Dharma Library

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

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Dharma Hunger

Eddy Street

A Western Zen Retreat Poem

The Universe is as the Boundless Sky,
I should have had another piece of bread and jam
As lotus blossom above 
I wonder if we'll have tea after this meal
unclean water,
Pure and beyond the World is the mind 
Bloody Buddhist Ceremonials
of the trainee,
O Silence of Nature
Don't like him
We take refuge in Thee
Here we go again.

Calm and Clear

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1992 , Poetry , Western Zen Retreat Reports , Eddy Street

Meditation on the Seven-Twelve

Calligraphy for the character Chan

Cars converge on Swindon station,
Strained commuters clamber on,
Briefcase, mala, travel passes,
"Sorry, power unit problems."
I take refuge in the jewels,
Generating Boddicitta,
Through the virtues I, by giving,
"Train departing, Platform one."

Free from hatred and attachment,
"Passengers who've just got on,
Please, your tickets for inspection."
Offer objects of attachment,
Visualise, arrayed before me
All…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Poetry , Others , Highlighted

Some Images of India

Ken Jones headshot

A haiku diary of a tour through Uttar Pradesh by bus, boat, plane and rickshaw in the winter of 1992.

The plane stops at Abu Dhabi.
White faces recede;
The Fast floods in.

Against a high-rise backdrop,
Two vultures on a pig's back.
Third World.

The fawning rickshaw wallah's
Smile
Frames my guilt.

A black bull
With a white egret on his back;
Time out of mind.

Muzzafarnagar -
Dust and Chaos
No, not chaos.
Everybo…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Poetry , Ken Jones

Winter Buddha

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

After midnight, when the still streets
drip from the trees audibly soft leaves
and I smile to hear sleepy voices
silenced by a closing window's sound,
I take a match to an incense stick
and set bright the dark candle in my private shrine.

With six slow breaths the pillared flame
sets this brooding throne aglow
where, pivoted upon some silent thought,
the golden face spans inwardly
the space between the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1969 , John Crook , Poetry , For Newcomers

Maenllwyd

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Arriving in the yard
I switch off the engine
and gaze at the view,
evening sun on the rolling hills
yellow fields, dark woods.
In the sudden silence
a buzzard mews,
distantly guiding sheep
dogs bark.

Entering the gate
I come home to my hermitage,
welcoming trees brood
and the old door creaks on rusty hinges
falling plaster needs sweeping from the floor,
softly on cold flags moisture gleams.

Lighting the fire
I…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1975 , John Crook , Poetry , For Newcomers

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