New Chan Forum

In 1990 the Bristol Chan Group founded a journal called the 'New Chan Forum'. The Western Chan Fellowship has now taken over responsibility for this publication.

Content varies considerably from issue to issue, but typically includes Dharma talks, reports on their meditation and retreat experiences written by participants, comment on contemporary Zen and Buddhism, pictures, poetry, etc.

Copies of the full text of most issues are available to download from here. For copyright and other reasons some articles may sometimes be removed from the electronic version, and pictures are not included with the older issues, but if you wish you may write to the distributor to buy the paper version.

Published twice or three times a year, back copies, if still in print, are available from our Admin Secretary, price £4.50 each or £12.00 for a subscription of three issues.

Articles, pictures, poems, etc. for consideration for inclusion in future issues of New Chan Forum may be emailed to the WCF editorial at editor@westernchanfellowship.org

Print ISSN: 2047-9514 ,  Online ISSN: 2047-9522

Hello everybody, and welcome to the spring edition of New Chan Forum.

'Journeying' is a major theme of this issue: Hughie Carroll gives a graphic account of the first part of his pilgrimage to Ladakh, which leads into Eddy Street's contemplation of the Zen of Making a Journey and Jane Spray's moving and enjoyable account of visiting Huangshan.

My thanks to everyone who has contributed to this…

In this issue there are teachings on the Buddha's perceptual theory of the Five Skandhas, and on two Sutras. In a dharma talk given on retreat at Maenllwyd Simon Child elucidates how our perceptions can be construction from seeds of habit, and how they can be distorted or mistaken. Then we have two essays on fundamental texts for the Chan school, the Sutra of Complete Enlightenment, and the…

Welcome to the summer edition of New Chan Forum.

In this issue Simon Child gives a dharma talk that navigates a range of subtle distinctions to clarify what ‘silent illumination’ means – and warns of the rocks on either side of the channel. Being With is an elusive state in which the mind flows freely, and it is not quite what we might suppose.

Anna Jedynak’s third article on meditation…

Welcome to the Winter 2017 issue of New Chan Forum, which leads with a spiritual autobiography by Fiona Nuttall, Simon Child’s first dharma heir. Fiona also offers a poem in honour of the late John Crook, our founder and original inspiration, as does Didi Crook, John’s sister, in memoriam six years on from his death in 2011.

Anna Jedynak writes about meditation, this time setting it in the…

Welcome to the summer issue of New Chan Forum. It is a pleasure and a privilege to introduce Rebecca Li, Simon’s second dharma heir who was given the transmission in a ceremony in New York on June 5th 2016. Many of you will not yet know her, but we hope to see more of her on our British retreats. I am sure you will find her spiritual biography interesting.

Simon’s own retreat talk this time…

"Zen is a special transmission outside of words and letters". This saying is attributed to Bodhidharma the supposed founder of Chan Buddhism in sixth Century China. However the first record of the phrase appeared in the tenth Century, and was a literary counter to the more traditional understanding that Chan Meditation and Buddhist teachings are interdependent. In 2008 a group of Western Chan…

In this issue of The New Chan Forum we publish the second, culminating part of Simon Child’s account of koan practice, Shattering the Great Doubt, and the third in our series on ‘Right Livelihood’, this time reflecting on the moral context of the life of a solicitor. Eddy Street helps us by offering an illuminating way to read difficult texts by Dogen, using terms from The Heart Sutra. In…

Once again we bring you a varied and interesting selection of articles: the first of two articles by Simon Child on koan investigation (a process of self exploration launched with ‘great doubt’), a description of how two Buddhists use their practice to deal with chronic physical pain and a review of a welcome book celebrating women in Buddhism.

This issue of New Chan Forum coincides with two…


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The articles on this website have been submitted by various authors and the views expressed do not necessarily represent the views of the Western Chan Fellowship.