Dharma Library

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…

Nanjing has been the unhappy site of two terrible massacres: the annihilation of the Taiping rebels in 1864; and the Japanese atrocity of 1937. In the gardens behind Qixia monastery there are grottoes containing ancient Buddha sculptures beheaded by the Taiping rebels who were intolerant monotheists, and again vandalised in the Cultural Revolution of the 1960s.

Qixia Temple, Nanjing, May 2008

In…

Earlier this year Nick Salt and Marian Partington, after many years of partnership, decided to get married. We joined our Quaker friends at the wonderfully remote and scenically situated Meeting House, The Pales, in Mid Wales, a place of stone, silence, air and hills. It was a beautiful occasion, which we all appreciated, Quakers and Chan practitioners together. Good wishes Nick and Marian. Eds. 

On further reflection concerning the possible futures of the WCF (See NCF 31) I have recently come up with the following ideas.

1. The WCF does very well in promoting the Dharma through the medium of intensive retreats. Many retreatants come again and again to one or other of our events. This is all to the good. However many retreats simply serve a remedial function for those stressed by the…

Mahamudra Retreat 2005 - Session One

When we were introducing ourselves last night, several of you remarked on how valuable you found it just coming to the Maenllwyd and how much you valued the place.

Let us begin then by asking why that might be so. I have a good story that helps us here. Some years ago there was a practitioner, Jane Turner, whom some of you might remember, who used to be a…

(Written during a three month solitary retreat at Mount Amiata in Tuscany, Italy).

Sitting by the doorstep 
on a dusty sheepskin 
in the early morning, 
a hazy sun warms my cheeks. 
I wonder what will
come to mind? 
I remember my dreams. 
My thoughts are like 
a bird tied to a pole 
by a long string. 
they fly in endless circles 
under the illusion of freedom.

Alone 
all alone 
in an empty room 
in an empty…

Solitary Retreat at Maenllwyd: Sept. 6 - 13th 2005

On arrival, I felt overjoyed to be at the Maenllwyd and tears flowed on seeing the garden's bright flowers. The sign, "Free" on the outside toilet summed up my hopes and expectations for the week. Before unpacking the car I rang the mule bells, then went up to the Buddha room and lay down on the cook's bed in the alcove where I had planned to…

The Mahamudra Retreat, December 2003

This was to be my first experience of guestmastering for John. I had guestmastered for others; notably for Hilary, but this was assisting the 'big cheese'. It had the formal label of 'training', even though all retreats; in whatever capacity one participates in them, are training. I was really looking forward to it, but I was also slightly apprehensive.…

squatting on my heels
splayed fingers of my right hand
sinking into mud
your throne my right thigh
you wave your ‘glow stick’
your left hand holding mine, lightly,
in the Kennel Fields.

your wand flexible,
like the stem of a water lily,
striped, luminous you run your finger
over the arc: yellow, green
red, you stroke the fire
works into life, stir the air,
‘I am making them!’

on the black screen they sear…

How is life fulfilled?
To make everyone happy and to help,
that’s been how my life is viewed.
Parents, siblings, friends, co-workers,
husband and grandmother,
to whom heavy responsibilities I feel.
Regrets, guilt and discontent,
I thought I knew
how it is for life to be fulfilled.

But wait. How can fulfillment rely on others,
if, in perfection, everything lies right here?
Right now, how is life fulfilled?
W…