Dharma Library

The spiritual path is seldom if ever straightforward. When we embark on our spiritual quest, we naturally engage the nature of the person that we are with the tasks that will present themselves to us along the way. The trials, tribulations and obstacles along the path are not an inherent element of the path itself but are the outcome of the way we personally interact with the requirements involved…

Rob has managed to earn a living in photography as a 'professional' while Eddy has the interest of an 'amateur'. They frequently discuss their shared involvement in this activity.

How extraordinary! How extraordinary!
The insentient express the way! How mysterious!
If you listen with the ears it is incomprehensible
If you hear sounds with the eyes it is truly knowledgeable.
Dongshan

By Way of…

The Western Chan Fellowship offers retreats ideally suited to those individuals who are training in and continuing a professional practice in therapies that are based on mindfulness.

With its innovative and unique retreat the "Western Zen Retreat" we offer an experience that is fully incorporated into an understanding of Western psychology whilst being based on a traditional and authentic…

What is Mindfulness?

Mindfulness can be interpreted in two ways;

• concentration which is narrow and laser-like
• awareness which is more panoramic. 

These are obviously linked, for with concentration there is the focus, and awareness is knowing that one is focused. When we are aware we are mindful not only of what we are doing but the feelings, the emotions that are arising and what's happening…

Evidently inspired by the Ten Koans of Layman John (NCF32) Eddy recalled this finely crafted koan. Enjoy. Tsan!! Eds

At a time of great personal turmoil, Layman Street, who had not yet stepped onto the Path, had it suggested to him that he visit Lam Rim Buddhist Centre and speak with Geshe Damchos Yontan. Layman Street had only read about meeting with Buddhist teachers and he had the notion that…

Family therapy and Buddhism

two traditions, two authors, one article

Being

For many years our professional lives and personal /spiritual lives have had a curious intertwining. We have similar and different backgrounds and have interests in both family therapy and Zen Buddhism. We have worked together as family therapists and at work so often our discussions have drifted to spirituality and…

I am not normally a consumer of biographies but this is one I wanted to read. One of the first things I did when I began the Buddhist path was to buy a copy of Suzuki’s ‘Zen Mind, Beginner’s Mind’. I can still recall standing in a bookshop in London, wondering which book for beginners to buy. I choose the thinnest, what seemed to be the simplest and the one with a picture of the nice man on the…

I've been throwing basketballs for almost as long as I have been sitting. At about the same time that I began to sit regularly I started attending a Keep Fit evening class where basketball is the staple diet. So most Thursday evenings will see me along with a group of similarly middle aged and slightly overweight (?) men running up and down a gym trying to throw a ball into a suspended basket.

So…

A Western Zen Retreat Poem

The Universe is as the Boundless Sky,
I should have had another piece of bread and jam
As lotus blossom above
I wonder if we'll have tea after this meal
unclean water,
Pure and beyond the World is the mind
Bloody Buddhist Ceremonials
of the trainee,
O Silence of Nature
Don't like him
We take refuge in Thee
Here we go again.

Calm and Clear