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Jon Turner is an assistant minister at the Orange County Buddhist Church in Anaheim, California.
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| Jon Turner stumbled onto to Buddhism in 1999, six years after his father had died of alcoholism. In his own words, he says, "That six year period was very difficult for me. All my life I had tried to control things by being good but this way of thinking finally came tumbling down. It wasn’t until I finally bought the book Awakening the Buddha Within by Lama Surya Das that I finally came in contact with Buddhism. I must have been very desperate to have even bought a book like this. After reading only one chapter I realized that this is what I had been looking for my entire life. I got goose bumps and had trouble breathing. It is as if a giant light had finally come on. From then on everything was different for me."
Since 2001, Jon has been in the Ministers’ Assistant Program at OCBC, and has been attending IBS since Fall 2005 in pursuit of a masters’ degree in Buddhist Studies. At OCBC, Jon writes essays, leads Meditation Services, Adult Study Classes, and teaches BEC classes. I am also chairman of the BEC at OCBC and I am on the OCBC board of directors. Jon will be the speaker for the lecture series, "An Introduction to Buddhism," scheduled for April 10, 17, 24, and May 1. The lectures will cover topics such as the history of Buddhism and the life of the Buddha, the development of the Theravada and Mahayana branches (including Shin Buddhism), the Buddhist philosophy of "emptiness," and finally, that Buddhism is not a "religion" (in the sense of the Abrahamic religions—Judaism, Christianity and Islam), but really a way of life, a way of living a dynamic and creative life in the here and now. Lectures are open to Buddhists and non-Buddhists alike and will be held at West Covina Buddhist Temple (map) and will begin at 7:00 pm. Cost for the series of 4 lectures is $35. E-mail the temple or call the temple at (626) 913-0622 for more info or to register. |
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