Retreat Reports: Silent Illumination Retreat

We publish selections from retreat reports written after Western Chan Fellowship retreats, to illustrate the range of experiences people go through as they investigate themselves in silent meditation. These reports are printed anonymously and may be lightly edited.

A Western Zen Retreat Interview

Calligraphy for the character Chan

Teacher: Tell me who you are?
Participant: I am the answer.
Teacher: What is the question?
Participant: Moment to moment.
Teacher: What do you…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Western Zen Retreat Reports , Anon

Why? Why? Why?

Calligraphy for the character Chan

Physically, I did not find the retreat too difficult. Having regularly practised the one hour meditation sessions traditional in vipassana, sitting…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Anon , Koan Retreat Reports

Mind In Flow

Calligraphy for the character Chan

I have just returned home, and it seems sensible to write the report before the memories of the retreat begin to slip away. Yet even by writing…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Chan Retreat Reports , For Newcomers , Anon

Seeing the Nature

Simon Child headshot

It felt such a privilege to be attending the retreat with Shifu. I couldn't make the effort to go to New York, but he had come here! And yet a retreat…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Simon Child , For Newcomers , Silent Illumination Retreat Reports

What Can I Say?

Calligraphy for the character Chan

The retreat was an opportunity to practice. But it was also a rare event, for when does a Chan Master such as Master Sheng Yen ever come to a remote…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Chan Retreat Reports , Anon

Raising the Doubt

Calligraphy for the character Chan

There is no beginning and no end to it, the Sesshin Soto Chan style began on my 49th birthday and ended on my 59th; ten years of ordinary living in…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , Anon , Chan Retreat Reports

Where's the Trick?

Calligraphy for the character Chan

I was fortunate to be able to collect Shifu, Guo Yen Hse and Paul Kennedy from the airport. We broke our journey to Wales in Bristol in order to see…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , For Newcomers , Anon , Koan Retreat Reports

A Guestmaster's View

John Crook sitting in front of the altar at Maenllwyd

The role of guestmaster at a Chan retreat entails the responsibility for ensuring the comfort of the participants and visiting Master, the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 1992 , John Crook , Chan Retreat Reports , For Newcomers

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