New Chan Forum

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…

Back Again

It's been a long time since the last issue and we thank all those people who expressed concern for our welfare. Unfortunately, the compilation of the articles and the conversion of those into word- processed documents has had to take second place to other events in our lives. On top of that, we have also converted from Macintosh to PC publishing, which has been far more traumatic than…

Transmitting the Lamp

This is a very special edition of New Chan Forum. Those of you who have received a copy of the Maenllwyd retreat programme for the Corning year will already know that John has been greatly honoured by Master Sheng-yen and is now a lineage holder in the Chan tradition with the Dharma name Ch'uan-Teng Chien-Ti ['Transmitting the Lamp - Seeing the Truth]. On behalf of his…

Mind the Gap

What gap? It was there and now it's gone. Summer holidays. The last issue. An organised retreat. A blank front page, a blank disk, now occupied. Distillations of the spring, early Summer and time gone by.

Before it disappears completely, stop and LOOK! What do you see? What do you feel? Was it exciting, or frightening, as you left one place and arrived at another? What happened in…

Everyday Mind

In reply to a question "If every sentient being is innately a Buddha, how can they be ordinary?", Shifu used an analogy from the sutras, that of gold ore in a mine. Before it has been refined, it is still not in a form we would call gold, even though the essential content of gold is inside. All of us may have the gold content, but it has yet to be refined. What is vexation? Vexation…

Practising Mind

The Bristol Chan Group is moving from strength to strength. Our weekly meditation evenings at the Iyengar Yoga Centre in Bristol are well attended. Group sitting is an important adjunct to personal practice and we warmly invite you to come along. John has inspired us with his talks on the Heart Sutra. We publish an edited version of his initial lecture in this issue.

This small…

Going On...

This small journal of the Bristol Chan Group has reached its fifth number. Already we have established a certain genre which seems to generate interest. We will continue to present articles on aspects of Chan and teachings by Shifu and other modern masters and also scholarly essays on ancient examples. A main concern will be on the development of Lay Zen in this country. Lay Zen…

Continue! Continue!...

We have at last found an excellent room for our weekly meditation evenings in Bristol. It is a peaceful place, the meditation room of a Yoga centre and after our various other rooms we now feel we have a place that is really good for our group to sit in. We welcome you to come out and join us, even on a wintry evening. Group sitting gives an encouragement to personal…