Dharma Library

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

  • Search by keywords, using the search box
  • Or select articles by various categories such as topic or author - click on the section menus (found below the listed articles on a mobile view, or to the right on a desktop view)

Who?

Ken Jones headshot

I turn up the flame 
from the snaking wick 
coiled in my flammable heart

Although he is my lifelong friend I’m in two minds about him. Sometimes I don’t recognise him at all, with his ugly old face. Or I don’t like the way he can behave.

Perched on the wing mirror 
robin preens himself 
and shits

Then I play at being top dog and growl at him. But when he’s being helpful and kind, now there’s a man…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2012 , Ken Jones

How to do Everyday Buddhism

Ken Jones headshot

Below I have tried to explain my understanding of ”Everyday Buddhism” in a concise paper designed to assist the reader, step by step, to learn what is involved in its practice.  For more, please see my website, www.kenjoneszen.com.

This manual incorporates the essentials learnt from over ten years of leading retreats. It is aimed at any reader  who would like to experience the practice at first…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2012 , Ken Jones

Towards a Radical Culture of Awakening

Ken Jones headshot

Talk by Ken Jones delivered 30 October 2011 at the WCF conference: "Western Buddhism: Engaged Buddhism?"

“Suffering I teach and the way out of suffering.”

Part One of this talk will explain how the origins of social suffering  lie ultimately in  the human condition itself. Part Two will offer a way out of social suffering.

Part One

Delusion

Buddhists regularly remind themselves of their great…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2011 , Ken Jones

8. How to be Kind

Ken Jones headshot

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats. Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and edited record, for distribution to past retreatants on my mailing list and to anyone else who might…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Ken Jones

7. Don't Know Mind and Storehouse Consciousness

Ken Jones headshot

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats. Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and edited record, for distribution to past…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Ken Jones

Epiphany

Ken Jones headshot

Where is the wisdom we have lost in knowledge?
Where is the knowledge we have lost in information?

T.S. Eliot - The Rock

The open door of the shabby little Hotel de la Gare. The municipal street washer has just clattered over the cobbles, freshening the air before the sun gets up. On their way to work, the locals drop in for a  petit noir or a shot of something stronger. Hands are briefly shaken…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Ken Jones

6. Using the Self to Transcend the Self

Ken Jones headshot

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats. Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and edited record, for distribution to past…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Ken Jones

5. The Zen of Intimate Relationship

Ken Jones headshot

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and edited…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Ken Jones

4. Varieties of Spiritual Materialism

Ken Jones headshot

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and edited…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Ken Jones

3. The Practice of Emotional Awareness

Ken Jones headshot

(Revised October 2009). This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Ken Jones

2. Spiritual Materialism, Enlightenment and the Buddha Nature

Ken Jones headshot

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and edited…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Ken Jones

1. The Lifelong Lawsuit against Reality

Ken Jones headshot

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with all the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Ken Jones

Money, Sex, War, Karma: Notes for a Buddhist Revolution: David R Loy

David Loy

This book comprises fourteen essays which originally appeared as articles or talks by one of the leading theoreticians and popularisers of socially engaged Buddhism. 'Liberated Buddhism' is the focus of the first half. By this Loy means that "Buddhism needs to take advantage of its encounter with modern / postmodern civilisation - offering a greater challenge than Buddhism has ever faced before --…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2009 , Book Reviews , Ken Jones

Defusing an Ancient Curse: Climbing the Hill of the Hag

Ken Jones headshot

Among the glens, bogs and lochans of the western Highlands of Scotland the dividing line between the natural and the supernatural is thin indeed. Beside Loch Shiel

A dagger and a ram's skull
in the summer tanglewood
no birds sing.

That was the explanation why, several years previously, we had camped overnight on the trackless shore too weary to go further, yet each gripped by too much inner terror…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1998 , Ken Jones

Zen and the Art of Haiku

Ken Jones headshot

What is it about haiku that imparts that mysterious little whiff of insight, so difficult to describe and yet so strangely satisfying? I would like to offer some pointers from my experience as a long term Zen Buddhist for whom the Way of haiku has become a valued part of my practice.

Characteristically we endeavour to secure and console our fragile self-identity by processing, shaping and…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1997 , Ken Jones

Cookie Extension Logo