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The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives 'THE BUDDHIST HOUR' RADIO BROADCAST
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KNOX FM 87.6 Sundays 11:00am to 12:00pm |
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BROADCAST JULY 16, 2000
Today’s program is entitled: Preservation of Scientific Thought in the Year of the Dragon.
Our Members are part of a science based Australian society. We think they ought to be able to understand science concepts so they understand why we need to spend more money at times.
As you can imagine, our Centre’s electric power usage increases as we add more computers and printers and more air conditioners and heaters for the comfort of Members.
Within the next month or so, we will reach the point where we need more power than can be delivered from the existing 100 amp. single phase wire.
One of our Members is a qualified electrician.
We left it to her to explain to ordinary Members what is needed to be done soon in this matter.
This week she sent an e-mail to all active Members explaining why we needed to get more electrical power onto our site for a new private bedroom and storeroom we are building.
Some Members cannot grasp why we must spend thousands of dollars on new wiring to get what we want.
After the new electrical upgrade to the capacity we require is installed, we estimate it may be 20 years or more before we need extra wired power.
So you can see our Members witness a very rare step in our Centre’s developmental needs.
We use events like this to be opportunistic in our education for some of our Members who have no scientific background of understanding the process of how we project the number of kilowatts of energy needed for our site works.
With such training, they then appreciate how decisions are made about the estimated electrical current needed for our systems requirements.
With the Annual General Meeting approaching next month we have been looking at our Members’ qualifications to match them for various positions.
It is clear we need more and more qualified researchers in this information age.
Analysing and presenting information using our protocols, speaking in a culturally appropriate manner and the ability to work within time and resource constraints is vital.
In the short term, we will continue to train Members to undertake research for various purposes within our Organisation.
One new opportunity for select Members to become involved in learning about science is being offered this year by our Teacher who will spend part of his time setting up a Geology Museum.
There is no beginning of ignorance caused by craving but, there can be an end to ignorance and ultimately the destruction of ignorance if the right techniques for training the minds are followed. But along the path we need to get the correct instructions that are presented step by step with higher and higher bases in logical untangling of certain propositions that are not clear.
The sequence of dependent arising has to be explored and one way to approach this is to explain the working of intentional action and a result. The operation of the Law of Intentional Action and a result involves time. They are not concurrent things- intentional action takes time to mature into result. There is the suggestion that the Law of Dependent Arising operates at two levels- as a structural principle, where time is not involved, and as a sequence involving time.
To encourage Members to analyse in a logical manner can be done by teaching Buddhist Logic but, this is a very lengthy study and is not suited to all temperaments. The study of science such as Chemistry as used in Geology is a much more attractive way for many persons to give themselves towards logical reasoning.
Our Teacher has proved this by teaching Geology in Technical Schools many years ago.
He has decided to let Members assist him classify his Geology collection and introduce them to the logic of physical and chemical testing from which can be deduced the name of any given specimen.
The vast amounts of time that have passed since some specimens were formed helps give a frame of reference needed to have a better understanding of the fact that time and four seasons can wear away even the largest mountain, the dullest mind or increase disorder. Furthermore, the examination of ancient fossils gives another dimension to how living beings can be born again and again and die again and again.
There is at times an intuitive feeling that we have had many past births as animals or shellfish and in an extremely rare case we may even view what was our body or our friend’s body in a fossil form. John D. Hughes, the Dhamma Teacher at 33 Brooking Street Upwey, is a graduate in chemistry and some years ago was fortunate enough to teach some geology through science in Victorian Technical Schools.
He organised a gemstone prospecting society at Ferntree Gully Technical School.
His collection goes back many years.
Before his 70th birthday in September this year he proposes to devote more quality time to his geology collection project for five main reasons:
As the collection becomes more ordered on an Internet site, John D. Hughes intends to write a paper about it to inspire others to undertake the study of science needed to take up this hobby.
He knows the time is ripe to systematise notes on the 4000 specimens in his collection.
To expedite John D. Hughes to do this, eight of his friends have indicated they have sufficient interest to help him with this project.
For OH & S reasons, John D. Hughes would not invite the general public to enter the laboratory space in the geology museum without supervision. The Dragon King altar will be housed in the entrance to the new building.
THE NECESSITY FOR SETTING UP SCIENCE BASED TEACHING FOR THE NEW GEOLOGICAL DATABASE IS EVIDENT.
We think the present direction of science in Australia could be more interesting. In 1999, the Council of Australian University Librarians warned that Australian libraries are at crisis point and in 1998 cancelled journal subscriptions worth $9 million and in 1999 a further $6 million worth would go. Sixty per cent of the cuts were in science, technology and medical journals threatening access to information critical to research. They conclude that unless university libraries have the capacity to support broadly based interdisciplinary research, they cannot ensure continuing scientific and technological innovation and sustainable national wealth creation. John D. Hughes’ Geological Museum is a small step to interest persons in science. Those interested Members who have helped John D. Hughes prepare the museum site to date have acquired an understanding of the primary levels of science display at the museum. Our well-established tradition suggests that the first display need not follow arguments in extension as might be expected of a well-referenced display. Be that as it may, some familarity with geology theory must be known.
The theory, if only ‘bare bones’ is enough to stay within a reasonable length, could make the work useful as a paper about managing research publications. Complex reasons for discard have not been listed but this PRO TEM illustrative explanation of 1st ORDER propositions vis a vis 3rd ORDER premises opens up understanding of the nontrivial nature of the projects. To help understand 1st order thought it may be conceived of as a narrow function. By giving them time, Members accelerate the rate of development of the catalogue. The resident museum curator (John D. Hughes) is well known to all Members. The GEOLOGY MUSEUM is run as a hobby for the owner for his pleasure.
John D. Hughes opened the Dragon King Shrine in its temporary location in the Geology Museum on Saturday 5 February 2000 @ 2 p.m.. In his opening speech he explained that seeing both yourself and the tasks you do in a new light is the most effective way of self-renewal. Peter Drucker tells the old story of a great clarinetist in an orchestra who was asked by the conductor to sit in the audience and listen to the orchestra play. For the first time, he heard music. After that, he wasn't just playing the clarinet expertly, he was making music. He was not doing anything differently, he was giving it new meaning. John D. Hughes expressed the hope that, by the end of his speech, the listeners would come to discover, each for himself or herself, some new meaning to the notion of how the Dragon King comes to help us if we wish to practice.
For most of us, the world of work appears to lack three things. These are: . lack of recognition or reward for the efforts, contributions and dedication; . poor communication because work-related information did not flow to helpers; and . poor standards of performance where individuals felt management did not monitor or value quality of work performance. Because of the lack of these three things, many persons look to us for a massive dose of self-renewal or, what Covey calls ‘sharpening the saw’. Most persons are aware enough to cognate that one of the quickest ways for self-renewal is to help for some time in a voluntary organisation. Our policy of confidentiality is so strong that we do not keep written case study records of the reasons Members or visitors have told us of their need to be here and the specific steps we prescribe to a given individual who comes here seeking a path for their self-renewal. Some of our Members who have undergone many of the self-renewal processes we teach, know how to live the rest of their mental lives within an organisational climate that is tuned like a guitar string, that is neither too tight nor too loose. Our approaches to teaching self-renewal prevents destructive lifestyles because, over time, our Members find the rich path called ‘moderate living’. After some time, individuals, each for herself or himself, discover the folly of looking for autonomy in their relations with others and, as a result, develop new daily systems of how to have what we may describe as ‘harmless fun’. This is not a simple decision path of making more progress towards autonomy. It is much more refined than that simple notion. We seek out and find a more formal vehicle within which we exercise greater autonomy (should this be considered desirable at the time) or exercise lesser autonomy when that is the wisdom decision. To reach this stage, our Centre teaches persons to become aware and adopt superior systems that can evaluate our decision-making powers of how we handle our time. Then sound decisions are made of how much time we incorporate into our life to negotiate the time we might choose to spend with persons we thought might be called ‘significant others’. We favor flatter structures to achieve morale through merit making to help others. But first we must be able to develop the words for the language of sanity. The texts say that one major way of being born into the Dragon world is to have been a Monk or a Nun. Hence, you can understand why the Chief Executive Officer of that realm (the Dragon King) is considered to be a teaching Bodhisattva. Within a section of the Dragon King realm is the most advanced teaching facility taking the form of a super Buddhist University. In that campus, the complete Perfection of Wisdom texts (millions of lines), as taught by the Buddha in his seventh rainy season about 2,500 years ago, are stored. Even today, some advanced yogi persons can visit this heavenly place and report back on the higher teachings stored there.
Over 1,000 years ago, the Buddhist scholar Nagarjuna sent his mind there and transcribed the shorter version of the Prajna Paramita texts which we have available for study in the human world. This major text has been translated into many languages and has about 120,000 lines. When we study we wish to achieve success at the lowest possible costs. As we are one of the best-equipped Australian organisations to deal with the study of the complexity of learning such things as the 60,000 Perfection of Wisdom texts, we hope to continue the development of information technology in this field of study. Because we need the ‘four Es’ (economy, effectiveness, efficiency and equity), we need the help of heavenly advisors who have developed these four things in their heaven worlds. Humans seem to imagine that heavens can supply an infinite amount of things forever. This is a wrong view. The resources of heavens have limits. One day, billions of years from now, the pavilion holding the Wisdom texts will collapse and they will be destroyed because all form is anicca (meaning no material form can stay intact and permanent). But, at present, these study fields ‘par excellence’ are intact. Every Tuesday evening we study the short version of the Perfection of Wisdom at our Centre. Naturally, this consumes a lot of our merit. To continue such things, we must make more merit directly related to the cause of existence of these texts. How do we do this? It is doubtful, first of all, whether there is any empirical research which will give us an objective answer to these questions. There has not been a large amount of research conducted in this area as yet, but, what is available is stimulating and suggestive. To report briefly, some oversimplification is necessary, but what we are about to say may give you the feeling that factual advances are being made here and we hope, after today, some more Members will study our records for themselves, if they have not already done so. Very briefly, since 1970, we have been doing offerings to the Dragon King at the Nobbies, Philip Island. When our Teacher John D. Hughes was in mainland China many years ago, he did offerings to the Dragon King at the Yellow River. At another time, when he was flying near Indonesia, he did offerings to the Dragon King who was flying to inspect an active volcano. During the last major bush fires in this area, the Dragon King came and flooded the area with water. These are fairly ordinary examples but the major force that revolutionised the worlds was the seven times that the Dragon King organised the locations of where the Prajna Paramita could be taught by Lord Buddha. This is amazing enough, but on top of this, the Dragon King arranged the preservation of the teachings taught at these places. Our Members have studied the commentaries of where these places are. We think this structuring of a suitable location amounts to the equivalent of a cluster of parental attitudes towards children, the ‘acceptant-democratic’, which is most growth-facilitating. Children of those parents who had warm and egalitarian attitudes showed an accelerated intellectual development (an increasing IQ), more originality, more emotional security and control, less excitability than children from other types of homes. According to Rogers (1967), though somewhat slow initially in social development, they were, by the time they reached school age, popular, friendly, and non-aggressive leaders. The Dragon King arranges teaching in the ‘acceptant-democratic’ type mode, not the ‘actively-rejectant’ mode. This means that the Perfection of Wisdom can only be taught in a certain type of field that we have managed to build as a cultural artifact at this Centre. It is expressed as our five styles.
These are: friendliness, practicality, professionalism, cultural adaptability and scholarship. These five styles are so important that they are listed on the front page of our brochure. What causes do we need to preserve the duration of teaching these texts so that they may stay in the world? The Dragon King is aware of the precise terminology used in Buddha's teaching such as the first list of words that are the names of the 24 wholesome states of mind (in Pali cetasikas) listed in the texts. It might be misleading to compare a melting-pot society such as Australia with demographically stable and ethnically homogeneous countries like Sweden and Japan. In many countries, the students attend school more days a year than in Australia. If by the age of 18, the average Japanese or South Korean student knows much more algebra and physics, it should come as no surprise. But there are other things known in these two countries that may surprise you - a strong knowledge of the protective power of the Dragon King. Since this is the Year of the Dragon, which was celebrated all over the world by millions of persons, it was appropriate earlier this year a Dragon Shrine was opened at our Centre. In future times, the fact we all worked so hard to create this Shrine will be remembered with affection. A special thank you to Julie O'Donnell, Leila Lamers, Brendan Hall and Philip Svensson. John D. Hughes concluded his speech by declaring the Dragon Shrine open and invited guests to take a walk through it.”
The proposed photographic addenda of the geology museum records. The customised database software catalogue runs on a PC7 with a Pentium chip. The conceptual plan specifies that each rock or mineral specimen listed in the catalogue will be photographed in color in back and front views. Some microscopic views will be included. These views and any other shots will be the photographic addenda to the database. These photographic addenda are to be readable on screen with the Museum catalogue.
Person interested in viewing specimens of the Geology Museum when the site is launched on the Internet can find out about the launch date and Internet address by listening to ‘The Buddhist Hour’ Knox FM 87.6 radio broadcast every Sunday at 11:00 a.m. and by Visiting the Geological Museum Information page on our most recent web site: www.bdcublessings.one.net.au The conceptual plan has examined the logistics of providing this photographic addenda feature. The conceptual solution takes the view that to provide this feature the TCO of ordinary cameras and film is too high. This is because conventional cameras output takes considerable time to develop to a state where it can be scanned into the system. Firstly, the time taken for the film to processed off-site and even after the developed film is on hand, it takes more time because of the scanning time needed to get the information on screen. The screen quality of the image arising from the scan of a conventional photograph is inferior to the image from a digital camera. The reason for this that all transformations needed in the first case introduce ‘noise’ so it is certain that some loss must occur in accordance with Shannon's information theory. A drum scanner can deliver high end resolution (effective 30 000 dpi) for photographs using a small file size compared with a flat bed scanner. However, drum scanners are relatively expensive ($20 000) at present. Delays in waiting for other photographs to be taken on a roll of film before processing, the time taken in transporting film to be processed, film processing costs and time taken to scanning time would combine to make high operating costs.
This week, a photograph of our teacher appeared in the local Leader newspaper the Free Press, dated Wednesday 12 July 2000. The Free Press article describes The Buddhist Discussion Centre as “IT aware”.
The article read that “Upwey’s Buddhist Discussion Centre is currently leading the way in terms of the number of Web sites it’s developed - two and counting.”
John D. Hughes, our teacher and founder of the BDC(U), was quoted saying, “I’ve just organised another web site in America and will have about another four up within the next two to three months.”
So, the community know the BDC(U) are very IT aware and online.
You can visit our web sites online at the following two Internet addresses. Our original web site can be found at: www.bdcu.org.au
Our most recent web site can be found at: www.bdcublessings.one.net.au
Our teacher’s web site can be found at: www.johnhughes.citysearch.com.au
Science has elaborated the logic of definition of things to a great extent. Scientific institutions define the standard units and measures with great precision. All measurements in science have to come back to measuring within the standard units.
Is Buddha Dhamma Scientific? Questions in Dharma are put for five reasons. 1. To throw light on what is not known: 2. To discuss what is known: 3. To clear up doubts: 4. To give assent; that is, to get the premises in an argument granted, or: 5. To give a starting point from which to set out the content of a statement.
In Buddha Dharma, the very strict definition is not elaborated in the same scientific manner. There is a substitution of ‘the method of the dictionary’ where precision of meaning is not expected, since nearly all synonyms (for example: big...like...large) do mutually overlap in meaning without coinciding with precision. The Buddha method is less rigid and lends itself better to relative difference in things. This means it can ‘lump together’ a number of approximate equivalents. Then the term in question is defined by such properties as the ‘aggregate’ possesses in common. A very important concept in Buddhist explanation is Matika. Matika can be viewed as table of subjects of all the questions which are asked within the right order of asking the questions. The development of science and the art of logic in India came later than the original codification of Buddha Dhamma. The principles of Western modern science arose in a very interesting way. Just as the chemical science seemed to be giving certainty about things in the world, by more and more accurate measurements with less and less error and more and more precision, the science of physics showed that there is a basic uncertainty about things. When we try to measure two things at once, such as mass and position, fundamental physics show there must be an uncertainty in one or the other of the values. So the Buddhist methods of Matika start to become important because they are saying that there is a certain order of operations of doing things which does not seem to require any clear method of mutual exclusion among concepts because we can say that ‘Dhamma’ is that which has the mark of bearing of its own nature or character or condition. These means Dhamma is without substratum. The notion of something being without substratum has yet to be discovered within Western ‘hard science’. Psychological terms such as ‘states of consciousness’ used by Western persons is about as close as the Western world can go at the moment (largely on the grounds of non-commital) with respect to any psychical substance. However psychology is not ‘hard science’.
Before we partly answer the question as to whether or not Buddha Dhamma is ‘scientific’, it would be best to define the word science. Before we answer that question it would be best to define the word science. Oxford Dictionary defines science as:
Science: 1. The state or fact of knowing; knowledge or cognizance of something specified or implied; also, knowledge (more or less extensive) as a personal attribute. 2. Knowledge acquired by study; acquaintance with or mastery of any department of learning. 3. A particular branch of knowledge or study; Of Buddha Dhamma, the Four Noble Truths certainly would qualify under this definition.
Suffering, the First Noble Truth is an experience that can be defined, experienced and measured.
The Second Noble Truth states that suffering has a natural cause, craving, which likewise can be defined, experienced and measured. Another attempt is made to explain suffering in terms of not a physical concept of myths.
Suffering is ended according to the Third Noble Truth not by relying on being, not by faith nor prayers but simply by removing its cause, this is axiomatic.
The Fourth Noble Truth, the Way to end suffering, once again it has nothing to do with metaphysics but depends on behaving in a specific way. And once again behavior is opened to testing. Buddha Dhamma dispenses with the concept of a Supreme God, as does science, and explains the origin and the workings of the universe using natural laws. All this certainly exhibits a scientific spirit. So if the Buddha's Way leads to true happiness, then follow that Way. So we could say that although Buddha Dhamma is not entirely scientific it certainly has a strong scientific overtone.
It is significant that Albert Einstein, one of the greatest scientist of the Twentieth Century, once said of Buddha Dhamma: “The religion of the future will be a cosmic religion, it should transcend a personable God and a void and theology covering both the natural and the spiritual, it should be based on a religious sense arising from an experience that all things natural and spiritual have a meaningful unity. Buddha Dhamma answers this description. If there is any religion that would cope with modern scientific needs it would be Buddha Dhamma.”
If you stay with the undisciplined energy that comes from your demerit of your stormy youthful play of uproar in your classrooms stressing your male and female cohorts in the negation of the validity of their thought bubbles signifying a contempt for the enduring strength of the best of everything grand from the efforts of the mature style of scholars; then we say you have nothing in your culture that is worth preserving.
With such nihilism, you have indeed wasted your golden life to sow the seeds for lifetimes of learning. So, start now to undo such childish ideals as you can now see there is something better offering in the logic of the Buddha Dhamma Middle Path.
May you learn soon.
The writers of today’s radio script are John D. Hughes, Vincenzo Cavuoto, Leanne Eames, Lisa Nelson, Pennie White and Evelin Halls.
Disclaimer:
As we, 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 an other 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 Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Bibliography
The Australian Newspaper Australian National Museum, Qualification, national competency Standards & Assessment Training Authority Guidelines, Create Australia, NSW, 1999. C.M.Chen Dragon King Sutra Stanzas Hughes J D. BDDR Vol 2, No 6, 1996 Leader Newspaper Free Press, Upwey, 12 July 2000. Mapatuna P The Law of Dependent Arising An Extended Analysis of the Second and the Third Noble Truths To be published BDDR Vol. 10, No 2, 2000
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