The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

 

The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Script 252
Sunday 24 November 2002

Glossary

Vihara: Buddhist Temple

Dharani: The root of which is dhr, “to hold” or “to convey”, ordinarily translated by the Chinese tsung- ch’ih, “general holder”, or neng-ch’ih, “that which holds”. A Dharani is considered as holding magical power in it or bearing deep meaning. Dharani mostly consist of invocations and exclamations to frighten away the evil spirits.

Maintain: Practise habitually (a good, bad, etc., action); observe (a rule, a custom). Have ground for sustaining (an action at law). Go on with, continue, persevere in (an undertaking); go on with the use of (something).

Sustain: Support the efforts, conduct, or cause of (a person); support (a cause or course of action). Support the argument, maintain. Support as valid, correct, or just. Be adequate as a ground or basis for; substantiate, corroborate. Keep (a person, the mind, spirit, etc.) from failing or giving away. Provide for the upkeep of (an institution, estate, etc.)

This script is entitled:
The importance of maintaining sustainable Temples


The Buddha warned of 32 things not suitable to be discussed in Temple grounds.

We take care when we talk at our Temple, to not slander others, to not lie and to avoid idle, frivolous chatter and not to speak of these unsuitable topics. But at times it is necessary to talk about some of the topics the Buddha warned about, such as the weather, because we must stay aware of weather conditions in order to be prepared to prevent and fight fires. This is an Occupational Health and Safety issue in our Country.

The task of building and maintaining Temples (Vihara) belongs to the laity.

In the Australian worldly experience, the absence of suitable viharas has meant that at times, some Monks and Nuns occupied themselves with overseeing construction techniques.

Because of clever western-world marketing, there is a perception among the laity that the size and quality of a dwelling, reflects the moral worth of a person or organisation.

'Bigger is better' was well developed by mass advertising in a European consumer society over the last two centuries.

Each nation state built higher, larger buildings to house commercial offices or government services.

For this reason, when a question of the size of any building is considered from this Western cultural frame of reference, there is a tendency to go to extremes.

It is not enough to build a small functional temple for some wealthy western persons, they may incline to build a bigger or most lavish place.

One Asian Master who is building a billion-dollar Temple in Victoria, Australia, told our Teacher it was unlikely wealthy persons in his country would feel comfortable building a small Temple.

Also, work has commenced on a very large Tibetan Stupa and Monastery complex in Victoria, Australia.

The conditioning of persons' minds is so nearly complete, that there is no hesitancy in choice of the desirability of having as many rooms as possible within a given structure, regardless of cost outlay.

The belief system is so strong that a person proposing fewer rooms within a given site structure would be considered as lacking judgement.

In some locale Central business development projects for private residential accommodation, 40 storey buildings are proposed to cover the high cost of land.

We incline to the view that it is not a matter of the number of rooms, but of right sizing to get the optimum use from a structure.

Right sizing notions are entering the business spectrum of global culture at present, so, it can be imagined that the 21st Century will bring better resolution of dimensions and locations to fit the practice of lower human traffic density, planned ahead of other construction issues.

The role of technology may influence the sizing of future Temples used for teaching Buddha Dhamma.

Monk and Nun training in a given Temple could be from a central location via Internet systems. The Sri Lankan government has agreed to become a large service provider for such services.

A portion of each future Temple will be equipped with a work-station of considerable power to get uniform policies.

Now the cost of computing is lowering, and Viharas can communicate with one another with ease, it may be that Monks and Nuns may actually do less travel and, therefore, do not suffer from disturbances associated with cultural shock in a different Vihara.

Teachings in real time from great Masters are planned to become commonplace because of multimedia technology becoming more and more affordable.

It might be thought that the strength and afford-ability of technology will produce some remarkable changes in the influence of larger Temples.

But the contrary may become true as a small Temple can have the same capability as a large Temple to service persons reading from the Internet.

For example, our modest Temple has a more flourishing output in written Buddha Dhamma than some larger Temples.

We obtain contributions from pundits in many countries.

It may be that superior Monks and Nuns prefer the free publication atmosphere of our modest Temple, than the strict copyright conditions imposed by some larger organisations.

They would certainly have longer life in such a suitable free Dhamma Dana environment and may live to be 120 to 140 years old or more as a result than if they did world tours to promote a copyrighted book of Teachings.

John D. Hughes remembers with affection the suitability of simpler Vihara constructions in Bangladesh villages with superior Monks in attendance.

These Monks were trained in the Burmese traditions of practice and run their Viharas accordingly. Within one such Temple’s grounds, an ancient Bodhi tree stands and individual stupas hold the relics of four generations of Teachers in their tradition.

For archaeological research it is likely that there must have been a series of Viharas in that same location going back to the 12th Century.

In Bangladesh some years ago, the only large dish connecting to Internet was destroyed by terrorists.

When the operating costs of this small suitable Vihara in Bangladesh are compared to the operating costs of some large establishments built in Western countries, the natural advantage of the Bangladesh Vihara becomes evident, provided terrorists do not oppose new technology and can be contained.

There are wise things that are done at our Centre to preserve the teaching time.

Our Founder, John D. Hughes, has written a specific dharani for protecting the development of Viharas (Buddhist Temples). It was given as a gift to a great Chinese Master in Taiwan.

As explained by Dr Daisetz Teitaro Suzuki, “Dharani, the root of which is dhr, “to hold” or “to convey”, is ordinarily translated by the Chinese tsung- ch’ih, “general holder”, or neng-ch’ih, “that which holds”.

A Dharani is considered as holding magical power in it or bearing deep meaning. When it is pronounced, whatever evil spirits there are ready to interfere with the spiritual effect of a ritual, are kept away from it... They (Dharanis) mostly consist of invocations and exclamations. The invocation is an appeal to the higher powers, and the exclamation is to frighten away the evil spirits. That the practical result of these utterances is not to be judged objectively goes without saying”.

Our Teacher recommends that the two forms of the Dharani be placed in the Temple, one in the West facing in an Easterly direction and the other in the East facing in a Westerly direction.

The Dharani could be translated into English to read:

Before the full moon wanes,
rebuild the old Temple.

The ‘full moon’ at the highest level represents the awakened mind of Lord Buddha.

At a medium level, it represents the awakened mind of a range of noble persons from Arahant to Bodhisattva.

At a lower level, it represents the minds of ordinary persons or lay persons who are attempting to follow the Middle Path.

Ordinary persons maintain and service Buddhist Temples under the guidance of Noble persons. The Dana of ordinary persons sustains the Noble persons. The life expectancy of a Temple is related to the number of precepts (sila) held by the Abbots of the Temple.

In ancient times, at times, the Noble persons started by building small Temples. These Temples grew, by the efforts of lay persons, over centuries, to become large national treasures.

The word ‘rebuild’ suggests it is necessary to have the right awakening to the light of Dhamma and not fabricate some other religious practice under the guise of Buddha Dhamma.

All persons should strive to make sure that authentic Buddha Dhamma is practised. This Dharani destroys false doctrine.

It is the task of Teachers and Students to organise plans to look after the core business to maintain Temple safety and carry them out.

In this country, to maintain safety, the Australian building standards and Occupational Health & Safety regulations are required to be followed according to law. We need to be aware of these regulations and meet them.

It is important to develop a broad view of the rationale of why our plant is built as it is.

The cetasika saddha (confidence, trust, non-fogginess) is needed to build, maintain and refurbish Buddha Dhamma Temples. Without confidence, the place where the Buddha Dhamma is taught cannot remain as a suitable practice location.

The 18 characteristics of a suitable place for a Temple have been taught by Buddha:

It should not be
“A large abode, a new abode,
One dilapidated, one near a road,
One with a pond, or leaves or flowers,
Or fruits, or one that people seek:
In cities, among timber, fields,
Where people quarrel, in a port,
In border lands, on frontiers,
Unsuitableness, and no good friend -
These are the eighteen instances
A wise man needs to recognize
And give them full as wide a berth
As any footpad-hunted road.”

To help maintain a Temple's core business is every Member's business.

Over the years we have increased Members’ awareness about regulations in building, maintenance and refurbishment of our plant.

We will not go into debt to implement infrastructure core business. We wish to continue to increase our net worth of our infrastructure each year.

In the future, we will buy a large store house at a separate industrial local to prevent us building more storage area on our site and losing garden space.

We recommend that every Member participate to understand our infrastructure and help to raise funds for our next series of planned infrastructure stages both on-site and off-site.

Remember that Temples are places where the Buddha Dhamma is taught. It is a special place where persons can learn and practice Buddha Dhamma. Great merits can be achieved by maintaining suitable Temples.

We have a satta-deva-manussanam Temple for humans and Devas and Devatas.

When confidence in the Buddha Dhamma is evident, there will be the will to maintain our Temple in accordance with 18 characteristics taught by the Buddha and our Temple will remain a suitable location.

We have a perfect Temple – we wish to keep it that way.

We need persons to help us to maintain our Temple.

If you wish to help us in any of our Temple activities please contact our President, Mr Julian Bamford on 9754 3334 or 0400 267 330.

We need persons to do some digging.

May confidence in maintaining and helping a suitable Temple arise in you.

May suitable persons agree to help our Temple to continue.


The authors and editors of this script are John D. Hughes Dip.App.Chem. T.T.T.C. GDAIE, Anita M. Hughes, RN Div1, Evelin Halls, Dip.For.Lang.Corres.


References

Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, Vol. 8 No. 2

Brown, L. (Editor), 1993, The New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary, Clarendon Press, Oxford.

Suzuki, Dr Daisetz Teitaro, Introduction to Zen Buddhism, 1974, Causeway Books, New York, p 21. ISBN 0-88356-022-4


Document Statistics

Words: 1754
Sentences: 84
Paragraphs:82
Characters: 8879

Averages
Sentences per paragraph: 1.2
Words per Sentence: 19.5
Characters per word:4.9

Readability Statistics
Passive Sentences: 21%
Flesch Reading Ease score: 47.9
Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score: 11.4

Readability scores

When Word finishes checking spelling and grammar, it can display information about the reading level of the document, including the following readability scores. Each readability score bases its rating on the average number of syllables per word and words per sentence.

Flesch Reading Ease score

Rates text on a 100-point scale; the higher the score, the easier it is to understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 60 to 70.

Flesch-Kincaid Grade Level score

Rates text on a U.S. grade-school level. For example, a score of 8.0 means that an eighth grader can understand the document. For most standard documents, aim for a score of approximately 7.0 to 8.0.


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