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Today, many persons exhibit good human qualities that are praiseworthy when used in their worldly actions.

Unfortunately, they are unaware of the wholesome influence that certain Deva Protectors can exert on their lives.

A Deva is a being who lives in one of the many heaven worlds.

Just as many good human beings are fortunate enough to have no regular connection with wild killing animals, so many good heavenly beings have no regular connections with wild killing specimens that inhabit the human realm.

A few years ago, an Australian survey showed about 35% of Australians believed that Deva ( heavenly beings) beings exist.

There has been intense publicity in the media about the threat of extinction of certain species that have no protection against changes in their habitat.

The chattering classes when talking about millennium hopes, fears and their cognitive searching enrich the English language with a range of the "M" words headed by a capital "M" for "Modernistic".

"Modernistic" is the king-hit "M" word supreme for conceivably inducing phobic force for some luddites who love clinging to the imagined "golden" age.

All ages get swept away on the whirligig of time and sometimes leave only a name that no one knows how to write or speak.

Sic transit gloria.

To remove some useless types of pessimistic thought about the future, it is useful to consider one of the marks of existence expounded by the Buddha.

It might be as well to think about what recently coined powerful "M" words will be lost over the next millennia.

The most obvious of the recent language enriching "M" words that will not last is Microsoft.

No Western world corporation has lasted in business for 1000 years.

Somehow, even the intensely powerful traders with their fleets doing business over the customer bases during the Roman Empire are gone.

All that exists of most of the mosaic work on the floors of their wealthy head offices in Rome and their villas on the coast are a few broken shards in museums.

The ruins of famous monasteries are taken over by tourists.

The notion of the "M" word monastery that comes from the Greek word meaning "alone" was a place where persons could live in solitude.

Such places have nearly vanished as working institutions.

We have a sense of gratitude that the ancient Romans did not destroy all the ancient Buddhist monasteries in India.

Writings from such places still exist in the world today.

We have a sense of gratitude towards Microsoft without whose programming efforts this script could not be so effectively produced on our computer.

Our Members are working our computer systems and scanning systems to preserve Buddhist knowledge in digital form for centuries to come.

We term this project with an "M" word "BUDDHA MAP".

Some of the modern "M" words include many utterances of new metaphors, metahistory , middle persons, middle managers, middleware, "mass customisation", McDonalds, marketing, meetings, motivation and Moore's law.

We hope you as a listener have adopted a manner of hearing what we have to say that does not give you a sense of thinking we are being caustic about this small list of "M" things.

We guide our minds to be protected to a large extent from views and opinions about words, particularly "red flag" words.

We intend to write and speak evenly with a view of adding light rather than heat to a given problem in a discourse.

Please do not think we are implying that we are embracing these "M" objects too tightly because we have much to say much that is favourable about them.

We wish to observe that none of these "M" things can act as a protector for you.

When you know the type of subject matter that will not lead you to become a recipient of appropriate wisdom, you are approaching a realm where you can meet with protectors.

With knowledge of protectors, you can write a very sound life plan.

Protectors are like insurance; you need to read the exclusions that apply.

There is not a sustainable debate about the fact it would be nice to have protectors.

We need protectors of our life and property and think we have them because there exist such organisations as the local STATE police force and various emergency services, such as, for example, the Country Fire Authority (CFA) that fights fires in the area.

But who or what guards our minds?

Our mind appears to be always online ­ we cannot disconnect from our own thoughts.

We would like to know what we do not yet know, namely, has our present life plan got a "fail safe" clause that guards our minds?

You begin by seeing that your estimation of the worth of questioning such a topic is critical to coming to resolution about the nature of protectors.

If you treat the search for protectors here and now as a trivial pursuit, you will fall into gullibility.

Were your questioning to become more refined, you are better able to judge what or who you ought to adopt as a protector or as a protecting influence.

As you survey the changes in the last 1000 years, you see that propaganda about international research scientific listings of threatened extinction of this or that animal, insect or plant species is more common today.

Many persons in Australia would be likely to wish that rarer animals exist rather than be extinct, even when there is only some very slight evidence that the species ever existed, such as a feather or a footprint.

In broad terms, it is true to say that persons who do not examine evidence of the existence of Devas cannot arrange connections to Devas who may protect them.

If those persons practise meditation, they cannot help meeting devas in the form of Mara beings. The negative influence of these heavenly born Mara beings appears in many ways.

For example, in the City of Knox (bordering the area where our Centre's premises are located), the Hindu Trustees indicated they wanted to build a two-storey building with a main shrine room, prayer hall, office and storage area upon the site of the St. Mary's Anglican Church which was sold to the Trustees.

Six hundred residents objected to the design and it was subsequently re-designed by completely removing one of the main domes from the original design, and the other dome was reduced in size.

With these modifications, the Knox Council gave permission to build the Hindu Temple in spite of widespread community opposition.

One of the Hindu Trustees indicated that the domes are a prerequisite for a Hindu Temple. It could be guessed that the majority of the 600 residents protesting are excluded from that segment of the Australian population that believes in the beneficial influence of Devas.

Practitioners who have attended any of our five-day Meditation courses know of the beneficial influences of Devas and, therefore, because of past causes could understand a Teaching directed to the Dragon-King Deva.

Buddha explained to the Dragon-King that in former times the Dragon-King was named Endless Welfare King and had heard the Teaching at an earlier time. One of Buddha's Disciples asked why a profound Teaching had not been preached to all humankind and why the Buddha had only taught it to the Dragon-King.

Buddha explained that the Dragons had all been Bhikshus in past lives but they fell into poor rebirths because of their lustful karmas (actions).

The Prince of Dragons vowed before the Buddha that he would keep good conduct and not forget the correct Practice in future times. Buddha taught the Ten Precepts and their outcome.

Buddha taught the Dragon-King with endless Teachings which was a doctrine named "The Entire Control".

Among these Teachings were detailed four endless forces. These are:

l. endless endurance to do things;
2. endless world wisdom to cut doubts;
3. endless power to see human thinking;
4. endless skill to give human teachings.

To develop these four abilities, the Students were instructed to consider the four valuable methods.

The four valuable methods (in Sanskrit: Catvara Rddhipadah) are:

l. Satisfaction and joy in the things concerned.

2. Attending wholeheartedly to the things concerned without relaxing.

3. Diligent effort in doing the things concerned.

4. Diligently thinking about and investigating the reasons in things.

Our Teacher is building and decorating with jewels an image of the DRAGON KING.
The image is to be the Centrepiece of his private Geological Museum at Upwey.

The local Dragon King takes pleasure from things we would like to refer to as geological education, although he is more inclined towards seeing and knowing about the therapeutic and hence protective nature of inorganic materials than we are.

Broadly speaking, Western medicine over the last few decades has tended to follow research along a path that seeks medicine in the form searching for medicines in things where the therapeutic nature is in organic compounds­natural or otherwise.

That organic research is fruitful in the medical field is not to be disputed. Our Teacher is a former chemistry graduate. He has taught inorganic chemistry for many years earlier in his life.

He has decided to start up a process to interest more young (and not so young) persons in the pleasures of learning inorganic chemistry, and will use his interest in the analysis of rocks, minerals and gemstones to catalyse their interest.

Rocks on many mountains and river gullies have been quarried, buried, crushed or ground beyond recognition more and more over the last 50 years of rapid global development.

Housing development for a rising population; "prettying up" coasts with concrete car parks and tourist-walking strips and containment work consists of moving any loose, "unsafe" rock forms.

These rocks that are treated by developers as "unstable and troublesome" have a pristine beauty and our Teacher has collected samples of such rocks from many locations.

A small actual museum is being fitted out to display the hobby specimens collected by John D. Hughes, Dip. App. Chem. T.T.T.C. G.D.A.I.E.

From his hobby, John has gathered thousands of geological specimens from Australia and around the World.

In November 1999, with help from Members of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. and John D. Hughes & Associates Pty. Ltd., John commenced the work on establishing the Actual Museum and E-Museum.

His hobby specimens are to be organised by cataloguing as geological specimens.

A Secretariat of 8 persons will set up the Geological Museum @ Upwey.

The first of the Secretariat's tasks is to develop a small building on the site until it is compliant with the Essential Services Provisions of the Building Regulations 1994.

The private Museum will operate on an invitation only basis with no public access to the entire collection.

Once safety standards are met, limited public viewing access may be available. Small outdoor exhibitions are planned for safe outdoor display on the Pavilion.

The laying of the Museum Foundation Stone will be on the Full Moon Day in January 2000.

Details will be inscribed within a granite wall that is being built.

The wall will house the Museum Plan and Millennium Time Capsule.

In time, a website will be set up as an E-Museum.

The E-Museum will consist of a detailed catalogue of all specimens inclusive of scientific and identification information as well as the stories and anecdotes behind the each specimen, with digital images of each specimen taken from various views.

The Dragon King acts as a protector.

The correct view is needed of what conditions and Devas can be most useful to the Practice of Meditation.

The old Persian language, like Greek, places "h" before a vowel where "s" is used in Sanskrit.

So the word ahura spelt A-H-U-R- A (= Asura in Sanskrit) signifies "god". The Zoroastrian chief god is called Ahura-Mazda, "the wise Lord", as Varian is addressed in early Rigvedic hymns, "wise Asura and King", and "the all-knowing Asura who established the heavens and fixed the limits of the earth".

On the other hand, "daeva" transliterated phonetically as D-A-E-V-A in the Iranian dialect, which is cognate with Sanskrit "deva" (god), came to mean "demon".

"Asura" is derived from the root "asu", which signifies "the air of life", and "deva" from "div" (to shine), or "deiwo" (heavenly).

The concept of asuras is much older than the Buddhist literature, and in recent times a great amount of research has been made on the study of the origin and history of the word.

It has been shown that the term Asura is used almost always in the hostile sense and almost always collectively.

In Pali Buddhist literature, the Buddha uses the episode of the war between the devas and asuras as a metaphor for the moral retreat of the Monk in the face of Mara, the evil one, before the former had attained the meditative state "Infinite Space" (first arupa jhana).

In the Digha Nikaya (II, 285), Sakka explained that "experiencing satisfaction such as this which was wrought by blows and by wounds does not conduce to detachment nor to disinterestedness, to cessation, to peace, to spiritual knowledge, to enlightenment, to Nibbana".

G.P. Malalasekera (DPPN. I, 215) observes that in Buddhaghosa's time, the bygone lustre of the word asura (as equivalent to ahura) had faded, and draws attention to the commentator's interesting explanation of the name:

When Sakka was born with his followers in the asura world (which later became Tavatimsa), the asuras prepared a drink called gandapana.

Sakka warned his companions not to drink it, but the asuras became drunk and were thrown down Sineru.

Halfway down they regained consciousness and made a vow never again to drink intoxicants (sura), hence the name asura.

In the Sutta-nipata, commentary (SnA. 484), the asuras are also called Pubbadeva, "the gods of yore".

Many asura narratives are found in Mahayana texts.

One asura was born because in his previous human life he had snatched things from others and donated them to non-Buddhist saints.

Many texts explain that anger, conceit and doubt will be causes for a birth as an asura.

Asuras should not be confused with Asuradeva, a former Buddha, mentioned in the lists of former Buddhas.

It is important that STUDENTS do not allow the asuras to become their teachers, but rather display a series of wholesome minds as an example to such beings.

It is not appropriate to have ill will towards any being.

Compassion, loving-kindness, sympathetic joy or equanimity must replace ill will. Similarly, if persons are dutiful to their parents and respect Buddhist and non-Buddhist saints, such people can be reborn in a deva world where the beings will be powerful enough to overcome the asuras.

It would be inappropriate to condemn beings to whom Buddha had given Teachings.

We teach the preliminary parts of this practice in each of our five day Courses.

This enables Students attending such courses to dispense with many unwholesome minds, which, if left unattended, could have been a cause for the Students to experience asura rebirth in their next existence.

Having established the destruction of causes for rebirth as an asura means some individuals are better positioned to strengthen mature knowledge.

When the Student's minds establish the desirability for the non-production of the causes for rebirth in an asura world, then the Sutra Teachings of not harming others, not talking of others' faults and of not praising oneself highly with false pride becomes a sine qua non.

By practising all kinds of good Dharma, a type of beneficial consciousness, termed Asarco Kasaya-Jhana becomes evident. This particular Jhana involves the waning of vicious propensities.

It is necessary to learn to ignore what you cannot control, and learn to control what you can.

So, were an unwholesome, unprompted thought to appear concerning not keeping the Ten Precepts, there is no need to act out the unwholesome, unprompted thought.

At the opening of Wat Dhammaram at Springvale, Victoria, it was explained that the Buddha Dhamma is a profound and subtle body of Teachings.

The Dhamma has been likened to a turtle, with a hard outer shell and a soft living inner body.

The Texts, the Sangha, Dhamma Centres and other cultural mores form the shell.

These all function together to protect and prolong the existence of the Buddha's Teaching, yet, in its essence, the living Dhamma knows no cultural bounds.

It is timeless and universally the same in all realms. One realm of especial interest is CATUMMAHARAJIKA ­ the Realm of the Four Great Kings who protect the world, also referred to in Pali as OATUMAHARAJIKA.

Venerable Ajaan Viriyanando visited our Centre one evening and explained 'The Quails Protection" (Pali: Vattakaparitta) as a device for protection against fire. (1)

The Centre's Buildings are in a mountain rainforest area which is subject to bushfires.

Such chanting is one action designed to protect the B.D.C.(U)Ltd. Temple site from future damage.

Venerable Ajaan Viriyanando also gave the students the Mantra of The Five Arhants.

"PUNNO, ANGGHULIMALO CA UPALI, NANDA, SIVALI,
THERA PANCE IME JATA NALATE TILAKA MAMA".

This Mantra may be translated as:

'May the Blessings of PUNNO, ANGGHULIMALO, UPALI, ANANDA and
SIVALI, reside on my forehead (mind).

This is a safe form of protection.

In ancient times, when violence was widespread, some persons designed and practised martial arts as a way of protection.

So, in those days, if you practised Martial Arts it was because a Martial Art was a necessity. It was done by persons to save their lives. No persons were secure when they had to get in the way of the sword.

A person had to acquire a way of protecting himself or herself from the sword empty-handed, because the peasant had no permit to carry a weapon.

So they made an empty hand. It became Karate. Karate means empty hand.

Aikido was another way. But the other has the sword. So some had the good spirit with the sword as explained. The Samurai learnt this way; but some did not have a good spirit.

Some bad persons carried swords. So all that time years ago was a very dangerous time. So many needed to have a way. But when you see persons not practising Martial Arts to any great extent come out and produce a lot of violence in the street you know something is wrong with their ethics.

No such violence is necessary if you practised to be a super karate student­you would not destroy everything. It is not a necessity really.

But if you had the advantage, maybe you would relax and remove indirectly and relax the aggressively expressed actions displayed by undisciplined men or women.

The superior person holds the precept of no killing and so can put down the power of rude persons who wish to kill and attack others.

Morality is the cause of guardianship.

In practice of Buddha Dhamma bhavana, many things are found out about protective power.

For example, the 3rd Rupa Jhana gateways are guarded by the Dakinis, whose characteristic, like the dragons, is peaceful protective power.

Buddhist artists with celestial vision that can see into the green, red and blue form worlds have drawn the Dakini forms.

There are many well-known human beings who protect others through moral force rather than through armed might (for example: the Dalai Lama, the Panchen Lama, Venerable Thich Nhat Hanh, Mahatma Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King).

Many of these persons exhibit good human qualities that are praiseworthy when used in their worldly actions.

Unfortunately, many persons are unaware of the wholesome influences exerted by certain humans who are similar to Deva Protectors. As mentioned earlier, the Australian survey of a few years ago showed only about 35% of Australians believed that Deva beings exist. It is unlikely that such persons could connect to humans who are like Devas in their skill in protecting them.

These persons cannot help meeting Mara beings. The negative influence of these Mara beings appears in many ways.

The Buddha Dhamma is a profound and subtle body of Teachings.

Feelings about the possibility of devas acting as protectors are not permanent and can be changed.

When a person can experience how to generate the mental force of short periods of compassion, these can be extended for longer periods depending on practice.

If a person could learn and know that the most painful disadvantage of not practising compassion is that, in the future, no one will care for you or protect you from harm, action would follow such knowledge.

Our Centre is about to follow the process to "prescribe" Buddhism as a "religion", in order to protect Buddha Dhamma practitioners' right of practice and allow them to teach other persons.

The "prescribing process" of The Fundraising Appeal Bill 1984 Section 6(1)(j), provided exemptions by reference on certain religious bodies or organisations as those under Section 26 of the Marriage Act 1961 of the Commonwealth.

At present, Buddhism is not on the list.

We use Blessing cords that can protect persons to help stop persons who want to "play" at being ghosts to scare others.

Sometimes persons who play during the Halloween time get into trouble because they lack protectors.

These cords properly applied help protect human beings from such attacks.

May you be well and happy and meet with suitable protectors.

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

Notes

(1) Parittas or Rakkhanas are originally prayers. Paritta is a technical term derived from the root "ta" (rakkhati) to rescue, to protect, to guard with the prefix "pari" - all around (samantato) from all directions. Paritta may therefore be interpreted as Buddhist Protection Charms or
Buddhist Raksha Mantras. (For more details, ref: Eleven Holy Discourses of Protection MAHA PARITTA PALI by Sao Htun Hmat Win, Director of Research and Scriptures, published by Department of Religious Affairs, Rangoon, Burma, 1981.)

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