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.