an individual, but we can be culturally
adaptable, and there are a number of aspects of what we do around
here that are designed to be culturally agreeable to people of all
cultures.
The first things taught at our Centre are to be
friendly, and to be culturally adaptable.
A major part of the
work of this Centre consists of creating written documents. As well
as printing documents in size 14 font for ease of reading by people
who may have less than perfect eyesight due to age, we use a font
that is rounded, with no sharp points that the mind may find harsh.
As well as not being ageist, neither are we sexist, and we take care
to ensure that references to people always include male and female,
by using "He or she" and so on.
We also have a
policy of using English in a way that makes it easy to understand for
speakers and readers of English as a second language, and include
glossaries at the front of our documents where appropriate.
The
Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. needs many language skills to
operate our mandate to show the way of how persons can come to
realise the Buddha Dhamma each for himself or herself.
For
this reason, we resist any tendency to discount the wisdom of persons
who may not be fluent in our own version of the English language.
In
our library, a collection of many language dictionaries testifies to
our need to be ready to have the tools to be culturally adaptable.
Our Centre has built up the nucleus of a good Buddhist
research and reference library and our databases have been searchable
by modern search engines for the last two decades.
To stay
culturally adaptable, we maintain regular contact with many Buddhist
and religious Centres, both in Australia and
internationally.
Australia is the most multi-cultural society
in history so, as you would expect, all forms of Buddha Dharma are
practised.
As you may be aware, for many years we created
opportunities in the Chinese New Year season to gear our
organisation's blueprint by forcing ourselves to develop more and
better Asian know-how so we could add culturally adaptable events
where the non-racist values of tolerance were taught for all sections
of Australians.
Our key Members also become more culturally
adaptable through helping the WFB. In the future, some Members may
further their studies at the World Buddhist University (WBU) in
Thailand. One of our Members, Pennie White, visited the World
Buddhist University last year to do research for her masterÕs
thesis, and we congratulate Pennie on her efforts.
Should we
fail, within our own generation, to arrive at a thorough familiarity
with our own, indisputably multicultural society, we will remain
ill-equipped to operate within an effective communicative band with
persons and associations in overseas countries.
If enough of
our Members learn to be thoroughly culturally adaptable, the cultural
legacy we will leave for future Members will in turn be adequate and
will not compromise the development of their communicative ability,
which is so integral to the work we do at this Centre.
May our
Members always be conscious of the need for cultural adaptability in
the work that we do, knowing our audience in order that we may
continue to maximize the value of our written contribution to the
worldÕs Buddha Dhamma resources in the 21st century.
May
you be well and happy."
Evelin Halls compiled the next
paper on our fifth style of Scholarship.
Our Founder and
Buddha Dhamma Teacher Master John Hughes created the lemma "Lifetimes
of Learning" for our Centre.
The Teachings of the Lord
Buddha have been praised by many great scholars. Master John Hughes
always emphasised the significance of scholarship. He explained that
"Lifetimes of Learning" has many faces and layers. Here are
some explanations of these faces:
In how many legitimate ways
can phraseology be found to act as a useful guide to the layers of
meaning of "learning"?
The one great heritage of
past learning may be the ability to read as much into a text as the
author intended and a greater ability would be to see implications of
which the original author was barely aware.
This is one face
of "Lifetimes of Learning".
Who would have guessed
that the exertion of "learning" at least two prime
subjects, undertaken by Lord Buddha so long ago, would hold value
today?
We introduce two prime "subjects" for
"learning": one stresses panna, the analytical device, and
the other stresses sati, the concentrative device. Together they form
satipanna.
Unless these two things are practised together;
then the lack of the Dhamma of satipanna will deny the novice results
of his or her exertion without the practitioner realising that this
is so.
Only when a person possesses any degree of satipanna
directing in the present is it possible to exert herself or himself
constantly.
A person does not need to have a colloquium to
test what satipanna credentials are present in learning; it can be
perceived within the quality and quantity of the actions undertaken
by the learned person.
Our contributors make essential use of
their sati and their panna to untangle concepts which enable them to
pick the particular expression to use within their dhamma writings.
This is another face of "Lifetimes of Learning".
Now
and in the future, writers must be coached to devise either technique
or use a periapt or both to hold in mind and make it clear that
entanglement includes working to uproot existences, kilesa
(defilement), tanha (craving) and avijja (ignorance).
Writers
should bear in mind the advice of Acariya Maha Bua (Bhikkhu
Nanasampanno) who stressed that one should maintain the awareness
with the particular dhamma object that is being recited without
changing that dhamma object too often, for this is the habit of
unearnestness.
To overcome unearnestness, writers should
aspire to means by which he or she can persist with a topic until
cognisance of the factors present in the many-sided nature of the
topic are understood.
When it is seen how these factors arise
and fall over time, then, some of these factors can be mentioned if
they help readers to decipher what is being written.
A
thorough analysis of the faces of "Lifetimes of Learning"
by contributing writers ensures that submissions to our publications
are fully established within a Dhamma framing. The factors
contributing to unearnestness are then perceived and a protective
periapt may be established within the learning domain.
This is
another face of "Lifetimes of Learning".
All
advances upon the province of scholarly acumen declare that
circumspection is needed in the selection of writing technique.
In
general, the writings we do not publish may include references to
some prior art or state of the art in some "subject matter"
or "Buddhistic discipline" that, in part, we judge to be
outermost from the boundaries of teaching patterns found within
Buddha Dhamma investigation.
There are practical faces of
"Lifetimes of Learning".
For example, John Hughes
once had a debate with a person who claimed that his practice of work
as a vermin exterminator, especially cockroaches, was approved of by
an overseas Buddhist Monk. Another person suggested publicity be
given to such views.
Our approach is that within our
"Lifetimes of Learning" knowledge we observe that "no
killing" is one of the Buddha's major precepts (which cannot be
changed) and not one of the minor precepts (which can be
changed).
Although the Buddha distinguished between precepts
which are major and which are minor, Venerable Ananda did not ask to
chronicle specifically which precepts belong to which category.
Confusion has subsequently arisen as to which precepts are major and
which are minor.
Unless it is clear to us that what a person
states to have witnessed in their own practice aligns with some of
the plurality of the eight-fold exposition of Buddha Dhamma; we
restrict their writing to a no-publication position.
For
motivation, writers aspiring to chronicle dhamma and give such
chronicles as dhamma dana (the highest gift) need to tread Lord
Buddha's path by holding a pledge to commit themselves to development
of their sati and panna (or even better - satipanna) as their
standard archetype for cultivation.
For a writer to keep this
pledge in performance, day after day, not even stopping for imminent
death, is another face of "Lifetimes of Learning".
If
our pledge is to become a scholar then we must not become sidetracked
from our pledge and become an artifact of our own practice of
scholarship.
For example, there are beings whose practices are
to be the Dharmapals, protectors of scholarship, chroniclers of the
efforts of scholars and custodians of the works of scholars.
While
these are meritorious activities, they are separate careers to the
practice of scholarship.
Individuals, following the pledge of
scholarship, can unwittingly get to these careers by paying too much
attention to either the practice of the requisites of scholarship
(for example sila and sati) or practice of the methods of scholarship
(panna).
If we are too lazy, too proud, too hateful, too
greedy or too deluded then we will surely depart from following the
course of our pledge.
To avoid these errors, both the
requisites of scholarship and methods of scholarship should be
practiced together. Each face of scholarship is a consequence of
method of practice of scholarship.
Likewise the diligent
practice of each face of scholarship leads to practice of new methods
of scholarship and its development. If we try to make any of these
permanent then our practice of scholarship will atrophy.
The
label of scholarship becomes understood as sunyata. The practice of
requisites and methods of scholarship are also understood to be
sunyata.
But we think it is fair to say that as far as the
main stream of dhamma is concerned; it can be said that many current
issues in the modern World hardly rate a footnote in terms of the
Middle Path writings.
Learning paradigms aim at constructing
the framework upon which a subject matter may be viewed. This
framework is not established in order to uncover any "subject-seed"
which may lie within the subject matter contained within the field of
study.
Factors of learning, the faces constitutive of
"Lifetimes of Learning", are not adopted to secure the
determined meaning which some believe to be buried within the subject
under consideration. Learning circumscribes the subject in order to
understand, not to engender adherence to a particular subject matter.
A person's learning paradigm becomes hopelessly ensnared
within the confines of the subject under consideration when such
adhesion occurs. The person is unable to objectively analyse the
subject matter and hence is unable to construct new and improved
learning paradigms. The old means of learning and the subject matter
that it studies become an object of attachment, becoming stuck to the
particular sankappa formations with which the person identifies as
himself or herself.
Our rationale is to advise persons to
turn their inherited life skills as best they can to make merit for
Dhamma.
This text was written by our Founder Master John D.
Hughes Dip. App. Chem. T.T.T.C. GDAIE. If you would like to read the
full version, you can find it in the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review,
Volume 7 No. 2.
Thank you very much. May you live content in
the Triple Gem.
May you develop the five styles to improve
your life.
May you be well and happy.
May all beings be
well and happy.
This script was compiled by Julian Bamford,
Lainie Smallwood, Leanne Eames, Leila Lamers and Evelin
Halls.
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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.)
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ONLY. Please keep it in a clean place.
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Dhamma excels all other gifts".
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contact the Centre or better still, come
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