WCF News

At the beach watching two people playfully chasing each other in the sea. They are lost in their playfulness, oblivious to all around them, happily splashing each other. In taking the photograph, the nature of the exposure results in one person appearing as if a shadow. A shadow cannot leave the object that casts it and that object cannot lose its shadow. When the sun shines, there are always…

So here we are at Barry Island, a favourite place for people to go for a walk. Like most when I set out for this beach, I have no idea whether the tide will be in or out. Barry is one of those places with a very high tidal range, so when ‘in’, the sea is often squashing the beach up to the promenade wall and when it is ‘out’, it is several hundred yards away, almost stretching across to the other…

On one of our many visits to Pembrokeshire, we found that the Welsh Triathlon Championships was to begin and start at Broadhaven. I undoubtedly had a number of preconceptions about the competitors of this swimming, cycling, running race in that I was expecting a group of muscular, athletic, fit-looking young men ready to race against each other. I was surprised to discover men and women of all…

We are pleased to announce that WCF Guiding Teacher Simon Child, Jing-hong Chuan-fa, has appointed his second Dharma Heir.

Rebecca Li, of New Jersey USA, was a regular practitioner with Chan Master Sheng Yen from the late 1990s until Master Sheng Yen’s passing in 2009, as well as acting as his translator on many occasions and also as a member of the Board of Dharma Drum Retreat Center. She has…

A visit to Barcelona. We had been to see the Miro Museum; we stood in awe at the unfinished church by Antoni Gaudi - La Sagrada Familia - and we had walked along Las Ramblas looking at the items being sold to tourists. We were now tired and wished to sit down with a cup of coffee. In a side street, we found a cafe with tables outside and as it was a hot day, we choose to sit in the shade. A woman…

I was walking along Porth High Street and I noticed two photographs advertising a woman's hairdressing shop. I wanted to photograph these photographs. As I got ready to take my picture a woman walked past and her blonde hair mirrored the images in the shop window so I included her in the frame. Then just as I pressed my shutter release the woman turned and looked at me and her young child looked…

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…

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.

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…

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…