A (1-2). Education of the Adult and Children Public

[Full title: Buddhist Contributions to the Australian Society (1-2): Education of the Adult and Children Public]

Patricia Sherwood had stated in her research about “the contribution of Buddhist in Australia” that 96 percent of the organizations were actively involved in education and social welfare activities”. Most all of them reached to a 100% of Buddhist organization had joined to the public programs of education for adult. While only 64 % of Buddhist organizations in Australia provide education programs for children.

Although, all Buddhist organizations are seeking the most important thing need to pass on the public, is to teach the Dharma if suffering was to be addressed at its fundamental source of human thinking and understanding which they were strongly stated that if people are to be freed from their suffering, of whatever nature, then it is necessary to understand the Four Noble Truths. There is a group explains that the heart of their contribution to public education comes from a profound commitment to the work of the Bodhisattva who already achieves enlightenment; with the compassionate she vows to come back the world for help instead she was deeply going to Nirvana.^[1]

Buddhist’s teaching in Australia, as anywhere in the world, is not about to convert people into Buddhism, but giving Buddhism to the people so that they become better people. This is why once we’ll hear the Buddha had taught in the doctrines that don’t be quickly believe what I had said but have deeply thinking and obverse it if it realistic then apply it into our everyday life. His Holiness the Dalai Lama also emphasizes that people should not hurry into changing their religious and cultural ways even if they draw inspiration from Buddhism. In the same way that we do not go around knocking on people’s door to promote Buddhism. We should instead educate people about how to become non-violent, compassionate, tolerant and forgiving people regardless of their religion. These are the true values of humanity.

Teaching Buddhism to Australians can be very challenging if one is too attached to one’s old ways and fails to understand Australian people’s way of thinking. Australians who study Buddhism are not deeply religious people. They are people who have become somewhat disillusioned with traditional religion and are very skeptical about anything religious.

Deeply religious people do not necessarily come to Buddhism. People become attracted to Buddhism because it offers a way to live wisely and kindly rather than having to believe in a set of doctrines. Buddhism primarily focuses on how to live consciously and act, think and speak with kindness so that one does not add to the causes of suffering. Suffering stems from one’s unskillful action and unskillful action is caused by afflictions. Afflictions, in turn, arise from selfishness and grasping to the wrong notion of self.

The Buddha means awakened one and every one of us has the potential to wake up from the sleep of ignorance. This awareness can be cultivated through meditation, simple living and self-discipline. These tools help people to pause before any action is undertaken knowing that their actions have consequences for other people and one’s own future.

Educated people have their own reasons for turning to Buddhism. Australians enjoy life and are appreciative of direct and practical teachings on how to live well with mindfulness and compassion. The practical nature of Buddhist teachings can bring up the humanity in people.

Although, they may attribute the teachings and texts to being revealed from rocks or from the pen of a scholar, but essentially none of them have anything new to add to what Lord Buddha taught in the eighty four thousand articles of the Dharma.

To fellow Buddhists teachings we have learn to respect each other, we can make a valuable contribution to multicultural Australia. If we all live by the teachings of kindness, tolerance and mutual respect, we are adding to the happiness of humanity. As long as we are kind to each other, we are all engaged Buddhists, whether we are laymen living in the city or monks and nuns retreating in the forest. This is why HH the Dalai Lama says, “My religion is kindness”. As this can go a long way to educate people that being Buddhist is about learning to be kind and caring.

Teaching is, of course, also a form of giving and helping. Indeed, one of the two prime offenses in the Mahayana code of discipline is that of withholding the wealth of the Dharma from others. Moreover, teaching the Dharma is one of the most valuable sources of learning open to a Buddhist.

Here we are concerned primarily with the teaching of the Dharma to newcomers in Buddhism, and with the general publicizing of Buddhism among non-Buddhists.

Finally, the method of introductory teaching employed in some Buddhist centers leaves much to be desired both on educational grounds and as Buddhist teaching. The Buddha always adapted his teaching to the particular circumstances of the individual learner; he sometimes opened with a question about the enquirer's occupation in life, and built his teaching upon the answer to this and similar questions. True learning and teaching has as its starting point a problem or experience posed by the learner, even if this be no more than a certain ill-defined curiosity. It is there that teacher and learner must begin. The teacher starts with the learner's thoughts and feelings and helps him or her to develop understanding and awareness. This is, of course, more difficult than a standard lecture which begins and ends with the teacher's thoughts and feelings, and which may in more sense than one leave little space for the learner. It will exclude the teacher from any learning.

It follows that unless the teacher is truly inspiring; the "Dharma talk" is best used selectively: to introduce and stimulate discussion or to summarize and consolidate what has been learned. Dharma teachers must master the arts of conducting open discussion groups, in which learners can gain much from one another and can work through an emotional learning situation beyond the acquisition of facts about Buddhism. Discussion groups have become an important feature of many lay Buddhist and social action organizations in different parts of the world.

Footnotes and references:

[1]:

Nirvana (Skt; Pali nibbana; Jpn neban): Enlightenment, the ultimate goal of Buddhist practice, the Sanskrit word nirvana means “blown out” and is variously translates as extinction, emancipation, cessation, quiescence, or non-rebirth. Nirvana was originally regarded as the state in which all illusions and desires as well as the cycle of birth and death are extinguished. There are two types of Nirvana. The first is that of the arhat who has eliminated all illusions and will no longer be reborn in the six paths, but who is still bound to the world of suffering in that he possesses a boby. This is called the nirvana of remainder or incomplete nirvana. The second is that which the arhat achieves at death, when both body and mind-the sources of suffering-are extinguished. This is called the nirvana of no remainder or complete nirvana.