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How can a person find the Buddha Dhamma Teaching?

It is clear from all texts that a person's chances of this happening is very slight.

Inherently, there is no discrimination of right and wrong in human behaviour; but people, because of ignorance, imagine such distinctions and judge them as right or wrong.

Because of their ignorance, all persons are always thinking wrong thoughts and always losing the right viewpoint and, clinging to their egos, they take wrong actions. As a result, they become attached to a delusive existence.

Our bodies come from the four elements (air, fire, water and earth.) But there is one pure and clear thing that transcends life and death and remains unchanged.

Having a human body is like changing clothes every day; one day you are Australian, the next day you are Korean if you are learning from the mindset of a Korean Master, and the next day you are French if you happened to be taught in that language, or German if you were taught in that language.

If you visit us at the Hall of Assembly of our Centre at 33 Brooking Street, Upwey, we teach in English that is modified and uses words you would not hear if you were taught by Christian or Hindu Teachers.

Because of our multicultural nature, we do not know week by week what language we need to translate the words of our Teacher.

A week ago, we translated into German. The reason for this was one of our Member's mothers visited us from Germany.

The Mother was a 'nominal Buddhist' follower.

It depends on what kind of clothes you want to wear.

But this Buddha Dhamma is one pure and clear thing and never changes its subject matter.

It makes some slight difference in the way a Teacher presents things when he knows it is to be translated to German, Korean, French, for a particular class of persons.

Our Teacher knows some German and French and is familiar, among other things, with the genre of Korean Buddha Dhamma.

He wishes you to be well and happy this instant and hopes you will find this genre thing within the next few moments or this moment as you listen to this program.

It is important that we tell you the way you view things when we hear them depends on the genre your mind expects.

If we said this program was about a detective story, then listeners would work on the assumptions that we use when we hear about detective fiction.

So if we mention something to do with a clock and we said that the clock is running late, we would mentally interpret the inaccuracy of the clock not as a symbolic statement about time but rather as part of a game the author is playing to confound our own detective work; hence we become alert for any further clues about the clock.

We would be looking for aspects of the person that told us that the clock was running slow or we would look for clues about whom might have tampered with the clock, because we would want to believe that the clock time was important in the detective story.

Because of genre, in another sense, if we said that we were writing an allegory the clock running slow would be read as a symbolic allusion, a hint that time was disordered in the world.

So time and time again, we inevitably, although perhaps unwittingly, respond to generic signals which colour or function as a code of behaviour established between our listeners and our writers.

Your minds move quickly to adjust to our expectations second by second.

Like it or not like it, you can take our word for it that only within a Buddha Teaching era can you adjust your minds to the correct genre to hear correctly.

When we agree to attend a formal dinner we tacitly accept the assumption that we would put on the appropriate attire; the host in turn feels an obligation to serve a fairly elaborate meal, not just beer and pizza.

Every time we do something we agree to a willing suspension of disbelief.

Were we reading a science-fiction story or a gothic tale, we would be quite prepared to accept that the murder had been committed by a ghost, but in an ordinary murder story we would expect the murder to be done by a human agent. Heather Dubrow pointed out in 1982 that she felt the author had violated the laws of nature if the ghostly murderer was introduced.

Generic prescriptions also resemble social codes in that they differ from culture to culture and in that they may in fact be neglected, though seldom likely or unthinkingly.

You are listening to the 'Buddhist Hour' and we state this clearly.

So whatever genre you were expecting, it is only reasonable that you listen to our version of meaning of cause and effect with intensity and resonance that you would not have if we were talking about sport or football.

Because you have not followed the logic of Buddha Dhamma for a considerable part of this world cycle, meaning many lifetimes, we hope to help you adjust to our genre by chanting for you.

We chant the ancient vandana for Buddha, the Three Refuges and the minimum requirement of five precepts, which we invited you to hold for the duration of our program.

In a survey recently commissioned by the Knox Journal titled Improving the Lives of Young Victorians in our Community: A Survey of Risk and Protective Factors, results were collected from more than 9000 students from Years 7, 9 and 11 in 194 schools across Victoria. The results are considered 95% accurate.

Within the local area from Monash to the Yarra Ranges the percentage using alcohol in the last 30 days ranged from 47-57 %; for marijuana from 6 -17%, and other drugs from 4-6%.

Such use means it is likely some of our younger listeners are unable to hear what we are saying at the right order of knowledge.

Naturally, if you sat there listening drinking beer, wine or other mind-dulling intoxicants such as marijuana, you will find it difficult to follow our words because your mind is not clear and receptive.

If you would like to hear us then please tune into next week's program free from intoxicants; this will enhance your ability to absorb and understand the information and ideas we present.

With a clear mind, free from alteration by non-prescription depressant drugs, you are welcome to visit our centre at 33 Brooking St, Upwey, and can experience the benefits of a high energy environment.

You can also access high order information and resources on our website at www.bdcu.org.au. Then, the troubles start for you, because that mind would find it difficult for you to understand the level of knowledge we are expressing.

So, to find the teachings with an intoxicated mind gives you little hope of cognating them.

You do not know for how many lifetimes you have used intoxicants.

But you can be sure that whenever you did, you missed out on the way to wisdom and the way out of suffering.

Has it not occurred to you that there is a logical possibility that what we are saying is to get you fit enough to search for the right genre?

In Australia, when we think of a 'teacher' (guru) we reminisce about our 'school days'; but in Buddha Dhamma countries we think of Leaders in Dhamma as Guru.

Everybody has heard of Guru and for a lucky few they only have to remember the word Guru once and they know and understood that the Guru, the Teacher, means shower of the Way or Bearer of Buddha Dhamma.

You may think of a horrid teacher who made your life uncomfortable and slander all Teachers.

We remember the teacher 'Death Breath' of whom we only asked a question once.

Eventually we remember the inspirational teachers who helped us. We liked their subject because they were passionate about the subject matter.

Our system of schooling in Australia, and many countries around the world, do not provide the option of choosing a teacher. And so we have never thought about choosing one.

In modern times, persons see education as a right rather than a privilege. It was not always so.

In Buddha's time, education was the prerogative of the elite.

The Buddha to be, because of vast merit, received an excellent education as a King's son. So, the Buddha was well educated. He excelled in all branches of learning and would, in today's terms, be educated to a Doctorate level. In his education he studied logic.

Our first teachers are our parents, who may or may not have had a good education. They teach us to eat, sleep, walk and talk. They teach us about dangers that may harm us.

Teachers, like Mothers, are influential people in producing insecurities.

If we are too insecure, we cannot practice Buddha Dhamma because we look to Buddha Dhamma for security. Unfortunately, Buddha Dhamma is quite successful in overcoming this type of insecurity.

When this type of insecurity is overcome, some persons stop practicing Buddha Dhamma because they are overwhelmed by a feeling of new-found security.

Recent research shows insights into how security is or is not formed in very early childhood.

Van den Boom's 1990 investigation of 100 irritable Dutch infants of economically at-risk families puts the argument to rest that insecurity reflects negative emotionality or difficult temperament.

In her study, van den Boom included an experimental manipulation to heighten maternal sensitivity and evaluated its effect on attachment security.

Three home visits designed to foster Mother's "contingent, consistent, and appropriate responses to both positive and negative infant signals" were administered to fifty Mothers randomly assigned to an experimental group.

The home visitor/intervenor aimed to enhance Mothers' observational skills and assisted Mothers to adjust their behaviors to their infant's unique cries".

Control group Mothers were simply observed in interaction with their babies.

Importantly, the two groups of Mothers were equivalent in terms of maternal behavior prior to the implementation of the intervention.

Mildly negative infant behaviors, like fussing, are ignored for most of the time.

Positively toned attachment behaviors, on the contrary, are ignored for the most part, and infant exploration is not interfered with.

These findings chronicling a causal, not just correctional, impact of the quality of maternal care on attachment security are in accord with those emanating from other experimental investigations.

Short-term interventions can increase the probability of an infant's development of a secure attachment to the Mother.

In many lives, we hear Buddha Dhamma but because we seek the approval of our mother who might be of other religious persuasion, we are not secure enough to take the Teachings into the actual practice stage.

This is why it is so important to be kind to your parents this life.

It not only enables you to have superior parents next life but actually changes the disposition of your parent's minds in this very life.

In Asia in Buddhist culture and parts of mediaeval Europe, parents are held in high esteem.

They understand about creating morality within their home by EXAMPLE.

This has been lost in most segments of Australian culture and the result is a feeling of insecurity in the young that they try to mask through intoxicants.

Learning of this nature is not held in high respect in segments of Australian society.

Simple things create lasting impressions. We do not place written Dhamma material or dictionaries on the floor. We keep our library clean and orderly as much as possible.

In places where learning is respected, texts are never placed on the floor.

In like manner, those Teachers who can recite the texts are treated with respect.

It appears a certain percentage of Australians have lost respect for leaders and royalty.

In Australia, some persons have become disillusioned with the teachers - redefinition of teachers in the sense of those who go on strike for whatever cause finds some support in the community.

We have never heard of Buddha Dhamma Teachers going on strike and withholding their knowledge from students.

If at any time in the future that ever happened at our Centre, many teachers who visit our Centre to practice would cease to come.

We do not close for holidays - we teach year in, year out, for those who can benefit.

As we hear of Centres closing for various reasons, we remember that students need to ask Buddha Teachers to teach.

Many times, when we investigate world wide, we know we can find the right Teachers to come here or make available their teachings in written form.

We make such requests to Lord Buddha.

Over many years, Members find out about our Teacher.

In the beginning practice of Buddha Dhamma, it may appear a Teacher is selected by the student.

But as the good students find out over many years, in fact, it is the Teacher who selects the student.

The resident Teacher at Buddhist Discussion Centre Upwey Ltd. is a Vice President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists.

John D. Hughes has a Diploma of Applied Chemistry, and a holder of a T.T.T.C. and GDAIE.

Many years ago, he was a maths and science teacher at Boronia and Ferntree Gully Technical Schools,

John D Hughes is 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 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.

All women Members have been encouraged to become proficient on our elaborate range of software and search engines on our Centre's computers and they have computers in their homes.

Our Centre has an internal e-mail system on our local area network, and Members who have access can send or store messages easily to one another.

It is this stress on a high order of communication for Members at our Centre that give Members certainty that others know their worth, their role and the width of their power to make a difference to the way we do things around here.

So, in future, because of these causes. our Members will find the Buddha Dhamma in data warehouses.

Our culture is non-sexist, non-ageist and non racist, and this has been highlighted by the diversity of the many places of birth of our Members.

There are only two fifth-generation Australian women on our Task Units, so the old paternalistic culture that came to Australia with the British in colonial days has almost been extinguished.

As you can see, we have a policy of encouraging all Members to undertake tertiary studies.

This means over the years we get more and more women graduates or women who have had good commercial experience as sales managers in charge of men.

The notion that there is somehow a leadership role for men and not for women is not encouraged at our Centre.

If you can do the task, you do the task, which is perhaps why there are many women Members who actively participate in running our Centre.

One of our younger Members, Leila Lamers, is an electrician at local University. She was encouraged all the time during her apprenticeship by our Teacher. Leila gives sound advice and looks after the safety and new wiring for our electricity needs of our Centre. Yesterday, Leila supervised the installation of network cables at our Centre.

Some of our men and women who are sober, industrious and honest, because they keep the five precepts, have been encouraged to work as consultants to industry. Because other consultants do not necessarily keep the precept of no intoxicants, our Members get better results than average over time.

Our five styles are Professionalism, Friendliness, Scholarship, Cultural Adaptability and Practicality.

There are many Women Members who are currently involved in furthering their education.

Pam Adkins, a trained nurse and an accountant, is our Treasurer, and has recently added to her qualifications by completing a Bachelor of Business degree.

Evelin Halls, a mother of two boys, is doing a Bachelor of Arts degree at Monash University majoring in English in Use and Information Management Systems.

Vanessa Macleod has completed a Bachelor of Arts and a Master of Arts degree. Yesterday Members celebrated her thirty-first birthday. Members took her to lunch and in the evening a banquet was arranged at the Centre. Vanessa is our Senior International Liaison Officer. She is also the Archive Officer for the John D. Hughes Collection.

Arrisha Burling is a Communications Co-ordinator for a superannuation company. She has completed a Bachelor of Arts and is undertaking a Bachelor of Business.

Lisa Nelson is studying Information Technology and Mathematics as part of her Victorian Certificate of Education. She aims to enter University this year.

Anita Svensson is a State Registered Nurse, a mother of three, a wife, and a Nurse Educator in Acute Gerontic Care.

Pennie White is a secondary teacher with a Bachelor of Arts, Graduate Diploma of Education and studying a Masters in Information and Communication Technologies. In the last month she has assisted Evelin with the Centre's multimedia application and Leila with the network cabling yesterday.

Lainie Smallwood is completing a Bachelor of Business (Tourism and Marketing) and a Bachelor of Communications (Public Relations and Sociology) Degree.

Isabella Hobbs is a nurse, studying a Diploma in Community Health at Swinburne University, TAFE Division.

Because of the intensity of the coaching we give Members to understand the supply chain management of our management models, Members find they do well in such modern state-of-the-art subjects.

The role of the Deva of Learning and the God of Work is strong at our Altars.

No special concessions are made for women - when a new system is found to work better than the old system there is a change over time when old Members must forgo the use of the old way.

Resistance to change is not encouraged.

Acariya means a teacher.

Evelin Halls is currently undertaking a subject in Information Management Systems at Monash University. Therefore, she has access to all the latest IT knowledge and tools.

Evelin has been producing a multimedia application on CD-ROM which promotes the Centre's religious activities. You are invited to our Centre to view this modern production.

Her main focus is in helping our Centre and working for the Buddha.

The multimedia presentation is intended to be to show visitors what we do for the Centre. It contains photos, a video from the centre and sound files.

This week, this application was created in a flexible way to ensure that contents can be added or altered easily.

Later, our multimedia presentations will be available on CD-ROM so that it can be taken to the World Fellowship of Buddhists conference in Bangkok.

Great care will be taken to observe the copyright laws.

Furthermore, everything will be done to avoid any viruses that may cause detriment to the Center's computers.

This year, we will set p more websites and add this to them.

The B.D.C.(U.) Ltd. WEB home page www.bdcu.org.au was launched on the Internet during October 1997.

Our library web site at www.bdcu.org.au can now be accessed through the Australian Libraries Gateway at www.nla.gov.au/libraries.

Our WEB page address is http://www.bdcu.org.au.

Triple loop learning is learning about learning through revealing and altering the tacit infrastructure of thought. Such learning is a sustained inquiry into the processes, certainties and assumptions underlying everyday organizational experience. (Argyris, Isaacs, 1993)

Many of our organisational tasks are organised and managed by e-mail messages linking different Members arriving and leaving at different times and operating in different task units.

The E-Systems has developed to become more than a lucky dip of who does what when. We called this E-Systems TEXTLAN.

Members who can now prioritise their own tasks are beginning to understand the complexity of leadership and have completed the familiarisation, conflict and reconciliation stages with their Task Unit Members.

This IT conceptual solution-based strategic planning demands that several Members need to come to terms with the fourth stage of effective small group operation-reinforcement by June 2000 at the latest.

This genre is so new that it is not formed from past models or ideas.

But, at the very least, we can deduce what not to do in IT from reasoning.

Maturity comes from responsibility being given to an IT Team.
This means the team must not waste time in futile talk, idle chatter, antisocial behaviour or defeatist refusal to take a quantitative approach to the conceptual solution.

They must not shoot blind at solutions that depart from linearity projections.

On Tuesday 9 May 2000, our Teacher corrected 10 Members' paltry views towards IT and started to define our need for vigour in writing a conceptual solution to give in-house website co-ordination.

The clarity of the need to achieve a workable IT conceptual solution for our new series of profitable websites could not be disputed.

For the last month, our Teacher insisted that the old culture preventing us taking all the steps marked out to put business into our e-business be annihilated.

The new culture is the genre running now with those who work on the conceptual plan.

As far as the Teacher is concerned, because members gave a commitment to the Teacher that they would get on with developing the conceptual solution, their word is their bond.

It works with the intention that all players understand our best Public Relations.

The genre statements are to be lived every day by Members who lead or follow our IT team with our "5 styles".

We believe we know the qualities we need for administrators of our websites.

These qualities have been identified several decades ago.

The Mathematical Association of Victoria in "Perspective in Teaching Mathematics" December 1975 examines Operations Research listing the qualities needed to be an analyst in this field as:

Personal qualities

-Ability to communicate, including abilities to write, speak (both becoming
hard to find) and listen.
- Leadership
- Creativity
- Perseverance
- Goal-Orientation
- Academic Training

(i) Fundamentals: scientific methodology, mathematics, statistics,
probability, computer science, economics, administration, and the behavioural
sciences

(ii) Operational Research techniques like those above.

(iii) Specialist field; it is important the Operational Research person has a
strong major in mathematics, statistics, engineering, economics, or business.

We have had nobody with these full range of qualifications to date, but 8 Members are studying in this area.

Many years ago, our Teacher studied the mathematics of OR techniques with the Mathematical Association of Victoria. Use of the largest computer in Australia at Monash to solve the many equations was available between the end of World War II and the beginning of the Cold War.

A new generation of Members can increase our range of Teaching globally by at least 10,000 times.

To date, we receive feedback of persons reading our website as far away as Buddhist Mongolia.

May all beings find the Teachings.

May all beings be well and happy.

The writers and editors of this radio script are John D. Hughes, Vince Cavuoto and Pennie White.

References

Buddhist Promotion Foundation (BUKKYO DENDO KYOKAI), The Teaching of Buddha , Toppan Printing Co. (S) Pte Ltd, Tokyo, 1991

Cassidy, Jude/ Shaver, Philip R., Handbook of Attachment, The Guilford Press, New York, N.Y., 1999

Dubrow, Heathert Genre, The Critical Idiom Methuen & Co London 1982

Handali, Bruno, Editor, One Dust Particle Swallows Heaven and Earth- The Teachings of Dharma Master Ji Kwang Dae Poep Sa Nim, DHARMA SAH INTERNATIONAL, Brussels, 1990

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.)

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".

For more information, contact the Centre or better still, come and visit us.

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