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

Growing Pains, Fresh Growth

Western Buddhism continues to struggle through its early adolescence. Maybe these growing pains are only mistakes along the way; some however, may become more serious. We have to keep in mind that while errors of individual leaders only make small waves, the faults of institutions can create a storm.

Two large institutions of British Buddhism are under fire from the…

Ch'an Attitude, Ch'an Challenges

Challenge seems to be the theme of this issue. Exciting and dynamic new challenges are facing the Western Ch’an Fellowship as we take on the duties and responsibilities of a charity.

All kinds of new developments are being discussed, from training new teachers to improving ritual - some of these are considered in the Editorial from the Ch’an Hall where John looks…

Travelling the Path

In this issue we consider pilgrimage, a theme of importance in many so many spiritual practices. Pilgrimage may be an external activity or an internal process. In our quest for Enlightenment many of us practice both. Not only have several of us made major journeys in recent months visiting famous Buddhist shrines, meeting helpful teachers and exploring the Dharma in ancient…

Illuminating Silence

After the long delay in the production of New Chan Forum 14 we are pleased to be able to follow it quickly with an issue containing the edited text of Master Sheng-Yen's talks from the Chan retreat he led at Maenllwyd in 1995. These talks deal mainly with an in depth consideration of the practice of Silent Illumination as used within the Ts'ao-tung tradition of Chinese Chan.…

Buddhist Belief

In this issue Stephen Batchelor addresses an issue that may resonate with many Zen practitioners. Namely, what is the nature of Buddhist belief? What do we have faith in? What do we know or think we know? Both this article and our piece by Shi fu explore the role of going beyond faith and surety on the path and how freedom can lie in "not knowing".

In this issue we are happy to…

What is Genuine Buddhism?

In this month's New Chan Forum we address one of the most difficult questions for any religious practice; namely when is practice genuine?

In our most recent issues we have given some consideration to the fact that the growth of Western Buddhism has been  predominantly lay practitioner based and we have published a number of articles on the integration of Buddhist…

Awareness in Everyday Life

In our last two issues we have started to consider the subject of lay Zen. These discussions have taken in Zen and social action, the place of the Dharma in modern society and problems with the master/ disciple relationship. In this edition we focus on the role of Buddhism in the day to day life of lay practitioners.

Central to the question of what part Zen may play in…

The Question of Lay Zen

The role of Zen in the West, its value, practice and potential contribution to our times has become a vital issue. This is especially so, because some of the features of its contemporary presentation have been called into question, particularly in America. Western Zen is practised predominantly by lay persons. What then is Lay Zen?

In our last issue we began publishing…