Dharma Library

This book had been winking at me since the beginning of the year. For several years, Norman Fischer’s writing in Tricycle and elsewhere has been a source of pleasure to me. He writes lucidly and with a poet’s eye and phrase. Eventually, a couple of months after it was published, I gave in, bought this book, devoured it and then just reread it straight away. That’s rare for me. 

Its subtitle,…

From a Western Zen Retreat, November 2018

There lives the dearest freshness deep down things.
Gerard Manley Hopkins

Time rears up, paisley-patterned. No need
for underlay. Or even floor. Wells
out of its own guts. Weaves itself
out of itself second by second by second.
Now. And now. And now. Has me knotted in
under and over and through, in crimson green
black yellow blue. Has me turning unfurling
into…

Emptiness Waka

What is there to grasp
When there is nothing to lose
Point the finger; where!
What can you truly possess
In a world of constant flux

Buddha Nature

There is nothing new under the moon
There is no you, for anything to happen to
Though you write your name on the dotted line
There’s no individual for that word or sound to define
Others may speak of your praise or ills
But there’s no one…

The image that comes to mind when I try to sum up the retreat is of a triple: a three-legged stool, a tripod, a triptych. This represents what were for me the three components of the retreat: the huatou, the brushwork, and the sitting. Each locked into the other.

I can’t remember the exact words of the huatou but in essence Joshu asks Nansen how to pursue The Way. Nansen tells him that making…

I arrived not knowing what the retreat was going to be like. I knew we would investigate the question “who am I?” but preferred to find out how once I got there to avoid expectations or anxiety. I was very much looking forward to the luxury of having everything organised for me. I would not have to make any decisions, just follow instructions and bells.

This time, I didn't even wear a watch and…

…The next morning I sat with Dan in his ‘office’. The office was a little log cabin, perched on the side of the mountain, with a wide open door and incense wafting out. His eyes were amused and his feet looked cold as he questioned me.

‘So what?’ he told me. ‘So what if you have the answer? So what if you don’t. So what if you feel your emotions. So what?? Acknowledge it, accept it, and let it…

Juliet Hackney leads the WCF meditation group in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire.

The Lankavatara Sutra is one of the major texts of Mahayana Buddhism and is fundamental to the school of Chan/Zen. It’s origins are obscure, but it was written in Classical Sanskrit, which was the language of the Brahmins in India and is clearly addressed to an audience familiar with the basic concepts of the Yogacara…

Harry Miller has studied Buddhist meditation for over 40 years. He was a student of the renowned Zen teacher, Chan Master Sheng Yen for 30 years. Mr. Miller edited the Chan Newsletter and has contributed articles and translations to Chan Magazine, the journal of the American branch of Dharma Drum Mountain in New York. He teaches meditation and philosophy at the Chan Meditation Center in Queens…

I have found it difficult to put into words the profound experience of confronting myself which the Investigating Koans retreat gave me. Your early morning short but very precise talks about the practice always answered some searching questions about what to pay attention to in terms of the practice. When, after the exercises, you asked the group encircled just outside the entrance to Gaia House…

The third week in March I participated in a 7-day silent Koan Retreat at Dharma Drum Retreat Center in upstate Pine Bush, New York. Seven days spent focusing on a short exchange between a head monk and a zen master written maybe a thousand years ago. 7 days of silence.

On the second day we were directed to pick the koan or huatou (basically the punch line of a koan, used commonly by Ch’an, the…