Dharma Library

A large collection of articles, from past issues of New Chan Forum and more besides.

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Dad

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

1.

You carry me on your shoulders 
through the dark 
and explain to me 
the stars. 
The owl in the old oak 
calls in the night.
You chuckle, joyful 
in that mysterious bird. 
One day you received a stuffed fox 
and, to everyone's horror,
set it up in the hall. 
You wanted to put tiny 
light bulbs in its eyes and make it see.
Later the owl came 
to sit above the grandfather clock 
striking the hours 
with its…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1995 , John Crook , Poetry

Not Knowing is Knowing

Chan master Shengyen

A lecture given on retreat at the Meditation Centre, New York, reprinted by kind permission from the Chan Magazine Fall 1993 p19 and slightly edited for this presentation.

Knowing dharmas is not knowing Not knowing is knowing the essential... The highest principle cannot be explained: It is neither free nor bound Lively and attuned to everything It is always right before you. 1

The Chan sect…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 1993 , Dharma Talks , Sheng Yen

A Mind like Snow

Chan master Shengyen

Given on November 14th 1993, published in Chan Magazine, Winter 1995. Presented here lightly edited with permission.

In day to day living, you may find it extremely difficult to settle the mind. It might seem that the only time the mind feels settled is when there is nothing to do. When something happens, either externally or internally, or when you encounter gain or loss, the emotions are…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 1993 , Dharma Talks , Sheng Yen

Always Harmonise with Living Beings

Chan master Shengyen

Text selected from 'The Compassionate Vows of Bodhisattva Samantabhadra'. Chan Magazine Winter 1993 with permission. Lightly edited.

'Living beings' means all sentient beings. Harmonising with living beings means giving to sentient beings whatever they wish. Even so, if they ask for your head, do you give it to them? If they ask for your body, do you give it to them? If they ask for your money,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: For Newcomers , 1993 , Dharma Talks , Sheng Yen

Everyday Joy

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

Written during a solo retreat.

In the practice of the Dharma it becomes essential to understand that within the everyday lies the Great Joy. It is not that Joy is elsewhere nor that it has to be laboriously worked for. It is not that one is worthless, undeserving, wicked and hence unable to discover it Dharma Joy itself lies within the everyday.

Why then are we so normally cast down, anxious,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: Highlighted , 1993 , Other Articles , John Crook

Living Out the Life

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

In Memoriam GMC.

One day this summer, standing in one of the temples of Phugtal Gompa hidden deep in the Zangskar mountains of the Himalaya, I asked my companion, Nathaniel Tarn, American poet and participant on my cultural tour to Ladakh, whether he was a Buddhist. Nathaniel was inspecting the extraordinary 12th century paintings on the walls, paintings he had laboured hard and with difficulties…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Other Articles , John Crook

In Chinese Mode: Thinking of a Friend

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

This poem, parts of which were written at various times in the 1960's and revised now in 1993, is dedicated to Yiu Yan Nang, JP, now (1993) Deputy Commissioner of Labour, Hong Kong.

Reading a book of Chinese translations
I remember my Chinese friend,
bamboo breezes drift though my study,
moonlight on the terraced temple shines again.
Climbing to those high places
sometimes you picked flowers
and in the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , John Crook , Poetry , Highlighted

Making Friends With The Universe

Calligraphy for the character Chan

I began my second Chan retreat at the Maenllwyd with the method of counting the breath but soon, stimulated by the phrases" Nothing to do. Nowhere to go", I changed to pure breath observation, a relief in its simplicity.

Quite early on I became aware of how my whole body liked to turn very slowly and deliberately around to my left like a spring gradually winding itself up. It was as though I…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Chan Retreat Reports , Anon

So Wonderful

Calligraphy for the character Chan

How different my life would have been had I never attended retreats at Maenllwyd I cannot say, but without a doubt my life has changed phenomenally over the last four years. Until then, when I had the good fortune to come on my first Western Zen Retreat, I had been motivated almost entirely by fear and self- doubt. I had a deep rooted sense of worthlesness, critical of self and others. I was…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Chan Retreat Reports , Anon

Wind and Silence

Calligraphy for the character Chan

A Chan Retreat begins for me when leaving home; making the journey as relaxed as possible; taking my time. In the preceding months I'd felt the need for a period of concentrated practice, and was willing and determined to let go of the 'daily round' and make good use of this rare opportunity. I was greeted in the yard by John, whose warm welcome and gesture to park the car sealed my 'arrival'.

As…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Chan Retreat Reports , For Newcomers , Anon

The Little Nun

Calligraphy for the character Chan

I cannot write in hindsight, yet three days after the Retreat ending I am still in it, with a deep sense of calm and sitting sessions that pass seemingly fast. Vast silence is dearly perceived. This is perhaps the benefit of 'not meditating". This was the second Retreat(1) I had attended within a month so I settled in easily. The sittings were clear the first morning, but after lunch…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Anon , Silent Illumination Retreat Reports

Shaping The Future?

Stephen Batchelor presenting

Western Buddhist Teachers Meet the Dalai Lama, Dharamsala, India. March 22-23, 1993

Before our formal sessions with the Dalai Lama began, we gathered for a preliminary meeting. "I'd like to suggest an exercise," announced Jack Kornfield, "Close your eyes and imagine the kind of Buddhism you foresee in 20 or 30 years time. The practices, the centres and the world itself ... What role does the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Highlighted , Stephen Batchelor

Space In Mind: East-West Psychology and Contemporary Buddhism

Calligraphy for the character Chan

The editors of this book Dr John Crook, Reader in Ethology at Bristol University and Buddhist Scholar and teacher, and Dr David Fontana, Reader in Educational Psychology at Cardiff University, author and therapist, have brought together seventeen essays, most of which are based upon papers presented at a conference on 'Eastern Approaches to Self and Mind' sponsored by the British Psychological…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Book Reviews , Others

In Touch with Gentleness

Calligraphy for the character Chan

I find I'm still struggling with my Koan. The retreat was a "great privilege". That is the expression I find myself using most when I'm trying to explain it for other people. The privilege lay in the opportunity to do such deep work and to be supported and feel quite safe and surrounded by calm and beauty while doing so. The greatest beauty for me lay in the lights, the assortment of candles, oil…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1993 , Western Zen Retreat Reports , Anon

A Western Zen Retreat Interview

Calligraphy for the character Chan

Teacher: Tell me who you are?
Participant: I am the answer.
Teacher: What is the question?
Participant: Moment to moment.
Teacher: What do you feel?

Participant: Space with no boundary or pressure. (THIS SPACE DID NOT FEEL VAST OR LARGE OR IN ANY WAY OVERWHELMING, YET ONE SENSED IT HAD NO END, WAS TIMELESS, AND HAD EXISTED BEFORE THE BIG BANG, WHICH WAS EXTENDING INTO IT.)

Teacher: What do you hear?
…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Western Zen Retreat Reports , Anon

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