No. 0563

Fostering Buddhist Culture and Values in the Corporate environment

The Buddhist Channel, October 12, 2005

Petaling Jaya, Selangor (Malaysia) -- “The Buddha refused to name his successor. He wanted to empower all of us to be CEO in our own right. Understand and practice His teachings and you are automatically the CEO of your life and the people around you.”

Participants will expect to hear more of such powerful one-liners from renowned Buddhist trainers in a forthcoming seminar entitled “Buddhism and Organization Management”. The one day seminar which will be held at a leading hotel in Shah Alam, Selangor on October 23, 2005.

Organized by the Yayasan Belia Buddhist Malaysia (YBBM) and supported by the Buddhist Business Network (BBN), the seminar is the first in Malaysia to bring together top corporate trainers and executives with Dharma teachers.

Organized in support of the development of the Bodhi Park project by YBBM, the objective of the seminar is to explore and discuss issues and manners on how to bring Buddhist teachings into the corporate office.

Aimed at corporate executives, working professionals and administrators, many of the discussion threads will be centered on two main areas.

The first, to be delivered by renowned corporate trainer Keek Seng Bee, will explore the expediency of using Buddhist teachings to foster values such as integrity, accountability and responsibility into the corporate environment. Using his background as a corporate trainer, his talks will touch on areas which are of concern to organizational management, such as effective leadership and competency framework. Models such as McKinsey’s 7S and Burke & Litwin Causal Model will be introduced to clarify modern researches in organizational behavior and how Buddhist teachings can be applied as complementary guides.

Another speaker, Mr Chong Su Lim will dwell on the topic of “Buddhist Values as Work Ethics”. His presentation will explore Buddhist value systems such as the Five Precepts and The Noble Eight Fold Path and how moral guidance can help one to become “better and more productive workers”.

Contribution of ideas and suggestion from members of the Sangha are also not left out. Leading the way will be Venerable Thitadhammo, the Sangha member from Singapore who was a professional trainer before giving himself fully to the holy life. His talk will be on “Bringing Buddhism into your office”.

While the idea nurturing Buddhist values in the office environment is not new, formulating the right content mix and expertise as derived by the seminar organizers in this instance is something of a novelty. “It is not often we get to hear experts who are competent in delivering organizational behavior models and superimposing them with Buddhist teachings,” explains the seminar organizing chairman Lim Kooi Fong. “With the gathering of such expertise, we hope the participants will get a fair idea of how Dharma based values can be seamlessly practiced in the office without feeling out of place,” Lim further emphasize.

http://www.buddhistchannel.tv/index.php?id=1,1809,0,0,1,0

No. 0565 ( Như Hạnh dịch)

Ðồng hồ linh ứng bảo vệ an tòan giao thông

Phnom Penh, Cambodia, Ngày 13 tháng 10, 2005- Hôm thứ năm, một vị Tỳ Khưu Cam Bốt đã đưa ra loạt đồng hồ đeo tay có trang trí hình ảnh của Sư có ếm linh phù trên mặt, để che chở cho đệ tử của Sư tránh khỏi tai nạn giao thông gia tăng hỗn loạn của xứ sở.

ĐĐ trụ trì chuà Chout Nhean, ở thành phố nghỉ mát Sihanoukville cách thủ đô 240km về phiá Tây Nam, Sư Keat Chanthuch, noí rằng Sư đã đẩy mạnh việc thực hiện tạo mẫu đồng hồ sau hàng loạt tai nạn xe buýt chết ngươì trên các đường phố đông đúc nối liền đô thị của Sư với thủ đô.

"Ý tưởng nảy ra khi một số đồ đệ cho biết là họ rất kính trọng tôi và muốn đeo đồng hồ được chúc phúc với hình ảnh của tôi trên đó. Sư noí tôi có trách nhiệm phải làm vì mới đây một số trong những đồ đệ đó liên can đến một tai nạn giao thông mà chỉ có họ sống sót.

Sư noí nhu cầu ngày càng gia tăng và bây giờ Sư đã thực hiện được khoảng 3000 cái, tất cả đều có nét đặc biệt là hình ảnh của Sư, với cổ tự Yon, hay thần chú bảo vệ bằng tiếng Phạn bên trong mặt đồng hồ.

Sư nói:"Tôi không tính thù lao các đồng hồ này, tôi cho không đến ngươì nào tin tưởng chữ Yon lấy từ các bức tường của chuà Bayon trong ngôi đền Angkor Wat ở Siem Reap, và khi ngươì ta thấy nó có tác dụng, đức tin Phật Giáo của họ sẽ được củng cố. Điều này rất tốt cho niềm tin của họ"

Khi Cam Bốt trở nên giàu có hơn, đường sá được cải tiến thì số xe hơi và xe tải trên đường gia tăng, kết quả là tai nạn xe cộ cũng tăng.

Trong những năm gần đây, số ngươì Cam bốt chết và bị thương vì tai nạn xe cộ thường xuyên vượt qua báo cáo gây ra do mìn bẫy, cho dù Cambốt còn là một quốc gia có số mìn bẫy nhiều nhất thế giới.
Niềm tin trong đất nước có 95% dân số là Phật tử đã gia tăng trở thành niềm tin
buà chú tôn giáo để giúp ngăn chặn tai nạn giao thông.

Magic watches 'protect from traffic'

Phnom Penh, Cambodia

13 Oct 2005 09:39

A Cambodian Buddhist monk said on Thursday he had launched a line of wristwatches, their faces emblazoned with his image and embedded with a powerful magic charm, to protect his followers from the developing nation's increasingly chaotic traffic.

Venerable Keat Chanthuch, head monk at Chout Nhean pagoda in the south-western seaside resort town of Sihanoukville, 240km from the capital, said he had been motivated to create the designer watches after a series of fatal bus crashes on the busy road that links his municipality to the capital.

"The idea came about when some of my students told me they respected me so much that they would like to wear watches blessed by me and with my picture on them. I obliged, and some of those students were subsequently involved in a bus crash from which they were the only survivors," Chanthuch said.

Demand for the watches increased as word of their apparently magic powers spread, he said, and he has now created about 3 000 of the timepieces, all of which feature his image, with an ancient Yon, or protective Pali language spell, on the inside of the face.

"I do not charge money for the watches. I give them away free to people who believe. The Yon is straight from the walls of the Bayon temple in the Angkor Wat complex in Siem Reap and when people see that it works, their belief in Buddhism is strengthened. It is good for their faith," the monk said.

As Cambodia becomes more affluent, roads have improved and the number of cars and trucks on the roads has increased, resulting in rising numbers of traffic accidents.

In recent years, the number of Cambodians killed and injured on the roads has regularly surpassed the toll inflicted by landmines, even though Cambodia remains one of the most mined countries in the world.

The faithful among the nation's 95% Buddhist population have increasingly turned to religious charms to help stave off traffic accidents. -- Sapa-DPA
http://www.mg.co.za/articledirect.aspx?area=&articleid=253569