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Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast on Hillside 88.0 FM
Script 346 for Sunday 12 September 2004


This script is titled:
Celebrating Fellowship - Founders Day 2004 (Part 1)

On Thursday 9 September we celebrated Founders Day at our Temple at 33 Brooking Street, Upwey, Victoria, 3158.

The occasion marked our first Founders Day without the presence of our beloved Teacher and Founder, the late Master John David Hughes. It is with a sense of great joy that we were able to continue this tradition in the way he intended.

Our Centre was blessed by the attendance of Sangha Members as well as special guests Dr Ranjith Hettiarachi, Buddhist Foundation (Australia) Victoria and Master Andre Sollier of Mitcham, Victoria.

The Sangha members who visited for Founders day were:

Venerable Liv Peo, Wat Buddharam, Springvale
Venerable P. Kassapa, Rockhill Heritage Sri Lanka.
Venerable Phra Khruvinaithorn Tanee Abbott of Wat Dhammarangsee, Forest Hill.
Phra Sirinat Marathes, Wat Dhammarangsee, Forest Hill.
Phra Subin Hongsahat, Wat Dhammarangsee, Forest Hill.
Phra Ekl Souvanlasy, Wat Dhammarangsee, Forest Hill.
Venerable Upatissa, Sakyamuni Sambuddha Vihara Temple Berwick, Victoria.
Venerable Dae Wol Sunim, Bob Gaesa Temple, Rowville
Venerable Sang Hoo Sunim, Bob Gaesa Temple, Rowville

Founders Day began at 6.30am with chanting in the Main Hall guided by Venerable Liv Peo from Wat Buddharam.

Venerable Sangha Members were welcomed again at 10.30am with an official welcome address given by Mr Julian Bamford BA App Rec. President of the Chan Academy Australia.

The welcome was followed by the reading of five papers on our five styles; Friendliness, Practicality, Professionalism, Cultural Adaptability and Scholarship. The full text of each paper can be found on our website at www.bddronline.net.au Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, Vol 14 No.3. Photographs of the celebration will soon be available online.

At the completion of the speeches, Venerable Sanga Members moved to the Main Hall where Members and friends offered dana.

A Dhamma talk and blessing was given by Venerable Kassapa. He talked about the great Teacher that John D Hughes was, about the many people he helped on to the shore of Buddha Dharma with out fear for his own safety in Samsara. He spoke fondly of when he first met John Hughes many years ago and of staying at the Temple for a 3 month rains retreat where he was very well cared for. John Hughes knew the importance of looking after the Sangha and the great merit that made by offering dana (food) to a venerable Monk every day for the 3-month period during the annual rains retreat. He spoke of John’s teaching of many different Buddhist traditions so that each student could learn, no matter what their differences, and find a path that suited them best, even if that was at another Temple.

Venerable Kassapa also taught of the immediacy of John’s teaching, always teaching as the opportunity arose, never choosing to wait until a later occasion to teach a student. Venerable Kassapa gave the example of one of John’s students who was told to offer a glass of water to him. Because the student’s mind was agitated, John told him to throw the glass of water away and try again. Five glasses of water later, John finally allowed the student to complete his offering. It made John’s students’ hearts sing to hear Venerable Kassapa’s fond recollections of our Teacher and his methods.

Next followed the blessing of the new lifesize image of our Founder John D. Hughes. The Sangha moved into the Heavenly Garden to circumambulate the Stupa, followed by Members and Guests.

At approximately 1.00pm, 25 white pigeons were released to freedom by visiting Sangha, Members and Friends.

A Chan painting demonstration was given by Chan Teacher Melba Neilsen followed by an auction of Chan Paintings by Master John D. Hughes.

Today we would like to read to you the welcoming address and the the first two papers presented, which were on our styles of Friendliness and Practicality.

We begin with the welcoming address by Julian Bamford, President Chan Academy Australia.

Most Venerable Members of the Sangha, the Chief Deva of the Temple and his heavenly retinue, our Abbot and Resident Teacher Mrs Anita M. Hughes, Honoured Guests, Directors, Members and Fellow Friends of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

It is with the greatest joy that we welcome and thank you for your blessings on this 25th Founders Day celebration and birth anniversary of our Teacher the late John David Hughes.

We thank the Sangha for their vast blessings for John D. Hughes who continues to be held in the deepest veneration by his many students and friends in Australia and around the world.

We thank the Sangha for coming here today. It is a blessing to see the Buddha robe.

Our theme and message for this Founder’s Day 2004 (2547 Buddhist Era) is Fellowship with our Buddha Dhamma family.

The Maha-ratnakuta says that fellowship is that quality within us that leads us to use our wisdom and compassion to bring others to the Dharma.

Venerable Master Hsing Yun wrote that when we begin to act on this understanding, we can be sure that we are acting out of the deepest sources of fellowship.

The spirit of fellowship is inherent in Buddha Dhamma practise here at our Temple today and in Buddhist communities around the world.

Our Members practice the five styles of friendliness, practicality, professionalism, cultural adaptability and scholarship. These are the petals that form the flower of fellowship.

It is a flower of the scholarly individual, of a cultured society, of harmonious participation in meritorious events, of companionship between friends in the Dhamma and actions for the benefit all living beings.

John D. Hughes built this Temple, a World Fellowship of Buddhists Regional Centre, to provide persons in Australia with the opportunity to make merit, so that they can learn and practice Buddha Dhamma.

He provided our Members with the resources and opportunities to come together in fellowship with Buddha Dhamma practitioners at international conferences here in Australia and overseas.

The Venerable Shilalankar Mahathero, the Sangharaj of the Supreme Sangha Council of Bangladesh described John in a letter to him for his 65th birthday in 1998 as “one of the apostles of our New World Buddhist order in Australia, and one of the pioneers of Buddhism in the Australia - New Zealand region”.

As Patrul Rinpoche wrote in The Words of My Perfect Teacher ‘Of all the paramount sources of refuge or opportunities for accumulating merit there is none greater than the Teacher’.

The life size image you see here today of our Founder and Teacher John D. Hughes is a mark of our veneration to his many Noble qualities.

The most important thing for John fundamentally was to show teachable beings the way out of suffering, to help them to understand the way out of suffering and to provide the materiality to do it.

On Founders Day 2004 we celebrate and venerate his life and the great waves of merit and wisdom of our precious Teacher John D. Hughes.

It is with heartfelt joy and love that we express our gratitude to Mrs Anita M Hughes for her fellowship in the Dhamma and give our resolute committment to support her and our Temple that it may last for another five hundred years.

John D. Hughes Buddha Dhamma Practitioner and Teacher taught his students what he himself practised:

‘Avoid Evil, Do Good and Purify the Mind’.

May we always gather in Fellowship, meet in Fellowship and depart in Fellowship.

Thank you very much.

The welcoming address was followed by a paper on the first of our five styles. The following is an excerpt from that paper.

Our precious Founder John D. Hughes was our kalyana-mitta friend, a true friend in the Dhamma. whose knowledges were vast. He was full of loving kindness, always ready to lend a helping hand, and to show people the way out of suffering.

When he founded the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd., John had in mind that the organisation policy should be constantly stressing that lifetimes of learning are needed by most persons for the completion of the Middle Path.

Simply expressed, this means that it should be based on the cultivation of friendliness, practicality, professionalism, cultural adaptability and scholarship.

Since the inaugural meeting of this Centre on 9 September 1978, many, many people have been given food and shelter, clothing, material aid, monetary assistance, work opportunities, work skill training, educational guidance, counseling and advice in career paths.

In the Fo Shuo Pei Sutra it is written:

Some friends are like great mountains.
Birds and beasts flock there
as if to a golden mountain,
their fur and feathers reflect its light.
Greatness gives greatness to others
and shares their joys and blessings

In a book by Master Hsing Yun titled ‘Being Good - Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life’ the Venerable wrote:

‘Some friends are like great mountains. They are capable of supporting forests and animals on their slopes. They are tolerant of everything that passes over them and will allow anyone to live near them. They do not object to bad weather, and even after years of violent storms they remain largely unchanged.

All of us should seek to be like this, and if we are fortunate enough to find friends like this, we should treat them with the utmost respect and consideration. Patience, tolerance, compassion and the ability to be a good friend are the traits of a Buddha and when they appear in people, they should be revered just as if they were aspects of the Buddha, for that is what they are.
Friends who are like the earth.
Great good fortune and great wealth
cause all to offer their respects.
If the wealthy one is generous and helpful,
they all will be grateful as well.
Some friends are like the earth. They are patient and expansive. They can hold anything. They are the source of life and a foundation for all things to grow upon. It is ‘great good fortune and great wealth’ of someone who is talented and virtuous. When such a person is generous with his or her abilities, they will be like the earth in that many people will be able to learn from him and many people will be nourished by him. If such a person also happens to be wealthy, then he will be even more able to help others.’

Master Hsing Yun wrote that ‘it is important that all of us strive to be like the mountains and earth in our friend ships, and it is important that all of us fully appreciate these qualities in others wherever we discover them.’
When you have found a true friend
you have found the best thing in life
and life will no longer seem so evil.
from the Ekottarika Agama.

Our practise of friendliness is materialised in many ways at our Centre.

During the last two decades, we have been privileged to attend upon many Buddhist Monks and Nuns who have visited or lived at this Centre. Without doubt, we have the will to continue such beneficial deeds for decades to come.

Over many years we have had Chinese and Vietnamese Buddhist organisations visited our Centre as part of their New Year Celebrations. Our Members enjoy this valuable opportunity to meet, pay respect and offer dana to visiting Sangha and their Students.

It is by our successful learning of the Buddha Way that we established new and lasting friendships based on morality and fellowship with one another.

As with each of our five styles, it is through morality training in the Five Precepts that the practise of friendliness is generated in all our good actions.

In a letter some years ago to our Centre Members, from the Venerable Tan Achaan Boonyarith, a Thai Monk of the Forest Order, he noted that the Highest Friendship is developed only when people have completed or near completed reciprocal "understanding" between each other. That no secret is left behind, that by totally seeing through the nature of things or the reality of the state or situation, can true friendship be realised. In Pali we call this type of friendship, kalyana-mitta.

This highest friendship can only happen in Dhamma, as opposed to friendship based on kamma, causes and effects from past times.

The Venerable Achaan noted that the highest friendship is accompanied by true happiness. The truth never changes - what appears to be changing is the interpretation which ignorant people attribute to their worldly situations.

The Buddha once advised his Monks, "one should keep close company with a spiritual friend (kaliyana-mitta) less one falls into the habit of doing evil. By keeping close contact with a spiritual friend one is finally convinced of one's considerable growth in learning, dana, insight - knowledge and wisdom.

There is friendship in the Dhamma amongst our Members because our Teacher has been their kalyana-mitta friend over several decades. When our Teacher instructed his students, he was teaching them for the benefit of themselves and others. He saw the potential in some of his students, that they were not able to see for themselves.

The Sigalovada Sutra says good friends have four basic characteristics:

If they see us doing wrong, they will speak up.
They are kind to us.
They take joy in helping others.
They do not abandon us in time of need.

Master Hsing Yun wrote that these four points reveal the very basic attitudes that are crucial not just in friendship, but also for making progress in Buddha Dhamma.
There is little in life that is more important than the people we choose to call our friends. These are the people who help us grow and whom we are bound to help in return.

The Abhiniskramana Sutra states:

If you spend your time with good friends,
your karma will mingle with their good karma
and even if you appear to gain nothing in this life,
you will have created the causal conditions
for liberation from all suffering.

May all beings have happiness and the causes of happiness through cultivating fellowship and true and wise friends.
May you and your friends be well and happy and live in peace and prosperity.
May our precious Teacher John D. Hughes be well and happy.
Thank you very much.


The following paper on practicality was read by Frank Carter, Vice President, Local Area Planning and Asset Maintenance.

Venerable Members of the Sangha, Honoured Guests, Members and Friends,

I would like to introduce the practicality component of our five styles practice by telling you about how these five styles were first formulated.

Our Teacher John Hughes would often introduce an idea or task to us in a seemingly casual way, without any fanfare particularly, without an outline of where this idea or task would eventually lead us.

Sometimes the task, which seemed simple enough at the time, turned out to be the genesis of a process or practice which became the hallmark of the way we operate and the way we will always operate.

In 1990 we published a 60th Birth Anniversary Accolade to celebrate not only Johns’ 60th birthday but also his lifework and host of achievements. The accolade was comprised of letters sent to us by many senior Buddhist Monks, Buddhist leaders and scholars from around the Buddhist world.

The letters contained descriptions of some of John’s wonderful qualities, accounts of some of his great Buddhist activities and the high regard John was held by the International Buddhist community.

During a 5 Day Meditation Course soon after this 60th Birth Anniversary Accolade was published John instructed his students to sit down together in the library and study the accolade.

Our task was to identify what words the many authors of those letters had used to describe the qualities and characteristics of John and also the Centre he founded, the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

There were, of course, many words used in these letters however the ones which appeared most frequently and consistently were friendliness, practicality, professionalism, scholarship and culturally adaptability.

The practice of these five styles had already been so well established before1990 by John that we were internationally recognised as employing these styles before we formally adopted them as our policy.

It seems to me this is a good example of how John used practicality to develop the Centre and cultivate fellowship.

The practical experience of reading the accolade letters gave the students a clear sense of the worth, importance and value of each of the five styles. We could see the 5 styles in practice already in our projects and activities. We could see the good impressions our practice of these styles had made on eminent persons throughout the Buddhist world.

By coming to these understandings we experienced the harmony of a shared sense of purpose.

The 5 styles of behaviour are major harmonising factors and components of fellowship.

The word practical is defined as “useful, able to put one’s knowledge to a useful end”

One frequently used element of practicality is planning. We have been trained in many aspects of planning by John Hughes over many years. In planning the process of doing something is made clear, we can all read it, understand it, the steps are clear. If there are flaws they can be seen and rectified before the event occurs, before causes of disharmony occur.

There are considerable synergies produced when the members of a group each have a consistent and common view of what is to be done. A number of people working in synergy can have a much more powerful effect than the sum of them working separately.

The modern work principle of teams is based on this knowledge and we employ this practical team structure at our Centre. Members learn to share computer files and work in teams to produce much of our written output for example. Fellowship in our Dhamma community can flourish through the companionship and synergy of work done by our Members in this way.

Practicality is the “how to” of getting things done, the appropriateness of the solution, the timeliness, the cost effectiveness, using resources wisely, being resourceful, finding affordable ways of doing what we plan to do. A practical solution doesn’t fall short of what is needed, nor does it overshoot the desired outcomes.

Practicality is a middle way approach incorporating creativity and lateral thinking when needed, it is not rigid or ritualistic. Because of these components practicality can usually achieve the desired outcome, it is a success ingredient, a organisational lubricant and a problem solver.

Therefore it underpins fellowship.

It is more difficult to maintain harmony if a group of people can’t achieve what is needed, are unable to find an appropriate solution to short and long term problems or if the solutions proposed by them are unworkable.

The result is usually thwarting for all concerned. The teams are teams in name only, there is more heat than light as John Hughes would say.

The five styles support each other. For example scholarship without practicality means the scholarship does not result in learning or knowledge which can be utilised, or it cannot be used to achieve any worthwhile purpose.

“We have developed a strong version of practical compassion of these influencing ideals as our way forward. We skill our Members not to be stingy towards their families and friends by teaching the benefits of dana (generosity) and sila. (morality)” (1)
Our Brooking Street Bugle publication is a practical means to facilitate the co-ordination of our activity and effort and fosters fellowship through highlighting our agendas and current concerns.

Recognising and using the Diamond Cutter Teachings by Geshe Michael Roach has been a practical means for members to study the art of helping others as a basis for our future enlightenment.

As this practice, which comes from understanding emptiness, is strengthened in each Member for himself or herself one of the beneficial outcomes will be greater strength and depth of harmony and fellowship at our Dhamma Centre.

The full attainment of harmony is described as when two beings know things in their ultimate realities.

Examples of our practical activities which have contributed to fellowship amongst ourselves are building the new kitchen and dining room, our Buddhist Hour Radio broadcasts and the various fundraising flower stalls we run each year.

We apply practicality with the wisdom of knowing it is by helping others that good causes for our futures are secured.

It is most practical to become skilful at serving others because this is a powerful base for us to learn and understand Buddha Dhamma. This is also a basis for creating fellowship, supporting it and strengthening it.

Wisdom knows it is practical to train persons in how to help themselves. While a Member is being trained how to build our new kitchen dining room they are also learning how to help themselves. Through this practical kindness to others fellowship is produced.

We have been running this type of structure for over twenty years along with a continuous improvement program, to the point where we have become highly productive and efficient in many different areas of Buddha Dhamma activity.

Over the next twelve months our Members will initiate a number of new projects including the commencement of construction of the new library building and meditation hall to house the Padmasambhava image.

In this project, as in all others at the Chan Academy Australia, the five styles will be practised together. Friendliness from each Member of the work team, professionalism in the proper and safe methods of construction following the appropriate building codes, scholarship in creating the right environment for a Buddhist library, cultural adaptability in being able to work in harmony with persons from different cultural backgrounds and practicality in providing a suitable facility fit for our Buddha Dhamma purposes.

May the merit made help all Buddha Dhamma Temples and Centres in the world have fellowship between their Members and may all Buddha Dhamma Temples and Centres have friendly and peaceful conditions in which to teach and propagate Buddha Dhamma. Thank you.

Next week will present the papers on our styles of Professionalism, Cultural Adaptability and Scholarship.

May you be well and happy.

This script was written and edited by Julian Bamford, Frank Carter, Leila Lamers and Leanne Eames.


Reference

Master Hsing Yun. ‘Being Good - Buddhist Ethics for Everyday Life’. Weatherhill New York USA 1998.
ISYS sourced papers from our John D. Hughes Collection heritage database:
ISYS Search (1/16/96)

ISYS Search - from page 68, December Six Day Bhavana Course (11/25/97)
ISYS Search - from BUDDHA DHYANA DANA REVIEW (12/31/98)
ISYS Search - from Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (8/28/96)
ISYS Search - from document dated (1/12/96)
ISYS Search - from Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (8/26/96)
ISYS Search - from page 18/19 Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. (12/28/98)
ISYS Search - from (10/27/80)

Chan Academy Australia (1996), Buddha Dhyana Dana Review, Volume 6 No. 2, Registered by Australia Post Publication No. VAR 3103.

(1) “Our approaches to Wisdom and Compassion : our Way Forward by John D. Hughes and Anita M. Hughes. October 2002.


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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.

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