Dharma Library

(Revised October 2009). This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a…

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and edited…

This is one of an ongoing series of writings which encapsulate talks given on various retreats, and which now more resemble "chapters". Several of the originals were not recorded at all or else have been recorded in different locations, with much overlap, and with all the disadvantages of unedited, ad hoc records. This series is produced in response to several requests for a more permanent and…

This has been a noteworthy year at Dharma Drum Retreat Center. Since we lost our Shifu in February, one might expect an atmosphere of desolation and loss. Instead, we are enjoying one of the most vibrant periods in the history of the place. More than one person has remarked on it. It is as if, having left the body, Shifu's Dharma spirit is manifesting itself in the heirs and students he left…

On two occasions during our tour, we met extraordinary ninety-year-old masters who were clearly delighted to be talking with us. These two men were rarities indeed. Their monastic careers cover a vast length of time including the period of repression of Buddhism under the communists. In Yun Men Si some years ago, my friend Yiu Yan-nang and I had talked with the Guestmaster who had said that the…

A monk said to the Master "The Buddhas of past present and future don't understand. Cats and oxen do. Why don't the Buddhas understand?" Master Nanquan replied, "Before they entered the Deer Park they knew it. "The monk said, "How is it that cats and oxen do know it?" "How could you doubt that they do?" responded Nanquan.

When I read the list of koans in this Koan retreat, I was intrigued by this…

Supreme accomplishment is to realize immanence without hope. (Tilopa¹)

In the last couple of years several people have asked me to contribute something on the Western Zen Retreat (WZR) to the New Chan Forum (NCF). This was indeed the founding retreat practised at the Maenllwyd before Shi fu came there and the Western Chan Fellowship was founded. We prefer all practitioners to begin by attending…

This book comprises fourteen essays which originally appeared as articles or talks by one of the leading theoreticians and popularisers of socially engaged Buddhism. 'Liberated Buddhism' is the focus of the first half. By this Loy means that "Buddhism needs to take advantage of its encounter with modern / postmodern civilisation - offering a greater challenge than Buddhism has ever faced before --…

What is it about haiku that imparts that mysterious little whiff of insight, so difficult to describe and yet so strangely satisfying? I would like to offer some pointers from my experience as a long term Zen Buddhist for whom the Way of haiku has become a valued part of my practice.

Characteristically we endeavour to secure and console our fragile self-identity by processing, shaping and…

Among the glens, bogs and lochans of the western Highlands of Scotland the dividing line between the natural and the supernatural is thin indeed. Beside Loch Shiel

A dagger and a ram's skull
in the summer tanglewood
no birds sing.

That was the explanation why, several years previously, we had camped overnight on the trackless shore too weary to go further, yet each gripped by too much inner terror…