18 May 2003: Observing Versak Day 2003

The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

Buddhist Hour Radio Script 277
For Sunday 18 May 2003

This script is entitled: “Observing Versak Day 2003”

Keywords: Versak, Buddha, Dhamma, path out of suffering, happiness, psychology, philosophy, logic, seven-fold analysis, emptiness, no-self, dependent origination, Heart Sutra, Versak is when Buddha saw these truths.

Buddha Dhamma Practitioners around the world celebrate Versak day in many ways.

On Versak many lay Buddhists observe eight or ten precepts.
The celebration of Versak is major event at our world Centre.

Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Members brand themselves as Chan Academy Australia and with friends prepare for Versak day.

Last Friday 16 May 2003 we celebrated Versaka day at our Temple.

Versaka is a most auspicious occasion as it is the day that Buddha Sakyamuni was born, attained Supreme Enlightenment and passed away on the full moon at Versak.

Versak is the name of a month on the lunar calendar that was used over 2500 years ago.

In the local system, it is the full moon in the month of May in our calendar. Where two full moon days occur in that month, Versak is celebrated on the second.

It is usual on this day for Buddha Dhamma practitioners to make generous offerings of water, rice, flowers and incense.

Last week we sent a Versak email message to many persons around the world. The message read:

Dear Friends in the Dhamma,

May you have a Happy Versak 2546 B.E. (2003)!

May the Triple Gem bless you.

With Metta,

John D. Hughes and Anita M. Hughes
and the Members of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

We received many replies and have included some of them in this script.

Sangharakkhita Mahathero, Secondrabad, India wrote:

“To My dear brother in Dhamma,

Thank you very much for your greeting, and I am also same to you to greet for 2547 Buddha's birth, Enlightenment and Maha pri Nirvana day.

May you be happy for a long time in the real dhamma.
Yours'.”

Vice President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and Chairperson of the World Buddhist University, Dr. Ananda W. P. Guruge, wrote:

“John and Anita Wish you in return a very happy Vesak and a healthful and happy year. I am glad to find you well.

Ananda”

Steven S. W. Huang, World Fellowship of Buddhists Vice-President wrote:

“Dear Dr. Hughes:

Thanks for your e-mail and hope you have a happy Versak 2546 B.E. also.

May Triple Gem bless you all.

Yours Truly.”

Steven Aung, President, International Buddhist Friends Association, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada wrote:

“Dear John:

We had a wonderful Wesak. I hope you had a wonderful one too.

Please keep in touch. I am very interested in information regarding Buddhist societies and activities in Australia. Any information will be appreciated.

Sincerely, with Metta”

Margaret from the International Association for Religious Freedom, Oxford, UK, wrote:

“Thank you for your greetings.

With best wishes”

Bob Faulkner and the members of the Gippsland Buddhist Discussion Group wrote:

“Best wishes to John and Anita Hughes and to all our friends at the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. for a very happy Versak.

Thank you for your blessing and good wishes.

May the Triple Gem bless you also.

With much Metta.”

The Worldwide Adherents of Buddhism by Six Continental Areas, mid 2001 recorded in the 2002 Britannica Book of the Year were: Africa 139,000 Asia 356,533,000 Europe 1,570,000 Latin America 660,000 Northern America 2,777,000 Oceania 307,000 It is recorded in the 2002 Britannica Book of the Year that 5% of the total population of 6,128,512,000 or 361,985,000 persons practice Buddha Dhamma in the World. Over the years, our Centre has celebrated this most important day in a similar fashion to most of the Buddhist world culture. At Versak we extend our regular practice so that we are sitting in meditation at that full moon time in synchrony with the millions of persons sitting in different lands.

The celebration of Versak is a major event at our world Centre. Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. Members brand themselves as Chan Academy Australia and with friends prepared for Versak with such activities as:
1. Tidy garden completely. Make it a Heavenly Dharma Garden, desirable and acceptable to the Buddha to walk with ease and view with Blessings.
2. Clean all altars and images completely. Make them desirable and acceptable to the Dharma.
3. Clean house completely. Make it desirable and acceptable for the Sangha.
4. Arrange flowers on altars, offer light and offer incense and offer water and offer perfume. Make them desirable and acceptable for the Guru.
5. Arrange food for the day. Consider taking extra precepts.
6. Tidy up Chan Academy completely to make it desirable and acceptable to the Chan Masters.
7. Arrange texts to be chanted by the Heavenly Assembly of Bodhisattvas and Devas.
8. Make Dana offerings to Bodhisattvas and Devas and each other and the Centre's Resident Practitioners.
9. Practice patience (third perfection) for the sake of all sentient beings and your Teacher.
10. Maintain Morality (in Pali sila) to guard your future happiness.

This year our Members celebrated Versak by taking eight to ten precepts and practising mindful action throughout the day.

For those working on the day some held five to ten precepts.

At our Temple on Versak, Members and Friends cleaned the altars and gardens, prepared and offered breakfast and lunch to the Maha Sangha. Members and friends sat in meditation from the time of the full moon after 1:30 pm until 2:00 pm.
In our case, the three Maha Sangha images, refreshments offered to 1.2million heavenly Sangha and attendants.

The Dhamma Times recently featured Venerable Bikkhu Bodhi's Versak Message for the first official United Nations celebration of Versak entitled ‘The Buddha & His Message’, held in Sri Lanka.

Venerable Bikkhu Bodhi wears the robe of a Theravada Buddhist monk, however he is also a native of New York City, born and raised in Brooklyn. He says he knew nothing about Buddhism during the first twenty years of his life. In his early twenties he developed an interest in Buddhism as a meaningful alternative to the materialism of modern American culture, an interest which grew over the following years. After finishing his graduate studies in Western philosophy, he traveled to Sri Lanka, where he entered the Buddhist monastic order. He has lived in Sri Lanka for most of his adult life.

In his speech, Venerable Bikkhu Bodhi said:

“Today, as Buddhism becomes better known all over the globe, it is attracting an ever-expanding circle of followers and has already started to make an impact on Western culture. Hence it is most fitting that the United Nations should reserve one day each year to pay tribute to this man of mighty intellect and boundless heart, whom millions of people in many countries look upon as their master and guide…

“…at Vesak we celebrate the Buddha as one who has striven through countless past lives to perfect all the sublime virtues that will entitle him to teach the world the path to the highest happiness and peace…

“…the relevance of the Buddha's teachings to our own era, as we stand on the threshold of a new century and a new millennium… is that Buddhism can provide helpful insights and practices across a wide spectrum of disciplines - from philosophy and psychology to medical care and ecology - without requiring those who use its resources to adopt Buddhism as a full-fledged religion.

“The Buddha's teaching offers us two valuable tools to help us extricate ourselves from this tangle [i.e. the world’s problems]. One is its hardheaded analysis of the psychological springs of human suffering. The other is the precisely articulated path of moral and mental training it holds out as a solution. The Buddha explains that the hidden springs of human suffering, in both the personal and social arenas of our lives, are three mental factors called the unwholesome roots, namely, greed, hatred, and delusion. Traditional Buddhist teaching depicts these unwholesome roots as the causes of personal suffering, but by taking a wider view we can see them as equally the source of social, economic, and political suffering…

“…Speaking from a Buddhist perspective, I would say that what is needed above all else is a new mode of perception, a universal consciousness that can enable us to regard others as not essentially different from oneself. As difficult as it may be, we must learn to detach ourselves from the insistent voice of self-interest and rise up to a universal perspective from which the welfare of all appears as important as one's own good. That is, we must outgrow the egocentric and ethnocentric attitudes to which we are presently committed, and instead embrace a "world-centric ethic" which gives priority to the well-being of all.

“Such a world-centric ethic should be molded upon three guidelines, the antidotes to the three unwholesome roots:
(1) We must overcome exploitative greed with global generosity, helpfulness, and cooperation. (2) We must replace hatred and revenge with a policy of kindness, tolerance, and forgiveness. (3) We must recognize that our world is an interdependent, interwoven whole such that irresponsible behavior anywhere has potentially harmful repercussions everywhere. These guidelines, drawn from the Buddha's teaching, can constitute the nucleus of a global ethic to which all the world's great spiritual traditions could easily subscribe…

“…The Buddha states that of all things in the world, the one with the most powerful influence for both good and bad is the mind. Genuine peace between peoples and nations grows out of peace and good will in the hearts of human beings. Such peace cannot be won merely by material progress, by economic development and technological innovation, but demands moral and mental development. It is only by transforming ourselves that we can transform our world in the direction of peace and amity. This means that for the human race to live together peacefully on this shrinking planet, the inescapable challenge facing us is to understand and master ourselves.

“It is here that the Buddha's teaching becomes especially timely, even for those not prepared to embrace the full range of Buddhist religious faith and doctrine. In its diagnosis of the mental defilements as the underlying causes of human suffering, the teaching shows us the hidden roots of our personal and collective problems. By proposing a practical path of moral and mental training, the teaching offers us an effective remedy for tackling the problems of the world in the one place where they are directly accessible to us: in our own minds. As we enter the new millennium, the Buddha's teaching provides us all, regardless of our religious convictions, with the guidelines we need to make our world a more peaceful and congenial place to live.”

The extract of the Venerable Bikkhu Bodhi’s speech you have just heard was published in the Dhamma Times. The Dhamma Times E-News Letter may be subscribed to at no charge at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/DhammaTimes

In Venerable Buddhadassa Bhikkhu’s book ‘Handbook of Mankind’, he noted that the whole Buddha Dhamma is nothing but the Teaching dealing with “what is what”. He stated that Buddhism is the religion that teaches one to know just this much: “what is what”. This type of talk is fine as an introduction for simple persons but such statements cannot help to deduce the methodology needed to achieve this feat.

The reason for this is “what is what” has none of the elements of a scholarly statement, that can produce new insights from the known to the unknown because it does not contain any logic array useful to perform transformation with a sevenfold analysis.

On Saturday 5 April 2003, several Members of our Centre visited the Bodhinvana Monastery in Warburton to pay respect to Venerable Acharn Dtun, visiting from Thailand, and to hear the Dhamma Talk given by the Venerable. The Venerable Acharn Dtun stayed at Bodhinvana Monastery for about three weeks.

A woman asked Venerable Dtun why he had not mentioned the Buddha Dhamma Sangha in relating the insights acquired from his practice.

Venerable Dtun replied that through scholarship he had learned Buddha Dhamma in the past, and so he could check his insights with this knowledge.

Today’s script is entitled, “Observing Versak day 2003”.

His Holiness the Dalai Lama writes : “There is no single thing that can be found under analysis to identify the self. Just as when we try to find the ultimate identity of a solid object, it alludes us indeed, we are forced to conclude that this precious thing that we take such care of, which we go to such lengths to protect and make comfortable is, in the end, no more substantial than a rainbow in the summer sky.”

A story that illustrates this concept clearly is written by Greg Goode. He writes:

“When I was about ten years old, my friends and I would throw rocks at each other. This led to a kind of self-inquiry, as I later found out. Smack! My friend's rock hit my arm. “I got you,” he said with glee. “No you didn't,” I retorted smugly, “You only got my arm.” Then he went for something closer to home. Bonk! The rock landed on my head. Now I got you!” “No, that was only my head.” Later, I thought a lot about this, for many years in fact. There was no place a rock could land that I thought was truly me. In fact, whatever “X” could named was not me, because it was “My X.” But where was the “I”? It's not as though I didn't have a strong sense of it. I did, especially at first. This is why I looked so hard for it for so many years. But no matter where I looked, it seemed to keep shifting around, almost as though it was always in back of me! Even as a youth, years before I had ever heard of Buddhism or nondualism or Chandrakirti, the inability to find the “I” really did begin to weaken my sense of its reality.”

This story was written by Greg Goode, Ph.D. in the introduction to his article “Another Kind of Self-Inquiry: Chandrakirti’s Sevenfold Reasoning on Selflessness”, which appeared in the HarshaSatsangh online magazine.

The sevenfold analysis is a meditation designed as a means of liberation from cyclic existence and although it can be used as basis for debate or philosophical dialectic it was not made for the sake of those intent on debate.

Western logic systems can take us to third order, perhaps even fifth order knowledges.

Buddha Dhamma goes to 12th order knowledge.

The sevenfold analysis can help persons come to a non-dual understanding of existence. The non-dual understanding is wisdom. Non-dual here means lacking the two extremes of permanence and annihilation.

Burmese Monk Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw writes an affirmation of right view in the Discourse on the Sallekha Sutta (The discourse on effacement – the lessening of defilements) “Other people may believe in a living soul or an ego entity but we will hold the right view that there are only consciousness and corporeality. We will practice the Dhamma that lessens defilements. We will cultivate thoughts about such a view. We will avoid the ego-belief and personality-belief by adopting the right belief we will achieve spiritual uplift through right beliefs. We will put out the fire of defilement arising from ego belief and personality belief through adherent to right belief.”

A story to illustrate how we can be duped by our conceptions is given by His Holiness the Dalai Lama in Ancient Wisdom, Modern World – Ethics for the New Millennium:

“Consider an instance where in the dark, we mistake a coiled rope for a snake. We stop still and we feel afraid. Although what we see is in reality is a length of rope that we may have forgotten about, because of a lack of light and due to our misconception, we think it is a snake. Actually, the coil of rope possesses not the slightest property of a snake other than in its appearance. The snake itself is not there. We have imputed its existence onto something else. So it is with the notion of an independently existent self.”

Nagarjuna says in his Precious Garland of Advice for the King, cited in Wilson:

As long as a conception of the aggregate exists,
So long therefore does a conception of I exist.
Further, when the conception of I exists,
There is action; from that further there is birth.

The Sevenfold Reasoning on the Selflessness of Persons in
Another Kind of Self-Inquiry: Chandrakirti’s Sevenfold Reasoning on Selflessness By Greg Goode, Ph.D.:

1. The self is not inherently the same as the parts of the body/mind.
2. The self is not different from the parts of the body/mind.
3. The self is not dependent upon the parts of the body/mind.
4. The self is not inherently the substratum upon which the parts of the body/mind depend.
5. The self is not inherently the possessor of the parts of the body/mind.
6. The self is not inherently the mere collection of the parts of the body/mind.
7. The self is not inherently the shape of the parts of the body/mind.

During the last week, on the advice of Master Ru Sun, students of John D. Hughes have been chanting the Avalokitesvara Dharani 7 Times, the Quan Yin Mantra 108 Times, and the Heart Sutra 3 times each day: morning, day time and evening.

We quote here the free distribution version of The Heart Sutra supplied by Master Ru Sun’s attendant, Jason Tai:

“Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva while contemplating profoundly the Prajna Paramita,
realised that the five skandhas are empty, and thus he was able to overcome all sufferings.
Sariputra, form is not different from Emptiness, Emptiness is not different from form,
Form is in fact Emptiness, Emptiness is in fact form.
The same is of feeling, conception, impulse and consciousness.
Sariputra, Emptiness is the nature of all Dharmas.
It can neither be created nor annihilated, polluted nor cleansed, increased nor decreased
Therefore, in Emptiness there is no form, no feeling, conception, impulse or consciousness;
No eye, ear, nose, tongue, body or mind; no form, sound, smell, taste, touch or conception;
No object of eye to the realm of consciousness;
No ignorance, nor its extinction; no aging and no death, nor their cessation;
No suffering, causes cessation, nor the path; no wisdom with nothing to attain
As there is nothing to attain, a Bodhisattva that relies on the Prajna Paramita has neither worry nor obstruction.
Without worry and obstruction, there is no fear,
Away from confusion, daydreaming, and thus reaches Nirvana,
Buddhas of the past, present and future, also rely on the Prajna Paramita, to attain Supreme Enlightenment
Thus, one should know that Prajna Paramita is the great mantra,
The mantra of illumination, the supreme of all mantras,
It is unequalled and able to emancipate all sufferings.
This is true and not false, thus proclaim the Prajna Paramita Mantra, saying thus: “Gate, Gate, Paragate, Parasamgate, Bodhi svaha.

May the merits of this script be dedicated to the recovery, good health and long life of our Teacher John D. Hughes.

May our Teacher John D. Hughes return home to our Temple fit to teach in Brooking Street Upwey very soon.

May all Teachers, practitioners and scholars of Buddha Dhamma be well and happy.
May you have the diligence to practice the Buddha Dhamma this year with vigor. May you resolve to keep eight precepts every moon day. May you quickly overcome any obstacle to keeping eight precepts every moon day.
May you be well and happy now and always and know how to behave.

This script was written and edited by John D Hughes, Anita Hughes, Julian Bamford, Leanne Eames and Pennie White.

References

Buddhist Hour Broadcast 79, “Waking up the Buddhist Scholar in Australia”, Chan Academy Australia, Melbourne.
Buddhist Hour Broadcast 272, Sunday 13 April 2003, “Using your merit wisely”, Chan Academy Australia, Melbourne.

Buddhist Hour Broadcast 273, Sunday 27 April 2003 This script is entitled: Preparing for Versak, Chan Academy Australia, Melbourne.

Buddhist Hour Broadcast 276, Sunday 11 May 2003,
‘How to bless others with words’, Chan Academy Australia, Melbourne.

Tenzing Gyatso, His Holiness the Dalai Lama, 2001, Ancient Wisdom, Modern World – Ethics for the new millennium, Published by Abacas, Great Britain.

The Dhamma Times, 9th May 2003, Panna Youth Centre, Singapore available at http://www.groups.yahoo.com/group/DhammaTimes
Accessed on 15 May 2003.

The Heart Sutra, Free Distribution Version, emailed by Jason Tai.

Venerable Mahasi Sayadaw, available at www.mahasi.org.mm/pdf/E22pdf.pdf accessed 17 May 2003.

Wilson, Joe (2001) Candrakirti’s Sevenfold Reasoning: Meditation on the Selflessness of persons, available at URL http://www.dharmafarm.org/docs/Wilson/CSR.pdf accessed on 17 May 2003.

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