New Chan Forum 64

Welcome to the spring/summer issue of New Chan Forum. This is an unusual issue, in that it has two articles by people no longer with us – John Crook and Hebe Welbourne. I think we are very fortunate that something at least of their insight remains for us. We can still learn from their hard-won wisdom; though they have died, they are 'with us still'.

Eddy Street's subtle and insightful article also considers the elasticity of time and memory, the presence, from his point of view as a Buddhist psychotherapist, of the past in the constantly changing present.

Meanwhile, Sian Thomas's article and Anna Jedynak's haiku keep us anchored in a very present present moment.

As editor, of course, I have to be constantly looking to the future, to the next issue. So I’d like to take this opportunity of urging readers to send me material for that issue – and the ones after it. Up till now I've had a nice comfortable back-up selection of articles and poems to draw on, but I'm coming to the end of it (though I still have a rich store of Anna's haiku for next time). So, if you want further issues of New Chan Forum to plop onto your door mat, please send me something to put into them! I'm happy to edit or help with writing, and I'm more than happy to have short, pithy pieces relating to everyday Zen as well as more researched, footnoted, articles.

• The Meaning in the Flower John Crook
• There is No Time: What Is Memory? Eddy Street
• Haiku Anna Jedynak
• Christ at the Maenllwyd Hebe Welbourne
• Wild Swimming Sian Thomas
• Book Review: Allow Joy into our Hearts Hilary Richards