Buddhist Hour
Script No. 399
Broadcast
live on Hillside 88.0 FM
on Sunday 18 September 2005CE 2549 Buddhist
Era
This script is entitled:
Founder’s Day 2005 Reflections
The Law of Cause and Effect (Kamma &
Vipaka) determines that to attain learning and benefit in respect of meditation,
it is necessary to produce an accumulation of available wholesome (Kusala)
Kamma.
This merit is the "fuel" of all realisations and the cause of continued wholesome conditions of practice.
A corollary of this means, without sufficient available merit, a Student's meditation will not produce realisations and further, the Student will find it difficult to find conditions which will support Dhamma Practice.
Some basic conditions which have to arise in order for beings to be able to practice the Buddha Dhamma are:
1 Have to be born into a Buddha-Sasana.
2 Have to be born into a suitable body or form.
3 Have to be born healthy in order to live beyond a few years.
4 Have to have sufficient food, water, warmth and conditions to sustain this present life.
5 Have to meet the Buddha's Teaching of the Middle Way in a language that can be understood.
6 Have to be Teachable as regards the Middle Way.
7 Have to desire to Learn the Middle Way.
8 Have no major obstructions to being trained
in the Middle Way
9 Over
an extended period of time, have to desire to practice and realise the Teachings
of the Middle Way.
10 Have to have sufficient leisure time to be taught and to practice the Middle Way.
September 9th 2005 marked the 27th annual Founder’s Day celebration of our Temple, the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.
The day brought many successes for our members.
We thank the Sangha for blessing the occasion with their noble presence.
As part of the experience, our teacher, Anita Hughes, requested that we all write a short reflection on what we learned on the day.
Today we would like to present to you what some of our member’s said about Founder’s Day, starting with Alec Sloman.
On the 9th of September 2005, members and
friends of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. celebrated the 27th
Founder’s Day Anniversary. This celebration coincides with the birthday of
our founder, the unmistakable Master of Dhamma, John David Hughes.
The topic was cause and effect and I thought I would talk a little bit about how harnessing this knowledge develops your practice.
Every action of body, speech and mind you do now completely governs how you will act, speak and think in the future. The only way to become a Buddha is to act like one.
The Buddha set forth instructions on “how to act like an enlightened being.” What are these instructions? They are the Noble Eightfold Path and the Ten Supreme Perfections. If you follow the Eightfold Path now, you will in the future become enlightened. This is what the Buddha taught.
However, for us beings who have hate, greed and ignorance as our habit, it can be a very slow, arduous and painful process. The first step is having the thought, “I want to become enlightened,” and then, we must actually practice the Buddhas teachings all the time.
John D. Hughes said, “Stop playing with Dhamma, your death is near!”
What this means for us is that whatever we put into our practice is what we will get out. If we treat our practice like a social club then all we will get is a social club. If we treat our practice as the absolute most important thing in our lives, being far beyond comparison of any sort, our attainment will be far beyond comparison of any sort. This is cause and effect, plain and logical.
In reality we can’t practice tomorrow.
The cutting edge of practice is whether or not you have true refuge. Without true refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, and Sangha, Mara will win and you will never advance towards enlightenment.
When the Buddha was dying one of his monks asked, “Who will be our teacher when you are gone?”
The Buddha replied, “Let the precepts be your guide.”
And my own kind teacher, Anita Hughes said, “The Dharma Jewel is the highest refuge.”
What is the Dharma Jewel? Geshe Michael Roach explained that the Dharma Jewel is the direct perception of emptiness.
How can we have refuge in the Dharma Jewel? By following the Noble Eightfold path and developing the Ten Supreme Perfections. You must make as much merit as you possibly can and you have to do it now!
Next we will read to you our resident Chan
Teacher, Melba Nielsen's, impressions of the occasion.
The Dhamma is in you. Buddha
discovered this and this great human Teacher taught other humans how to access
this, so that they can be taught by the Dhamma, by insight wisdom.
Buddha's method of the Four Noble Truths and the Eightfold Noble Path gives us some hope of defeating our own habits of acting on hate, acting on greed, and acting on ignorance and using this energy to torture ourselves and others.
He taught this out of compassion for he and the great teachers of the Sangha know how hard it is for human beings to defeat Mara. Chan Teachers and Chan Painters are now rare in the Dhamma ending age. It is the path to finish, to watch karmic phenomena and not touch. Making merit at the temple makes the elimination of harmful obstructions less painful. Once we stabilise in the Chan mind of emptiness, Mara has no power over us.
On our Founder's Day, the birthday of John David Hughes, the Temple's Chan garden was in full blossom - plum blossom, magnolias and camellias. The warm storm blown air was full of honey and the perfume of wet grass. Through this heavenly Dhamma garden walked one solitary Chan Master - in emptiness, in compassion, in bliss - waiting for her Dhamma brothers and sisters to stop what they are doing and join her.
Out of respect for their Teachers, Anita and John Hughes, who created this heavenly Dhamma garden for you. Did anyone stop and smell a plum blossom or discovered the moon and Venus in the night sky? Or did you take refuge in your old habit minds, of doing what you've always done? More of the same. Do the action you would not normally do, for example, pick up a brush. This is how John Hughes taught me, and this is for you.
Let go, let go, let go.
Melba Nielsen
To quote the last song of the “Rocky Horror Show”,
“And on this planet's face,
walks the whole human
race,
lost in time and lost in reason.”
Next we will read to you the reflections
of long-time student Helen Costas.
Thank You John D Hughes
I am eternally grateful for your great kindness.
I am
eternally grateful for your boundless love.
I am eternally grateful for your
patience and persistence.
I am eternally grateful for your pearls of
wisdom.
I am eternally grateful for your joyful effort.
I am eternally grateful to you for showing me the path.
I am
eternally grateful to you for helping me along the path.
I am eternally
grateful to you for helping remove obstacles on the path.
I am eternally
grateful to you for planting the seeds to reach enlightenment.
I am eternally
grateful to you for providing all the opportunities for making merit.
I will show you my gratitude by learning my vows.
I will show
you my gratitude by keeping my vows.
I will show you my gratitude by
perfecting my vows.
I will show you my gratitude by always having you in my
heart.
I will show you my gratitude by helping others in
the way that you have helped me.
May we meet again.
May we meet again.
May we meet again.
Happy Founders Day
A Reflection on my Current Practice
I offer a thousand flowers to Buddha, I offer a thousand rays of light to Buddha, I offer an ocean of crystal clear water to Buddha, I offer the beautiful perfume of a thousand incense sticks to Buddha, I offer my life to Buddha.
I pay homage to the Buddha.
I pay homage to the Dharma.
I pay homage to the Sangha.
I thank the Buddha for turning the Wheel of the Dharma and I pray for Buddha's help so that I may become fully enlightened for the sake of all beings.
I pay homage to John and Anita Hughes and I request to be taught, I request to be taught, I request to be taught.
I pay homage to Tara, I request 21 Tara's to protect me. I pray that Tara will help me overcome the obstacles in Samsara, I pray that I may become perfect like Tara, I pray that we will never be separated.
I pay homage to Manjushri. I pray for Manjushri's help in cutting my negative minds. I ask Manjushri's help in recognising unwholesome minds, not acting on them and plating wholesome karmic seeds in their place. I pray that I may come to understand the wisdom of emptiness. I pray that I may become like Manjushri.
I pay homage to Padmasambhava. I pray for Padmasambhava's help in realising the Tantric path. I ask Padmasambhava's guidance in meditation.
I pay homage to Vajrasattva. I request Vajrasattva’s help in purifying the oceans of negative karma I have collected. I pray for Vajrasattva's help in practicing the Tantric path.
I pray to the Buddha, My Teachers and the Maha Bodhisattvas for their help. The path to enlightenment is a steep mountain covered in hurdles and the amount of energy required to climb up is enormous. So I pray for help along the path and without this help I could not make it.
When the wish for Enlightenment for the sake of all beings is sincere, the Buddha, the Teachers, the Maha Bodhisattvas give unconditional love and boundless help because it is their vow to do so. Their wisdom and compassion and vow to help all sentient beings is our saviour. So I pay homage to the Buddha, to my Teachers, to the Maha Bodhisattvas. May we never be separated.
From my sincere gratitude for all the help that is given it is my pledge to keep my vows. It is my pledge to achieve the goal of perfect enlightenment so that I may be a benefit to others.
My goal is to practice this mandala in every citta moment.
My
goal is to practice this mandala in every citta moment.
My goal is to practice this mandala in every
citta moment.
Now we will read you the reflections of
Leila Igracki, a member of many years.
What a great day to make merit to learn
the Dhamma. What a great day to make the causes to become fully
enlightened.
Thank you John Hughes.
Thank you for this opportunity, thank you for creating this Buddha field. Thank you for teaching me how to create the causes to come out of suffering. Thank you Anita for continuing to create the conditions for practicing the Buddha Dhamma. Thank you to the Members and friends for helping with John's wish that this Centre last 500 years.
Thank you, Thank you, Thank you!
Because you all help me with my practice! My wish is to become fully enlightened for the sake of all beings, and to become like John D Hughes. Thank you for helping me to achieve this goal.
Thank you for being my true friends in the Dhamma. Thank you for practicing the Dhamma. Your practice is an inspiration! May the perfect conditions for practicing the Dhamma at this Centre continue for 500 years. May you have perfect refuge in the Buddha, Dhamma, Sangha.
May you make the causes to achieve your Buddha Dhamma goals.
We continue with our President, Mr. Julian
Bamford's reflections on Founder's Day 2005.
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato
Sammasambuddhassa.
By the merit of the Buddha Sakyamuni I was born in his Buddha sasana.
I have no doubt that to practise to be like my Root Guru John D. Hughes is to practise to become a Buddha. This is my vow.
To repay the Buddhas boundless kindness, what can I do but practise the Perfections and the Path to becoming Fully Enlightened for the sake of all beings. This is my vow.
That the Buddha Dhamma be taught. This is my vow.
Everything my Guru showed was the truth, all other notions I renounce. This is my vow.
A true practitioner of Buddha Dhamma takes on a vast array of roles without complaint in their training over countless lifetimes and through eons of kalpas to their completion. This is my vow.
Homage to the Maha Bodhisattvas, the Undefeatable Princes of Dhamma.
I earnestly pray to you, and with your excellent vows of saving all beings, protect and guide me, lead me into the virtuous path of living, ease me when in sorrow and difficulty, advance me in my daily Dharma practices, as well as being the attainment of perfect enlightenment.
In this precious human life, in this time of kaliyurga - the Dhamma ending, it is an inestimably vast blessing to be born in this peaceful Great Southern land called Australia.
It is a most precious gift to have made the causes to this place of pure Dhamma, the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. A refuge created out of the merit, wisdom and compassion of its Founder and Noble trailblazer of Buddha Dhamma, my Guru John D. Hughes.
On one of many occasions as driver and attendant to my Teacher, I travelled with John and his Noble companion Anita to Bendigo, where he meet with his dear friend Geshe Tashi Tsering at the Atisha Centre. There are photos that retell of this rare occasion. Geshe took my arm and kindly looked in my eyes and said, look after baba.
How rare this opportunity to spend ones life looking after a Temple such as you.
Om ah hum vajra guru baba ja de a ach che.
I bow to you great guru.
I bow to you great guru
I bow to you great guru.
I offer you my practise every day until my full enlightenment. This is my vow.
Our Temple was built for Devas and Humans. It is a Bodhisattva Training Temple. To take on and fulfil the role of President of a Buddha Dhamma Temple is a truly Noble practise for the benefit of all sentient beings.
I will never give up. This is my vow.
Some years ago in the garden where the Sariputra room now stands, our Teacher requested me to tell my vow to Master Ru Sun. It was to be a guardian of this Dhamma temple for the rest of my life. The Master told me with his great smile to work hard. This is my vow.
In the very DNA of this Temple, is etched the blessings of countless beings. I bow to them all the builders of this place of refuge. For through their great kindness I have come to find the refuge in my own heart. It is Buddha Dhamma Sangha Guru. This is my vow.
The Temple exists for each of us in our own hearts. It is my wish that countless beings come here to learn all that there is to learn that is Buddha Dhamma. This is my vow.
As a samanera some years ago, with shaven head and robed in the cloth of the Noble Sangha, a teaching during the ten-day retreat left these four words indelibly printed on my mind. You’re bound to succeed. This is my vow.
We are each of us guardians of our own Buddha Temple. It is through our Noble Teachers who have gone before, and know us as we truly are, that we can rise through the mud, through the dark waters, stretching to the light and emerging into the open sky as like the lotus.
May we meet with the Noble Maha Sangha again and again.
May we meet on Founders day again and again.
May you have the great success in your practice.
May you be well and happy.
Thank you my precious Dhamma Lord John D. Hughes.
The shower of the way to Nibbana and the light of all Buddhas.
Namo Buddhaya Namo Dhammaya Namo Sanghaya.
Now, we would like to read to you a very
special reflection by our dear Member and Friend in the Dhamma, Leanne Eames.
Founder’s Day 2005 was a beautiful spring
day, and the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. was adorned with heavenly
spring flowers.
Various members transported, welcomed and provided dana (lunch) and liquids to visiting monks from a number of different local Temples of both Mahayana and Theravada traditions, in a spirit of joyful effort, and were treated to a Dhamma talk Venerable Wimalananda after the monks had eaten lunch.
The evening provided a further opportunity to relish another tradition of the Buddhist Discussion Centre - a Chan painting auction by both accomplished and budding followers of the Way of the Brush, an activity of truly high grade pleasure, taught at the Centre by Melba Nielsen to a growing number of students.
Founder’s Day this year provided an opportunity to reflect with a sense of wonder and awe at the Dhamma work done by Master John D. Hughes during his life, and at the systems and traditions he established for students to practice and make merit that continue strongly after his death, due in no small part to Anita Hughes’ commitment to John’s vision.
Almost two years have passed since the death of John D. Hughes, during which time I have experienced only too acutely how it feels to lose one’s Teacher and best friend. For me, Founders Day this year served as a kind of turning point, marking a time to be done with the deep feelings of loneliness and the profound sense of loss. A time to take a breath, and focus afresh upon the joy of having had the good fortune to meet John Hughes in this life, and to use that blessing to fuel the aspiration to follow the Buddha path in the manner in which he taught, to reaffirm the resolve to pick myself up, dust myself off, and step out along the path with renewed faith and confidence, and with love.
Finally, we would like to share with you
the reflections of life-member, dedicated student and spiritual friend, Mr.
Frank Carter.
The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd
holds three special event Buddhist celebration days per year being Founder’s
Day, Versak and the Vietnamese visits to our Temple for Chinese New Year.
These are days when we come together in fellowship for the purpose of celebrating our Buddhist Heritage and the Heritage of our Temple. We wish to increase our karmic links with the Buddha Sasana, particularly the Sangha and our root Temple and Teachers and our celebration days provide the right conditions for us to do this.
The benefit we absorb in our karmic stream for our future well being from these opportunities depends on our intentions and efforts towards these occasions when they are held.
A good example for us to consider is provided by our Teacher Anita Hughes. On most Founder’s Days in the past she had no sleep at all the night before. Anita worked through the night with resolution to complete the preparation to make the occasion a great success for all our Members and Guests. She then continued her efforts the following day looking after John and anything else that was needed.
I remember also John Hughes asking Rodney, Julian and myself to set up a Chan Exhibition in the Chan Hall from scratch starting at about 10p.m. the night before. We had to make a large wooden frame to hang the paintings from, hang the exhibition, produce a catalog and upload the information about the event onto our website. Rodney was rung and got out of bed one night to come and help.
For such occasions Anita takes the position that she works until what needs to be done is completed. Whilst in a worldly sense this could be tiring and difficult, from a karmic point of view this intensity of effort and intention to look after the Centre is an aspect of Anita’s great qualities and causes for her great success as a Buddhist practitioner.
Such resolution and effort is an antidote to the hindrance of laziness.
Any Member who wishes to advance their own learning substantially needs to move way above their own comfort zones in a decisive way and not step back. It was part of John Hughes’ teaching style that Members who strongly wanted to learn and practice performed outside their comfort zones regularly. He helped them rewrite their old, habitual scripts that did not produce fast enough levels of learning and insight, to scripts that put Buddha higher than comfort or convenience.
The quantity and quality of our Buddha activity is a good guide to how we are progressing on the Path for these are the inputs that build better minds and allow us to attain a better view.
We will start planning Founder’s Day 2006 at least a month before the event and I invite Members to create a situation where there is nothing uncompleted for Anita to attend to the night before.
May you be well and happy.
May all beings be well and happy.
This script was prepared and edited by Alec Sloman, Frank Carter, Melba Nielsen, Leila Igracki, Leanne Eames, Helen Costas and Julian Bamford.
References
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