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Calendar April 2016

2016 Calendar image: April

We have all done it; watch somebody skimming stones across the water and many of us have tried it ourselves. Of course there are several things that are required in order to skim the stone. The stone itself must be flat, the water requires calmness without any waves and you need to bend your body at the right angle in order to throw the stone such that it hits the water and bounces again and again…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2016 , WCF News

Download talks by Chan Master Sheng Yen

Group photo, outside Gaia House following the 2000 retreat with Chan Master Shengyen

Recordings of the talks given by Master Sheng Yen at Gaia House in 2000 are now available for listening online and download

Talks from the 2000 retreat at Gaia House have been digitized and are available freely online from Dharma Seed.

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2016 , WCF News

Calendar March 2016

2016 Calendar cover March

Overlooking the harbour entrance at Antibes, South of France is a very large statue. It is made of many bits of material which are in the shape of the letters of the alphabet, all stuck together to make an image of a person sitting. It is possible to walk inside the sitting statue and look out through all the letters of the alphabet. You can sit inside the sitter and look out through the jumble of…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2016 , WCF News

Calendar February 2016

Calendar February 2016

I'm a great lover of the paintings of Ferdinand Leger and one summer my wife and I visited the museum dedicated to his work in Biot in the South of France. The museum is in a small village a little off the main tourist route. We arrived by public bus and there did not appear to be any other visitors at the museum. It felt as if the museum had just been opened for us - just a few attendants and the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2016 , WCF News

Calendar January 2016

2016 Calendar image: January

I had just got off a train at Pontypridd. I walked outside the station, sat on a bench and was adjusting my camera. Nobody was on the bench and then when I looked up someone else was sitting at the other end. This is the image.

First the bench was vacant and then it wasn't. The sitter had become part of the bench and the bench was a part of him. I do not know what is waiting, the sitter for the…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2016 , WCF News

WCF Calendar 2016

2016 Calendar cover

I had the idea that it would be good to let people know how the calendar images and verses came about, simply as a means of adding to the viewing and in this way enhancing a practice. So, as a beginning here is my view of what taking photos is all about. I see there as being three aspects

  • Firstly there is the occasion itself - the moment - that is present in the real world; the world that is out…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2015 , WCF News

Fiona Nuttall receives Dharma Transmission

Fiona Nuttall receiving the transmission robe from Simon Child

On 1st November 2015 Fiona Nuttall received Dharma Transmission from Simon Child

Fiona received the Dharma name 智淨法宏 Zhi-jing Fa-hong, Wisdom Pure Dharma Greatness.

She becomes the first Dharma Heir of Simon Child, receiving the Dharma Drum lineages of Linji and Caodong Chan.

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2015 , WCF News

Ken Jones

Ken Jones headshot

It is with sadness that we announce the death of Ken Jones at his home in Aberystwyth on Sunday August 2nd 2015

Ken was a superb teacher and a good friend to many of us. He was a founder member of the WCF and supported Chan Master John Crook in establishing the WCF in its early years. Ken led many retreats at the Maenllwyd. His main focus for teaching was to bring the practice of Zen into…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2015 , WCF News

International Western Dharma Teachers Gathering

Simon Child and Fiona Nuttall as Buddhist teachers meeting at Omega Institute

Simon Child and Fiona Nuttall attended the International Western Dharma Teachers Gathering at Omega Institute, Rhinebeck NY, USA, June 1-5 2015.

Simon Child and Fiona Nuttall attended the International Western Dharma Teachers Gathering at Omega Institute, Rhinebeck  NY, USA, June 1-5 2015. This was a 4-year follow-up to a similar meeting at Garrison NY in 2011.

Nearly 200 teachers attended, with…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2015 , WCF News

Dharma Drum Conferences

Simon Child (right) with Zarko Andricevic (left)

Simon Child, Teacher of the Western Fellowship, attended the 3rd Dharma Drum Mountain Monastic and Followers conference in Taipei, Taiwan, June 27-28.

There were about 400 people attending, including most of the DDM sangha and students. There were presentations and discussion panels involving several of Chan Master Sheng Yen's Dharma heirs such as Chi Chern Fashi, Simon Child, Žarko Andricevic,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2014 , WCF News

Connected Practice: Enhancing your practice in your own environment

Calligraphy for the character Chan

Join us in a commitment for a period of connected and enhanced practice. We will undertake this in our daily lives, whether at home or in the workplace, with the silent support of knowing that we are not practising alone. We intend to raise the tempo of our practice for this period, increasing our capacity to be aware in our daily lives. A Mindfulness Bell will be rung at noon every day, when all…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2014 , WCF News

Chan Talk at Buddhist Society, London

Guo Yuan Fashi

Sat 15th March, by Ven Guo Yuan Fashi of DDM

Venerable Guo Yuan Fashi, Dharma Heir of Master Sheng Yen, the Director of the Chan Hall at Dharma Drum Mountain, will be visiting London and will give a talk at the London Buddhist Society on Saturday March 15th.

  • Place: Buddhist Society, 58 Eccleston Square, London SW1V 1PH
  • Date: Saturday March 15th
  • Time: 1-5pm
  • Admission: donation at your discretion

He…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2014 , WCF News

Enhance your Practice in your own environment

Calligraphy for the character Chan

Join in our Connected Practice for Wesak 18-29 May 2013. Anyone who wishes to participate is invited join us in a commitment for a period of connected and enhanced practice. We will undertake this in our daily lives, whether at home or in the workplace, with the silent support of knowing that we are not practising alone. We intend to raise the tempo of our practice for the period around Wesak,…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2013 , WCF News

Diamond Sutra and tree planting

Photo of Tree-planting

Nine WCF members met up on Saturday 18th August to look at and discuss the Diamond Sutra at Jane and Martin Spray’s house in the Forest of Dean. We also looked at some of the commentaries on it that have been translated into English. The discussion was led by Jake Lyne, and continued outside in the garden after a break for lunch.

Later in the afternoon a short ceremony was held at the Pludds…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2012 , WCF News

Buddhists and Quakers on litter picking stroll

Litter pickers group photo

Three local spiritual groups met up on Sunday 1 July for a stroll in the countryside collecting litter. Eleven adults, one child and a puppy from two local Buddhist groups – Newbury Chan Group and the Fifth Precept Group and Newbury Quakers met up for an afternoon walk around Speen Moor with litter pickers and sacks.

Walk organiser and leader of Newbury Chan Group Susan Millington said: "As part…

Western Chan Fellowship CIO

Categories: 2012 , WCF News

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