New Chan Forum

Investigating Practice

Shi-fu tells us that the Chinese term for practising Ch’an, ts’an-ch’an, means to investigate, engage or dig into the heart of the Ch’an tradition.

The hard work of practice, and the no-work, form the theme of this issue. Appropriately for Spring - the days are lengthening and brightening, time to shake off winter dullness, bring energy into our practice and get down to…

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…