Chan Magazine Winter 2006

"One can only understand ultimate emptiness, or emptiness as reality, through direct personal experience, wherein one realizes that all dharmas, whether mental or physical, are both empty and existent. In other words, existence is identical to emptiness. If one has no attachments and makes no discriminations based on a self, then one recognizes that every dharma exists and is empty. One recognizes that existence and emptiness are really the same thing. One further recognizes that there really is no such thing as existence or emptiness. This is the true emptiness of the Mahayana."

– Chan Master Sheng Yen, from his commentary on the Heart Sutra, There Is No Suffering.

Contents

From the Editor

Dharma of Teachings, Dharma of Mind 
   The sixth in a series of lectures based on the Platform Sutra by Chan Master Sheng Yen

In White Winter 
   Poem by Chang Zhao

Warnings and Encouragements
   A Dharma talk by the Yuan dynasty Chan Master Zhongfeng Mingben, translated by Ocean Cloud

Dharma Drum for Young People 
   Reports from the Beginners’ Zen Camp and Retreat

Why Should I Believe You? 
   Poem by Adam Gregory Pergament

The Past 
   News from the Chan Meditation Center and DDMBA

The Future 
   Retreats, classes, and other upcoming events

Chan Center Affiliates