The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Archives

The Buddhist Hour Radio Broadcast Script 53

Sunday 10 October 1999

Today's program is called: The New Planning Order

 

1.0 Planning ahead using Rank 3 cognitive systems

Yesterday, 9 October 1999, the Shire of Yarra Ranges had a Visioning Workshop for the Year 2020. This planning workshop was held at the Dandenong Ranges Community Cultural Centre at 351 Glenfern Road, Upwey.

We thank Mr. Bryce Craggs, Manager Corporate Strategy for his efforts in planning.

For several decades, our Centre has been interested in increasing our resources and service effectiveness in the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

We expect childhood exposure to computing on the internet will bring a growth in thinking and knowledge that will be a good foundation to conceptual structures necessary for a Rank 2 adult.

As computing moves so deep into the culture that significant numbers of children are programming, then that culture will produce a cohort of adults capable of solving not only software problems, but others as well.

By this pathway, Rank 3 and Rank 4 thought processes will arrive for many citizens.

In our terms, we call persons who use 2nd order knowledge Rank 2 thinkers; 3rd order knowledge as Rank 3 and so on.
To focus on trivia is 1st order. In day to day living, many persons operate at 1st order which is a hunter-gatherer mind set somewhat akin to Homer Simpson, whereas Bart is much more cognitive and operates at times as a 2nd order thinker.

However, things can be learned in different ways.

For example, like it or not like it, there have been in existence for 2,500 years pathways leading to Rank 4 or higher thought. This has been through mental cultivation (called bhavana in Pali ) taught as Buddha Dhamma.

Our cultural Centre teaches the ancient secrets of mental cultivation in a practical training library atmosphere where we introduce Members to good information.

We are a learning organisation.

We have been assembling much of this information into digital form as a data warehouse which we can use with our powerful search engines.

Our systems can produce knowledge management computing now well in excess of the norm that most households may not use tills the year 2020.

Since we use our systems in planning, we feel confident about our future direction.

As a Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, some of our Members attended the Visioning Workshop to supply information about our planning viewpoint of what education our Centre intends to provide over the next two decades to guide persons in our local area towards the good life.

William L. Benzon and David G. Hays (1997) take the view that the general effectiveness of a culture is not determined by the achievements of a few of its gifted Members.

What matters is what a significant, though perhaps small, portion of the population can achieve on a routine basis.

For many years, we have been promoting more widespread use of Rank 3 cognitive thinking about conceptual learning.

This means more persons could use at least 2nd or 3rd order knowledge on a regular basis.

Although we know several kinds of thinking that is cumulative, we also know that a simpler kind of thinking will continue which is similar to that which arises in preliterate societies which involve nothing more than family relationships.

This simpler kind of thinking has its origin in trying to rebuild and relive strong links between persons that existed from past lives and early times when hunting and gathering was the norm.

Such persons are conditioned to gather a cultural concept of strong mateship even if it means having less moral concepts than, say, city dwellers whose activities may be better policed.

We have a culture that gathers resources for persons beyond our immediate mates.

We use Rank 3 cognitive/conceptual systems to give us good planning to achieve this task

As we transmit our culture to the successful portion in our community, over the next 20 years, we plan that only the minority of the population will use Rank 1 and Rank 2 systems.

By 2020, we plan to encourage at least 28% of the local population to visit our web-site on a regular basis or tune into our local radio and TV cable broadcasts.

By 2020, we are planning to have another 10 small centres in the Shire of Yarra Ranges.

We plan to operate small-sized Temples, but will not go into debt to fund such places.

Local Members of our congregation who join will have information from our Intranet and Internet. Although we are a learning organisation, it is not our policy to grade Member's skills.

Although we have a fair idea of Members skills, for professional reasons we do not disclose them to third parties. We do not wish to set ourselves up in this domain.

If Members wish to get graded for work reasons, they can study and sit examinations at other institutions. We encourage educational processes of all kinds. As a service to Members, we are exploring things from the job-prospecting viewpoint.

--It might be attractive for future Members to have their well-written C.V. on our site.

We prefer smaller rather than larger spaces to deliver our teachings.

--It has been suggested that through 2003, the majority of large enterprises will fail to achieve great supply chain management (SCM)

We are looking to address this problem by providing on-site overnight living at our Centre for our key technical LAN and WAN staff officer.
Because of Rank 4 thought about planning, our organisation has managed to avoid the high levels of hype on commercial computing which leads to a peak of inflated expectations.

--Thus, we avoid troughs of disillusionment with systems.

--For more information, refer to the Gartner Group 1998 Hype Cycle in their April 1998 Research Review.

At present, we are not inclined to borrow money to buy new premises.

Unless we could get local or overseas funding of, say, a $5 million lump sum to purchase a suitable larger local institution, we would favour low density buildings where users are active in lending a helping hand to service each site.

We have shown that some technical computer support persons find it hard to relate to imposing "institutional" buildings. Perhaps, they prefer a quiet atmosphere to operate.

--We plan to provide the best tranquil conditions for creative persons.

--This "small is beautiful" policy does not seem likely to be subject to review.

Our estimate of the next two decades is that 1 to 2% of the local population may wish to visit us on a regular attendance basis.

There is peacefulness at our Centre. The social aspects of attending a religious teaching in person are correct.

Our other projection is the 28% of the persons will visit a Buddhist Temple once a month by the year 2020.

We are not willing to take the steps that sacrifice quality of surroundings to match quantity demand.

We are happy enough not to be suckered into providing resources of lower quality.

We are willing to ration personal contact to those who seek Rank 3 cognitive skills.

These skills are given freely.

Obviously, some equipment storage requires scale ­ within a decade, we will be driven to be practical enough to look for economy of scale of providing another building for new library space.

We have formed a forward planning team.

Obviously, we are not about to disclose what we plan to purchase because it would affect prices. We may consider joint ownership with the Chan Academy.

At present, one small room is devoted to library space and some archives are stored in another place.

--Our planning includes use of other larger space when it is available at no charge.

Some years ago, at a Peace Festival, Members of the Buddhist Discussion Centre, (Upwey) Ltd. gathered at the Melbourne Town Hall (Victoria) to build the first Buddhist Peace Mandala in Victoria.

It was available for public viewing.

As John D. Hughes, Founder of the Centre, said in a Press release: "The sight of a Buddhist Peace Mandala is rarer than viewing Haley's Comet."
This Buddhist Peace Mandala was a unique event in the City of Melbourne's 48-hour Peace Vigil, which was a community-based festival, organised as a part of UNESCO's International Year of Peace.

Since the Buddhist Peace Mandala was the inaugural event, the Lord Mayor of Melbourne, Councillor Trevor Huggard, visited the Melbourne Town Hall to declare the official commencement of the Peace Vigil.

Participants from the B.D.C.(U) Ltd. had been included in the various stages of planning of the Mandala and had meditated intensively on previous days to ensure that each step was undertaken with the correct amount of mindfulness. Each contributed an object of personal value to be placed within the Mandala so that a real and symbolic offering was made, not unlike a relinquishing of attachment. This represents 2nd order knowledge.

A complete mandala represents 3rd order knowledge.

2.0 From Facilitators to Teams

About a decade ago, our organisation, like many other charitable organisations in our State, had three persons who had positions in facilitator roles.

None of these volunteer persons were graduates.

They were drawn from that section of the community that operates in Rank 1 and Rank 2 conceptual systems. They could communicate reasonably well with their peers.

In those times, the facilitator's role was seen as an overview of the day to day needs and functioning of the Centre, both in the short term and year's planning.

This would involve co-ordinating correspondence, distributing information to students and inquirers, organising functions and maintaining the Centre.

Today, in the information age, such things are done by most Members on computer- assisted knowledge management.

Our Task units simulate Rank 3 conceptual systems.

The days of lone facilitators making individual ad hoc decisions on key policy is over.

Although, at the time, it was felt they should advise the Directors of points for the monthly committee meeting's agenda, the facilitator's education level was too low for them to write and present operational reports at Rank 3 conceptual levels.

It was soon seen that the facilitators lacked the training required to nurture all the various facets of our organisation.

They did not seek to take on the entire responsibility for Members' discussions.

They missed the opportunity to get others involved in sharing the workload.

Things provided are to be freely given.

Ideas and suggestions were welcomed from other members of the committee and contacts. However, the difficulty was these members and contacts may not have been invited to attend facilitators' meeting if a particular need arose.

We did not have e-mail to speed up communication a decade ago.

Under these conditions, in general, it is understandable how these Rank 1 and 2 persons do not have the cultural imperative or means to seek more prompt delivery of our services. This could be termed "the 9 to 5 mind set". Present members stay with the task till it is complete, even if they have to work till midnight and e-mail for help.

By contrast, the old facilitators would hold a meeting once a month to co-ordinate and check any matters arising. They left little documentation. Hence, their interpretation in the pace of work expected by today's standard could not be grasped. We could not change with ease till they left the organisation.

We are not planning to use such persons in the future. They slow down service.

3.0 A library to last 500 years

Forward planning for the John D. Hughes Collection, like all areas in our organisation, is imperative. New library space is required. This will mean an extra room or building. The number of donated books is increasing which means our Archive Officer must train more librarians.

Having rank 3 conceptual systems as our normal culture means our librarians look at conditions for improving skills by the promotion of reading books at Rank 3 or above in the John D. Hughes Collection.

Bearing in mind how we offer invitations to scholars to browse and read at our Centre we control such things as a suitable level of fresh air ventilation in the library.

These matters were addressed within the last year.

This year, our Archive Officer will look into modern library publications and read about libraries' best practice in relation to the internet.

3.1 A library is not worth anything without a catalogue - "it is a Polyphemus without any eye in its head".
(Thomas Carlyle: Testimony before the Commissioners Appointed to Inquire Into the Constitution and Government of the British Museum, Feb., 1849)

When we can raise the funds we are planning to move up a level in cataloguing to Athena software. This software will allow us to find Dewey numbers off the Internet, which are used by established libraries that have their catalogues online. This gives us the equivalent of professional librarians' cataloguing skills at our site. At present, we lack such on-line experience of the Internet.

This decision is Rank 3 thinking because we considered what "added value" would look like with Internet implementation as part of our library planning.

Our library is with Australian Libraries Gateway.

By using the latest communication aides such as the Internet, we are setting in place a procedure for generating an innovative library acquisition network which may allow a change in normal scheduled activities to give us a more "dynamic library".

We do not know the quantity of new material we expect to gain from an Internet appeal but we can guess that, over time, we must fine tune parts of the present library system catalogue or re-direct or guide them in a relevant direction to service users.

The quantity of new material we gain increases each year from other appeals.

3.2 The library you are looking for

We have the methodology for articulating strategic planning and strategic performanceof Buddha Dhamma libraries.

Details will be published next year in a book titled, The Library You Are Looking For, written by John D. Hughes about our library.

In balance, we think it is prudent to articulate our strategic plan to a large and unconvinced audience, even if a few of our non-friends denigrate our motives by following the fashion of joining nihilism theory with critical literary theory.

The first part of that study paper attempts to create a listening-space for the discussion of issues that are going to have impact on many persons within our organisation and end-users outside our organisation.

Steve Bright of Catalyst Communications (1998) suggested organisational literature could be used in narrative form as a strategic planning tool.

Donald Polkinghorne (1988) suggested narrative expression is a form of "meaning making" which can serve as a lens through which apparently independent and disconnected elements of existence are seen as related parts of a whole.

Our Founder's latest book describes our history of joining knowledge management in a library with information shaping needed for 21st Century global challenges.

It is due for publication in February 2000.

The general intention of the first part of this book about our library systems is to use some narrative form to familiarise our Members and the general public whose learning is at Rank 1 and 2 to start to become end-users of our cultural information.

Over time, with lots of practice, our e-library will bring persons to Rank 3 cognitive systems or better.

We hope listeners buy our Founder's book when it is published. We are not able to take advance orders at present.

We set out to provide an organised background to deliver value to end-users of our library in the form of products and services, while, at the same time, we try to produce skills of commercial value for most of our individual Members engaged in our supply chain management.

Taken together, these two kinds of value, when expressed as Rank 3 functions, constitute our core values that can be mapped into supply chain operations to give some discipline paradigms for our Buddha Dhamma library operators.

4.0 The use of Rank 3 systems in other areas

Rank 3 conceptual systems often have incomplete data when they need to address cultural issues.

One example is incense use. This is a case where a small concern expressed by a Member of the Sangha set our managers onto a Rank 3 OH&S inquiry.

Some years ago, one Monk requested we do not offer incense.

The facts are few.
--Over a year, up to 120 brands of incense are given to our Temple.
--We do not have a composition analysis on every packet.
--We have no precise analysis figures of the composition of the perfumed smoke likely to arise from combustion.
--A simple "sniff" test of some brands leads up to the conclusion it would not be wise to use these in an enclosed space.
--We do not know which persons are sensitive to fumes.

We have considered prohibiting the overuse of some types of incense in the altar rooms by the Sangha and attendant lay persons to ensure good air quality is offered to Members.

Rank 3 systems are also needed to understand the complexities of laws dealing with safety planning.

We are fortunate to have an A grade electrician who has made the latest changes for fire prevention to our electrical wiring.

Since quality codes come are under review from time to time in unpredictable ways by State or local authorities we need to review them as they apply to us.

Our important operations must be prioritised to meet deadlines.

Because we are able to review and renew our organisation's identity and opportunities, we create new possibilities for growth.

Although we have set up fixed predictable tasks for much of the maintenance of Teachings and allow time for task units to gather for their current action research cycles, some of our activities have a large number of variables and present us with multiple conflicting objectives.

Because some stakeholders try to develop measures more meaningful to their concerns rather than ours, we have to focus not only on strategic planning but, more and more, on strategic performance.

Because of our new planning order, the "9 to 5 limit" has vanished. We get things done quicker because we have removed the idea of a standard week.

--Good things happen when teams complete the job.

On one evening, some Members gathered to parcel and put the printed out address stickers on over 700 copies of our Review on the day it arrived from the printer. Several years ago, our facilitators took two weeks to complete the same task using hand-written addresses. Their resistance to technology rejected the effort needed to work through the concept of using a database to store addresses and print labels.

On another day, at short notice, Members of our Task Unit arranged for transport, accommodation and dana (offering food) for five overseas Monks at one day's notice. The Monks had just arrived in Melbourne from India and had one day before they went on tour.

To generate a new e-library resource, they are filmed as they pay respect to the images in our Assembly Hall, liberate fish into our Quan Yin pond, and chant long life blessings in front of our Padmasambhava Image in the west of the heavenly Dhamma garden of our Centre.

At the same time, other Members greeted visitors from a Sydney Dhamma Centre, supplied them with publications and made them welcome.

One Member helped an unhealthy woman feel better.

That evening some Members drove the Monks to their next recital.

We have persons who work at their homes to give us steady improvements with our computer systems.

We use these systems to write and edit Dhamma papers.

Over many years, using Rank 3 cognitive systems, we have developed our own body of knowledge and practice which enables us to express the twin values from two viewpoints which can be expressed as growth or as emergent possibilities for action.

The Santa Fe Centre for Emergent Strategies' theory of business action (1998) models two major ongoing processes.

The first comprises instrumental processes involving production of desired outcomes which usually occur against the background of prevailing technology, knowledge and methodologies.

The second is an entrepreneurial process of evolving interactions between the supply chain and customer worlds against the background of history, or what the shared world and this business are in the process of becoming. The form is change (Pali - anicca).

Over time, the production and delivery of goods and services changes the insight available and then the background practices of our Members and end-users begin to change.

Things formerly unknown become known at the individual level. These insight outcomes reshape the environment in which our organisation operates.

Insight outcomes complete the complex adaptive system cycle and we begin again to deliver the next level of insight for the individual.

We need to have a methodology for the economic alignment of our human resources.

The replacement value of the direct physical resources owned by our organisation is about $400,000.

Because of years of training, we estimate the replacement value of the human resources of our Members and Friends is about $20 million.

Many of our Members are graduates and some have second degrees, for example, MBA (Master of Business Administration), and MAJIT (Master of Arts in Japanese Interpreting and Translation).

Their skills, apart from being essential for library operating, reporting and planning tasks, also cover occupational health and safety (OH&S), finance, and environment support policies.

Their capability to produce suitable instructions for new Members and new end-users for their next-after-next teaching material will depend on the data warehouse contents.

End-users must come to appreciate that if they rely on the completeness of the content of our library and data warehouse, they themselves must provide additional content for our data warehouse on a continuing basis.

We predict that the era of one-to-one, face-to-face training and teaching is now in decline.

The reason for saying that is it is becoming clear that there is more to learn both in terms of the size of the vocabulary needed and in the analytic capacities needed, to cover extended cognitive processes.

We must continue to develop Rank 4 thinking in many of our Members because this is needed for use to do a good job as a Regional Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists.

While the metalingual mechanism rationalises the ontology implicit in the relationships between objects and events in the concrete domain it is only Rank 2 thought.

This means we have to get better than Rank 2 expressions as our user target is becoming more educated and more global.

Higher levels of group classifications are needed as additional disciplines expand.

We see it as more and more normal to supply our recent Members with expensive specialised dictionaries such as, Chinese Buddhist-hybrid-English, Pali-English, Sanskrit-English and so on.

Writing imposes more discipline when the contextual clues available from face-to-face conversation are too expensive to maintain because of the cost of airfares.

In spite of Australian multiculturalism, it must be remembered that Australia is not at the hub of things in the geographical sense. Some of our Members travel overseas at regular intervals on business. This fact helps us keep in touch.

Our new strategy focuses on self-directed, work-centred and organisation-supported learning, and includes a requirement for systems science competency models for every individual, team, department and business unit with excellent cross-functional comparability, in-depth knowledge assessment, behaviourally anchored skills analysis, position-profiles, self-assessment, gap analysis, a skills development process and a personal and organisation value-analysis.

We are moving step-by-step in a directed plan of knowledge management so most of these things are written down and will become available as teachings that can be delivered from our intranet or internet site.

In the near future, our international capacity to clarify behaviours, successes and problems and organise generative interactions with human beings in the Pacific Rim sphere of influence must be increased and conserved. But it must not be ferang!

From a narrative point of view, the undiscussible can be made overt and easily discussed and the organisational environment as a multi-layered entity can be apprehended as nested systemic constructs.

We have started to shift to model-driven rather than rule-driven behaviour to find a lead to more autonomy in solving problems.

From time to time, we must stop being busy and request commentary that we will translate and write down on the nature of wisdom from our antecedent and living Masters.

Above all, we repeat that all study makes it clear to our past, present and future would-be Members that they must show others they act to make merit every day. Remember:

Beautiful gardens are not made
by saying how lovely
and sitting in the shade...

5.0 Visioning is part of Rank 3 thought about where we are

Visioning is taught as a highly useful development linked to strategic planning.

In a visioning process, the first step is for a person to acknowledge resistance to what is happening.

This resistance is put on hold for later until it becomes open to rational analysis within an agreed planning network.

If we are not to become too old fashioned, it means we are willing to keep doing reality checks that our views on the hardware and software systems we use are compatible with what is available elsewhere with our clients.

Other meanings of "not to become too old fashioned" mean we make evaluations of where we stand and what we need to stay literate.

It would be nice to be coherent on what we want to work out and yet plastic enough so our actions can be modified by frequent casual, as well as formal interaction with other parties.

At times, one or more software upgrades which some Members might regard as a small change is necessitated for us to be able to stay on track with significant others.

For users of our buildings who think they should be consulted on long term planning we ask them if they want to be here or elsewhere over the next five years of their life.

Like it or not like it, we cannot afford to let Monks or Nuns use our place over the long term and turn it into some sort of a dead place like a hospice to die in.

If their age is favourable and health good, we do not think it is unreasonable if we ask ourselves if he or she seems able or unable to be prepared to engage with a culture of helping our Members attain their medium term development or not.

We must remember that even if Buddha Dhamma is the third most popular religion in Australia, there are only about 500 Temples nation-wide in a population of 18 million.

On the assumption that 2% of the population or 360 000 persons would like to follow Buddha Dhamma, the simple average for such figures means the average Temple ought service a figure of about 720 persons per year.

We know that many Buddhist persons tend to visit Temples only once a month on full moon days. Often, Temples are too small for this monthly demand and ceremonies are held in public community halls.

We are clear that we do not wish to meet in public community halls yet we incline to the view that it is not wise to spend Members funds to design a large Hall of Assembly.

By hiring and erecting a large community tent on site, we have found we can handle a few hundred visitors in Spring or Summer for a few hours without too much strain on our resources.

We think we can refute the idea of spending $5 million to get a larger delivery system that would be loaded as a cultural Centre once a month.

Rank 4 projections suggest that for the next few years, it is our preferred option to arrange service for an "A" list of our Members who want powerful teaching three times a week.

We have discussed this option and have written confirmation from Buddhist Leaders in many countries that they are waiting for many of our Members on our "A" list to become conditioned to their role to include themselves in the quality creation of the next generation of Buddhist Leaders.

The way we educate Members is to see to it that they comprehend what we intend to deliver to users locally and world-wide.

The ability of "A" list persons to deliver to users means they have the use of our updated systems and programs to accept the notion that their input to our organisations leads to examples of work as output. Planning turns to work.

Because of the information cultural gap that has developed, our users will not find it efficient to seek inputs from persons removed from the "A" list.

We have found that the input to our organisation of many Monks and Nuns who favour our notions leads to examples of work as output.

They know our planning turns to Dhamma propagation work. Buddha Dhamma training has always been labour intensive. The Order of Monks and Nuns (Sangha) needs a place where few duties are expected of its members so that they can maintain the full Ethical Rules (Vinaya) of the Order. These are needed to cause the right "propelling" (Samvara) which arouses the Middle Way Path to cultivation.

In quiet solitude, the practitioners, each for himself or herself, labour to develop the insights needed to see things as they really are. With calm abiding, practice (Bhavana) becomes clear.

At present, only a few Australian Temples (Vihar) can provide the calm needed. Monks and Nuns should not be busy worrying about funding. There should be a spontaneous approach to providing their requisites for the intensive practice prescribed for several months each year (Vassa).

Judging by the expensive blueprints of new Australian Temples that the author has been privileged to view and given the drive sponsors have to bring
planning schemes to the final stage of tangible construction in this country, some high grade Temples appearing in this country have been found to be very
expensive to maintain and operate.

The Abbess of one Temple advises that there are not enough persons required to look after the premises and therefore the Nuns have to work very hard to
mow the lawn and keep the weeds down. Whilst the Sangha are engaged in such activities which should be undertaken by lay persons, they are transgressing some of the Vinaya rules which include not making holes in the ground.

The bimonthly electricity bill of one Temple is about AUS$20,000.

Some time ago a group of Monks stayed at a Temple and used the telephone for a series of overseas calls, resulting in a telephone bill of around AUS$20,000. Such operating expenses cause enormous pressure on Temples to have teams of people continually fundraising. By contrast, the author's Temple has been kept small in scale and therefore can provide a ratio of forty lay persons to one Monk.

The Monks who are invited to use our premises do not have to worry about maintenance of the grounds or fundraising to pay the running expenses. Under the Vinaya, Monks and Nuns are not allowed to handle gold or silver or salt.

The interpretation of this rule means that a Sangha member must not be put into a position where they have to handle money. By such management of our
resources, we are able to meet the traditional training mission within the framework of the Vinaya.

Documentation for taxation purposes becomes more labour intensive year by year. At present, with three layers of Government (national, state and
local) having separate taxes, about 2000 documents per year are required for a Temple to meet taxation requirements.

Australian Buddha Dhamma practice is firmly grounded because it appears that at least 10 per cent of the 500 Buddhist organisations have committed their members to rapid development and forced them to learn and obey the letter of the law.

6.0 The framework for the economic upper limit on site development

The management infrastructure of the organisation should assemble a planning and decision making framework for the development of the future Strategy for the Company.

The framework should establish;

1. The Strategic objectives

2. Development criteria

3. Performance measurements for buildings including a recommendation on the maturity point at which overcapitalization of individual buildings will be described.

Induction programs are needed to allow key staff to discuss these three notions that, sooner rather than later, determine when a specific site requires little further development.

Having such a framework, means restraint is imposed by clear-headed reflection on the outcomes which arise from over-capitalising of the existing
site.

Within the next decade, it is thought we should blanket the local area by operating and staffing up to nine Centres within the Shire. With this aim, a series of incentive challenges are available for our exceptional Members who choose to move to the Hills. Our 20 km radius preferred sector zones from our Centre needs to be mapped for the purposes of regional analysis.

Prior to the formulation of these three elements within the framework, a regional analysis in the preferred sectors of the present and future demographics of our target audiences within our catchment area should be completed. For the moment, our unanalysed suggestion is that it is feasible to extend the present site value of buildings and contents.

Certainly before we reach a figure of $5M, research on this venture should be completed and fully developed. We hope to reach this $5M figure by 2000. Seeing for themselves that a $5M debtless site could be established by 2000 C.E. lends sufficient credo to induce present staff to accept as viable a 500-year planning frame.

When current and future benefactors meet with the administrators on the $5M mature site, the image and style of the site and the deportment of the
administrators harmonises with the rhetoric we deliver by internet access and local KNOX FM radio.

When our growth policies are highly developed, we need to strengthen the number of administrators available to operate our Centre without stress. The managers (work group leaders) relationships to one another move over time to become based on mutual respect, openness and honesty. Since all Work Group Leaders are committed to customer services, administration must have some safe place where national policies are supported and legislative requirements are met.

At present, we do not need to demonstrate monumental church structures because these would be out of scale with the present sense of serenity grounded in the garden/building ratio and the single storied profile of the current buildings.

When current policy is applied to analogous items, the future for large scale structures suggest they come when sufficient excess capital is available to
purchase adjoining land.

 

May you be well and happy.

 


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.


© 2002. Copyright. The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd.

Back to Top