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The urgent need for most persons is for them to address the limitations of Buddhist Education in this very life, because at the end of this Buddha Sasana (about 2500 from now) the question of Buddhist Education will not be raised by humankind.

Repeating certain annual events at our Centre and writing down a report each year on how the event was staged and what its strengths and weaknesses were makes it easier for our Teacher to help us learn and practice with ease.

The main difficulty when evaluating a team effort is 'group think'. This is where the team is conceited about their achievement. Conceit means 'fancying vain imagining and should be regarded as a form of lunacy'.

For example, if we have several visitors coming, we prepare two reception areas. One is for warm dry weather, and the other is for cold wet weather. But that is not enough planning because you could have both types of weather within three hours, or you could have warm wet weather, or cold dry weather.

Perceptions about the weather will affect the decision of visitors as to whether or not they will attend.

An analysis of the number attending this year vis a vis previous years can give a wrong view unless the weather forecasts are taken into consideration.

If one year we had a 20% increase in attendance, our conceit might be that this result was achieved through improved public relations.

The weather forecast could well be a deciding factor. So our analysis has to be very lean on self-praise, and very heavy on critical consciousness; desiring to advertise self like a banner instead of desiring to advertise self like a balance sheet.

Furthermore, the proximate cause of conceit must be recognised as greed dissociated from opinionativeness.

It is irrelevant if a report shows an annual decline in attendance figures if the quality of the attendees is closer to our target audience. We are not interested in certain types of persons.

As Edmund Burke (1791) said: "Manners are of more importance than laws. Upon them, in a great measure, the laws depend. The law touches us but here and there, and now and then. Manners are what vex or soothe, corrupt or purify, exalt or debase, barbarize or refine us, by a constant, steady, uniform, insensible operation, like that of the air we breathe in." R. W. Emerson (1860) stated that manners are "a contrivance of wise men to keep fools at a distance".

Because we often have Monks and Nuns at our ceremonies, we must shield them from disrespectful treatment, and this means we control whom we invite to our peak functions with alacrity.

We have much more scope to invite persons to non-peak functions and train them in our protocols of behaviour.

Doubt or perplexity (Pali: vicikiccha) means the exclusion from the cure of knowledge and is a state where one suffers pain or fatigue (Pali: kicchati) while investigating the intrinsic nature (about a problem).

I think we would agree that most persons fundamentally want to be happy and would like to be invited to our functions.

The reason persons enjoy our functions is because we deliver them in the five styles of friendliness, practicality, professionalism, cultural adaptability and scholarship.

Each annual function has a theme.

The theme is developed through structured learning experiences. Systematised ways of learning, such as for example, when Monks chant detailed instructions of how to practise, are indeed essential to the achievement of this.

If people are to live worthwhile, happy and productive lives as individuals and within a community then they need to develop technologies of learning.

Learning depends on repeated hearing of the instructions.

Words, even the words of the Buddha, are like the menu at a restaurant. We read the menu to see what there is to eat, and then we order the food. We cannot eat the menu to stop our hunger.

It might be thought that the original Theravada Buddhism might be called 'Monk or Nun-oriented.' However, many times Buddha taught lay persons and suggested they could gain merit by supporting the Monks and Nuns.

After Buddha's death, the Teachings he left gave rise to great philosophical speculation and logical analysis. There was also the introduction by the Mahayana schools of a kind of deification of the personage of the Buddha, which acted as a devotional pull on the masses.

With the Muslim destruction of the Buddhist places of learning, many persons in India brought about an assimilation of Buddha Dhamma into the Brahman (Hindu) fold.

Buddha Dhamma has nothing to do with Hindu Dharma.

On the Indian mainland, pockets of resistance to hegemony with Hindu Dharma were found in present-day Bangladesh where there is still a small but thriving Theravada Sangha in a Muslim country.

Phra Alan Nyanavajiro (circa 1987) states that "in some ways, the Nibbanic Buddha Dhamma of old has given way to what might be called the Kammatic Buddhism of the present day."

At our Centre, we insist that the effort be made to come to Nibbana while using whatever wholesome kamma we have to build a Centre that can preserve the Teachings for at least 500 years.

If we meet a person that has no desire for Nibbana but is only looking for a happier next life (such as a heaven birth) we teach them how to make merit to attain this goal, but will not put our full resources at their disposal.

Our full resources are reserved for those persons who seek to attain the different levels of Nibbana and insight wisdom.

Such traditional goal-oriented learning leads to understanding, and understanding produces the clear comprehension that allows individuals to develop and act in ways that are beneficial to themselves and others.

Fortunately, the Buddhist methods to develop the range of common-to-beautiful (Pali sobhana) to do this were written down in fine detail and held in our library.

The sobhana (beautiful) minds have four divisions, namely, common-to-beautiful, three abstinences, illimitables and the faculty of wisdom.

These four are further subdivided into twenty-five.

The three abstinences (virati tisso) are right speech, right action and right livelihood.

The two illimitables (appamanna) are compassion and appreciative joy.

At our Centre, training in these things, which may be compared with mind technologies, still exists today for some persons.

What is needed is the aspiration of a person to collect some of the range of these suitable technologies together this very life.

Although this wish is an admirable need, this wish in isolation will not automatically result in Students who can learn and benefit from the outputs of such training.

Clearly there are factors which must come from the Student's side as well. Initially, this is manifested as a disposition and willingness to learn - and ideally to learn quickly!

Ultimately, the main benefit of such mental training is a confidence that there must be a path of the "knowing only", transcending mere learning as well-grounded practice.

The fundamental views to bear in mind and become clear about are that it is rare to find such a suitable environs; have a desire to learn; be born human with a Healthy body and mind capable of learning; a Teacher who can show or merely point the way; that the Buddha Dhamma Sasana is still in the World today; and that the time of any person's death is uncertain to them.

Our Centre is situated in a natural environment that is congenial for the development of the good minds. All the facilities have been provided for the Meditators' needs. It is a creation of a human mind.

The Buddha's dispensation is threefold:

1. Learning
2. Reflection or practice
3. Attainment of four stages of enlightenment.

After many years of learning, research and practice, Prince Sidhartha attained Enlightenment; the Enlightened one is referred to as the Buddha. The word Buddha stands for the Awakened State, waking up to the Truth.

As explained many times, the Buddha is not a God and nor can the Buddha grant liberation.

What the Buddha taught is a complete set of instructions which, if followed, can guide the individual to complete awaking.

Remember Buddha Dhamma is a harmless religion.

No one is forced to follow Buddha Dhamma.

There is no anger or curse directed to the person who chooses not follow the teachings of the Buddha. Respect of other people's faith, beliefs, trusts and values takes a prominent place in Buddhist Teaching.

Buddha Dhamma means no harm even to the smallest of insects. Buddha Dhamma accepts that as much as we humans cherish our lives, even the smallest insect strives for protection against dangers that threaten life.

The minimum that is expected of a lay Buddhist is to observe the Five Precepts.

What are the five precepts?

l. To refrain from causing injury to other living beings.

2. To refrain from taking that which is not freely given.

3. To refrain from sexual misconduct.

4. To refrain from false or malicious speech.

5. To refrain from intoxicating drink and drugs.

If one develops an understanding of these Precepts, it becomes clear that they are based on the principal of loving kindness both to others and to oneself.

In general, the original Mahayana Teachings were in the Sanskrit language. These Teachings represent a vast body of learning, and knowledge leading to wisdom. They are firmly built upon the Theravada Teachings (which are in the position of "cause") and represent a yana of "course". Nariman (1972) notes:

A subdivision of the Mulasarvastivadis are the Sarvastivadis who had a vinaya of their own just as the other three subdivisions of the
same school, viz., Dharmaguptas, Mahishasakas and Kashyapiyas (Levi ibid. p114, 1907) but the Chinese Tripitaka does not mean the same thing as the Pali Tipitika but contains also many non canonical texts and even philosophical treatises of brahmanism (Takakusu, JRAS 1896, p415).

Likewise in the Tibetan Kanjur, which is also dominated Tripitaka, there is much that has no comparison with the Tipitaka of Pali and which doubtless does not belong to the ancient cannon.

As in these so also in the Chinese and Tibetan there are the subdivisions into vinaya, sutra and abhidharma."

Because we are non-sectarian, we hold the early Theravada texts and many of these variations our library. Over time, we hope benefactors will donate sets of the complete Mahayana texts to our Collection. One USA translation set of Tibetan Teaching we know of costs US$25,000.

It was possibly in the third century A.D., that Sanskrit moved into Indo-China with inscriptions found before the end of this period in Cambodia, the Malay Peninsula, Sumatra, Java and Borneo.

The inscriptional Prakrit language yielded to Sanskrit and disappeared, whereas the literary Prakrit languages, instead, survived either where use was tied to particular literary form, in which case they ended by becoming languages of art, such as in Indian drama, or dead languages like Sanskrit, or where they had become the sacred language of particular religious
schools as pointed out by Paretti who notes that;

"The 'religious' Prakrits are local dialects which in time underwent varying degrees of artificial elaboration. The oldest of these, still very near to Sanskrit, is Pali, whose original home is doubtful.

It became the language of a Buddhist school (Theravada), and later, when it had ceased to be a living tongue, accompanied as the sacred language the expansion of Hinayana (ed. note: Theravadin) Buddhism to southern Asia (Ceylon, Burma, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos).

In the ancient Western world, the Latin language served organisations to bring about socially constructed realities across national borders.

The Latin language is a branch of the Indo-European or Aryan family of speech. Latin has not that variety of particles and prepositional usage of ancient Greek.

Greek has far greater facilities of making compound words and expressing abstract words than Latin. Hence, Latin is a imperfect instrument for expressing the subtlest philosophical thought.

After 180 A.D. the language declined with the fall of the empire.

Christian and mediaeval kept up the tradition of writing in Latin scholars. For many centuries, ancient works in Latin were still produced.

At the time of the Renaissance, European scholars wrote in Latin, believing that only by so doing would their work endure, and since then
controversial as well as theological and scientific treatises have been written in Latin, in order that they may be understood by educated men of different nationalities.

The English language has many words based on both Latin and Greek systems and, with care, may be used to express ideas of a kinetic reality and static constructions of thought at an acceptable level, such as, for example, T. Stcherbatsky texts on Buddhist logic. A further advantage of the English language is that Buddhist Scholars have worked to produce Pali and Sanskrit dictionaries and effectively concocted systematic romanisation of words from other languages.

The Ven. Sayadaw U Thittila (Setthila), whose Pali expertise was recognised with titles of Pathamakkyaw, Abhivamsapariyattisasanahitadhammacariya and then Aggamahapandita spent many years in England where he mastered the English language.

In his learned preface of his PTS translation of The Book of Analysis, The Venerable noted:

"In writing an introduction to this volume an attempt has been made to try to rectify the impression that seems to exist in the minds of many as to the nature of Abhidhamma teaching. It has been criticised as being dry, barren and scholastic, that it lacks interest and is a of little practical value; in one well known work it was even referred to as, "valley of dry bones".

To speak thus is to take an extremely superficial view of a very large and important section of the whole Buddhist Tipitaka, for it is in fact only by a knowledge of this very Adhidhamma teaching, detailed in the Abhidhamma Pitaka and its Commentaries, that even the Discourses of the Buddha, i.e., the Sutta Pitaka, can be understood in their full and proper meaning.

The language of the Suttas, or Discourses, is often on first reading almost disarmingly simple; the Buddha, however, when he spoke, weighed carefully the meaning and implication of everything he said, for he had on so many occasions to discuss matters with other teachers of high moral and philosophical accomplishment in which the scope and implication of even a single word could be of the greatest significance'.

Our next five day course will be held at our Centre from 27 to 30 December 1999. Perhaps you would consider attending all or some of these five days. Numbers are limited.

MANY MERIT MAKING PRACTICES ARE UNDERTAKEN DURING THE FIVE DAY COURSES.

To generate causes to enable Members to meditate with 'vision' directed towards gaining insights into learning what is needed for Buddhist education, our Members need to generate merit for that purpose.

The five day course will be structured so that merit making opportunities are created during the morning, afternoon and evening sessions.

These 'windows of opportunity' are taken up by our Members.

The spotlight for the five day courses is to bring understanding of the Mangala Sutta - The Buddha's Sermon on What is True Blessedness?

During the course, persons, when eating, use the five reflections on food.

Offerings can be made to the Image of Padmasambhava. Persons with poor mental health should not attend.

The effect of the teachings and making of merit with our Members will be to make their minds 'brighter' and help them realise the social, economic and cultural conditions of the present in order to overcome the conditioning of the past.

When making merit, emphasis is placed on the noncoercive nature of the dana required to create Buddhist Education.

Within the 'big picture', Members can see the interconnectedness of nature so just as nature is impermanent, human beings are not separate from this impermanent nature but are part of it.

All education systems run under restraints.

In our case, one restraint for Members is to run the Centre within the legal constraints of the Laws of Australia.

The purpose of the Centre is to train people to lead a decent life within the restraints of the framework of the Buddha Dhamma.

The importance of the education work that our Centre undertakes is that it teaches people to lead happy and decent lives by encouraging them to undertake meritorious activities, which are beneficial in Members' present and future lives.

We have the benefits of being a charitable self help organisation which enables us to reinvest our total income for the benefit of present and future Members.

The present government recognises the importance of the invaluable work and the cost effectiveness that self help groups like our Company undertakes within the guidelines of the old Australian Securities Commission.

A properly trained mind can recognise the errors inherent in contemporary thinking and find the Middle Way.

Such people can have a beneficial effect on the environment because when the mind is clear you can see the corruption and are not 'duped' by irrational minds.

For example, government decision making is not always rational and is affected by what is emotive or fashionable at the time.

It is important for members to utilise the technologies they can access within the Centre to learn practise and teach the Buddha Dhamma.

On Approaching the Mahayana Teachings...

In order to progress in the Mahayana it is necessary to remove any misunderstandings that will impair and hinder progress in these Teachings at an early stage.

In the "Threefold Lotus Sutra" the story of the carts, children and house is told in which the father tells his children that there are many carts outside in order to lure them from the burning house. The question arises is this an unwholesome action by way of lying or skilful means to save these beings.

A simplistic view would say that "a lie is a lie" and this is apparently inconsistent with the Theravada Cannon which advocates no lying.

From another viewpoint the following analysis can be made. Using a seven-fold analysis in respect of "lying" it can be generally said that the array of options covers:

1. lying

2. not-lying

3. both-lying-and-not-lying

4. neither-lying-nor-not-lying

5. all-of-the-above

6. none-of-the-above

7. plus-the-subjective-mind-that-undertakes-this-analysis

From this it can be seen that lying is a subset of the array or "possible truth set array".

It can be said from the position of the mind that knows this array that samsara is "like an illusion" and "false". The sevenfold reasoning removes the false view and reveals the "real" to the practitioner.

From this position, using any part of this array (i.e. partial truths or conditional Teaching) is a valid way to lead beings from the false to the real.

Through the kindness of Teachers and Bodhisattvas this method can be used as a means of "getting above self in order to save others" (Soothill and Hodous 1934, p47B, Dasabhumi).

The application of the seven fold 'possible truth set array' analysis is noted by Hoshini (1965).

"Though Mahayana in India is divided into two main schools, the Madhayamika and the Yogacara, and their doctrines appear to
contradict each other, they have a common aim, i.e. realization of this transcendental truth. Madhyamika, or the School of the Middle, initiated by Nagarjuna (c. 2nd-3rd century) emphasises the negative aspect of truth and refutes every positive statement regarding the
truth. In the beginning of his Madhyamika-karika, Nagarjuna states that things as they are are

"Neither perishing nor produced, neither destructible nor constant, neither one nor different, neither coming nor passing."

Since the truth is revealed by negating the above four pairs of contradictory statements, it is termed the 'Middle Path Revealed through the Eightfold Negation'."

ESA DEVAMANUSSANAM SABBE KAMADADO NIDHI.

"This is a store can satisfy
Every desire of gods and men".

(ref. Nidhikhandasuttam (The Treasure - Store Discourse ) in Khuddakapatha (The Minor Readings), translated from the Pali by Bhikkhu
Nanamoli, pub. PTS, 1960, reprinted 1991 at p.254 ISBN 0 86013 023 1).

At the conclusion of his retreat, our Teacher dedicated such portion of his merit of that retreat which is useful for his end-in-view of preserving the causes which lead persons to an understanding of skilful means used by past, present and future pandits who translate the Buddha texts and Commentaries.

He saw clearly, at this present age, the time has come when persons in many countries labour to make the Buddhist Texts format suitable for computer on-line access.

This is a Noble and praiseworthy enterprise.

Our Centre is following this technology Path.

It has been suggested five trusts are useful for such work.

(ref. The five trusts leading to work skill - one of the highest Blessings published in Brooking Street Bugle no. 60 Pub. B.D.C.(U) Ltd. Dec. 1993 at p. 5. ISSN 1321 -1463. This article is based on the author's (unpublished) Deakin University thesis, 1993).

When the Buddha was alive, it appears there was little need to suggest to his followers that they make a vocation for "Buddhist" scholarship per se.

In those days, the ideal of Monks was to realise nibbana in their very lifetime. If something was needed to be known or explained the Buddha could be consulted.

After the first Council, the prime "Buddhist" source materials were recited. Bhikkhus since ancient times, have had the Gantha-Dhura (Pali for "scholarship" lit. "occupation of texts").

Overall, it may have been thought by many that Buddhist scholarship stalled about a millennium ago.

Even a century ago, it might be fair to say that most well informed European scholarly persons would have discounted a vision of today's worldwide great activity that has occurred in Buddhist publications.

At that earlier time, even persons living in countries, Buddhist by tradition, would be unlikely to have guessed at the vast changes in the global availability of Buddhist scholarship..

Recently, knowledge of the English language is becoming more widespread. Hence, some Pali to English translation examples, such as the Pali Text Society, are becoming the benchmark for noteworthy performance.

Bhikkhu Nanamoli passed away on 8 March 1960. Among this Pandit's works the Venerable translated from the Pali is Khuddakanikaya - The Minor Readings (ibid.)

The Venerable's Translator's Introduction expresses the concept :

.... to make the English as difficult as the original though not more so, and difficult in the same or parallel way,.......

Long and complicated sentences are common in commentarial Pali. (ibid (xvi) ).

Software is becoming readily available which encourages author's using it to break up text, substitute polysyllabic words for shorter words, avoid punctation and so on.

The tenfold skill in attention in the first six stages (ibid p.69) shows the methods to "cultivate", "maintain" the (chosen) subject "in being", "develop" it, and make it "thoroughly well defined. "

Some types of "faithful" persons likely to have rebirth in the near future could be well served by the narrative style.

But more "global" persons: the product of intensive training given in Universities, are likely to have little faith inspired by the narrative style, thinking it infra dig.

Our Teacher would be not be inclined to dismiss such persons.

It is more likely such persons can be guided to the Path Entry by thought content in Buddhist writings. So, it would to be wise to keep a certain amount of Buddhist writings in the more complex style and avoid the seduction of rewriting on such software.

"It is not the consciousness of men that determines their being, but on the contrary, their social being that determines their consciousness. -
Karl Marx"

"There does not appear to have been a time when men lived without society."

Tentative Guiding Principles for the Globalisation of Buddhadharma

Guiding Principle 1

Currently, Buddhist Scholars in many nations of the world use the Oxford Dictionary as their prime English language usage guide. This provides a standardised usage and a coherent and consistent language base for communication. This builds upon the long tradition of its usage in modern times by Monks and Scholars, notably the work of the Pali Text Society and so on.

Given that English has been adopted as the official international language of Buddhadharma, it is tentatively suggested as a guiding principle that the Oxford Dictionary is adopted as the standard reference for English Buddhadharma usage both now and in the future.

The advantages are that it is readily available throughout the world and even earlier editions have been blessed by the many Monks and Scholars who have used it as a reference source in the past.

Guiding Principle 2

That Buddhadharma be used as the mode of reference rather than 'Buddhism'.

The word Buddha is recorded in the Oxford Dictionary as entering the English language for the first time in 1681. Some 120 years later in 1801, the Oxford Dictionary records that Joinville in Asait Res. VII, 400, first wrote of 'Buddhism' e.g. 'if Boudhism could not have established itself amongst the Brahmins....' Clearly this implies a ritualistic view of Buddhadharma practice and is not as helpful in spreading the intent of Lord Buddha's Dharma.

Guiding Principle 3

It is proposed that from the close of this Conference that the World Fellowship of Buddhists adopt the usage of Buddhadharma in preference to 'Buddhism'.

Guiding Principle 4

That the Venerable NanamoliI concept of ".... to make the English as difficult as the original though not more so, and difficult in the same or parallel way....... " be used for English Translation.

May the Merit made by our Members on this Course assist our organisation to ensure our enterprise's education output is relevant and useful to the World Buddhist Community.

May all beings be well and happy.

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

John D Hughes, the Founder and resident Teacher of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. has been awarded the Visuddhananda Peace Award 1999.

He is the first person to be honoured with this important award by the Visuddhananda Peace Foundation, established in 1994 in Chittagong, Bangladesh, in memory of His Holiness the Late 24th Mahasanghanayaka Visuddhananda Mahathero.

John D. Hughes has during his lifetime visited His Holiness Late 24th Mahasanghanayaka Visuddhananda Mahathero three times in Bangladesh and the Late 24th Mahasanghanayaka Visuddhananda Mahathero has visited John D. Hughes at our Centre once.

The Award has been bestowed in recognition of the value of our Teacher's Buddhist Missionary activities belonging to the upliftment and propagation of Dhamma, Peace, Harmony and Amity through Buddhist Philosophy and Ideas in Australia and different parts of the world.

The Visuddhananda Peace Foundation has accorded the Award which will be conferred with a certificate in recognition of the broad value of his unparalleled valuable contribution towards the spiritually hungry people of the world.

A delegation, led by The Most Venerable U Pandita Mahathero, a Senior Buddhist Monk who is the President of the Bangladesh Rakhaing-Marma Sangha Council, will present the award to John D. Hughes at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. on Wednesday 5th January, 2000.

The eight members of the delegation are:

Ven U Pandita Mahathero
Sreemat Sharanada Thero
Doctor Bikkhu Sunithananda
Rev. Deva Priya Barua
Rev. Kanchan Barua
Rev. Sunada Bhikkhu
Rev. Swapan Barua
Rev. Khokan Sraman

May out Teacher live long with peace for the better upliftment of Dhamma and World Peace.

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