New Chan Forum 59

Welcome to the autumn 2020 issue of New Chan Forum.

It’s a rather special issue, as it marks the departure of the Western Chan Fellowship from Maenllwyd, the ancient mid-Wales farmhouse where we’ve held retreats for many years. Maenllwyd is a beautiful and special place, and I think that the memories in this issue form a fitting farewell to a place that has been important for so many of us. I hope you enjoy reading them, and maybe being reminded of your own experiences in this wonderful and eccentric retreat centre. Our new centre, in the Peak District, is undoubtedly going to be equally wonderful – and possibly equally eccentric, but with electricity!

As usual, I’d like to make a request for material for the next issue of New Chan Forum. I need articles, book reviews, poems and artwork, and I need them by the end of December, so do please get writing or drawing now.

We are living through unprecedented times, as Simon reminds us in his article. I hope that the wisdom and insight of the articles and poems in this issue will provide us with a little help in finding our way through.

• Practising in Current Times - Simon Child
• Invocation of The Void - Jake Lyne
• Journeying into Myself - Richard Spalding
• Poem: Stillness - Laurence Smith
• Haibun: Walk Sit Walk - Will Turner
• The Surangama Sutra - Juliet Hackney, Kitty D’costa, Alysun Jones and Hugh Carroll
• Book Review: Unravelling: The Redthread Haiku Sangha Anthology - Eddy Street
• Memories of Maenllwyd - Pamela Butler, Nicholas Salt et al