Dharma Library

A large collection of articles, from past issues of New Chan Forum and more besides.

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The Boat Monk and the 'Zenny' Teacher

Eddy Street

Based on a talk given at the Scout Hut, Canton Cardiff May 2014

There are many Zen stories that are important for us to know. These stories are often dialogues between Masters and their students with the most well-known of them found in the collections of koans such as ‘The Book of Serenity’ and ‘The Blue Cliff Record’. These collections were assembled by the compilers, who then provided…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2024 , Other Articles , Eddy Street

Basho’s “Form” On The Subject Of “Emptiness”

George Marsh

Matsuo Basho was the great innovator in haiku poetry in 17th century Japan. He was also a Zen Buddhist, though he seems to have been sometimes a Buddhist priest and at other times a travelling poet, sometimes in a black robe, sometimes not. He was also an innovator in writing prose travel journals: the haibun form, which was a prose journal with haiku poems.

The haiku aesthetic was already well…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2024 , Other Articles , George Marsh

Mindful Running as a Way to Greater Joy and Equanimity

Stuart McLeod running in RUNZEN shirt

Over the last five years, I have been offering workshops that blend a range of mindfulness-based practices with running and explore what it means to bring a mind orientated towards present moment awareness into physical activity.

My work in this area in fact began in 2017 when I co-created and supported a five-day WCF retreat led by Jake Lyne, which we called Zen Meditation & Running. Based at…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2024 , Other Articles , Others

The Diamond Sutra

Edd Phillips

The Diamond Sutra is one of the most well-known of the Prajnaparamita sutras (perfection of wisdom texts) of Mahayana Buddhism and takes the form of a discourse between the Buddha and one of his elder disciples, Subhuti, before a large assembly of monks. In this encounter, the Buddha strips away one by one his disciple’s misconceptions and doubts, each time refining the questions posed. Throughout…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2024 , Other Articles , Others

Laywomen in Buddhism’s earliest years: Clues to their significance in the Pali Canon

Calligraphy for the character Chan

In the Mahaparinibbana Sutta, Mara reminds the Buddha, now approaching death, of his earlier words: ‘I shall not come to my final passing away, Evil One, until my bhikkhus and bhikkhunis, laymen and laywomen, have come to be true disciples – wise, well disciplined, apt and learned, preservers of the Dhamma …’ 1 The role of each element of this Fourfold Assembly in preserving and propagating the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2022 , Other Articles , Others

Right Livelihood

Calligraphy for the character Chan

When I was asked several years ago to write a personal perspective on my career as a doctor in relation to right livelihood, I thought it would be easy. It is a huge privilege to work as a doctor with a livelihood dedicated to alleviating the effects of illness – we try and help people when they are vulnerable and are often admitted to their most private life events. The most useful advice I…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2022 , Other Articles , Others

An Activist Awakens

Calligraphy for the character Chan

I was initially drawn to Chan out of a sense of loneliness. Two acquaintances were already participants in the Bristol Chan group: Sarah Bird, whom I knew from yoga practice, and Sally Masheder, a neighbour and fellow GP. I liked them a lot and I wanted to get to know them better. I had started meditation but was searching for a method that suited me. I also wanted to protect the planet and people…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2018 , Other Articles , Others

The Path to Transmission

Fiona Nuttall

When I was asked to write something for New Chan Forum about how I ended up as Simon’s Dharma heir I took a sharp intake of breath. How could I get that down in sentences? It has been a long, perhaps even tortuous, journey with many side roads and incursions into various unexpected places. I discussed this with some Christian friends of mine who I consider to be part of my wider Sangha and whom I…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2018 , Other Articles , Fiona Nuttall

An Interview with Rebecca Li

Rebecca Li sitting with and talking to Chan Master Shengyen

We introduce Simon Child’s second dharma heir, Rebecca Li, interviewed by Skype from New York in January 2017. She edited the text and added some content that was not covered in the interview.

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2017 , Other Articles , Rebecca Li

The Interview in Practice

Eddy Street

In Chan practice everyone's experience of retreat and its processes are different. No two people sit exactly the same retreat and no two people follow the same personal path over the course of their Buddhist practice. On retreat, however, the group requires instruction and teachings that bring the Dharma to life so talks and lectures are designed for all practitioners in a general way. But because…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 2017 , Other Articles , Eddy Street

Baizhang and Work Practice

Eddy Street

A feature of most Buddhist retreats and certainly an important part of our retreats is work practice. It is so natural an element of what we do that we do not think about the way the practice originated, and we certainly do not think about the Chan Master who instigated the practice as, originally, it was not a part of the activity of Buddhist monastics.

At the time of Buddha and in the Indian…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2017 , Other Articles , Eddy Street

Introduction to Meditation

Drawing of sitting meditator

An introduction for those new to meditation and for those who wish to develop their meditation further.

What is Meditation?

We are used to the concepts of training the body in a skill or for fitness or dexterity, and of training the mind in factual knowledge or in a mental skill such as arithmetic. Meditation is many things but it is none of these. Meditation is a training of the mind to be…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , Highlighted , 2015 , Other Articles , Simon Child

Connected Practice For Wesak: An Experiment For Lay Chan Practitioners

Hilary Richards

The sangha is important for Buddhist practice. It is the third Jewel of Refuge. However, it is not always possible for people physically to come together either for short meditation sessions or for longer periods on retreat. In order to address this and as part of the invitation to develop new ideas and experiments in Chan, the Western Chan Fellowship offered a “virtual” sangha event to allow…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2014 , Other Articles , Hilary Richards

Unethical Zen Masters

Cover image of Medytacja magazine No 4 2013

Article commissioned by Medytacja magazine (Poland) issue 4 2013.

There have been several well-publicised scandals involving unethical behaviour by Zen masters. This is not a uniquely Zen problem, nor a uniquely Buddhist problem – there have also been similar problems involving other religions, for example with Christian priests – but I'm going to talk about it from the Zen perspective since that…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 2013 , Other Articles , Simon Child

Bumping up Against Ourselves

Eddy Street

The spiritual path is seldom if ever straightforward. When we embark on our spiritual quest, we naturally engage the nature of the person that we are with the tasks that will present themselves to us along the way. The trials, tribulations and obstacles along the path are not an inherent element of the path itself but are the outcome of the way we personally interact with the requirements involved…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2013 , Other Articles , Eddy Street

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