New Chan Forum

Welcome to the Spring issue of the New Chan Forum – my first as Editor.

As I type I look out of my window at a cold, grey February day in Bristol. By the time you read this I trust that the season will have changed and warmer, brighter days will be returning.

This issue focusses on compassion. We start with a talk on ‘Where is the compassion in Chan?’ from Simon Child at the Summer Silent…

What I particularly enjoy about editing New Chan Forum is the rich variety of material that comes my way. And this issue is no exception.

I am delighted to be able to share Simon’s analysis of the Prajnaparamita Heart Sutra, included here by special request from the people who first heard it on retreat in February, and thought it was one of the best Dharma talks they had ever heard. Many thanks…

Until now I’ve been in the happy position of having a backlog of articles and poems. This time I’ve had to chase! I think the end result is excellent and I’m particularly pleased to have a new contributor on board – Edd Phillips’ article on the Diamond Sutra was written originally for WCF’s Pointing Out the Great Way course, and I’m wondering if any course participants have essays they’d be…

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…

Welcome to the autumn/winter issue of New Chan Forum. You may notice we haven’t yet caught up with our normal mail-out schedule, but we’re doing our best!

I hope you’ll enjoy the rich variety of the articles and poetry in this issue. It is particularly exciting to be able to include two reports from the first retreats at our new Peak District retreat centre, Shawbottom Farm. It feels like the…

Apologies for the rather late arrival of this issue of New Chan Forum: Simon Child has been completely caught up in project-managing the final stages of creating our new retreat centre, and I’ve been nursing a broken arm (and nose, but that’s less necessary for typing…).

I hope you will find this issue informative and stimulating. One theme which seems to have emerged from articles that people…

This issue of New Chan Forum begins and ends with memories of our Founding Teacher, John Crook: a formal commemoration by Simon Child, a transcript of one of John's innumerable insightful and inspiring retreat talks – and then finally an odd scrap of his writing showing his creative striving to find just the right image for a truth he wanted to convey.

Those of us who were able to join together…

Hello everybody and welcome to the 60th issue of New Chan Forum. This is the second issue I've produced in the shadow of Covid 19 lockdown. I hope it will be the last, though I suspect memories of the pandemic will continue to inform much of the writing in future issues. I hope you enjoy this issue, particularly the two articles that engage directly with our Covid experience.

Editing New Chan…