Dharma Library

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

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Willkommen im Chinesischen Zen: Eine Einführung in die Chan Praxis

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Chinesisches Zen

Chinesisches Zen oder Chan, wie es in China heißt - ist eine Lebensweise, welche geistige Klarheit, Mitgefühl mit allen fühlenden Wesen, und eine Art von Weisheit ermutigt, die aus der Überschreitung der Anliegen des Selbst hervorgeht. Diese kurze Einführung heißt alle willkommen, die versuchen, neue Zugänge zu persönlicher Erfahrung zu entwickeln, und schlägt auch einen Weg der…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1995 , Other Articles , John Crook

Welcome to Chinese Zen: An Introduction to Chan Practice

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Chinese Zen, or Chan as it is called in China, is a way of life that encourages clarity of mind, compassion to all sentient beings and a wisdom that comes from going beyond the concerns of self. This short introduction welcomes those seeking to develop fresh approaches to personal experience and suggests a way of practice.

Buddhism

Buddhism originated in India some 2500 years ago as a result of…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 1995 , Other Articles , John Crook

A Fellowship of Western Chan Practitioners?

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

The time seems ripe to put a suggestion to the readers of New Chan Forum that has been germinating for some time. Practitioners have often remarked that they would like some form of community based on their experience of retreats at the Maenllwyd with which they could feel closer identification. There are indeed now many people who have come and continue to come to the Maenllwyd regularly for that…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1995 , Other Articles , John Crook

The Place of the Dharma in Our Time

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Part I - The World We're In

Introduction

To appreciate the role that the Buddha Dharma may come to play in Western culture we need to have an understanding of the way our lives are framed by the world that both shapes us and within which we play a part. So momentous have been the changes in recent years that our suppositions about who and why we are need a constant updating. To appreciate such a…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1995 , Other Articles , John Crook

Words of a Guru

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Roger Housden was taking a tour party down the river Ganges. Half way they stopped in Lucknow and Roger took the participants to visit one of the truly insightful gurus of modern India, a man of no-nonsense clarity. All but one of his party stayed on. Even the Ganges was forgotten. Poonja is a Hindu without a label. Whether derived from Sankaracharya or the Buddha or both his thought is direct,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1995 , Other Articles , John Crook

Why the Cook Bakes the Bread

Calligraphy for the character Chan

Why have I come to this desolate place? Why have I kept pushing myself to find the ultimate 'truth'? Why did I launch myself on this quest, why didn't I just ignore my doubts, close my eyes and enjoy the bliss of uncaring ignorance? Such were my thoughts as I struggled up the muddy path, against a bitterly wet wind, towards the cloud shrouded hills.

My destination was a Dharma retreat, famed for…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1995 , Other Articles , Others

There for the Taking - Introducing Linji

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Before we try to understand Linji, from whom our tradition derives, then are some things to be said. Linji seems strange to us; we who are used to cause and consequence and well-drawn argument. We sit and giggle over the delicious way in which the master affronts his questioners. Yet we have no understanding of why he does it. We marvel over the cleverness of a Zen paradox, but we have no insight…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1994 , Other Articles , John Crook

Is the View of Practice More Important than Practice Itself

Chan master Shengyen

Published with permission and lightly edited from Chan Magazine. Spring 1994 11-15.

Shifu, I have a question. A Chan aphorism says, "The practice is important but the view of practice is even more important." It seems to me this is a contradiction of Chan because any view I hold must be subjective and a distortion of truth and therefore an obstruction. If the ego goes away in the experience of…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1994 , Other Articles , Sheng Yen

Everyday Joy

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Written during a solo retreat.

In the practice of the Dharma it becomes essential to understand that within the everyday lies the Great Joy. It is not that Joy is elsewhere nor that it has to be laboriously worked for. It is not that one is worthless, undeserving, wicked and hence unable to discover it Dharma Joy itself lies within the everyday.

Why then are we so normally cast down, anxious,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1993 , Other Articles , John Crook

Living Out the Life

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

In Memoriam GMC.

One day this summer, standing in one of the temples of Phugtal Gompa hidden deep in the Zangskar mountains of the Himalaya, I asked my companion, Nathaniel Tarn, American poet and participant on my cultural tour to Ladakh, whether he was a Buddhist. Nathaniel was inspecting the extraordinary 12th century paintings on the walls, paintings he had laboured hard and with difficulties…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Other Articles , John Crook

The Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Edited text of a series of three lectures on the Heart Sutra given by Dr John Crook to the Bristol Chan Group in 1992

Part 1 - 4th November 1992

Introduction and Background to the Sutra

When the Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara
was coursing in the deep Prajnaparamita,
he perceived that all five skandas are empty,
thereby transcending all sufferings.
Sariputra, form is not other than emptiness
and…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Other Articles , John Crook

Chan and Psychoanalysis

Chan master Shengyen

This dialogue is reprinted with permission from the Institute of Chung Hua Buddhist Culture in New York. It was first published in Chan Magazine Volume 12, Number 4, Fall 1992.

Question: How is Chan similar or different from psychotherapy? Is the relationship between student and Master similar to that of patient and therapist?

Shifu: There are similarities and differences. The goals of Chan are…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1992 , Other Articles , Sheng Yen

Zen and Christianity, The Dialogue

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Christianity lies at the root and heart of Western culture. Today intellectually rejected because of its failure to relate effectively with science, and sentimentalised by those who seek popularity within a world of adolescent values that last a lifetime, the traditional European religion none the less continues to stir the heart. Perhaps it is the story of Christ himself, rather than the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Other Articles , John Crook

Life in a Chan Monastery

Chan master Shengyen

Lecture by Master Sheng-yen at the University of Toronto on October 18th 1991. Edited text by permission from Chan Newsletter No.92, May 92

In ancient Chinese monasteries a practitioner's time was divided between meditation, attending Dharma talks and daily work. Morning and evening was spent in meditation, daytime was for working. We are somewhat ignorant of the daily schedule in early Chan…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1991 , Other Articles , Sheng Yen

Everything is as it is - This in Itself is Remarkable

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

If one is attempting to go into Zen deeply, to understand the relationship between one's mind and the universe, then it becomes important to turn over and over again, going backwards and forwards, backwards and forwards, many times over, the same refrain, the same theme. Not with the analytical intellect, nor with the mind of one who seeks explanation, but within the context of zazen, wherein…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 1990 , Other Articles , John Crook

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