Ken Jones: In memoriam

It is with sadness that we announce the death of Ken Jones at his home in Aberystwyth on Sunday August 2nd 2015

Ken was a superb teacher and a good friend to many of us. He was a founder member of the WCF and supported Chan Master John Crook in establishing the WCF in its early years. Ken led many retreats at the Maenllwyd. His main focus for teaching was to bring the practice of Zen into everyday life and to transform our everyday discomfitures into valuable lessons. He was a teacher in other sanghas and an active member and President of the Network of Engaged Buddhists.

Ken was an accomplished poet and writer. In the week before he died, his last book Beyond Mindfulness: Living life through Everyday Zen was published - a collection of his talks and writings including some of his poetry and a generous legacy for us all. The muse for this poem came during a solitary retreat on Plynlimon in 1994:

Day after day
the mind flutters
against the cwm's
irresistible reality
day after day
the cwm is there
the stream below
winding through yellow grass
and opposite my cave
the ridge
coming and going in the mist
the end of longing.