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The 3-year plan 1998-2001 aims to conserve the teaching system of John D. Hughes in the Chan Academy at Upwey, Victoria.

1. The contextual setting of the next 3 years

Over the next 20 years, Australia is expected to face severe economic, social, and political difficulties. Our Members will be trained, regardless of he general trend in the nation.

In order to succeed, Australia needs to become global in its perspective.

In order to secure a positive future, Australia requires a governmental leadership role, operational performance, and public integrity to match that of the Dutch; a creativity in their approach to industry-development policy to match the Taiwanese; and a vision adopted for the development of industry and its complex, flexible interactions with the community to match the Americans. Public administration standards must also be lifted considerable to make them high enough to meet international standards.

The potential management at our Centre must learn how to succeed in spirit of what may occur around them in Australian society at large'; in other words, in order to be successful, our current and future "rising starts" and "samurai" will be trained to develop a truly global perspective.

We have the antidote to resistance theory, as articulated by Apple, Giroux, McLaren and others from 1982 onwards which posits NOT LEARNING what schools teach can be interpreted as a form of political resistance.

This three-year business plan for the Chan Academy uses John D. Hughes' professional artist and teaching skills.

Its short title is: "THE THREE YEAR PAINTING PLAN".

John gives our organisation about 20 hours a week of his valuable time to writing about Chan art.

As founder of the Chan Academy, he has created suitable conditions for preservation of the Chan tradition of the "Way of the Brush" in Australia. Monthly classes are held for six persons.

These persons will improve their life chances to learn.

Under our Teacher's guidance, our organisation is committed to document aspects of how wide vision is developed by this method of Chan (Zen).

Some of this good information is propagated from our website www.bdcu.org.au.

Apart from Dhamma teaching, John D. Hughes has an extensive writing work-in-process program for 1998-1999 that includes:

--Management development reports for our various organisations
--Weekly radio scripts for KNOXFM
--Working on his latest book ­ "The library you are looking for"
--Writing and editing major articles for Buddha Dhyana Dana Review.
--Direction, composition and editing of the weekly information sheet, the Brooking Street Bugle
--Input for current key papers for the Federal Government inquiry on religious freedom
--Input to Local Government including the 20-year Shire plan.
--Tactical commentary for the World Fellowship of Buddhists task forces
--Writings to develop the World Buddhist University
--Assistance with the long-term security of Buddhist Centres, both local and overseas

For most of 1998-1999, due to his health demands, John D. Hughes' time available to drive the "3 year painting plan" was less than 20 hours per week.

He has indicated his most likely averages for next year's intermix of his time would be 10 hours per week for direct creation of products (paintings + formal teaching classes), 3 hours per week future tactical planning (to obtain suitable plant, library references, supplies + equipment), and over 5 hours per week writing about Chan tutelage to help the living preservation of Chan in the world for future generations.

The 3-year painting plan incorporates several tactical goals.

The tactical design for 1998-1999 is to manage human resources to operate the plan on a 100 person-hour week basis, to save our Teacher's time and prepare teaching material suitable for our website. It may well be illustrated.

2. Progress in 1998-1999

An art exhibition, selling pieces, booking Chan classes, cleaning and preparing the Hall of Assembly, food preparation for students, transcribing Chan talks and printing them and calligraphy for free circulation were high points. Indexing Chan artefacts in our library gave splendid opportunities for merit making.

Our Library website is on the Australian Libraries Gateway.

In the near future we will attach a sticker form the ALG to the front page of our BDDR, distributed all around the world, serving to add credibility to our library collections.

Inclusion on the ALG will also increase the rate of hits or our website.

This web-based directory services, administered at the National Library of Australia in Canberra, gives Internet access to information about Australia's libraries and their collections and services.

The ALG currently has approximately 4,500 libraries in the database.

Its goal is to be the 'one-stop-shop' for Australian libraries ­ a vital tool for both Australian and international users.

The Gateway allows us to update or amend information about our library services and collection via the World Wide Web, enabling us to ensure that it is up-to-date and reliable.

The Boston Consulting terms "rising star" and "work horse" were introduced in BSB 8 (New Series).

A "rising star" is a person with potential who we may wish to "fast track" by offering most challenging opportunities.

There is no easy way to the top of our organisation, and in the last analysis the rising starts know, without doubt, it will be up to them.

We use the old Japanese term "samurai" to indicate a "rising star" manager with superior grounding in that this or her wish to pursue Buddha Dhamma into future lives is no idle aspiration.

In 1998-1999, our four rising star "samurai" (Arrisha, Leanne, Rodney and Vanessa) provided educated expertise to give worthwhile editing assistance to John D. Hughes for many of his tasks.

This year, our two "work horses" Julie and Anita carried forward our considerable administration paperwork.

Julian was available to learn to write in our international style.

He has appealed to old and new Members to help us to find 8 more assistant managers to start training as soon as possible.

3. Proposals for 1999-2000

We continue most of the last year's programs except we will do them more often and better.

The help of eight active new managers will help track the next fiscal year's plans.

Athena Internet solutions are to be funded from earnings or donations and be installed on new systems in our library to give best practice.

This award-winning library automation software will allow us to copy catalogue records from the world's leading libraries into our own collections, streamlining the task of cataloguing.

Athena will also allow us to put our whole library on the Internet or a local Intranet, so that our patrons can search our collections from any computer with Internet access.

4.0 The Training of the New Samurai Helpers

To optimise this advanced software, we need our "four samurai" to become expert in the use of these software solutions.

These managers will train the next eight samurai.

We plan to start training more helpers after July 1999.

These will include 3 writers who can meet deadlines, 2 editing assistants and 3 proofreaders.

Julian, who will continue to run the Chan Academy, will be trained over 5 years to write about Chan painting.

The tactical design for implementation of teaching strategy on the plan involves at least three new persons who were Chan Students who are willing to facilitate the 3 year plan by averaging a total time of at least 60 hours per week between them in 1999-2000.

Their benefits will increase as they learn to network the painting plan, and its capability is levered by others who help to generate the activity needed for returns.

4. A simple manufacturing plan to give a profit of $50,000 per annum.

Although we help persons lead useful lives, we are unlikely to seek to operate by seeking Government funding because it is directed to secular groups and excludes religious organisations from direct funding.

Their policy clearly shows that there is "no such thing as a free meal".

We have good will towards the Government funding guidelines which may suit some organisations because they do not seem to mind that there is "a catch" to some Government grants because acceptance means the organisation loses control of your freedom of choice of whom you teach.

The other "catch" is the Government takes your fixed assets in the long run.

By way of example, consider the Victorian Multicultural Commission strategy plan 1999-2000, which wishes to involve Victoria's ethnic groups in promoting cultural diversity.

The Victorian Multicultural Commission gave information on the Community Support Fund on Thursday 27 May 1999.

Information about the Community Support Fund and some of its guidelines follow.

--The source of its monies is from electronic gaming machines in Victorian hotels.
--There are about 13,500 such machines from which the Community Support Fund (CSF) receives about 1% of turnover.
--Its first funding priority is allocation of monies to the problem behavioural aspects of gambling in Victoria.
--The second priority to drug dependency ­ treatment programs, rehabilitation and education funding.
--Funding is for "tangible assets" of lasting significance.
--Bricks and mortar projects are on a basis of dollar for dollar.
--The funded asset will be ultimately owned and controlled by the Government.
--Religious based projects are not funded.
--There is not discretionary power to change funding guidelines or allow a project to get funding that did not meet the guidelines.

We are confident we can market Chan product that can be merchandised over time to a local audience in Victoria.

All materials, including ink slabs, used for Chan painting, are manufactured overseas. Although the local market is insignificant in volume at present, we think we can save money and it would be in our interest to venture into manufacturing such equipment.

As a strategy to teach Members or selected persons to overcome resistance to learning about small-scale manufacturing and become productive citizens, this project has appeal.

Several years ago, one former Member who was an Australian tradesman fashioned a satisfactory ink slab.

Unfortunately, this prototype was lost on a field trip.

Our access to the use of an angle grinder gives us the simple manufacturing skills for producing a few non-consumable ink slabs from suitable local rock.

A possible instrument for achieving internal demand in Australia for our ink slab products could come from immigration of Buddha Dhamma followers to Australia.

Another possible instrument is that as more and more of J.D. Hughes' paintings appear on our internet site(s), which instructions of how to paint in that style, local buyers may wish to buy an ink slab and will contact us for purchase, provided we produce a quality product.

Over time, with promotion, we imagine we might compete globally to the extent of $50,000 profit on sales per year.

These funds will help our development of target audiences who wish to live better. The 3-year plan preserves copyright on JDH paintings and his written articles about Chan teaching.

These valuable business assets are not products to be given away.

Some neo-liberal policies seem full of paradox and dangerous delusions about supposed rights of Australians.

Why should it be expected that the creative works of superior artists should be given away at no cost?

Is it because there is some notion that works represent a "heritage" which must be commandeered into the public domain?

Chan teaching methods are interesting because they remove resistance to work from the minds of the young and not-so-young persons.

In time, our Chan students welcome the insights about work culture by "discovery" we can form from policies that work at the micro level as described by Dr. Peter Brain in his latest book in 1999.

We are interested in creating education about the Goldilocks conditions in Australians' minds.

Through the "Way of the Brush" it can become known that factors for sustained growth are complex and difficult.

The complexity of holding, rather than setting aside, the copyright to be retained by John D. Hughes; the organisation and the artist can both benefit.

Members can develop routines to exploit future reproduction rights to third parties with royalties payments to our organisation.

These funds mean we can continue to help many persons without Government funding.

For near exclusive access to the yard's works, the enterprise is willing to pay over time a percentage of royalty payments received to the artist or his or her estate.

Should such an artist will his or her estate to our Centre, cash flow could continue for some time.

His or her company must develop sufficient future profits to allow internal funding so it can afford to sustain progress and achieve a future build up to issue a dividend.

The benefit can appear in many ways.

One way is for the artist to become better known among purchasers.

This will lead to raising more dollars per session hour of his painting scenes on the Victorian coast, such as at the Nobbies and scenes on the Tasmanian coast.

A few more sessions tutoring at the Chan Academy are planned because of the ill health of our visiting artist.

6.0 Why we continue to establish supplementary library resources

The Academy's goal is to become a Centre of excellence of an international standard for Chan arts.

One of the prime difficulties is that the learning benefits of Chan Buddhist studies in higher education cannot be reached without access to a considerable number of rare source materials.

Our library has many rare treasures such as illustrated books on the thousand national treasures of Japan.

For 40 years, our Teacher, John D. Hughes, has had a policy of building good will to get access to suitable research materials for Chan painting and calligraphy in Australia.

These venture tactics have begun to yield a harvest.

For example, this week, our multicultural library received 404 Buddha Dhamma books as a donation from one of our graduate Members who now lives in Malaysia.

Within the three year painting plan is the notion that we continue to recruit more Members interested in art works and such publications as are needed for us to develop our scholarship with a national reference collection.

Viewing the treasures of the study section of our peak library materials requires persons to make use of the better types of mindsets that welcome multidisciplinary studies.

Funding problems create slower access to special collections in libraries.

Overall, we think the time is right within the educational milieu in Australia that the robust methods of Chan find a place in the Australian felix.

As politicians ponder on issues of religious freedom, they find more and more reasons to accept and to "legitimise" Chan cross-disciplinary approaches to religious issues.

One day, the Government questioning of religious freedom might give religious bodies parity with secular bodies on funding comprising many factors.

But this cultural shift of these factors may not be readily understood by any Australian University, Australian Government Embassy or even the Department of External Affairs unless we source such establishments with position papers explaining what Buddhist higher education is all about.

Since it is unlikely anyone else has the resources for such a dialogue, we think it desirable we assemble all key papers to have such input available to interested persons in Australia.

Factors that position our Centre to influence the direction of higher education research studies include elements implicit in being an active Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists.

We obtain an information "trade off" by our practice of sharing "good" information on a need-to-know basis, a direct result of our willingness to help others obtain current information.

Our policy of free circulation of our Buddha Dhyana Dharma Review is under cost pressure rising to $12,000 per year for three issues.

Fortunately, we have the will to fund raise and, recently, we are pleased to note more persons are donating some of the printing and circulation costs.

We are happy to report we have increased our overseas circulation list by 100 new names for our latest issue BDDR Vol.9, No. 1, which is to be posted this Vesak week.

Recent issues of BDDR include world standard calligraphy produced by one of our Members in Australia.

Our Review has doubled in circulation in the last 5 years.

We think the next doubling will occur in two years.
Major articles appear on our website in due time.

This is one effective way reprints can be made available to many at affordable cost.

The Review content has influence in many aspects of the information age and reaches into overseas higher education thought. It may b a suitable forum for the World Buddhist University future research papers.

'Two decades of BDDR correspondence files, relating to input and output from 35 countries' aspirations in higher education research in language, translation, and local Buddhist studies, comprise a peak archive within this country.

New fund raising is needed so we can scan and index this information "goldmine" and to make it machine searchable.

New fund raising directions tried this year used Chan Academy painting derivatives included on a calendar fully designed in Australia having international appeal.

From time to time, J.D. Hughes invites some Members to come on field trips when they visit the Nobbies at Phillip Island, Victoria, to learn Chan painting.

Last year, JDH was honoured by his peers among the World Buddhists by being elected a Vice President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists.

2000-2001 Proposals

It is proposed to find how best to launch an organisation called Friends of the Chan Academy. The aim of the Friends is for 500 elite Members who can subscribe $100 a year to raise $50,000 per annum to fund new purchases. Discounts could be available.

By the year 2000, we should have built some manufacturing capacity to produced specialty products by manufacturing in Australia.

Possible products that Chan Academy Members can market globally or locally include:

1. Painting materials
2. Brushes
3. Paper
4. Ink slabs

In addition, we will sell calendars with royalties on JDH paintings.

Our work creation program may win some promotion from the Victorian Government who could highlight our local products as multiculturalism. Such input is being explored and would be appreciated.

We will try to avoid unintended outcomes as may occur if we were only slotted as Painting Exhibition holders.

By promoting J.D. Hughes as Chan artist, selling his paintings on commission, and promoting more of his classes with add ons, sufficient funds could be generated to help more persons.

Other product will be systematically written information on Chan training. A locally produced and illustrated training manual will become another product.

The training book by-product may lead to the promotion and writing of radio scripts having elite communication.

7.0 How Chan differs from ordinary training

The methods of Chan are distinct from other traditions because the teaching is not designed to puff the ego.

In Chan, for example, examples are found of a teacher who uses insulting language to shame a stubborn disciple.

This insult would incur no offence if done under the five conditions, without malice, but one should be very sure of the purity of one's motives and of the beneficial effect of one's words before using language of this sort.

The Cullavagga (IX.5.2) states the five conditions that a bhikkhu is fit to reprove another bhikkhu only if he keeps five points in mind.

These are:

--"I will speak at the right time, and not at the wrong time.
--I will speak about what is factual, and not about what is not factual.
--I will speak with gentleness, and not with harshness.
--I will speak about what is connected with the goal, and not about what is not connected with the goal.
--I will speak with thoughts of kindness, and not with inner hatred."

Summary: An insult made with malicious intent to another bhikkhu is a pacittiya offence.

Other strange rules apply; such as the Teacher speaking with a lowered voice in inhabited areas: a sound training method when it is observed.

The Commentary defines a lowered voice as follows:

A Teacher and three students are sitting in a row at intervals of three meters apart.

When the teacher speaks, the nearest student can hear him or her and clearly catch what he or she is saying.

The next student can hear his or her voice, but not make out what he or she is saying.

If the most remote student can hear what he or she is saying, it is asserted that the Teacher is speaking too loudly.

As the Vinaya Mukha notes, though, when a Teacher is speaking to a crowd of people, there is nothing wrong in raising his or her voice provided that he or she does not shout.

It is not an offence and there is nothing wrong in shouting in a dangerous situation e.g., someone is about to fall off a cliff or is about to be hit by a car-or if one's listener is partially deaf.

When teaching, it is not appropriate to "swing the body in inhabited areas".

The training to be observed is that one should keep one's body straight.

This does not apply when one is sitting in one's own lodging that is viewed as an "inhabited area".

According to the Commentary, one should keep one's arms still, although as the Vinaya Mukha points out, there is nothing wrong in swinging one's arms slightly to keep one's balance as one walks.

As before, this rule does not apply when one is sitting in one's residence.

The same applies to swinging the head from side to side or letting it droop forward or back.

Of course, there is not offence if one is dozing off, and this rule does not apply when one is sitting in one's residence.
One should not lecture with a hand rested on his or her hip.

Generally, you should not teach with our head covered in inhabited areas.

Covered, here, means covered with a robe, a scarf or other similar piece of cloth.

For "one who is ill" he or she may cover his or her head when the weather is unbearably cold or the sun unbearably hot.

I will not sit holding up the knees in inhabited areas is a training to be observed.

This, the Vibhanga says, refers to sitting cross-legged hugging the knees with the arms or hands, or binding them with a strip of cloth.

The author of the Vinaya Mukha reports, "I have seen (this latter method_ only in ancient pictures. It was widely used among fat people as a way of holding the body erect."

In Chan, There may be study of the Dharma and Vinaya when he or she is prepared to teach.

(The Mahavagga describes this as "recitation" and "interrogation". Recitation, according to the Commentary, means learning to memorize passages'; interrogation, learning to investigate their meaning.)

Chan may take off on this theme . . . The tradition of Buddhism started we assume around the time of Shakyamuni, and very much emphasised renunciation at first.

If you read old Buddhist texts, or if you study Buddhism in Asia, you cannot avoid the awareness of the importance of renunciation as an issue in Buddhism.

Our Teacher sometimes thinks of this as the foundation of Chan.

This is the ordeal quality that comes with any great learning.
That you will have to give up something if you want to practice the dharma well.

If you want to become wakened or enlightened.

In the initial traditions of Buddhism this was a very literal thing.

The idea was you could not really become enlightened or have a happy life without giving up everything, without living uncertainty, and certainly as a celibate person begging enough food for one day and no more.

And each day going out begging, and if you did not get the food, you went hungry.

So that was really the idea of renouncing all certainty and protection, in a sense, in this life.

And there was very much the idea that lay people did not quite make it.

They had to wait for a favourable rebirth when they could become monks or nuns.

As Buddhist progressed some people stopped taking renunciation so literally and started to see it more as an inner matter.

There was a great split in Buddhism and these people founded the Mahayana school, of which Chan appears to act as members of that school.

But, in fact, there is no division of the true schools.

And they thought that you could actually be quite asleep, you could follow all the monastic rules perfectly and still be a donkey.

And while there can be a laudable intention in renunciation, it does not always achieve what is wanted by itself.

The Mahayana was founded on the renunciation, but was something else.

One writer compared it as if you had a castle built in the desert.

Mahayana came out with the idea that whether you are a lay person or a priest or a nun, enlightenment is equally available to everyone no matter what your circumstances.

There is no special fortune you must have in this life that makes enlightenment available to you.

So you can see this is a very democratic move in some ways-that you do not need to have any special fate. Enlightenment is always available.

Renunciation, then, came to be seen more as a sort of an inner feeling.

You might call it a fasting of the heart rather than of the body in which we just don't cling to things.

The old Zen saying is, "The great way is not difficult, it just avoids picking and choosing."

It avoids comparison.

It avoids praise and blame.

So there is a great discipline in renunciation as the foundation of Zen. Some think it is very much an inward matter.

At first, you may think the primary element of the renunciation is in our attention.

We stop following the mind road so that when you hear a bird call and you begin to think of the last time you heard a bird call, and you remember when you were in a forest and saw a beautiful pheasant, and then you think about a caged bird and feel sorrowful for all the caged birds in the world, and then you think, well, maybe I'm a kind of caged bird, and then you think, well, I can sing anyway.

That is the mind road and it is not much use.

So there is a renunciation that needs to happen there where we do not follow that well-worn groove in the mind.

That the mind when it is doing that is not lively.

It is not immediate and vivid. It is just plodding along like the old donkey it is.

Sort of like an ox grinding corn in a traditional village. Just plodding around and around and wearing a furrow in the ground. So we renounce that sort of ox-headed quality about our lives.

And actually, that's the great difficulty, the most difficult thing to renounce, really, truly.

Who knows how active the mind is in offering routines to us in all sorts of conventional things?

Flaubert, the great French novelist, actually made a dictionary of received ideas that he thought were those idiotic, pompous things that everybody believes.

And it's rather shocking when we begin zazen to see how many of those received ideas we just have and how much we just run our lives by them and make major decisions by them.

In Chan (Zen) we are told to let go of those opinions.

As one wit put it, an opinion and ninety cents will get you a cup of coffee. So, what is your opinion worth?

So we let them go.

And then you can see that in renunciation there is an act of courage because we have to let them go without knowing what will take their place.

Because if we know what will take their place, we are not letting them go. We cannot get there from here.

And what will take their place is something very magical and shining and vivid. But we cannot have it until we let go of what we have got.

I think, again, it was Yn-men who said, "It was better to have nothing than to have something good."

So that is one expression of the renunciation of Zen.

That is very interesting. There is an equanimity with the rise and fall of the waves of the world. And that is really true.

We really do get that over a long time.

And the wave will come through and something will happen. We will be sad or we lose our temper or something like that, but then it is gone and a new wave is coming through and we do not cling to the past wave. Even if we were stupid, we do not cling to that. Even if we were very successful, we do not hold that either.

In the Mahayana, people built up the idea of the bodhisattva and the legend of the bodhisattva is of one who really knows what her purpose is in this world.

It is to enlighten and to save other beings.

The bodhisattva in the legend also puts off full awakening.

We do not suggest you do this this life because it is getting more difficult to practice.

We wish you a happy Versak today.

Please visit our Centre today, meet the Monks, and start to explore Chan.

May you be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes and Leanne Eames.

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.)

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