4 January 2004: Tending to our Garden

The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

Buddhist Hour
Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Broadcast 310 for Sunday 4 January 2004

This script is entitled:
Tending to our Garden - Planning to Flourish

In the Chinese horoscope, 2004 is the Year of the Monkey and of the element wood. It will be a prosperous year, well balanced with lots of growth, but the warning given is to be careful, to pay attention - do not let your garden become overgrown with weeds.

Review of what we are doing is a normal process when planning for our future, to make sure we are not letting weeds flourish.

Since the death of our Founder and Teacher we have gone through this process of review and evaluation to reaffirm our position as a Buddha Dhamma organisation.

What do we do around here?

Our mission as an organisation is:

To introduce a philosophy of life based on Buddha Dhamma
To encourage the study, practice and realisation of Buddha Dhamma
To provide beings with Buddha Dhamma training
To preserve the Buddha Dhamma at this Temple for at least 500 years.

We are a World Fellowship of Buddhists Regional Centre. In this role we uphold the World Fellowship of Buddhists objectives to:

Promote among members strict observance and practice of the teachings of the Buddha;
Propagate the sublime doctrine of the Buddha;
Secure unity, solidarity, and brotherhood amongst Buddhists;
Organise and carry on activities in the field of social, educational, cultural, and other humanitarian services; and
Work for securing peace and harmony amongst humankind and happiness for all beings and to collaborate with other organisations working for the same ends.

The Buddha’s teachings form the root of the various branches of Buddha Dhamma traditions.

It is this root that we fundamentally teach, resourced from the Buddhist Canon, the Tipitika, meaning 'three baskets'.

Our library, the John D. Hughes Collection, contains a full set of the Tipitika.

The first collection is known as 'Sutta pitaka'. It is the conventional teaching (Vohara desana) in which Buddha used common vocabulary to explain His teachings. Practical aspects of tranquillity and insight meditations are included in this collection.

The second collection is called "Vinaya pitaka'. It is the authoritative teaching (Ana desana) in which Buddha used his authority over the monks to lay down rules and disciplines for them to follow. These disciplines embody the highest code of ethics and can surely purify one's action, speech and thought, thus making one noble and respectful.

The third collection is 'Abhidhamma pitaka'. It is the higher teaching of the Buddha. Here Buddha employed abstract terms to describe the ultimate realities (paramathas) in the Universe, and Nibbana which is the summum bonum and the highest goal of Buddhism. So Abhidhamma may be regarded as the ultimate teaching (Paramatha desana) of the Lord Buddha.

In each basket lies the root of the Buddha’s teachings - The Four Noble Truths, the Three Marks of Existence, the Law of Dependent Origination, the removal of the three hindrances - hate, greed and delusion, and the law of kamma (causes and effects).

We do not discriminate between the various traditions of Buddha Dhamma teachings. We teach Theravada, Mahayana, Vajrayana and Chan Buddha Dhamma at our Centre.

A summary of a talk given by Phra Khantipalo at our Temple on 14 March 1982 states:

Lord Buddha never heard of the word 'yana'. You know Mahayana, Vajrayana, or Bodhisattvayana, or Buddhayana, or how many others can you find?

There were not any such things in the Buddha's day.

He is unlikely to have instituted such things, because the Buddha is a Teacher of universal dhamma, and does not teach sectarianism.

Part of the trouble with the unenlightened mind is that it has to label everything.

But then we get confused by using the words, and think the words are the things. We work the words up into a pattern, major concepts, and then we believe in the concepts that the confused mind thinks up.

So actually, we believe our own confused minds. So what could be more confused than that? Just because the ideas happen to be there, we should not believe that they are true.

Theravada is distinguished from Mahayana in putting emphasis on one's own liberation, whereas the teaching of Mahayana stresses that attainment of Buddhahood for all sentient beings.

Mahayana Buddha Dhamma was introduced to Tibet in about the lst century BC

Mahayana Buddha Dhamma emphasises the study and realisation of or Emptiness (Sanskrit: Sunyata), and the pursuit of compassion (Sanskrit: karuna), through the Bodhisattva ideal.

A Bodhisattva is an active being who carries out the teachings of Compassion in the world and places all of his or her merit for other beings in order to show them the path to liberation.

Terry Clizford describes emptiness, shunyata, as “the central concept of the Mahayana. Shunyata expresses the nature of absolute reality and the realization of shunyata or emptiness is the wisdom aspect of the Mahayana. There is really no adequate word in English for shunyata, as both ‘voidness’ and ‘emptiness’ have negative connotations, whereas shunyata is a positive word of emptiness transcending the duality of positive-negative.

"By realizing shunyata, all sickness and negativity is subdued or dissolved".

One needs to study many factors in meditation by seeing directly and finding the antidote to the concept of self. This concept of self is the root of ignorance. At this level the ‘concept of not grasping’ is itself an error in practice since this is only adhesion to an ego.

Under special circumstances if the practice is undertaken with vigour, shunyata may be glimpsed.

There are many different ways and languages that describe the Buddha and his teachings, but all have the same property of being of the Buddha, in the same way that human beings born into the world have different cultures, different colour skins, and different languages, but we all are the same human beings.

It is a product in different forms or it is produced in different forms so that it can be used in different ways.

Buddha Dhamma is the same, there is Theravada, Mahayana, Varjayana and Chan, but it is all Buddha Dharma and it all has the same taste, the taste of freedom.

Buddha Dhamma has evolved into different forms so that it can be relevant to the different cultures that exist.

Imagine, say, an Englishman, a Frenchman, a Chinese and an Indonesian all looking at a cup. The Englishman says that is a cup, the Frenchman answers "no it is not, it is a tus", the Chinese comments you are both wrong it is a "pi", the Indonesian laughs at the others and says what fools you are it is a "kowan", the English man gets a dictionary and shows it to the others and says, I can prove it is a cup.

My dictionary says so, then your dictionary is wrong says the Frenchman because my dictionary clearly says it is a "tus", the Chinese scoffs at them, my dictionary is thousands of years older than yours, so my dictionary must be right and besides more people speak Chinese than any other language, so it must be a "pi".

Now, while they are all squabbling and arguing with each other another person comes up and drinks from the cup, after he has drunk he says to the others whether you call it a cup or a tus or a pi or a kowan, the purpose of a cup is to be used to drink from.

Stop arguing and drink, stop squabbling and remove your thirst.

The Lord Buddha’s Teachings are timeless and are relevant for future generations throughout the world.

Our Centre operates as a peak organisation carrying the ideals of the World Fellowship of Buddhists.

We are an Associated Institution and Spiritual Training Centre of the World Buddhist University.

It is not practical or ethical to disclose in writing the full program of teachings given at our Centre for three reasons. There is a tradition that some teachings are orally transmitted when the time is right for the student to grasp the insight.

These are not written down.

The first reason is to respect the confidentiality or privacy of the subject matter raised by clients. The second reason is that it is not our policy to do case studies or keep dossiers on our clients.

Another tradition we respect is the Buddha Rule of not making public details of the use of siddhi (Pali: iddhi) or mantra or practices that help to connect persons to healing or protective Deities.

A deep and comprehensive treatment of a variety of methods is taught at the Centre over time.

Within this clear framework, the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. has a variety of Buddha Dhamma Programs scheduled for the next two years. The outline below details the dates, time and frequency of the Programs at the Centre.

Teachings to raise Insight and Mindfulness

Traditionally called Vipassana to view anicca (the ever-changing nature of things), dukkha (unsatisfactoriness, all is suffering if we cling to things) and anatta (no permanent self, the ego as illusion).

Mohnyin Sayadaw compares this insight about anicca with the movement of a hand. Ordinary persons will say it is the same hand in all positions; yet in the ultimate sense, trillions of “groups” - physical/energy configurations - arise and vanish in the process of the oscillation as the hand is moved.

So, the real teaching is a dynamic affair where no two students are taught the same, even if it appears they are taught as a group. We say you need to understand this fineness of anicca (change due to rising and falling of matter).

Five Day Bhavana Courses

Several Five Day Meditation courses are held throughout the year. Courses run from 9.00am - 10.00pm each day and there is no fee for attendance. All those who attend the courses are asked to maintain at least five precepts. You are invited to join us for any session or alternatively please contact the Centre to arrange a convenient time to visit and meet with our Members.

Buddha Dhamma Teachings

Buddha Dhamma practices, including bhavana, are taught by resident practitioner Mrs. Anita M. Hughes at the Centre every Monday and Friday evening starting at 7.30pm on Monday January 6, 2004. You are invited to join us for any session or alternatively please contact the Centre to arrange a convenient time to visit and meet with our Members.

These classes will commence with the teachings of Dana (generosity), Sila (morality), Bhavana (meditation) and continue through the ten perfections, which are:

1. Generosity (Dana)
2. Morality (Sila)
3. Renunciation (Nekkhamma)
4. Wisdom (Panna)
5. Energy (Viriya)
6. Patience (Khanti)
7. Truthfulness (Sacca)
8. Determination (Aditthana)
9. Loving Kindness (Metta)
10. Equanimity (Upekkha)

Young Adult classes

Young Adult Buddha Dhamma classes will commence on 14 March 2004, and will be held each Sunday from 10.00am to midday.

These teachings are free of charge and will be taught by the Resident Practitioner of the Temple, Mrs Anita M. Hughes.

Abhidhamma Teachings

Abhidhamma classes continue every Tuesday evening at 7.30pm. Prior to this, at 7.15pm, chanting takes place in our Hall of Assembly. This is to awaken the participants’ minds and to prepare them to learn Abhidhamma. All Members and friends are welcome.

All Abhidhamma class papers are uploaded to our online journal, The Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, at www.bddronline.net.au and www.bdcu.org.au. They can be found in volumes 12 and 13 of the BDDR online. Students are requested to bring suitable offerings each week to the Abhidhamma Teachings, including flowers, suitable food and paper or stationery.

New students are enjoying these classes and longer term students are maturing under these Teachings. Our Chan Academy dress code for Abhidhamma classes is white.

Visiting Teachers give specialised lineage transmission

At times the Centre accommodates eminent Buddhist Monks and Teachers from other Centres and overseas to conduct Dhamma talks and teachings. Please contact the Centre for dates, times and Dana rosters.

Members and students are encouraged to visit other Temples and Teachings of eminent Buddha Dhamma leaders, scholars and Teachers.

Information about visiting teachers is placed under 'Coming Events' on our websites www.bsbonline.com.au and www.bdcu.org.au.

Chan Classes

Classes in Chan (Zen) methods are conducted at the Centre. As an ancient Buddha Dhamma practice Chan trains the mind by the Way of the Brush. Please contact Julian Bamford for class fee details and program information on 9754 3334.

Sumi-e Classes

Sumi-e methods are taught at the Centre by visiting Master Andre Sollier. Classes are conducted monthly over the four seasons and each class runs from 10am to 3.00pm. Master Sollier selects a new theme each year for his students to learn. Please contact Julian Bamford for class details on 9754 3334.

The Way of the Kitchen

Food is number one. All things depend on nutrient. The way of the kitchen is the first practice.

The Centre of a home or the Centre of Buddha Dhamma practice is the kitchen.

This year, 2004 is also the United Nations International Year of Rice, celebrating 'Rice as Life'.

Almost 3,000 million people share the culture, traditions, and untapped potentials of rice. In remote villages of Southeast Asia, farmers still compare a grain of rice to a 'grain of gold'.

So, rice is a food - but more than a food. It is society, culture, politics, business, the beauty of the landscape, and people in their communities.

In short, rice is life.

It is difficult to know what one’s future may hold, the place where we may be born and what conditions will prevail for growing food. The Buddhist practice of offering of staple foods such as rice, potatoes and sago has a practical basis, to create the causes for a person to be able to get basic food to live no matter where they may be born.

The student is taught to practice food dana (translated as generosity) to make causes for an ongoing supply of good food for their future practice to ensure health. Without food to sustain us we are unable to have the energy or good health to practice.

The novice starts by learning to keep the kitchen clean. Washing dishes, sweeping the floors, keeping the mind inside, while practising samma sati - right mindfulness.

Dana (in Pali: generosity), Adosa (in Pali: friendliness), the five reflections on food, long life and good health are experienced by students as they learn to cook and serve nutritious food as an offering to others.

The Way of the Garden

Selected students are taught within the garden setting to observe the four seasons change. This method improves their health.

The practice of mindfulness in no killing is followed as they weed and dig the garden, clean the ponds and feed the visiting birds.

The Way of the Scholar

To overcome sloth and torpor, selected students are taught over time the methods of writing about Buddha Dhamma. They become the next generation of wordsmiths.

Our publishing program provides opportunities for global private correspondence, Internet input, key articles for our Review and our in-house journal “The Brooking Street Bugle” and practice in writing conceptual solutions to real projects.

Our weekly radio broadcast scripts provide a skills incubator for meeting time lines.

Regular attendance and a strong wish to learn are needed. Our superior library gives research experience.

Peak international events such as the World Fellowship of Buddhists conferences give members the opportunity to meet with Buddha Dhamma scholars.

Puja Transmissions

Various Pujas are conducted at the Centre throughout the year by visiting Teacher Francisco So. The next puja will be held on Thursday 26 January 2004. The puja is titled The Hevajra Puja. Please contact the Centre for information on future Pujas.

Fundraising & Financial Responsibility as Leadership Training

Selected Students who wish to stabilise the continued existence of our Organisation need to understand our financial programs are based on ‘self-help’.

Several are trained in leadership and encouraged to become University graduates and post graduates in skills needed for them to become the future Directors of our Centre.

Teaching about Relevant Current Affairs

More and more we plan that our teaching is delivered by Internet.

Our new online learning site is www.edharma.org

This site is currently under construction and will be an interactive learning site.

We are developing more and more Internet sites so we must operate under many different regulations. In 1999, the European parliament initiated an amendment to the Copyright Directive that would outlaw random, illegal copying of material on the Internet. The move came after the Telecom companies proposed to weaken the entire copyright regime for content providers. We are studying the recent amendments to the Australian copyright law with due diligence.

We do teach minutiae when it is appropriate. Facts and figures are important to understanding issues. The lead vehicle for this style of teaching is found in the texts of our radio broadcasts. These can be read on our Internet site at www.bdcublessings.net.au

Our organisation is a member of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria.

From time to time, we put our position to Government Standing Committees drafting new legislation. We strive to present a balanced view of how we see the legislation affecting religious organisations in general and in particular how it will affect the operation of our organisation.

Our views are formed by extensive reading and discussion with our international peers. We cultivate direct contact with University theses to legitimise our arguments with use of pertinent reference material.

We will not infringe copyright by publishing material that has not been cleared by the holder of the copyright. We respect industrial and intellectual property rights. Our Founder worked in the area of patents, trademarks and copyright for many years and founded AMPICTA. Our Teacher was a life member of AMPICTA, an organisation that looks after intellectual property.

Humanitarian Activities

We train persons towards cultural adaptability that can distinguish between generosity and stinginess and encourage the practice of dana (material assistance).

Our ‘self-help’ training extends to many realms.

We train our Members and other persons to speak good things, to do good things, to be kind and to spread kindness to others. We fund Buddhist orphanages in Bangladesh and India. We help many local Australians with household goods and sound advice. We help many business persons direct their company policies towards sounder human resource development and prosperity based on a better global view of how their activities impact on their worker’s families and the need for enrichment training in a post-Fordism era.

There is no bias in our organisation between the ‘haves’ and the ‘have nots’ in the economic sense. We train persons who can organise and promote exchange of missions, scholars and students.

We teach the Buddha’s teachings.

The four noble truths are:

· The noble truth of sorrow
· The noble truth of the arising of sorrow
· The noble truth of the cessation of sorrow
· The noble truth of the path which leads to the cessation of sorrow

More and more westerners are awakening to the truth of the Buddha Dhamma.

The beginning of this millennium is seeing a major cultural change for the spreading of Buddha Dhamma within Western culture.

In the 1920’s there were only a few texts available in English and in the remainder of the last century there was an explosion of English and other language translations and texts available to people in the West.

This has made the Buddha Dhamma accessible to millions of people for the first time in their current lives.

In Australia in the 1950’s, there were less than a handful of Buddhist temples. There are now hundreds of temples. A recent survey carried out by a Christian research group found that 11% of Australians practise Buddhist meditation each week.

This number is equivalent to the number of people attending Christian church services.

This rapid growth of Buddha Dhamma and the accompanying spread of Buddha Dhamma practice is having and will continue to have a profound effect on Australian culture.

Our lemma is Lifetimes of Learning, so all Members of our organisation are encouraged to make causes for this life and further lives, to cultivate wholesome minds that lead to these five styles when they interact with others.

We need to think of diplomacy less as a profession than as a set of skills - like a Masters of Business administration - that will be undertaken by a variety of persons, from a range of different backgrounds, for many different purposes and for a variety of lengths of time.

Our Members are trained to act as friends and advisers to many Australian Buddhist Temples, and help them to integrate the superior parts of their culture into Australia felix.

Multicultural, regional and multilateral organisations' values are replacing some segments of the earlier parochial monarchist Australian national culture.

The conditions of communal stability were explained to Venerable Ananda by Buddha in the Digha Nikaya.

The seven conditions are:
1. To assemble repeatedly and in large numbers
2. To assemble in harmony and disperse in harmony, so long as they do the business of the Order in harmony
3. Introduce no revolutionary ordinance, break up no established ordinance, but live in accordance with the appointed charges
4. To honour the elder brethren, men of many days and long
ordained, fathers of the Order and men of standing in the Order
5. To not fall subject to that craving which arises and leads back to rebirth
6. So long as there shall be brethren who are fond of the forest life and lodging
7. To establish themselves in mindfulness with the thought "Let goodly co-mates in the righteous life come hither in the future, and let those that have already come live happily".

We are clear about our objectives as an active Buddha Dhamma organisation.

We do not let the weeds flourish.

We make the conditions for the flowers in our heavenly garden to flourish by careful planning, maintenance and review.

May your energies be directed to the good things in your life this year 2004CE.

May you plan with clarity and action with right effort your goals to success.

May you understand, practise and realise the path out of suffering.

May you be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by Julian Bamford, Leanne Eames, Evelin Halls, Anita Hughes, Lisa Nelson and Pennie White.

References:

Mon, Dr. Mehm Tin. The Essence of Buddha Abhidhamma. Mya Mon Yadanar Publication. Yangon Myanmar 1995.

2004 is the Year of the Monkey available at URL http://www.primatestore.com/yearmonkey.htm, accessed 21 December 2003.

Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (1996) Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, Volume 6 No. 2., Registered by Australia Post Publication No. VAR 3103.

Calming the Mind and Discerning the Real. From The Lam Rim Chen Mo Of Tsong Ka-Pa. Translated By Alex Wayman.

Hughes, John D., Buddha Dhamma in Australia, Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., from IYSY search of our LAN1.

Roerich, George N (1979) The Blue Annals, Motilal Banarsidass, reprint, p. 882.

Sutra Translation Committee (1998) The Seeker's Glossary: Buddhism, Second Edition, p 622.

Tibetan Buddhist Medicine and Psychiatry, Samual Weiser, Inc., pp. 27-29.

The United Nations web page available at URL http://www.fao.org/rice2004/index_en.htm, accessed 21 December 2003.

World Fellowship of Buddhists (1992) Constitution of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, As amended by the 18th and the 19th General Conferences of the WFB 1992.

Disclaimer

As we, the Chan Academy Australia, Chan Academy being a registered business name of 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 another 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 Chan Academy Australia (Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.)

This Radio Script is for Free Distribution. It contains Buddha Dhamma material and is provided for the purpose of research and study.

Permission is given to make printouts of this publication for FREE DISTRIBUTION ONLY. Please keep it in a clean place.

"The gift of Dhamma excels all other gifts".

For more information, contact the Centre or better still, come and visit us.