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'THE BUDDHIST HOUR' RADIO BROADCAST
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KNOX FM 87.6 Sundays 11:00am to 12:00pm |
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KNOXFM RADIO BROADCAST for 30 JULY 2000
Today’s program is called: What good happenings can you see today?
Regular listeners will be aware that we have a lot of good things happening at our Centre.
Regularly we like to tell you about some of the good things that happen.
This week, the building inspector approved the progress to date on our new building, the Eastern Wing, but said that a lintel should be fitted over one of the interior doorways. In the building structure that was inspected there are over three hundred different pieces of wood all of which are required to meet the various specifications for joist, bearers, and so on.
Within the mind of the building inspector is undoubtedly thousands or even tens of thousands of pieces of information about what complies with the building regulations and what does not. His experience in building is so vast that this matrix of knowledge is not evident to an outsider who is not a trades person; but in a single glance this expert can sense when something does not comply with the building regulations.
This is an example of being able to handle a vast mandala of knowledge of complex information with ease. All expert trades persons possess such vast knowledges and if they were matched item for item compared to what some managers know, the trades person would be handling more ‘bits’ of knowledge than the manager.
Trades persons are not arrogant in what they know and share freely their knowledges with like-minded trades persons.
A white collar manager cannot go into his or her office and find one thing that is wrong in four thousand or so operations that are taking place in transactional processing of paper. But a trades person can look at a building and find one missing nail or bolt within one minute.
Yet many white collar managers think they are superior to trades persons in their mental attainment. When we look at the future lives that good trades persons come to we often find they may end up as senior professors at universities, whereas when we look at the future lives of some arrogant managers they are often working at the most menial task as unskilled laborers.
Similarly, a persons ability to talk about wholesome things does not ensure a good future if they do not practice what they talk about. Whereas a person who says nothing and is genuine in what they do will be better off in future lives.
The concept of white collar workers being superior persons to blue collar workers has no place in Buddha Dharma. A white collar worker or a blue collar worker can practise Buddha Dharma if they are teachable.
You probably have had contact with some trades persons - a motor mechanic, a plumber, an electrician, a carpenter, a builder, a washing machine or refrigerator repair person.
It is obvious that they have different interests. A few motor mechanics might race sports cars for a hobby. Others might have a motor boat. Others might restore vintage cars.
As you think about these different trades persons you become aware that there are various persons in the world that you know about. But there are others you do not know about but you plan to meet in the future.
Some persons are born healthy into wealthy families living in comfortable surrounds, have superior health care, high education, secure employment and vast opportunities.
The lucky ones, some say, are those born intelligent, with healthy and beautiful bodies.
We don’t believe in luck. But there are causes and effects.
What percentage of your good qualities have overridden your bad qualities?
To be born and to live in Australia means you have a greater percentage of good than bad.
Persons are the result of their past actions.
The law of Kamma is impersonal and operates irrespective of whether it is known, understood or believed.
Humans have been investigating these notions from the earliest recorded times.
Aristotle, a Greek philosopher who lived 2500 years ago, meditated on causes and effects.
Buddha Dhamma has existed continuously for some 2500 years and has reputedly produced many benefits for its practitioners in a harmonious way. It is also the fastest growing religion in Australia.
To gain insight into the Buddhist notion of the Law of Kamma you can investigate the law of causes and effects.
This is the notion that Kamma is made through volitional action and interaction with other people and sets the causes for future happiness or unhappiness, depending on the type of actions taken. Action refers to actions of the body, speech and mind.
Kamma is volitional action, and Vipaka, fruit or result, is its reaction. As Kamma may be good or bad, so may Vipaka, fruit, be good or bad.
The Statement of the Law of Kamma reads as follows:
I am the owner of my Kamma Heir to my Kamma Born of my Kamma Related to my Kamma Live with my Kamma Whatever Kamma I shall do - Whether good or evil, that shall be Inherited
I am the owner of my Kamma Heir to my Kamma Born of my Kamma Related to my Kamma Live with my Kamma Whatever Kamma I shall do - Whether good or evil, that shall be Inherited
I am the owner of my Kamma Heir to my Kamma Born of my Kamma Related to my Kamma Live with my Kamma Whatever Kamma I shall do - Whether good or evil, that shall be Inherited
Remember: No good deed can produce a bad result.
Clearly some of us may have the potential at any moment to change the course of our future Kamma.
We need to be positive in our thinking if we can.
At our Centre we help some persons who are ‘down on their luck’, and if they become stronger we teach them to make their own ‘luck’ through causes and effects.
Members at our Centre help themselves by keeping five precepts and making merit by helping others.
Members make some merit by helping around the Centre and more merit by helping persons outside the Centre.
This week one of our Members arranged for pieces of calligraphy to be placed on sandboards. The languages used for these calligraphys were Chinese, Sanskrit and English. These sandboards should last at least one hundred years.
This Member has had the opportunity to learn calligraphy this life because of the merit she made helping a Ch’an Master this life and in past lives. She helped by transporting the Teacher, grinding ink, providing paper and cleaning brushes.
The Founder of our Centre, John D. Hughes, made many past causes to achieve his vow to form an organisation having sufficient infrastructure to record and teach Buddha Dhamma as a living experience for many persons. This vow was made in former lives and affirmed on 5 May 1955.
Is there right knowledge that can help some persons?
The Buddha Canon, known as the Tipitaka in Pali, comprises of three collections of teachings. The first collection, the Vinaya Pitaka, is the book of discipline, containing the rules of conduct for the monks and nuns and the regulations governing the Sangha.
The second collection, the Sutta Pitaka, brings together the Buddha’s discourses spoken by him on various occasions during his 45 years of teaching.
The third collection is the Abhidhamma Pitaka which contains the Buddha’s ‘higher’ or ‘special’ doctrine.
The Abhidhamma is said to hold the essentials of the Buddha Dhamma without the need of conventional terminology.
It deals directly with those elements which constitute the exact nature of our existence, and all questions of a conventional nature are left aside.
This should not deter persons from studying the Abhidhamma however. Once begun, the Abhidhamma can lead us on to a better understanding of the practice of insight (vipassana).
A study of Abhidamma can be useful to us in coming to terms with the nature of our life and understanding it in the way of momentary events. It is made clear that life exists as moments only.
Through the study of Abhidhamma the moments of life are analysed into their respective factors of consciousness, mental factors and the objects of consciousness. Wholesome moments are distinguished from unwholesome moments in such a way that we can understand the difference between the two and thus enable us to see the difference between all the different moments of life - to know that the moment of seeing is different from the moment of hearing, that hearing is different from thinking about what we hear, that tasting is not the same moment as smelling, that even the taste is not the same as the tasting, and so on.
Th. Stcherbatsky in his book, Buddhist Logic Volume One, states, “All successful human action is (necessarily) preceded by right knowledge, therefore we are going to investigate it. By these words (Master) Dharmakirti defines the scope and the aim of the science to which his work is devoted. Human aims are either positive or negative, either something desirable or something undesirable. Purposive action consists in attaining the desirable and avoiding the undesirable.
Right cognition is successful cognition, that is to say, it is cognition followed by a successful action. Cognition which leads astray, which deceives the sentient beings in their expectations and desires, is error or wrong cognition. Error and doubt are the opposites of right knowledge”.
According to the Abhidhamma philosophy, there are two types of realities. One is the conventional and the other is ultimate reality. Conventional realities are made up of conventional modes of expressions like persons, living beings and whatever object making up that part of mental life which has not been analysed.
Abhidhamma philosophy maintains that the mode of being of these notions is essentially conceptual and they are not expressive of any inherent irreducible reality but rather mental constructions which we wrongly assume to be true.
Ultimate realities are discovered from correctly performed analysis of our experiences.
As one extracts oil from sesame seed, so one can extract the ultimate realities from the conventional realities. By examining the conventional realities with wisdom, we eventually come to perceive the ultimate realities which lay beyond our assumed constructs.
Only by means of wise or thorough attention to things (yoniso manasikara) one can see beyond the mental constructs and take the ultimate realities as one’s object of knowledge. One skill that is required to achieve this process is the power of observation and analysis.
The Buddha gave a Discourse of the Analysis of Offerings for persons to learn and practice.
The Buddha advised:
Whoever, moral in habit, gives to the poor in moral habit A gift rightfully acquired, the mind well pleased, firmly believing in the rich fruit of kamma- This is an offering purified by the giver.
(This is what we do when we forward money to the Bangladesh orphanage).
Whoever, poor in moral habit gives to those of moral habit A gift unrightfully acquired, the mind not pleased Not believing in the rich fruit of kamma- This is an offering purified by the recipient.
Whoever, poor in moral habit, gives to the poor in moral habit A gift unrightfully acquired, the mind not pleased, Not believing in the rich fruit of kamma- This is an offering purified by neither.
(So if a gangster gave a gift to another gangster there would be no good outcome).
Whoever, moral in habit, gives to those of moral habit, A gift rightfully acquired, the mind well pleased, firmly believing in the rich fruit of kamma- I assert this gift to be of abundant fruit.
Whoever without attachment, gives to those without attachment A gift rightfully acquired, the mind well pleased, firmly believing in the rich fruit of kamma- I assert this gift to be a gift abundant in gain.
When persons practising dana follow the Buddha's advice, the mind becomes clear and cognates the process of cause and effect made by the offering. If at any stage in the process the mind falters, doubt can arise and the mind goes to error.
The monk, Anuruddha, said to the Buddha, "Doubt has arisen in me; and because there was doubt, concentration fell away from me; when concentration falls away, the light-manifestation vanishes as well as the appearance of material shapes. So, I will act in such a way that doubt will not arise in me again."
“So I, Anuruddha, living diligent, ardent, self resolute, perceived the light-manifestation as well as the appearance of material shapes.
When, Anuruddha, there was developed in me the concentration that has initial and discursive thought, when there was developed the concentration that is without initial thought and has only discursive thought, when there was developed the concentration that is without initial thought and without discursive thought, and when there was developed the concentration that has rapture, and when there was developed the concentration that is without rapture, and there was developed the concentration that is accompanied by delight, and when there was developed the concentration that is accompanied by equanimity, then the knowledge and vision arose in me.”
Doubt is the nature of shifting the mind from object to object finding out what is true and getting fatigued in the attempt.
Doubt refers to a mental state in respect of eight things, the Buddha, The Teachings, The Order, The Precepts, The Before, The After, The Before and After and the law of Dependent Origination. It does not mean that skepticism is a bad thing. For in the Suttas the Buddha says, "you have raised a doubt where you should" or "you have raised a doubt where you should not". Dogmatism is not encouraged in Buddha Dhamma; for to hold "that one's view alone is right" (idam saccabhinivesa) until the person has obtained the supra mundane states is a tie that binds one to samsara (the world).
The Buddha said that things never arise from one (eka) cause, they are multi-factorial.
To date, persons cannot see that there are five or seven elements of the first cetasika, saddha (or confidence) as described in the Abhidhamma. In fact, overall, they cannot see that our kusula cetasikas (our wholesome minds) are not one "mind-stuff", but multi-factorial.
Until persons know for themselves the building blocks of confidence and how to generate them, he or she does not know, in the sense of Bhumi, what is needed for certainty that their confidence never fails them, because he or she neglected to assemble some of the five or seven elements to build saddha.
Then, if he or she has success in what they are trying to do and achieve it slowly, over many instances, he or she gains confidence in the Teacher's methods because of their experiences.
If persons can understand the complex process of five or seven elements in the cetasika of confidence and the building blocks of causes and effects that generates the cetasika saddha then he or she can see very clearly, how beings are building their worlds the wrong way.
Like spectrum analysis of white light, white light is not one eka.
Saddha is that nature in which there is self clarification in the spiritual object that should be believed. These objects are: the Teacher, the Teaching, the Order, Action (kamma), and its fruit (kamma vipaka). Confidence has four forms:
1. As agama saddha, it exists in those whose destiny has been declared by a Buddha (Niyata Vivarana),
2. As adhigama saddha, it is the state of confidence in those who have realised the four Noble Truths,
3. As okappana saddha, it is that which cannot be shaken by anything said to the contrary,
4. As pasada saddha, it is the clarity of the thought in that object. This confidence may exist with a weak wisdom when it is called muddhappasanna saddha. Confidence is a state not easy to come by. It is an extremely important attainment in getting higher lives.
The way in which each person develops confidence depends upon their personality type. Each person will develop confidence differently from the next person. Some persons are more inclined to develop confidence through faith while other persons develop confidence through analysis. It is not uncommon for some persons to learn through a combination of both, though with a strong natural bias toward one or the other.
Those persons who learn to develop confidence through faith, do not understand the means involved but follow the process due to their faithful nature. This method of developing confidence is slower and weaker than by analysis and takes many lifetimes. This method of learning has fewer risks than by the way of analysis.
The higher risk nature of developing confidence by analysis is offset by speed and strength when success is a result.
The analysis path is unsuitable for persons with weak discursive minds.
The analysis path is unsuitable for persons with strong minds who deny faith. One of our former members had a strong mind and kept many precepts (sila). This person was unable to develop confidence by analysis because of a strong disposition towards the denial of faith. Such a person, is not able to develop confidence by analysis or faith and misses their opportunity to practice Buddha Dhamma this life. Such persons are characterised by their minds beginning to seek denial of pain in their body and practicing not to keep their minds within the volume of their body. Such a person denies that they will get sickness, become old and die one day. Without this knowledge, a person is not able to develop confidence.
Other persons have faith in the Buddha Dhamma Teachings but do not understand that we are in a Dhamma-ending age and that a sense of urgency is needed to become established in the Buddha Dhamma. Some persons believe that faith alone is enough to get out of the suffering and that they do not need a Teacher to show them the way.
There are two errors that persons using faith can fall into.
One is to have faith with the mind inside and seek a soul or a God within.
Persons can fall into the delusion that they are a God or are an eternal soul, that is not subject to old age, sickness and death.
This is wrong view.
The other error is to have faith with the mind outside seeking an external God to worship.
The Buddha spoke about everything which is real. What he taught can be proved by our own experience.
Narratives and practices developed within a completely different time and space can also prove to have greater symbolic power than those defined by geography or what we call “the present” (bearing in mind the coexistence of time future and time past in time present, as T.S. Eliott wisely reminded us some years ago).
The whirligig of time is known as pleasant to a few artists, vagabonds, seers; and for these select few, when they bother to talk about it, their talk somehow seems to lift us almost into a heaven world.
Why this is is that such persons can maintain strong “traditions” without any static or nostalgic backwardness because they can live a full life open to transformation of their circumstances because they have the skill in means to override conscious and unconscious forms of resistance - towards homogenisation, towards devaluation, towards marginalising by those who fear difference. They escape what can be described as the “frog’s perspective” - a kind of double vision.
They are not alienated from the human race - they do not suffer decentering of their minds by any aspects of postmoderninity. These are the bodhisattvas who bless the human world because they can. Some of our Members have taken vows to follow this path.
May you be well and happy!
This script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Vincenzo Cavuoto, Evelin Halls, Vanessa Macleod, Lisa Nelson, Sam S. and Pennie White.
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
1. Bodhi, Bhikkhu (General Editor), The Abhidhammattha Sangaha (A Comprehensive Manual of Abhidhamma), Kandy, Sri Lanka.
2. Aggacitto Samanera, Venerable, The Importance of Keeping 5 Precepts, The Selangor Buddhist Association, Kuala Lumpur. 3. Stcherbatsky, F. Th., Buddhist Logic, Volume One, Dover Publications, New York, 1962.
4. Narada, The Buddha and His Teachings, Buddhist Missionary Society, Malaysia, 1988.
5. Bennett, T., Turner, D. & Volkerling, M. (Eds), Post-Colonial Formations (A Special Issue of Culture & Policy, Vol. 6), Griffith University, 1994.
For more information, contact the Centre or better still, come and visit us. |
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