Dharma Library

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

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What is the Western Chan Fellowship

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Past Patron - The late Venerable Chan Master Dr Sheng Yen

Founding Teacher - The late Chan Master Dr John Crook Chuan-deng Jing-di

What is Chan?

Chan means Meditation, in Chinese. It is the historical root of Japanese Zen. Both Chan and Zen are rooted in the Mahayana traditions of Compassion and Wisdom which are central to the Buddhist path.

Chan employs traditional Buddhist meditation…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 2000 , Other Articles , John Crook

Introducing Buddhism: A Guide for Western Beginners

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Click for Kindle version

Why Begin?

Whenever you arrive as a newcomer at a meditation class in Buddhism the teacher will wonder why you have come. Maybe you are coming because a friend has suggested it; maybe you have heard a radio programme; maybe you have read something exciting about Zen. Whatever it was, the teacher will want to go deeper.

Westerners usually seek to explore meditation or…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 2000 , Other Articles , John Crook

A New Proposal: A Lay Zen 'Monastic Centre'

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

It is several years now since I proposed that the casual retreat arrangements at the Maenllwyd might be of greater value to people if we created a charitable institution. Soon the WCF was in being and is now safely established and supported by small affiliated groups in a number of British cities. We have important European contacts and, thanks to Simon Child, a site on the web appreciated by many…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , John Crook

Best of Both Sides

Calligraphy for the character Chan

The purpose of this article is to suggest that we all too often understand Buddhism in terms of One-Sided Solutions which don't actually solve anything, and that we would do better if, instead, we worked with the Complementary relationship between life's various two-sided polarities.

From the ridiculous to the sublime. A good example of a One-Sided Solution would be 'detachment', which is…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , Others

Teaching Meditation to Children

Alysun Jones

Those of us who have young children and some time to spare may wonder what kind of contribution to make in the schools they attend. Having made the same pizza at least thirty times with excitable eight-year-olds, I found my desire to help with Arts and Crafts quickly satiated. There was always more flour on the floor than in the pizza, and clearing up was never one of the kids stronger interests.…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , Others

Women and Buddhism: A conference in Cologne 30th March till 2nd April 2000

Iris Tute

This conference was run by women for women. and was visited by 1220 women of whom 700 took part in the whole conference. It originated from several previous meetings concerned with similar themes

In 1983 women from North America ran the first conference whose main theme was about women in Buddhism. In 1987 the first international conference concerning Buddhist nuns was held and, on that occasion,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , Others

One Thought for a Thousand Years: A Chan Hall meditation

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Out of the corner of my eye I catch a glimpse of Bodhisattva Ksitigarbharaja seated upon the offering table in the Chan hall. As usual his serene countenance glows quietly there. I take a closer look. His expression of peace and tranquillity begins to enter and then to flood my mind. Time becomes motionless yet the soft wind gently moves the branches beyond the window, the distant rustle of the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , John Crook

Meeting Shi-Fu

Chan master Shengyen

On retreat with Shifu many people have had encounters with him that must have surprised them. Shifu, too, encounters people who surprise him! The outcome of such meetings is often valuable. Sometimes when you meet a Buddha on the road it might be worthwhile seeing what he has to say before you kill him! At the beginning of a new Millennium let us see what happens when you bump into a Master. Of…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , Sheng Yen

Zen and the Art of Acting

Calligraphy for the character Chan

As a philosophy which is in effect a way of life. Zen has offered insights into most aspects of human activity from the martial arts to motorcycle maintenance. Here. Adrian Cairns, formerly associate principal of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School in Bristol, analyses the ways in which, despite their widely different origins, development, and purposes, the tenets of an Eastern philosophy actually…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , Others

The Path To Enlightenment: As Revealed by a Simple Mathematical Equation: A Merging of Science and Religions

Graph #1

Since the beginning of history mankind has been searching for the ultimate truth about our existence and the nature of the universe; theologians in the spiritual world and scientists in the physical world. However, because of the separation of time and space, different religions and scientific theories evolved. As with everything else in this world, they are never static through the passage of…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2000 , Other Articles , Others

A Shining Silence

Drawing of barn in landscape, as jpg

Not many of us have to endure for years the disappearance of a loved one. To discover that the loss was due to horrendous murder is even rarer. Yet, in places like Kosovo or Kurdistan this experience is something of a commonplace. The anger, indeed fury, can reach out to strike down whoever or whatever is deemed responsible. Justice is not always easy to be done. Killing is easier. So the cycle…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1999 , Other Articles , Others

Identity: Lost, Found and Lost Again

Calligraphy for the character Chan

The day is clear and with the crispness of early winter in South Australia. Honeyeaters hawk for insects outside my window, supplementing the meagre supply of nectar at this time of year. Across the valley, well-wooded slopes of blue-green eucalypt rise gently to a low mountain range - quite unlike the bare hills of my birthplace in a South Wales coal valley.

I left Wales at a tender age, only…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1999 , Other Articles , Others

On the Path of Dharma: Bill Pickard's letters to Eric Johns 1984-1987

Calligraphy for the character Chan

In NCF 18 Eric Johns described how he set out to discover the Buddha Way by visiting Bill Pickard at Mousehole in Cornwall where there was a small group living under his instruction in Soto Zen. During the subsequent years of Eric's training as a monk (Sik Hin Lic) in Hong Kong, Korea and Japan, Bill sustained a flow of letters to him, acting very much as an older spiritual counsellor to a young…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1999 , Other Articles , Others

Visiting Tibet: From Dharamsala to Lhasa (1962-1998)

Didi Crook with Tibetan Refugee Boys

Being in my mid-sixties, I am no longer young. I often reflect on my past life, the people I have met, and the experiences I have had. So far, I feel I have had a lucky and happy life. A child in World War II, I was alerted early on to the fact that humanity can be evil and cruel, just as it is also kind and loving. I used to have childish dreams of going to Hitler and asking him to change his…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1999 , Other Articles , Others

From a Meditator's Practice

Calligraphy for the character Chan

John Senior has sent us two short contributions arising from his practice. The first is "an attempt to extract the essence of the Diamond Sutra in a form which I can read back to myself before meditation. I find its reference to familiar things like gifts, teachings, happiness, particles of dust and the universe give it perhaps more richness than the profound but often abstract Heart Sutra." The…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1999 , Other Articles , Others

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