New Chan Forum 44

The Long Walk

The articles that fell together haphazardly here and came together in a natural composition seem to emphasise complexity; the irredeemable complexity of the human mind, the self, our world and the Universe. We struggle towards some kind of clarity through the dense fog of history, our contradictory ideas, our worried philosophising and our refusal to accept the simplicity of this moment. We like to achieve, to gain celebrity of any kind, to be clever and please ourselves by what we are doing. Our western minds seek explanation, certainty and respect through self-importances of which we are rarely aware. Reluctantly, we admit our blank stupidities, blaming others, the times, politicians, and our parents. Why are we too often such sad, conflicted, over-complicated persons?

These articles take us along many paths and struggle in various ways with these themes. Our two retreat reports reveal two very different situations. We can learn from both of them. It is so difficult for us not to be one-sided, stuck on one bank of a duality. Accepting the unacceptable often seems impossible yet that was the message of the Buddha and the Sutras. Yes – the world and we ourselves are complex yet, when we turn down our overactive left hemispherical concerns, we find a Universe immediately before us in the landscapes we see, the faces we know, the eggs boiling in the saucepan so brilliantly. Yet, thought returns to puzzle us and indeed is often necessary.

The place so difficult to reach is the third place – knowing that both sides, intellectual enquiry and spacious direct awareness, make up the whole, we need to pause there seeing both as one – not only the multiplicity in the simplicity but also the simplicity in the complex patterning of our lives: Just Now – no other time. The birds in the spring time trees sing at sunrise.

• The Illusion of Separateness - Žarko Andricevic
• Thoughts on Japan - John Crook
• The Heart Sutra and the Diamond Sutra - Jake Lyne
• Poem: Ode to "It" - Jane Spray
• Chan and Writing the World - Peter Reason
• Poem: Spring & Fall - G.M. Hopkins
• David Fontana – a Memoir - John Crook
• Poem: Self Ascending - Paul Atherton
• Retreat Reports:
  • Clarity and Confusion
  • Daily Menu – a Cook’s Retreat