The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

I used to know an old time American academic who had spent many years teaching in small colleges. He claimed he could teach anything, provided he was given time when he arrived at his new post to locate the best textbook available in town, and also the second best textbook, which he could assign to students - extract from Buddhist Studies Review - vol. 16, No. 1 (1999)

This American academic, although witty, could not be said to display Scholarship in this example.

Two days ago, two peak historic events took place at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd - the opening of the Geological Museum @ Upwey and the sealing of the Millennium Time Capsule.

This will be opened on the 21st of January.......................pause........................................Next Century.

One of our Managers, Anita Svensson, presented the opening speech.

Anita Svensson thanked our members and others who worked so hard to make this day a success.

A very solid granite wall leading to the entrance of the Geology Museum was built by Members on 15th January 2000 by wall builders Arrisha Burling, Leila Lamers, Santi Sukha, Julian Bamford, Vincenzo Cavuoto, Jan Bennett, and Stuart Amoore.

The Millenium Time Capsule is housed in a compartment in the solid wall. The wall is designed to last 100 years or more. The wall forms an enclosure.

In the enclosure is a shrine for protective Nagas.

John D. Hughes and Members Leila Lamers, Vanessa Macleod, Crista Patrick (friend of Vanessa), Anita Svennsson and Clarangela Iaquinto, developed a secluded garden area in the enclosure.

This garden was created by planting shrubs and ferns around the inside the perimeter and spreading ash topped with sand on the ground.

The quarries that donated the granite include:

--Adriatic Stonemasons Co Pty Ltd, Cheltenham

--Classique Stone, Clayton South

--Condor Marble and Granite, Huntingdale

--Melocco Stone, Springvale

--Heath Monumental Masons, Box Hill

--Taylor Stones, Box Hill

--Lodge Brothers, Preston

--Australian Stone, North Coburg

--Giannarelli Granite and Marble, Thomastown

--Anthony and Preston Memorials, Coburg North

--Giovanni Verga Memorials, Thomastown

At the rear of the wall is the time capsule enclosure where three distinct packets of memorabilia from this last century were placed to be opened by our decendants next century.

This Time Capsule contains the Buddha Dhamma Package, the Memorial Package containing Historical Items, and a Printed Chan Calendar in a fire-proof package:

The Buddha Dhamma Package Containing "the Timeless ( pali: akaliko)" contains:

--One Buddha Image

--One set of Buddha Robes for Sangha

--The Way You Are Looking For Parts I and II

--The World Fellowship Of Buddhists Constitution

--The Emptiness You Are Looking For

--The Buddha Dhamma For You

--Insight Meditation Vipassana

--One Set of Ching Hand bells

--John D. Hughes Hair Relic

--John D. Hughes Cards

--15 Buddha Image Cards

--2 sets of Chan Hall Rules

--The Five Reflections on Food

--Buddha Dhamma Chanting Sheet

--3 bags of incense

--Buddha Mantra Beads

The Memorial Package Containing Historical Items contains:

--The names of Members and their families

--The names of persons present at the Sealing of the Millennium Time Capsule

--The BDC(U) Ltd. Discussion Paper on Information Technology Planning 1999

--The Buddhist Hour Conceptual Solution 1999

--The Place of the Dragon King in The Geology Museum @ Upwey Conceptual Plan1999

--The Brooking Street Bugle (new series) Issues 28 and 29

--"Three Month Retreat for John D. Hughes - Information for Members"

--John D. Hughes bio-data

--Chan Calendar CD

--Geology Museum@Upwey Brochure 2000

--Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Brochure 1999

--John D. Hughes Collection Brochure 1999

--Chan Academy Brochure 1999

--Chan Academy 1999 Flyer

--Certificate of Participation

--Certificate of Gratitude

-- Founder's Day Catalogue1999

--Buddha Dhyana Dana Review Volume 9, Nos. 1, 2 and 3

--Photographs of John D. Hughes and Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Members.

--One each of the four Ch'an Greeting cards

--Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Full Membership list

--Mailing List of Buddha Dhyana Dana Review

--Names of Donors of Marble and Granite

Within the time capsule we have included a set of Buddha Monk's Robes. The style of the Monk's robes is specified by the Buddha and has not been changed for two and a half thousand years.

This set of robes came from Thailand and we are very grateful to our Patron for supplying them for this occasion.

May the wisdom of placing value in an unchanging outer garment style that enables modesty to be combined with practicality be more widely understood. In saying this, we do not intend to disparage the motives of the fashion industry. Rather, we think it is better
to have some sense of history and particularly the history of noble persons who helped shape our world for the better.

Among the attendees was Di Moore, Deputy Mayor of Shire of Yarra Ranges, who was happy to enclose with the memorabilia the official Shire of Yarra Ranges badge and logo.

The major function of creating a time capsule is to educate our Members and the general public in a sense of Australian history. In our view, Australians place too little value on history. There is a saying that those who do not study history have to repeat it.

In reality of course, you can never repeat history because the arrow of time is a one way flight.

Without a sense of history one cannot study Buddha Dhamma because the present depends on the past and leads to the future. The whole process of history is a continous series of cause and effect. Without an understanding of the past, there is no understanding of cause and effect.

Throughout the World, according to Genevieve Burnett(2000) "While politicians deplore the decline of history as a subject, lecturers can take a stand".

Unfortunately, it seems that the humanities and particularly history are becoming far less fashionable, even considered useless, among students forced to do vocational courses just for jobs. Burnett has a particular memory of a tutorial discussion on the rise of fascism in Germany. A student asked: "But wasn't Hitler a communist?" .

Another example was where students had no idea of what "imperialism" meant. Another Lecturer in History and Cultural Studies at Southern Cross University had complaints from students because she used words they could not understand - like the verb " to subjugate".

Another example occurred in Australian studies at Deakin University where a first year student asked who Mao Zedong was.

As the fashion goes with more and more stress on vocational courses, the teaching of history or ancient languages useful for the study of history such as Latin may well become only a memory.

The Buddhist Discussion Centre is determined to deal through education with many of the crises that are occurring in the World. These take religious, cultural, social, economic, ecological and other forms form. Our organisation is a learning organisation.

Our Teacher teaches his students to practice Lifetimes of Learning and the cultivation of 5 Learning styles as part of their Dhamma practice.

These styles are:

Friendliness

Practicality

Professionalism

Cultural Adaptability

Scholarship

Today we will explore Scholarship as an enabler and tool to help us learn about the past.

Scholarship as defined in the Shorter Oxford English Dictionary gives the attainments of a Scholar as learning, and erudition. Erudition is to have acquired book learning or perfect workmanship (Shorter Oxford Dictionary).

Our Teacher trains his students in the Art of Scholarship through a number of the merit making activities at The Buddhist Discussion Centre.

These include the writing, editing and production of the Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, the internal newsletter - The Brooking Street Bugle - and the writing of the Radio Scripts for this Buddhist Hour.

John D. Hughes also writes a number of papers for publications in overseas journals and assists other Buddhist scholars in the writing of Dhamma Books, for example Venerable Ajarn Chanhphy Manivong's book called "The Way You Are Looking For - A Manual of Insight Meditation. The students of the Buddhist Discussion Centre are trained to assist in the editing of these papers and books.

At the World Fellowship of Buddhist Conference held at Woollongong (Australia) in November 1998, a number of students from the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. acted as rapporteurs in the recording of the executive council meetings and sub-committees. The students not only recorded but edited the proceedings which were later published in the official World Fellowship of Buddhists Report.

Our Teacher strongly encourages his students to place a value on scholarship. It is through the practice of scholarship that humans can not only develop themselves in a number of ways, but also positively influence the many generations which follow.

It was through the great wisdom and scholarship displayed by the First Sangha council in the diligent recording of the Buddha's Teachings and the subsequent commentaries written by the great Buddhist scholars that Buddha Dhamma students of today are able to study, practice and be blessed. Likewise, it is the effort and dedication of the Buddhist Scholars of today which will bless not only the present generation but many generations to follow.

It is through this practice of Scholarship that you may recognise that without a sense of history one cannot study Buddha Dhamma because the present depends on the past and leads to the future. The whole process of history is a continuous series of cause and effect. Without an understanding of the past, there is no understanding of cause and effect.

It is prudent not to be complacent and think someone else will do this work. One cannot attain scholarship like instant noodles....There is no royal path to learning. Scholarship is obtained through finding a skilful master who has a library holding the complete Buddha Dhamma texts, having respect for this Master and paying close attention to the instructions and referring to the canonical texts. It is through this practice that a number of the Members of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. have been able to increase their Scholarship skills.

All teachers teach the importance of scholarship and the importance of study.

Persons are exposed to some choices - but are they enough? If the choices are given without the reliable criteria to make the correct choice - what happiness can be found in that? The insights gained through Buddha Dhamma practice allow individuals to discover the correct values through which to build a happy and satisfying life of scholarship. This notion also applies to workplace satisfaction.

It is necessary to find the appropriate Buddhist resolution to cure and minimise the causes of such problems.

One of the problems of our times is related to employee satisfaction or lack of it in organisations.

Numerous theories have been formulated in order to understand and reduce the dissatisfaction in the workplace. About six schools of thought have been investigated. One school of thought is based on psychological needs theory. Its exponents are Argyris, Maslow, Herzberg and Likert, who have argued that people in general have psychological needs which they hope can be satisfied through work. Failing that, there is no job satisfaction. What needs? Self esteem, self fulfillment, love. People motivated by these needs have shown a willingness to work in occupations where there are high opportunities for status, responsibility, co-operation and recognition.

Another school of thought regarding satisfaction theory is the style leadership. Blake, Moulton and Fiedler argue that what determines satisfaction in the work place is related to the climate of the work environment for which top management is responsible.

A third school of thought that we can consider is that of Vroom and Lola, who look at job satisfaction from the point of view of how effort and reward are related. Everyone has a subjective notion of what they consider a "fair day's pay" and if they perceive that they are not receiving a "fair day's pay for a fair day's work" one would expect job satisfaction to be very low. This is usually true.

Another school of thought argues about the difference between extrinsic and intrinsic factors of job satisfaction and emphasises that the extrinsic factors like bosses, rewards and situational factors are secondary to the work itself. They argue that in order to increase satisfaction, job design and control over jobs are essential.

From a Buddha Dhamma perspective, it would be desirable if work be intellectually stimulating and it should provide the ability to generate many merit making opportunities.

Because the majority of people are not Scholars, they are happy to stay in an unsatisfying job as it provides a sense of security (approximately 80% of the workforce like highly programmed repetitive jobs because such work satisfies their high expectations for security and predictability - Pan Business publication "Managing People at Work" written by John Hunt, published in 1979. However modern work is not highly repetitive, therefore such people have to be retrained in attitude. Buddha Dhamma practice, through the experience of Scholarship, enables individuals to develop a higher order of thinking. This assists in overcoming the complacency of remaining in an unsuitable environment and accepting conditions unsuitable for Buddha Dhamma practice, simply because it is the conventional cultural norm which allows them to do so.

Buddha Dhamma practice leads to the Mangala Blessings which are listed in the Mangala Sutta.

The Mangala Sutta

Thus have I heard:

On one occasion the Blessed One was living near Savatthi at Jetavana at Anathapindika's monastery. Now when the night was far advanced, a certain deity, whose surpassing radiance illuminated the whole of Jetavana, approached the Blessed One, respectfully saluted him, and stood beside him. Standing thus, he addressed the Blessed One in verse:

1. "Many deities and men longing for happiness have pondered on (the question of) blessings. Pray tell me what the highest blessings are.

2. "Not to associate with the foolish, but to associate with the wise, and to honor those worthy of honor -- this is the highest blessing.

3. "To reside in a suitable locality, to have performed meritorious actions in the past, and to set oneself in the right direction -- this is the highest blessing.

4. "Vast learning, skill in handicrafts, well grounded in discipline, and pleasant speech -- this is the highest blessing.

5. "To support one's father and mother; to cherish one's wife and children, and to be engaged in peaceful occupations -- this is the highest blessing.

6. "Liberality, righteous conduct, rendering assistance to relatives, and performance of blameless deeds -- this is the highest blessing.

7. "To cease and abstain from evil, to abstain from intoxicating drinks, and diligent in performing righteous acts -- this is the highest blessing.

8. "Reverence, humility, contentment, gratitude, and the timely hearing of the Dhamma, the teaching of the Buddha, -- this is the highest blessing.

9. "Patience, obedience, meeting the Samanas (holy men), and timely discussions on the Dhamma -- this is the highest blessing.

10. "Self-control, chastity, comprehension of the Noble Truths, and the realization of Nibbana -- this is the highest blessing.

11. "The mind that is not touched by the vicissitudes of life,[1] the mind that is free from sorrow, stainless, and secure -- this is the highest blessing.

12. "Those who have fulfilled the conditions (for such blessings) are victorious everywhere, and attain happiness everywhere -- To them these are the highest blessings."

The heavenly being or deva who had asked the Buddha to explain these blessings then said, "Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhasa", the first time that those words had been spoken this Buddha Sasana.

Does your workplace have any of these highest blessings?

The Mangala Sutta highest blessings are higher satisfiers than what we accept as the cultural norm.

The cultural norm teaches us to strive for minor blessings such as wealth. Ironically, attainment of the Mangala Highest Blessings brings to the practitioner the minor blessings as a by product. This is due to the law of cause and effect - in Pali, kamma.

There is one more argument - that inter-personal relationships bring about satisfaction at the lower echelon of the organisation. Satisfaction appears to be the result of a web of situational factors and personalities.

The study of time in the Geological sense can tell us a lot about ecology and how adaptive the eco-systems of a particular locality can change with time.

For example, when we were digging for clay to build the Padmasambhava Image, we found layers of charcoal from the ancient bush fires that must have occurred about three thousand years ago. This is a rough estimate, because we do not have the equipment here as yet to do radioactive carbon analysis.

We are unlikely to over react to ice ages when we have evidence in Victoria good enough to convince us that there must have been about 28 or so ice ages on this ancient land. The rocks we find having glacier marks where one rock under great pressure scratches another hard rock, bring about better sense of order of knowledge and perhaps some wisdom of how to view change.

During the sealing of the time capsule, John D. Hughes performed a mantra using the mantra beads which were subsequently placed in the time capsule. He is quite confident that the blessing generated will continue for more than one hundred years in this location.

With this sort of time scale to manage, we are unlikely to go into irresponsible outlays that would result in long-term insolvency of this organisation. We do think about the tomorrow after tomorrow by carefully guarding the present moments to help other beings.

How little history is taught in Australian homes amazes me when I compare it to persons I meet in many Asian countries who are quite familiar with streams of their ancestors names and attainments in local and national history.

I was quite taken back by one of our Members who was born in Australia and who did not know the full name of her own grandmother. The Buddha teaches respect for parents and forebears and it is hard to see how we can remember anyone if we don't know their names.

One of my favourite jokes is to say: "He or she left only a name of which nobody knows how to speak or write". The fact is the joke falls flat on persons who do not know the names of their grandparents. For those of you who belong in this class and want to do something about it, I suggest you come to some of our classes where we teach the 80 different approaches which generate the different versions of World history.

This teaching goes beyond de-constructionist theory because we do maintain that it is not true that all cultural systems are of equal value.

Thailand has produced a map which is a new challenge for cultural and economic development in that country. In their analysis, a lot of the troubles which are causing humanity to sink deeper into suffering, lassitude and worry are because economic situations are unpredictable and highly fluctuating.

The message is that the world must rethink its view on money and make it a tool to support goodness. It might be thought that this is too ideal, but we can say without doubt that our systems here generate both wealth, austerity and a sense of well-being caused by cultural confidence.

A view of the garden here will convince we have something that is ecologically sound because we are prepared to keep a team of persons to fight bush fires when they arise.

In some senses, our revenue is generated by a form of spiritual dimension of human development that has been neglected in the western world over the last century or so. Our version of human development is well articulated and is being emulated in many countries.

That capital works here are never started on borrowed money, which means that we are extremely financially stable and do not have to charge to teach meditation practice. We eradicate poverty in our Members by using the laws of cause and effect. We transcend the domination of old ways of thinking by admitting in the first place that persons are so conditioned, their freedom to act is illusory.

Until the mind reaches a high level of attainment and is well trained and follows morality and wants to come out of being too here and now, the question of freedom of choice about how to live is problematic.

In the very short term, human beings can not lose their humanity any more than dogs can lose their dogginess or angel beings lose their heavenliness.

However, at death everything changes - it is possible for humans to be born human again or they could be born animal or as heavenly being. There are many other possibilities of rebirth.

This is not the place to explore these things but I do appeal to you to move out of your comfort zone just a little and spare a bit of time to help us in our efforts to increase cultural exchange of ideas that are conducive to the well-being and happiness of the many.

May we meet together and cooporate in a friendly manner in the future and not meet together to attack one another through intolerance.

May you and your relatives be well and happy and develop a sense of history.

John D. Hughes declared the Geological Museum @ Upwey open and arranged to place the various items in the Time Capsule.

May you travel the path of scholarship and learning in this very life.

Remember the Chinese proverb "There is no royal road to learning".

May you be well and happy and free from harm.

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

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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.)

This Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for the purpose of research and study.

Permission is given to make printouts of this publication for FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. Please keep it in a clean place.

"The gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts".

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© 2002. Copyright. The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.