Dharma Library

Chinese Zen, or Chan as it is called in China, is a way of life that encourages clarity of mind, compassion to all sentient beings and a wisdom that comes from going beyond the concerns of self. This short introduction welcomes those seeking to develop fresh approaches to personal experience and suggests a way of practice.

Buddhism

Buddhism originated in India some 2500 years ago as a result of…

The question of lay Zen may appear difficult but it has a blindingly simple answer.

Pay attention!

Paying Attention is part of every practice that I know of, whether watching the breath, repeating the Buddha's name or practising bare awareness or mindfulness. My own practice is little more than just paying attention, greatly illuminated, especially in the early years, by John's magic…

The time seems ripe to put a suggestion to the readers of New Chan Forum that has been germinating for some time. Practitioners have often remarked that they would like some form of community based on their experience of retreats at the Maenllwyd with which they could feel closer identification. There are indeed now many people who have come and continue to come to the Maenllwyd regularly for that…

Part I - The World We're In

Introduction

To appreciate the role that the Buddha Dharma may come to play in Western culture we need to have an understanding of the way our lives are framed by the world that both shapes us and within which we play a part. So momentous have been the changes in recent years that our suppositions about who and why we are need a constant updating. To appreciate such a…

This was the first occasion I had been at the Maenllwyd and from the start it had a magical feel to it - like entering a different time and space. Coming up the track to the house and its surroundings was just like entering a live jewel. At this time of year the place was brimful of bird sound, lambs, insects and wind in the trees. All these and the environment were, as I was to discover, to take…

The following poem was written by Martin Tebbs during the Chan retreat with Master Sheng Yen at Maenllwyd in June 1995. The last line refers the woolly socks given to Shifu by two Polish students who attended the retreat (Eds.)

Today everything is different,
Everything the same.
 
How is it different?
In a cloudless sky the swallows glide
effortlessly, leaving no trace;
Young lambs call and call.
  
How…

They said not a word
The visitor, the host
and the white chrysanthemum.
 
The Old Pond
A frog jumped in 
Plop!
What?
 
...the listener who listens in the snow,
and nothing himself
Beholds nothing that is not there,
and nothing that is.
 
What is?
 
What th'?  What that?What? What th'?
s,is,is,is,is,is,is,is,is
And I am. And I am that.
Neither and both
and that.
 
But
What is it?
  
What is
is, and I am
This.
What is
is and I…

Roger Housden was taking a tour party down the river Ganges. Half way they stopped in Lucknow and Roger took the participants to visit one of the truly insightful gurus of modern India, a man of no-nonsense clarity. All but one of his party stayed on. Even the Ganges was forgotten. Poonja is a Hindu without a label. Whether derived from Sankaracharya or the Buddha or both his thought is direct,…

Previous Western Zen Retreats have been enormously powerful and emotional experiences and I brought with me all sorts of expectations.

My koan was "What is life?" The aspect of my life that came up over and over again was to do with my work, specifically the job I am doing now, which involves four hours travelling a day and is turning out more and more to be not what I want to do.

Last summer on…

1. The Privatisation of the Dharma

Buddhism comes to Westerners as a monkish other worldly religion of meditation embedded in a culture of monasticism. It brings with it all the assumptions of a traditional hierarchical culture where society and nature were perceived as an unchanging back drop to the human condition. Public virtues enjoined upon 'householders' (and even rulers), charitable…