ABSTRACT
I have taught for over 30 years in the Australian university sector and have a deep commitment to education as a process for creating skilful states within individuals and communities. In 1986 I moved from Perth to Bunbury, to become a foundation member of this regional campus of Edith Cowan University. I taught many human service courses including the world’s great religious traditions. I decided that for each tradition I would give one academic lecture and I would invite one practitioner of the tradition to give one lecture from a practitioner’s experience. When I came to teach Buddhism, the material was immediately familiar and I read deeply, including the entire Pali canon. When Ajahn Jagaro and Ajahn Brahm, the Thai-trained Theravada teachers from the Western Australian Buddhist Society visited the class to lecture on Buddhism, a deep silence opened into the sound of bell ringing. I was awakened by the peacefulness of their presence, as were the students. Nothing disturbed the mind states of these monks and, as they walked down the university corridors, a quietness descended around them. At that moment, I knew it was this state of mind that enabled wisdom and compassion to be cultivated, free from fears, irritations, anger, aversion and desire. I wanted to acquire that state of mind so that I, too, could be a beacon of peacefulness in this sometimes troubled world. At the end of the course, 52 per cent of the students in the class voted Buddhism as the worldview they would be most interested in understanding more about. It was clear Buddhism provided a range of tools to deal with our day-to-day stressful mind states, and tools to transform them into a ‘clear forest pool’ from which wisdom and compassion could arise. I was inspired by Ajahn Chah’s vision of this still forest pool:
All kinds of wonderful, rare creatures will come to drink at the pool, and you will see clearly the nature of all things. You will see many strange and wonderful things come and go, but you will be still. This is happiness of the Buddha.
