Many art pieces by John D. Hughes were chosen to capture scenes of our Australian coastline and the inland heavenly garden at his Upwey Temple in the mountains of Victoria, Australia.

For John D. Hughes, what factors determine his choice of location to paint or not to paint? Economically, transport and accommodation costs and the time to paint and the available time of an attendant, placed great hardship on John D. Hughes to paint.

The fact he had financed himself to paint for 50 years shows remarkable determination.

Technically, enormous chi was available to him by the guardian gods and goddesses of the place selected and this is the main choice characteristic of his pieces threading his works.

This is a great blessing that results from years of offerings to such beings and their retinue. This supplying chi factor did not diminish with age because of his Dhamma dana. His mind did not age.

His own professional international life reflected a powerful life-force permitting him to educate over 1 million students in 14 countries over two decades. He was Vice-president of the World Fellowship of Buddhists and a Council Member of the World Buddhist University Council.

Before he visited a country, his practice was to send loving kindness to the protectors of that nation.

The gods and goddesses of those countries and their retinue, helped him form a decision to visit or otherwise.

Similarly, by such methodology, the Great Gods of the Mountains at Coles Bay, Tasmania, Australia and the Dragon King god who lives at the Nobbies, Phillip Island, Victoria, Australia invited him. He does not visit without a genuine invitation. Hence when he gets there, he and his attendant can be safe.

Some high grade paper is expensive. He relied on donations of materials from his students and friends. He appreciated the gifts of fine paper and painting materials that came to him and wished these gifts to continue.

The artist used a variety of donated materials including black Chinese ink on rice paper, water colour on silk paper and black texta colour on gold plastic paper.

His painting illustrated how traditional Chinese art desiderata continue as a living tradition that extends beyond the land of its origin, as it is now practised in Australia.

The artist founded the Chan Academy at Upwey, Victoria, on 6 February 1986.

Our goal is to be an international centre for Chan painting and calligraphy.

Our Teacher, had mastered the classical Chan landscape genre. John felt intuitively opposed to the "look and put" drawing methods taught at the time, at his Mordialloc High School.

By the conventional art school teacher, one of the exercises in the art drawing class given to the pupils was to draw the outline of their hand. Our Teacher could be ambidextrous, as he was not trained out of it. He was thus able to draw using a soft pencil in his left hand, the outline of his right hand.

He felt stifled by the rigidity of this drawing method. He wished to display chi, the unseen delicate force that moves through the human body and the environment, usually unseen and unnoticed but always potent. However, he could not find any method within these constraints, of making an exquisite pencil stroke.

The method of holding the pencil and the splitting of the attention between the left hand drawing and the right hand modelling inhibited the display of chi. With due respect to his art teacher at the time he noted, that her drawings of her hand, although showing the outline with meticulous photographic type accuracy did not display chi.

The exercise in shading taught the stressful practice of thickening and thinning the pencil stroke for the outline. John sensed this method to be a heavy approach equivalent to the overuse of strokes, destroying an impressionist vision of the drawing.

It seemed to our Teacher at the time, that a single even thickness outline reflected more life force than the method being taught. The art school teacher rejected the single outline drawing as it did not meet the teaching goal.

Our Teacher pursued mathematical, science, English and French language subjects in later years at the high school and dropped art studies. When our Teacher left high school and worked in a technical position studying chemistry part time, he directed his spare time to reading about Western art and Western philosophy.

The first desideratum in reading a Chan painting piece, is that the reader must view the chi strokes within the painting; in which direction is the chi flowing?

It is better to start off looking at classical Chan painting of bamboo and note how the chi arises from the ground moving up into the stems and outwards into the branches and flowing out through the tips of the leaves.

Chi is created when, for example a Monk sits in deep meditation and observes his breathing; each time a Kung Fu Master delivers a well-delivered blow; when the artist makes an exquisite brush stroke; in each of these activities a special kind of inner vitality accompanies the movement making each of these actions distinctive and superior.

One of the great collections of classical Chan paintings is housed in the Taipei National Gallery. These ancient pieces painted centuries ago still display a freshness that comes to the observer’s mind because they exhibit such great Chi.

If a person practices Tai Chi the reality of Chi flowing in the body will soon be established. If a person is touched by a great spiritual healer, the flow of chi from the healer to the patient is vivid.

A painting without Chi is a sad thing indeed, no matter how well it has been technically accomplished.

Recent coaching books refer to the Tao of coaching. There is a need to revive a nurturing environment where coaching can flourish for professional development.

The second desideratum is likeness to nature. Pieces must be truthful. They must not suggest dada. To make things flower out of season is a downright lie -- it cannot happen unassisted in nature. Water does not flow uphill for long. The water in waves must flow down quickly.

Dadaism technique is opposed to Chan.

Rocks must not look as though they fly in the sky. They must rest firmly on the ground. The technique of bedding rocks on this desideratum may include the well known "axe handle" brush technique.

The third desideratum must be the piece shows some indication of classic form and reflects some ancient values.

Just as an English phrase with too many words is considered florid and lacking in style too many strokes or grace notes are thought to be tasteless. In Chan, over use of strokes destroy what we might call an impressionist vision of painting. For example, unless great care is executed autumn clouds may appear in a winter sky piece on the day one goddess of the season leaves and the other goddess of the next season takes her place.

Excess clutter does not stay in nature. The jagged rocks smooth their edges, the powerful waterfall widens its course, pathways appear on mountains over time. All rocks become smooth.

Accordingly, the refined artist has no desire to paint razor sharp surfaces that are a hazard to humans and animals. Is this not the ultimate in occupational health and safety?

Mountains are painted with a safe path to the summit, no blocked thoroughfares.

You may think it fair comment to ask a painter who is his or her Teacher, or what school he or she follows. But that is too narrow for Chan.

John D. Hughes reasoned that the bulk of his brush technique flowed from his brush practice in past lives and his self recovery of the Chan style in this life blend from lifetimes of learning.

In western society in the 19th and 20th century, only fringe dwellers thought past life claims were real. Those who have practised the "Way of the Brush" over the millennia understand such claims and may reply "many" (with a laugh).

There is nothing oppressive about a series of Chan Teachers.

Remember Chan painters do not practice to be miserable.

Mature Chan artists respect all Teachers and practice because they are interested in learning about the material qualities of the characteristics of kinds of material productivity, continuity, decay and impermanence.

For each part one or more Teachers may appear, humans, gods and goddesses.

There is a lot to be learnt from the gods and goddesses. They remember events about a place over their long life span. They are the true historians of the world.

A lifetime assembling a private quality geological museum reflected this global interest of John D. Hughes.

His formal graduate studies in chemistry and physics allowed him to visualise the subatomic "stuff" of nature within the Western models.

Contrary to what many believe, rocks do not have minds of their own. Mountains may be under the protection of gods and goddesses, so it is the minds of these gods and goddesses that we can experience.

The brush shows mainly the life-force of the painter rather than the life force of the rock. But under the right conditions chi may be supplied to the artist by the gods and goddesses of the mountains.

Sometimes, when the mind holding the brush becomes tired, the brush seems to laugh and dances over the paper bringing pleasant feeling to the user. But to the superior person this laughter means conceit in the present and strong effort is made to overcome this pleasant hurdle. From the Chan viewpoint, to not become intoxicated by the pleasant feeling of laughter is virtuous. This error of virtue is the downfall of many young artists. They need enlightenment equanimity.

Seeing the fundamental landscape is composed of four great elements, all of nature including our bodies and painting requisites contain mixtures of these elements.

We are secondary derivatives like trees and further derivatives like flowers that spring from these. But we have a series of minds, some of them trainable by Chan.

The Chan artist seeks to practice in quiet places away from the flurry and worry of everyday commerce. His or her main workshop is under the clouds in the solitary places. It is expensive to mount painting excursions to such places. The Chan artist needs patrons for this purpose.

The Chan artist never seeks to get "back to basics" because he or she knows these keep changing.

It is desirable to visit the scene over the four seasons before a decision is taken to start a piece.

Failing that, it is desirable to sit in the same place for several days before commencing a piece. Chan artists do not produce vast outputs.

The Nobbies, comprising Round Rock and Seal Rock at Phillip Island, Victoria has been visited by John D. Hughes for over 50 years. It is the place of the Dragon King god. John D. Hughes and his students have made many offerings to the Dragon King. The Dragon King god always welcomes him and his attendant.

It is traditional for artists to thank their benefactors. We thank John Hughes and all those who assisted him in his practice of Chan art this life, including parents, grandparents, and heavenly devas and devatas.

We invite you to come to visit our Chan Art Exhibition, The Four Seasons, The Four Friends at the Jarmbi Gallery, Burrinja, Glenfern Road, Upwey on now until the 24^{th of August 2008, and bring your friends.}

Today’s script was written and edited by John D. Hughes, Anita Carter, Julian Bamford, Leanne Eames and Pennie White.

References

1. Book review of Landsberg, M. 2002. "The Tao of Coaching". in Business Advantage: the Optus Magazine for Small Business , Issue 3, page 10. Published by Harper Collins.

2. Brown, Leslie (editor in chief), 1973, 1993.  The new shorter Oxford English Dictionary. Clarendon Press, Oxford.

3. John D. Hughes. Canvassing the Four Seasons Exhibition CD, Preview Catalogue of Paintings. Chan Academy and John D. Hughes & Associates Pty Ltd.

4. Pang, Mae Anna. 2002. Spring Flowers Autumn Grass, The Spirit of Nature in Asian Art.  National Gallery of Victoria, Melbourne, Australia.

5. Too, Lillian, 1999. The Illustrated Encyclopaedia of Feng Shui. Element Books Ltd., Melbourne, Victoria.