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The non-ending journey
of Master John D. Hughes
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Melbourne: Sabbe
Sankhara Anicca (All conditions are impermanent). Master John D.
Hughes passed away on Saturday 29 November 2003 at 5:50pm EST at
the Angliss Hospital, Melbourne, Australia. Master John D. Hughes
was with his wife Anita Hughes and persons who love him.
Buddha Dhamma Chanting has been occurring, throughout the day
beginning about 12:00pm.
Many Venerable Monks and students of Master John D. Hughes chanted
blessings for three hours following his death.
Master John D. Hughes was the Founder, Abbot and Resident Teacher
of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. It is a Regional
Centre of the World Fellowship of Buddhists, an Associated
Institution of the World Buddhist University and a member of the
Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria.
Master John D. Hughes was a former Vice-President of the World
Fellowship of Buddhists and the recipient of the Visuddhananda
Peace Award 1999.
Master John D. Hughes taught over 1 million students in 14
countries during this lifetime.
Master John D. Hughes was a great man who dedicated his life to
the Buddha-Dhamma and his passing away is a loss to the Buddha
Sasana. Master John D. Hughes' high spirit of propagating the
Dhamma will live on in our hearts. Let the Dhamma be the guide in
times of grief. May the Lord Buddha bless everyone with peace!
Namo Tassa Bhagavato Arahato Sammasambuddhassa
Master John David Hughes
Born 9 September 1930 - Deceased 29
November 2003
Funeral Celebration Ceremony
Saturday 6 December 2003
11.00 am Dana Lunch offering to Venerable Sangha and blessings
12.00 MD Bell Puja
12.05 pm Family Offering
Offering of flowers, 6 vegetarian dishes, 1 large bowl of rice,
fruit and incense
12.10 pm Sutra recitation to John Hughes by Master Ru Sun
12.40 pm Dhamma talk to John Hughes by Master Ru Sun
12.45 pm Offering of incense and recitations by guests, family,
students and friends
2.00 pm Departure of funeral party to The Necropolis, Princes
Highway, Springvale, Victoria, Australia
3.00 pm to 3.30 pm Cremation Ceremony at the Necropolis, Princess
Highway, Springvale
Master John Hughes at the World Fellowship
of Buddhists Conference in Thai Lan (1999)
Venerable Thich Nguyen
Tang and Master John Hughes
in front of His Buddhist Centre (Melbourne, Australia, 01-2001)
TRIBUTE TO
MASTER JOHN DAVID HUGHES
The most important thing for John fundamentally is 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.
Australia - John David Hughes is a
fourth generation Australian and was born on the 9th of September
1930 in Mentone, which is located by the beach near Melbourne in
Port Phillip Bay, Victoria, Australia. John’s father’s father was
rich. He had 28 employees and his sons worked for him. Keith
Albert Hughes, John’s father, was also rich, but in 1930, the
business collapsed in the Great Depression. Then his father was
unemployed. But John’s parents as well as other family members
provided him with everything he needed and his childhood was a
very happy one. John was the only child and on Sundays up to 18
family members used to come for dinner, presenting a strong sense
of family. He was a very bright and unusual boy.
Today, John is the
resident Buddha Dhamma Teacher and Founder of the Buddhist
Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd. He built this temple to provide
persons in Australia the opportunity to make merit, so that they
can learn and practice Buddha Dhamma. John chose a suitable
location for the temple in the quiet hills of the Yarra Ranges. He
established a heavenly Ch'an garden surrounding the Buddhist
Centre and has built a multilingual Buddhist reference library,
the John D. Hughes Collection, in the temple, which he wants to
last for at least 500 years. On 9 September 2000, John's 70th
birthday, the 70th Buddha relic arrived for this year. Over 300
Buddha relics including three hair relics are now stored in the
Centre. The lemma John chose for the organisation is 'Lifetimes of
Learning'.
The most
important thing for John fundamentally is 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.
John sees himself
in a process of becoming, not as a static entity, but in a process
of a non-ending journey until he will end up as a Buddhist Chief
monk, Sariputta, under the future Buddha. He trains himself every
day to this aim in a very focused and coherent way following his
life plan.
People that
really make a difference in the world in many countries, including
about 8000 Buddhist monks, bodhisattvas, business leaders and
politicians, have shaped John's life. Some of them he has
personally met. Atisha, one of the great beings, whom John met in
a past life 1000 years ago, still inspires him today.
John has a
Diploma of Applied Chemistry from Swinburne College of Technology,
a Trained Technical Teacher's Certificate from the Education
Department of Victoria, he has studied Arts and Education at
Deakin University, was awarded a Graduate Diploma in Adult and
Industrial Education from Deakin University and studied
Mathematics at the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology. For
many years he taught science in Victorian Technical Schools and
was Committee Member and later Chairman of the Boronia Teacher
Education Centre.
John was the
Founder and Secretary of Australian Manufacturers Patents,
Industrial Designs, Trademark & Copyright Association (AMPICTA).
The Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd is a foundation member
of the Ethnic Communities Council of Victoria. Also, John owns a
company trading as WINNERS GAIN GROUND, which provides commercial
training packages .
Many nicknames
were given to John over the years, but the one that really seems
to stick is 'Spike'. It comes from the days when John enjoyed
playing Jazz cornet and a popular band at the time had the name
‘Spike’. John has always liked music and reading a lot.
John D. Hughes was
elected as Vice-President of the World Fellowship of Buddhists (WFB)
in November 1998. On the 25th of January 2000 John was awarded
with the Visuddhananda Peace Award (in Memory of His Holiness the
Late 24th Mahasanghanayaka Visuddhananda Mahathero) from
Bangladesh. The Venerable Shilalankar Mahathero, the Sangharaj of
the Supreme Sangha Council of Bangladesh describes John in a
letter to his 65th birthday 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”.
John is one of the World's few living Ch'an
Masters and has been painting Ch'an images for more than four
decades. He founded the Ch'an Academy at the Buddhist Discussion
Centre (Upwey) Ltd., where the 'Way of the Brush' is taught by
him. The classic Chinese Ch'an painting method has many meanings;
it is a Buddhist meditation practice. Ch’an, also known as Zen, is
like Prajna Paramita. For John personally, he paints for long life
practice and also as a way of thanking the Dragon King for helping
him. The paintings are profoundly beautiful. John says that it is
interesting in Australian nationalism to have an Australian
painter that will be remembered for a long time for painting
classic Ch'an in Australia.
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John D. Hughes with students in Bangladesh |
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John travels regularly to national and
international Buddhist conferences and Buddhist organisations and
has helped many beings in Australia and Overseas with his wisdom
and compassion. He has visited and taught students in 14 different
countries around the world, which come from various cultural,
social and economic backgrounds. In the future, John wants to
establish a branch of a Buddhist university.
Science is
fundamentally the basic discipline John is trained in, and his
hobby is the building of a private Geological Museum, which is
again tied to the Dragon King. For over three decades John
collected precious stones and rare fossils from all over the world
and he plans to create an on-line Geological Museum on the
internet as e-education, and wants to inspire persons to become
geologists. On the 9th September 2000 John launched UMLAUT, the 'Upwey
Museum Library All Uniting Think Tank'. He decided to publish the
UMLAUT notes on the internet.
Over the last 11
years John has been editor of the Buddha Dhyana Dana review, the
flagship journal of the Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd and
he was also editor in the previous 11 years when the journal was
called the BDCU Newsletter. This publication is distributed to 40
countries and will soon be available on one of John's specialised
websites. John presently has seven truly beautiful Dhamma
websites, they are a treasure, and he plans to build more
multimedia sites. Also, John plans to build some low-tech sites,
because many people have slow computers, such as with a 386
processor. He publishes ongoing teaching materials on his
websites. John uses this virtual form instead of the traditional
ideal face to face scenario to teach those students, who are not
in the position to travel to the Centre.
By using the new
information technology he wants to enable many more beings to meet
and learn the Buddha Dhamma. John is also Executive Producer of
'The Buddhist Hour' radio show, which is broadcasted every Sunday
from the local Knox FM 87.6 & 88.0 radio station, and he is
planning to broadcast the show digitally via the Internet in the
future. In addition, John is going to publish a number of books.
The first one is nearly ready and it is called The Library You Are
Looking For. John operates at both the micro and the macro level.
His knowledges
are vast and he is full of loving kindness, always ready to lend a
helping hand, and to show people the way out of suffering. John is
practical and is often delegating tasks to others; he has many
people helping him. John D. Hughes is a very inspirational person
who has helped and will continue to help many beings.
May Master
John be blessed with a good rebirth.
Source:
http://www.bdcu.org.au
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The Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation of Australia – New Zealand
*Văn
Phòng HỘI CHỦ, Chùa Pháp Hoa, 20 Butler Ave, Pennington, S.A.5013,
Australia
(National Executive Council)
Tel 08-84478477 ; Fax 08-82401758
*Văn Phòng Tổng Thư Ký, Chùa Pháp Quang, 12 Freeman Rd, Durack, QLD
4077, Australia
Tel: 07-33721113 ; Mobile: 0402-442431 ; Fax: 07-33729988 ; Email:
phapquang@iprimus.com.au
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Master
John David Hughes was the founder and President of the
Buddhist Discussion Centre (Upwey) Ltd
born on the 9th September 1930 and passed away on 29th
November 2003 and
had enjoyed longevity of 73 years old.
Funeral Ceremony
Saturday 6 December 2003
The
Unified Vietnamese Buddhist Congregation of
Australia – New Zealand.National
Executive Council
and all sangha members send our condolences to the family and
members of the Buddhist Discussion Centre on the great lost of Master John
D.Hughes. To be blessed with good karma in the next realm.
Namyo Sakya Muni Buddha.
President
: Most Venerable Thich Nhu Hue
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Update : 03-12-2003
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