Dharma Library

Summary of conference presentations by Hilary Richards

I would like to bow to you all and to thank everyone for attending. All the speakers have told us how they planned their talks. My plan for summing up was to take some key points from each of the talks and the odd quotation or two, note them down and tell you about them again now. But this plan is not going to work as everything we have heard…

Talk by Ken Jones delivered 30 October 2011 at the WCF conference: "Western Buddhism: Engaged Buddhism?"

“Suffering I teach and the way out of suffering.”

Part One of this talk will explain how the origins of social suffering  lie ultimately in  the human condition itself. Part Two will offer a way out of social suffering.

Part One

Delusion

Buddhists regularly remind themselves of their great…

Talk by Devin Ashwood delivered 29th October 2011 at the WCF conference: "Western Buddhism: Engaged Buddhism?"

My name is Devin Ashwood and I work as a Buddhist Chaplain in the Prison Service.

I have been asked to talk a little about Buddhist Chaplaincy in Prisons and while I had very little idea of what I would talk about, I agreed. At first, I thought I could say all there was to say in about…

In Chan Comes West, Master Sheng Yen’s five lay Dharma heirs share their stories on the path, including how they came to the practice, their inner struggles along the path, and what receiving Dharma transmission has meant for them. It is hoped that readers will find these stories inspiring and be encouraged to make great vows in their own practice. Here is John Crook’s chapter from that book,…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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…

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!…