NAMO TASSA BHAGAVATO ARAHATO SAMMA SAMBUDDHASSA

The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

'THE BUDDHIST HOUR'

RADIO BROADCAST

KNOX FM 87.6

Sundays 11:00am to 12:00pm

BROADCAST 25 June 2000

The Right Livelihood Concerning Work

written by John D. Hughes, Vincenzo Cavuoto, Lisa Nelson, Julian Bamford and Evelin Halls

Today we are going to talk about the ideas of right livelihood concerning work.

We will give the facts that cause persons to run into big trouble when they practice unwise ways of earning an income. These facts about work are buried away somewhere in your past memories and are knowable. They make sense.

Work is something we all do as humans.

From time to time, we Buddhist followers must engage in joint work activities with other groups of persons. For example we work with the management of the radio station in their studio.

You might think if we say too much about work styles and do things with others we reduce our credibility. In general, this would be true but at times we choose to join with others who have different views on work. Some other religions differ from us in their precepts on work culture yet we can find some common ground for peace. This is a type of work.

For example, on Sunday 11 June our Teacher attended a peak collaborative and peace making event in Melbourne at 5.00pm (local time) titled the “Ceremony For Collaboration Among Religions.”

This coincided with a similar Ceremony led by Pope John Paul II in Rome.

The event was organised by the committees, The Interfaith Subcommittee Catholic Commission For Ecumenical And Interfaith Affairs and The Office For The Great Jubilee Of The Archdiocese Of Melbourne.

The Christian Community throughout the world celebrates two thousand years since the coming of Jesus.

In celebrating this great Jubilee, of which liberation and reconciliation constitute two of the major themes, the event arranges for the various religious traditions to gather respectfully to hear the ancient and venerable texts speak of peace.

The Archbishop of Melbourne, the Most Reverend George Pell, St.. Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Victoria, invited Spiritual Leaders, Members of Government, Mayors of Cities, Members of Institutes of Learning and Members of multicultural organisations to attend the ‘Ceremony For Collaboration Among Religions, held at St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Melbourne, Victoria.

This event demonstrated the recognition of the role community leaders have in promoting peace and understanding in our most diverse community and also in commemoration of the United Nations’ International Year of Peace.

Spiritual Leaders from many of the communities of Melbourne entered in a procession and took their place in the sanctuary of the Cathedral as a mark of respect for the role they play.

As a sign of mutual regard, the following were seated before the altar: Pandit Chintamani Datar (Hindu Priest), Venerable Santhindriya (Theravada), Venerable Phuoc Tan (Mahayana), Archbishop George Pell (Leader of Catholic church in Victoria), Rabbi John Levi (Jewish priest) and Shaikh Isse Abdo (Muslim priest).

The Ceremony began with a welcoming from Ms Joy Murphy, elder of the Wurundjeri tribe, the Aboriginal inhabitants of this land.

Hindu prayers for Unity were proclaimed by Pandit Chintamani Datar, Pandit Abhay and Mr Arvind Shrivastava in Sanskrit.

The Refuge Prayer and the Metta Sutta were proclaimed in Pali by Venerable Santhindriya.

The Sutra of the Heart of the Perfection of Wisdom was proclaimed in Chinese by the Venerable Phuoc Tan.

From the Jewish Prayer Book proclaimed in Hebrew by the Rabbi John Levi.

The Gospel of Mathew: The Beatitudes proclaimed in Greek by Archbishop Pell.

The hymn Veni Creator Spiritus was sung in Latin by the St. Patrick’s Cathedral Singers.

From the Holy Qur’an, surah 16 (The Bees): 90-97 proclaimed in Arabic by Shaikh Isse Abdo.

The Address was made by the Rev. Pam Kerr, Moderator, Uniting Church in Australia; Synod of Victoria; Chair, Heads of Churches; Former President, Victorian Council of Churches.

The Ceremony “The Intentions Concerning Peace” followed with each of the six religious Leaders making intentions for Peace and lighting a candle.

The intentions were:

For Peace in all who come to this land; Ms Vicki Walker (Coordinator of the Aboriginal Catholic Ministry) said “ May the guests in this land listen to and learn from the first peoples of the land so that we may all experience the peace of reconciliation, for the future of our children.”

For peace among nations; Pandit Chintamani Datar said “ God is one. Sages call it differently. All religions are different paths to the same eternity. God is within all of us. Let’s light these candles and find God within ourselves in order to start respecting each other’s feelings for the creation of everlasting peace in this world with everyone’s help, support and contribution.”

For peace between religions, Venerable Santhindriya said “ Do not what is evil. Do what is good. Keep your mind pure. This is the teaching of the Buddha.”

For peace between cultures; The Venerable Phuoc Tan said “ O let us live in joy, in love among those who hate! Among those who hate, let us live in love.”

For peace in the workplace; The Rabbi John Levi said “ Where there is ignorance, let there be knowledge; Where there is prejudice, let there be acceptance; Where there is fear, let there be trust; Where there is tyranny, let there be freedom; where there is poverty, let there be prosperity and health; where there is strife, let there be harmony and peace.”

For peace in families; Archbishop George Pell said “ That families may be blessed with peace, the fruit of respect and love between parents and children.”

For peace in the heart; Shaikh Isse Abdo said “ A despot whose subjects follow his way of life is the father of chaos. A just sovereign whose subjects follow his example is the father of harmony. It is a portion of spiritual flesh within the body that determines either peace or war. That is the heart!”

“ Let peace prevail! In all the world and in the heart” was chanted after each intention.

The Archbishop in his conclusion wished that the intentions made would bear fruit and that we would all work for peace in every domain of public and private life. All present said “ We have met in peace and we depart in peace”. The procession of religious Leaders then left the Cathedral.

During the ceremony, our Teacher John D. Hughes practiced on a personal level a flower mandala meditation on loving-kindness and gave blessed flowers to many of the religious leaders present at the end of the ceremony . This meant they would carry blessed flowers down the aisle as they left in procession after the ceremony. This is good for the minds of many persons in the audience.

This peak event celebrating Intentions Concerning Peace involving many religions is in line with our practice over many years of spreading goodwill with other religious organisations.

Actions for peace is part of the work religions ought to do on a regular basis.

A most peaceful state can be obtained from sober persons.

As Buddha Dhamma practitioners, we hold the precept of abstaining from drugs and intoxicants, unless they are medically presecribed. We make sure to maintain an intoxicant free environment at our Hall of Assembly.

If persons gather at certain social occasions where intoxicants are being served, Buddhist Monks or Nuns should not be brought into such an environment.

In a similar manner, we believe alcoholic drinks should be avoided in a work environment.

We appreciate that there is considerable money to be made for manufacturing and selling alcoholic drinks. For example, by much hard work, good quality control and clever marketing, Australian wines have achieved wide local and overseas acceptance.

Market demands are rising each year.

As a result, one of the most popular investments at the moment for some Australians is to plant suitable land with grapes suitable for wine making. Development and planting costs are about $35 000 per acre. After about three years, the grapes are mature enough for use in the manufacture of wine. Premium wine brings good prices. With tax deductions as a primary producer, the profit potential has been considerable.

Many investors find something alluring in the possibility of having their family name associated with a wine product. In many ways, the whole process is thought to be surrounded with a certain style.

Changing good food (grapes) to wine is not considered right livelihood by our Centre.

It is not the sort of investment we would seek.

In the 'Essential teachings of Zen Master Hakuin' translated by Norman Waddell it reads:

There is a rich family in eastern Shinano province. They amassed their great wealth over several generations, until their influence rivaled that of the provincial daimyo himself. Their residence is so spacious, the family so large, a bell is needed at meal times to call everyone together. Occasionally they receive visits from the great and powerful, but on the whole they live a quiet, comfortable, and unobtrusive life. No one even seemed to know what the family business was. Then, in recent years, a large number of large servants were added to the staff. They erected a row of water mills that can be heard grinding away day and night. A procession of rice carts can always be seen trundling in through the gates. They are ten times more prosperous than they were before. It is rumoured that they brew almost two hundred thousand litres of sake daily.

An old man living near by observed these developments. He said, "Mark my words, the prosperity of that house won't last much longer. What you see now are signs of the end approaching. When things deteriorate internally, the external aspect always tends to swell out like that. They may turn to selling rice for a time, or medicinal herbs, and try to save the situation. But you will see before long that they will be forced to put the family house for sale."

By examining current signs and tendencies in increasing the Australian grape harvest for wine in a systematic and rigorous manner, the history of events is seen to be foreshadowed with startling clarity and insight. It means it is likely more dull persons will be born in Australia or come to live in Australia drawn by the availability of more local wine, cheaply available.

Events are predictable because of present causes. The apparent decline of religion in Tibet is well published. This decline arose for past causes in history.

According to John Snelling, the world renowned Buddhist Scholar who died in 1991,

it had long been known in Britain that the Russians entertained grandiose aspirations to world dominance, something that they had perhaps inherited by reversion from their Mongolian conquerors.

During the eighteenth century, a rumour gained currency that Peter the Great of Russia dreamed such dreams and on his death bed in 1725 willed his successors to realise them. Some Russian Emperors appeared to take Peter's injunction seriously.

In 1801, the unstable Paul 1 dispatched 22 000 Cossacks to drive the British out of India, though after he was strangled in his own palace the force was recalled by his successors and so saved from almost certain disaster. Later, Alexander 1 and Napoleon hatched a scheme for an overland invasion.

During the rest of the nineteenth century, the rivalry of Britain and Russia in Asia settled down to move and countermove that became known as the Great Game. The imperial Russian troops advanced across the central Asian lands moving the frontiers of Russia ever closer to those of India. Later it became clear that Afghanistan would become the critical area. The British fought two costly wars attempting to establish their influence in Afghanistan to ensure that the Russians were kept out.

The Great Game was also played in Chinese Sinkiang (Xinjiang), and around the turn of century with the Manchu Chinese who claimed nominal sovereignty (suzerainty) in Tibet.

If the Russians could gain a foothold in Tibet, their armies could come down to India and even without invasion could stir up trouble in the Himalayan States causing the pinning down of large number of British troops allowing them to pursue ambitions elsewhere in the direction Constantinople.

One of the first things that Curzon did when he became Viceroy of India in January 1899 was to change British policy from "Patient waiting" to "Impatient hurry". Impatient with negotiations with China he attempted to open talks with the Dalai Lama. Since the Dalai Lama was more interested in Russia, he thought he had some sort of secret agreement that the Russians would protect Tibet in case of invasion.

After much wrangling Curzon decided to intervene by sending to Lhasa (the capital of Tibet) some British troops. Because of Tibetan invasion of Sikkim, Curzon put his troops under Colonel Francis Younghusband. Younghusband who clearly understood that his job was about frustrating Russia in Tibet rather than resolving border problems marched up the Chumbi Valley and set up camp at Tuna on the edge of the Tibetan plateau.

In spite of rumours that several hundred Cossacks had been sent to Tibet, no Russian arms or personnel were ever discovered. From the Tibetans viewpoint, the reason they debarred Westerners from their country, they explained, was to protect their religion.

The Tibetans stood no chance against the superior British fire power. Estimates vary but perhaps five to seven hundred were simply mowed down.

Since negotiations could not be made, they were given the official go ahead to advance on the capital, Lhasa. With British artillery pounding the walls, the Gurkhas and the Royal Fusiliers were successful.

By this time Russia was embroiled in a war with Japan and did not help the Tibetans. The Dalai Lama left Lhasa to avoid the danger of "his being forced to sign an agreement harmful to the long range of the interest of Tibet".

In the first dawn light, the Dalai Lama left Lhasa with eight companions and headed northwards on horseback.

It can be seen from this knowledge of history from the eighteenth century that the plot was repeated again in the nineteenth century with the Dalai Lama once again leaving his capital. The Dalai Lama chose to flee to Mongolia in 1904 as a result of past causes.

The Russians certainly gave his Holiness a warm welcome when he arrived in Urga.

One of the causes put forward for the downfall of Temples is the use of alcoholic drinks consumed on their premises. It appears that chang beer was used in some of the Tibetan Temples maybe on the spurious grounds that it gave them an apparency of warmth in the freezing cold. Another reason is that the Monks stopped doing much of the protective chanting of the Metta Sutta (Loving kindness) that guards places against enemies.

Change of work conditions of monks is normal over history. At earlier times, some monasteries worked hard at being like hospitals to treat sick persons. In times of war, such hospital Temples are left alone because they treated all wounded and sick troops. But Monasteries that do not provide this public service may be more vulnerable to attack and destruction.

Things build up little by little and signs of decay appear. Most persons only register some major change in state as it occurs. We see this in physical chemistry when we cool down water. As water cools (as you would expect) its volume contracts somewhat. But when water gets to 4 degrees Celsius it starts to expand and become less dense. By the time it gets to zero degrees Celsius and freezes, the density of the solid ice is lower than the density of the liquid water so the ice floats on the ice cold water.

If water had different properties and kept becoming more dense as it cooled down, ice would form from the bottom up of ponds and all fish and marine creatures would be frozen in solid ice. There are perfectly clear physical reasons why this happens but, until it is measured, there may be assumptions that the linear increase in density would continue through to the phase change to ice. Our assumptions of the linear nature of things are ill founded.

A lot of things happen just before a phase change occurs in the physical world, the world of matter. In the mental world, the world of mind when a lot of things happen they happen very fast it would appear. A person might appear to be rational in the morning and in a stable state of mind and yet in the afternoon could be totally devastated and approaching mental instability. Sometimes we find the after effects of mental causes take time to develop.

Wolcott Gibbs who had a reckless willingness to tackle any subject, if he knew anything about it or not, transformed himself into a writer and critic for the New Yorker even though he never went to College.

In one of his short humorous pieces called 'A man may be down', written sometime in the early 1930's, he tells a story about his friend Munson, who after a series of small mishaps gave up all alcohol except for beer. Wolcott Gibbs states that 'Beer .....maybe drunk by the bucket without inducing either gaiety or grace, but only a sort of gaseous stupefaction, very dismal to behold'. The subtext is that beer was the cultural drink of the working classes. The target audience of the New Yorker was the richer segment of USA who drank hard spirits or wine.

Gibbs maintains for the succeeding three months he followed this uninteresting beer experiment with the greatest care. He maintains the advantages have been negligible. Where once his friend roared dangerously through the streets, pursued by all the yelling imps in hell, or in the daylight crept along nervously, obsessed with calamity, he now drives surely and evenly, contemptuous of traffic.

The old Munson was outrageous at times - a liar and a bankrupt and the enemy of order. The old Munson never told a story the same way twice. Munson used to say that nothing ever happened to anybody that would make anecdote without at least a little embroidery.

He was hounded by his old friends - 'I hear your supposed to be funny' they shout, 'Say something funny'. The gift of rappartee left Munson the day he drank his last Martini.

Lately, there has been a troubled light in his eye. 'You know' he said, 'I have been living the life of a hunted animal'.

This story dialogue is probably based on a real event because this bed of neuroses follows from the past drinking causes. Wilcott Gibbs' story brings a laugh to many persons but underneath it is a very strong message that the clouds we gather when drunk do not vanish the minute we ease up. This change is in accordance with Buddha's Teachings of cause and effect because the drunk as actor is born into a laughing hell.

This is called the Law of Kamma.

Humour is useful in some ways and has often been used to drive a message home.

Doctor Johnson once commented on the proposition that 'Whoever rules o'er freemen should himself be free' by proposing the analogical 'Who drives fat oxen should himself be fat'.

In some post-Darwinian opinion, the law of nature might be read as over produce and kill.

It is said of Aldous Huxley, the novelist on writers, that he had no idea how persons communicated or cooperated. He never understood either communism or capitalism or Gandhi-ism, and more surprisingly than that he never understood how or why his fellow citizens were different from the Japanese. Far from being an 'ideas man', he was marked by a 'curious kind of silliness' according to T.A. Shippey (1983).

This led him to the creation of Gurus and the promotion of wildly implausible hypotheses.

Certainly, his remarks on the difference between mescaline and soma exposed the real shabbiness of the many critical works that have tried to equate them.

The drug culture was aided by Huxley's written experiences because he misinterpreted the positive side of his blindness that arose from an intense awareness of the variety of subjective perceptions, a variety which argued that all of them were wrong.

This is another form of intoxication that any critical reader of Buddha's Teaching can discern is unwise each for himself or herself.

The wise avoid mescalin or LSD hallucinogenic substances because what you get is of no use because it lacks awareness of the true sort.

True awareness is not an uncontrolled flow of wordplay, intricate parallels, and arcane and bizarre knowledge as was exploited by James Joyce.

Certain types of writing may be right livelihood.

The week before last 'Bloomsbury Day' celebrations were held in many places in Australia to remember James Joyce.

Some persons are particularly insensitive to Joyce's humour and only an intelligent and resourceful reader can match himself or herself with Ulysses.

Ulysses is not a novel in the traditional sense and it is arguable that linguistic play was Joyce's real aim.

The therapist Shelton Brivic suggests a parallel between Joyce's interior monologue and Freud's use of free association. The confusion between Joyce as a patient and as a colleague brings him to the conclusion that Joyce suffered from 'compulsion neuroses'.

If compulsive wordplay was nothing but symptoms, we must try to resist the reduction of writing to no more than a neurotic symptom.

Shelton Brivic himself had no desire to do this, and clearly admires Joyce as an artist though 'it is not always easy to measure Joyce's awareness of the psychological material he presents.

With Buddha Dhamma writings, whole new orders of knowledges appear because the Buddha was fully awake, was not taking drugs, was not in anyway distorted in outlook.

So when Buddha writes about right livelihood, and its outcomes, he has a very large database to examine because of his mental power to see things with great clarity, free of personality bias. He saw his many different occupations in his past lives and the resultants in later lives.

By this way, he knew what was beneficial, short and long TERM.

We must try to broaden our view about right livelihood and the supporting factors likely to be of use for us. Last Sunday, ten Members were led by a professional builder who is also a Member to put 47 concrete stumps in position in pre dug holes.

Because of the builder's skill in organisation of work and the availability of premixed concrete, the process was completed in two hours. In earlier work, we were much slower.

Right livelihood comprises numerous work skills, which persons have to develop each for himself and herself. Perseverance is not taught in Secondary schools, it is a skill that is acquired by a constant application of one's own will to do.

Practical science research has developed fine detail of how things operate in small molecular steps.

Wines are fermented from the sugars in fruits or berries (most commonly grapes) from various plants or their saps, from honey, and even from milk.

Natural or unfortified wines (the so called dry wines, such as burgundy, Chianti, sauterne) usually contain between 8 and 12% alcohol, although most U.S. varieties have a somewhat higher content, ranging from 12-14%.

Vermouths and aperitif wines usually contain 18% and desert, sweet, and cocktail wines (such as sherry, port and muscatel) contain 20-21%.

These percentages are by volume i.e., the proportion of alcohol in the fluid volume of an average American beer is 4.5%.

Since fermentation yields only 14% alcohol, the extra strength of fortified wines come from the addition of alcohol or brandy.

Science shows that the body begins to dispose of alcohol immediately after it has been absorbed. An insignificantly small proportion is exhaled through the lungs, and a tiny amount is excreted in sweat. A small proportion is secreted by the kidneys and would be accumulated and retained in the bladder until eliminated in the urine. Only between two and ten percent of the alcohol is eliminated by these means. The remainder, 90% or more of the absorbed alcohol, is disposed of by metabolic processes, mainly in the liver. Other organs are capable of metabolising only small amounts of alcohol. Liver damage occurs in heavy drinkers - what was called Bright's disease.

As absorbed the alcohol is passed to the liver by the circulating blood, it is acted upon by ADH (Alcohol De-Hydrogenase) , a zinc-containing enzyme found chiefly in the liver cells. The alcohol molecule is converted by this action to acetaldehyde, itself a highly toxic substance. It can be smelt on the breath of drunks. But this is immediately acted upon by another enzyme, aldehyde dehydrogenase, and converted to acetate, most of which enters the blood stream and is ultimately oxidised to carbon dioxide and water.

People ordinarily drink alcohol to obtain affects that they have been taught to expect. Small amounts are drunk in the expectation of reducing feelings of tension, relieving feelings of anxiety, and conversely, obtaining feelings of gaiety and exhilaration.

Some religious traditions are somewhat ambivalent regarding the social drinking, while others, like Islam, expressly prohibit any alcohol consumption as a form of religious control.

The Buddhist precept of no intoxicants has nothing to do with any form of religious control imposed on persons from a God or other external agencies. Its purpose is rather to avoid the harmful effects alcohol or other intoxicants have on the mind and body.

These harmful effects consist of not only deterioration of the body and mind in this life, but also rebirths in woeful states in future lifetimes. The breaking of the precept of no intoxicants leads to the breaking of other precepts because a drunken clouded mind is unable to distinguish what actions keep a person on the path and what actions will cause the practitioner to fall off the path.

Drunks are prohibited from driving motor vehicles and can lose their driver's license. The loss of the driver's license can affect their work. Many occupations today make use of a car to keep appointments in different places. Public transport is not suitable for modern calling or clients.

The correct practice of Buddha Dharma will ensure the proceeding rebirth will be fortunate and eventually, the Practitioner will realize the unborn nature of Mind (Nirvana) and cease to be driven to further unfavourable rebirths.

Keeping one's life free from alcohol and intoxicants is an essential component of work culture today.

A broader understanding of the Buddhist work ethic involves the notion of keeping the mind free from any influence that may dull the mind. For example if pupils watch up to 10 hours a day television it is most likely that such a medium ceases to educate them and is being used as an escape from their unsteady reality.

Apart from work study education, all of the popular pastimes persons use to fill in their surplus time are to a large extent seeking escape from their boredom by being busy for business sake. Work for work's sake cannot be justified.

Logically, a changing thing cannot exist and rise and fall from its own process.

There must be a change agent. The rising must be different to the falling.

Why? Because there must be a difference between cause and effect. It is a law of nature.

If the cause and effect were the same, it would mean nothing happened over the time interval between cause and effect. This would mean things could be preserved over time from a single cause. This means eternalism would be possible and this is not true.

In Buddhist logic, there is a second logical objection to this false script and that is that a single (eka) something (a cause) could reproduce itself as a result (an outcome).

This is not possible, as Mendel's law shows for genetic breeding.

Eka (a single cause) is not true in breeding.

Nothing can be reproduced from a single cause in genetics - it is a hybrid of multiple factors that cause things to change.

We now make two separate section's of outcomes - material and mind. In the Dhammadayada Sutta the Buddha talked about those who inherit his Teaching and not his material and vice versa.

He had three objections for novice Monks for three things in their work.

They only inherited the material of the food offered to the Sangha.

The first objection was they did not train to work in seclusion.

The second objection was they would not dispel living in abundance and lethargy.

The third objection was they did not yoke themselves to work in seclusion.

The elder Monks were praised for doing these three things.

The elder Monks inherited the material, the food but also inherited the teachings because they attended to three work conditions.

To do something new to develop your employment prospects, like this practice, you must grant yourself your own leisure time free of distractions to examine your various minds.

If you wear out yourself with drugs or alcohol, you need to sleep it off and your leisure time is ruined for useful work.

This type of sleep experienced on poor minds most likely causes negative effects for learning in the future.

We posit that the type of sleep a sober person has is of a different character to that of a drunken sleep.

Peaceful sleep is a part of Buddha Dhamma training.

We do not want Members to have a sleep debt.

Suppose you wanted to attend one of our five-day Bhavana courses, how would you prepare yourself?

If you went to an all-night disco, you would not expect to have peaceful sleep because there is an excitement overrun on your minds. Then you would take too long to learn and waste time.

If you sailed in the Sydney-Hobart yacht race through dangerous seas, you would not have peaceful sleep just after the event. If you came to our five-day course after that event you would take too long to get your land legs.

If you do an analysis of what is what for this purpose, you will see the nature of why the three things mentioned for Monks are praised by Buddha.

You do not have to become a Monk or a Nun to get these conditions, you can create them if you try over four or five days in your own dwelling space.

Obtaining the right approach before you come to our Centre with quality time is vital.

At times, parallels can be drawn between our training and other events in the commercial world.

There is a system to help writers produce more copy.

Barbara Turner-Vesselago comes to Australia once a year from Canada . The assembled workshop has only one aim to write 15 pages on new material per day. The new material had to be ready by afternoon. The tutor did not read the pages. To ensure the production there was no time for sight-seeing, coffee, no time to go back and revise and everyone had to work in silence.

After a few days of this stillness, persons complain how hard it is to meet this production deadline because they found it hard to get started, they want to revise it, they want to talk because they do not want to achieve their goal. After a few more days, persons found that they noticed certain things they had not noticed before because their awareness had increased.

In a suitable location, under controlled conditions, with discipline, solitude and attending to the task at hand awareness will always increase.

In Bhavana practice as we work we teach it, the slackness of the mind will be vividly seen, the time wasting tricks of walking around, of idle talking and drinking coffee will be exposed. The ability to be confident that this is the best way to learn things will become known each for himself or herself when these three conditions are followed.

We set up the suitable conditions for Members to learn in safety.

Cultural laziness inherited from one's parents or grandparents work culture will be vividly seen as being stupid and why persons waste their whole work life becomes evident. So the question is who do you want to join? The time wasters of this world, who produce nothing good at work and who know nothing at death, or productive people like us who work to help many persons at home and abroad. Our Members make a difference because they practice at work what they have learnt.

Our Members lend a helping hand to you as part of their practice if you choose to join us.

We are a self help group.

Last Sunday, ten Members put in 47 cement stumps for our Centre's new Eastern Wing Bedroom. This shows the level of work production our Centre has the capacity to turn over when the Members will to do is predominant and combined with training in skillful time management. Such actual work experiences give many true insights.

Any charitable organisation that wishes to improve its productivity needs to recognise that cultural laziness of its members has to be recognised and eliminated before it becomes too great an obstacle, preventing the development of the charitable work of the organisation itself.

This cultural inheritance of charitable work values is derived from a period in history when persons had a different appreciation of time and what could be done with time to make life better and richer.

The History of charitable work values is taught on our five-day courses to make our Members employable. They value their time.

The major work value some learn is this precept of no intoxicants.

The good jobs in the information age go to sober persons.

To develop this motive to stay sober it is necessary to increase the recognition of our indebtedness to the other sober sentient beings for the kindness they have shown over many lives. Having always relied on other sober sentient beings, who in past lives granted us our body, name, livelihood and sober reputation; this act of being sober should be remembered with gratitude.

At Savatthi, Venerable Ananda was always compassionate to the destitute children. He sometimes brought up some of them in the Monastery, inspite of inconvenience, he never missed out in rearing them in the Monastic compound. Once in a while, he looked at a pale and feeble boy begging in the street. By a small torn cloth he covered the lower portion of his body and by a pot he begged his food. It seemed that he was the son of a beggar.

He had lost his parents, relatives and all. There was none to look after him. Having no other alternative he arrived at Savatthi for his work. For appeasing hunger he took a pot in his hands and started begging. Savatthi at that time was a populous and prosperous city of India.

When the boy came nearer to the Venerable Ananda, the Venerable Ananda said to him, 'Would you like to be ordained?'. The boy replied, 'Yes Venerable Sir, but what will you offer me for this ordination?'. Venerable Ananda took him to the Jeta Monastery where he took a bath, got some food and was given new clothes to wear. He was very happy. One day, Venerable Ananda initiated his ordination and instructed him in five objects of meditation to practice all day long.

He kept his torn beggars clothes hanging in a branch of a tree. He looked at them whenever he passed by the tree. A Few months after his ordination, his health improved. He grew into a lovely young boy. At the age of twenty, he obtained the Higher Ordination and became a fully fledged Monk and was named Pilotika.

Once Monk Pilotika thought that he would not continue his holy life because he did not like the food given out by the faithful. He thought it would be better to return back to the home life. When this thought appeared in his mind he went to visit his torn clothing which was then waving by the wind. He saw that the clothes were more worthless than before and a picture of his earlier life cleared his mind. His eyes were then full of tears. He thought to himself, 'I should not be heedless'. Taking a lesson he returned to Jeta Monastery. Three times he thought to discontinue his holy life and three times he visited his torn clothing Every time he received some lessons of how miserable could be the worldly life.

Some Monks, seeing Pilotika's frequent visits to the tree said, 'Why do you visit the tree over and over?'. Pilotika replied, 'Venerable Sirs, there is my life god, when he calls me, I go there to see him'.

The third time of his visit to the torn cloth which had turned to be completely putrid, it had given him an idea of impermanence to all objects. He took this as an object of meditation and within a short time he realized that all compounded things are subject to change and decay.

Thus, he made himself passionless and wisdom appeared in his serene mind. He became a pure and free man from all bondages.

Some Monks took Pilotika to the Buddha and complained against him that he declared himself to have had accomplished his duty.

The Buddha in a verse admonished the Monks: 'Rarely is Found in this world any one who restrained by modesty, avoids reproach as a thoroughbred horse the whip. The horse when whipped, is quickly run'. So as you all be heedful, ever diligent in Morality, Concentration and Wisdom through which you will be able to overcome all suffering in this life.

Indeed the basis of the Buddhist Noble Eightfold Path is moral work discipline which gives rise to consistent and unstrained wholesome moral action. It is embodied in Right Speech, Right Action and Right Livelihood. It is the development of these work practices that matter.

Right Livelihood (samma ajiva) does not corrupt wholesome minds and is conducive to practice.

What main education is needed to produce persons having pliability of minds suitable for modern work?

As work technology models based on ideas globalise the underpinning culture of the ideas spread with the technology. Please accept our view that there is no intention to disparage the motives or intellect of persons working in these fields.

It is outside the subject matter scope of this talk today to present the grounds for explaining the "newer" models of information education.

But confusion does exist on what model is best in some places.

University writings are appearing to suggest evidence can be found that, in one faculty, topics on work encourage a methodology based on elements of strong nihilism while in another faculty the methodology favours elements of strong eternalism models.

Pragmatism does not ask for consistency with too much wisdom.

In human birth we have to earn, support our families if we have any, fulfill our commitments, obligations and duties. So we must know what to do. There are so many ways, so many methods for us to earn money. The Buddha has never introduced any religious law. Please remember this. If we observe religious principle as a law, you develop only fear, but not understanding. That is why he never introduced any religious law or religious punishment apart from the Vinaya. Dealing with living beings for slaughtering, liquor, dangerous weapons, poisons and human slavery is not wise. You know some people kidnap girls and boys in some countries and go and sell them into slavery.

The Buddha says these things are not respectable things for human beings to do.

Some countries have poverty. Our charitable work helps them.

Bangladesh, a land situated on the embankment of the Bay of Bengal, achieved its independence about 30 years ago through nine months' of armed struggle. After having their geographical freedom, the people of Bangladesh have been struggling hard to be self-independent economically. But, unfortunately, every year natural disasters like cyclones, tidal waves bores, hurricanes, typhoons, storms, tornadoes, heavy rains, floods, severe heat cause extensive damage to its economy and to the normal livelihood of the people.

As a result, the growing insolvency is unable to solve numerous problems of the country and of its people. There are 68,000 villages in the 5,400 square miles area of Bangladesh and eighty five percent of the total population live in these villages.

The economy of Bangladesh is thus basically dependent on village-based agriculture. But the per square mile density of population is so thick that, in comparison to the population, the total land area is much less. Moreover, because of growing poverty the overall conditions of these villages are miserable to such an extent that it needs no description. So it is now emphasised - understood that if Bangladesh is to be developed and self-dependent, its 68,000 villages must be developed.

Aburkhil is also one of those villages in Bangladesh having a rich heritage and bestowed with an attractive scenario of fields, trees, and the murmuring sound of the ancient river Halda.

Most of the inhabitants of Aburkhil are Buddhists and it is the largest Buddhist village in Bangladesh. In addition to Buddhists, there are also Muslims, Hindus and Christians living side by side in peace and harmony for a long time. The people and the jubilant youths of Aburkhil made remarkable historic contributions, participating directly and actively in the liberation war of Bangladesh. But unfortunately, the economic conditions of the village and its people could not be improved as expected.

We help such villages as we can with ideas for a suitable work culture.

In an ideal world, we might say there is a need to change the format of the content matter of television news, and this may be done if other commercial material were available.

But chartiable funding is not available to prepare such material for such dreams of ideal worlds.

We are self-funding and work step by step for our media ideal. Perhaps you can help us?

We hope to give practitioners in the 21st Century a method of finding and marketing an alternative format of television news on our web site.

We are making progress in the real world by training two writing teams for the solid work skills needed for preparing weekly radio broadcasts.

We made progress by launching this multimedia web site this week, www.bdcublessings.one.net.au. This site will carry our radio scripts starting this week.

As Acharn Tate has noted in his Autobiography, "if one wants to go to any particular place or region -

One should know their language;

One should know their customs and traditions; and

One should know about their livelihood."

So when we write about overseas events our Teacher and Members has been there, are concerned with proper social discourse and communication with people. However, the lack of language translations alone makes the other two points almost moot.

Fortunately, our Teacher has access to good translators.

The Buddha himself holds aloof from "...wrong livelihood, for he meant that low arts, such as these:-

Palmistry - prophesying long life, prosperity, &c. (or the reverse), from marks on a child's hands, feet...

Prognostication by interpreting dreams;

Drawing blood from one's right knee as a sacrifice to the gods;

Snake charming;

Giving charms to ward off arrows" or,

"Knowledge of the signs of good or bad qualities in the following things and of the marks in them denoting the health or luck of their owners:-

to wit, staves, garments, swords...other weapons...slaves...horses...fowls...tortoises, and other animals..." or,

"...soothsaying, to the effect that the chiefs will march out...The enemies' chiefs will attack, and ours will retreat...there be victory on this side, defeat on that..." or,

...foretelling-

There will be an eclipse of the moon...

There will be an earth quake...

There will be rising and setting, clearness and dimness of the sun or of the moon or of the stars..." or,

"Foretelling an abundant rainfall...a good harvest...a pestilence...

Summing up large totals,

Composing ballads, poetizing, casuistry, sophistry..." or,

"Arranging a lucky day for marriages...

Fixing a lucky time for the expenditure of money...

Using charms...Incantations...Obtaining oracular answers...

The worship of the Sun...

Bringing forth flames from one's mouth." or,

"Vowing gifts to a god if a certain benefit be granted...

Causing virility...

Ceremonial bathings...offering sacrifices...

Practicing as an oculist...surgeon...doctor for children...

Administering herbal roots and drugs."

By NOT doing these things, the Buddha could put the full force of his minds onto his great work - teaching the full Dhamma.

Right livelihood brings the good life that allows a person to have time to study many subjects of interest and access the Dharma.

So since it is possible to attain this good life does not it follow that a person should adjust their livelihood and their work to follow the bare bones of the outline given today.

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Good luck.

Thank you very much.

May You Be Well And Happy

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