Dharma Library

This library provides a database of articles, some from past issues of New Chan Forum and some available only from the website.

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Chronological List of articles:

The Buddha's Face

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Some of us keep a Buddha image in the place where we like to meditate. Maybe we also light a candle and incense stick before entering zazen, or do some chanting. Why do we do these things?

Maybe it is simply out of respect for the memory of the Buddha or a habitual gesture of the Sangha to which we belong. Maybe the Buddha represents for us the aspiration that underlies our practice. Yet, we also…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2011 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

The Arriving Birds

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

This morning, sitting in the Buddha Room at Winterhead, I glanced out of the window. There in the holly tree flitted a small brown bird, a Phyloscopus warbler arrived from Africa riding on the spring weather coming up from the south. Species of this genus are difficult to identify, all small brownies. There are three of them visiting Britain, the Chiffchaff, the Willow Warbler and the Wood…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2011 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

On Taking Refuge

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

When someone has decided to follow the path of the Buddha it is usual for him or her to make a formal commitment to that path by participating in a simple ceremony known as Taking Refuge. We have recently put together a short liturgical text enabling people to Take Refuge through the Western Chan Fellowship. This Teisho seeks to explain what is involved and to provide a source for the presentation…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2011 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

New Year's Day Teisho, 2011

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Kuan yin says, "Yesterday was 2010. Today is 2011. Have you yet made the transition?"

When silence flows from the loom of illumination vastness appears, right hemisphere regaining authority over the left, a moment of complete understanding arising.

For some the word "God" evokes it; for others the stillness of space simply emerges. With the fading of clouds, the sun shines in clarity, warming…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2011 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

New Year Teisho, 2011

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

So Christmas has come and gone – and a white Christmas too. Was it splendid as a White Christmas should be? Well - that depends. If you were quietly at home with the kids, it was probably wonderful – the beauty of the scenery, the fun of the children tobogganing but if you were struggling to fly from Heathrow or Gatwick or stuck on the M5 or M25 – then it was pretty well a cold hell. Whatever it…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

The Meanings in the Flower

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

All of us probably know the story that founded Chan. Even so, lets retell it, briefly.

The Buddha was out walking with a bunch of monks. The monks were arguing about a number of questions such as "Does the Universe have a beginning. Yes or no?", "Does it have an end?", "Do Buddhas live for ever?"

The Buddha took no part in the discussion. Noticing this, Ananda said  to him, "World Honoured one!…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

Summer Night

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

On my way to bed, I turn out the light and notice with surprise another illumination filling the room from my large window. I open it and look outside. A full moon is riding the sky above the pear trees. Its silvery light glistens delicately on the dewy lawn. Late summer yet the air is warm while the moonlight sheds a cooling touch.

I go out onto the lawn. Nothing moves. There is a perfect…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

The Two Ways of Working with Knowledge

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

The reach of the human mind becomes more extraordinary the more one contemplates it. Some recent studies have compared the two main ways by which we deal with the knowledge that accumulates in our heads during our lifetime. These two ways have not always been recognised or one has been given priority over the other. In the practice of Zen, these two ways are both employed but to rather differing…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

Scattering

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

I have just returned from the ceremony of Scattering the Ashes of Dr Sally Masheder at the Cairn above The Maenllwyd. Before the Scattering we held a brief ceremony of chants and prayers chosen in her last days by Sally herself and I gave this short Teisho:

I have been wondering why Sally should have chosen The Maenllwyd as the location for the scattering of her ashes. Perhaps it was because:

St…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

Deviation

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Many of us beginners do not really understand the central theme of the Dharma. This is because most of us come into practice for basically therapeutic reasons, seeking freedom from alienation in life or suffering. In fact, the Buddha supplies us with a total worldview upon which to base a personal understanding of the place of our sentient lives in the Universe. This worldview replaces the need…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

Preceptual Truth

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

If you were asked, "What is the most important idea in Buddhism?" What would you say? I would have to answer 'Preceptual Truth'; so, what is 'Preceptual Truth'? It is an expression that I believe comes from Roshi Jiyu Kennet, the founder and first Abbess of Throssel Hole Abbey. As we know, our Chan Lay precepts are: Not to kill; Not to steal; Not to lie; Not to commit harmful sex; Not to become…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

Being Buddha

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

We all know the last line of the Heart Sutra because we chant it every day on retreat and probably from time to time on weekly meetings. The Sanskrit is Gaté Gaté Paragaté, Parasamgaté Bodhi Svaha usually translated as "Gone, gone, gone beyond, altogether gone. Wisdom All Hail". It is often taken to be a description of the enlightenment experience known as Kensho in Japanese or Kaiwu in Chinese.…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

Accepting the World

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

"Accept the unacceptable - only then will it leave you." So said Jean-Marc Mantel, a wise psychiatrist and savant of spirituality, at the Mindfulness conference in Bristol last summer. It was in response to a question regarding the difficulty of accepting the unexpected death of a loved one.

"Accept the unacceptable - only then will it leave you"

What is the unacceptable? When you explore this,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

Empty Midnight

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

From the start of our training we will have been confronted by the classical definition of Chan "A special transmission outside the scriptures, no dependence on words and letters, Direct seeing into the human heart." But if words and reading are not allowed how on earth can one start and indeed continue any practice of Chan as a beginner. Further more, any visit to bookshops reveals a mammoth…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

A Little Problem concerning Tails

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Master Wuzu, he who got stuck in an inn talking too much with three monk companions so that the lights went out on them, left us several outstanding koans. One of them reads:

"It is like a Buffalo passing through a window. Head, horns and all four legs have all passed through. Why does the tail not follow?"

What a curious story! To begin with, what on earth is a buffalo doing trying to get…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2010 , Teishos John Crook , John Crook

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