The Western Zen Retreat is now used as an introductory retreat by the Western Chan Fellowship.　It provides an intensive introduction to the self confrontation that all Zen training demands and we like beginners to start by participating in this process.　The secret of the method lies in the progressive emptying out through sharing of worries, thoughts, concerns until even self concern is confronted.　Letting go happens automatically if the process is

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followed with openness but there are many cul-de-sac and emotional blockages on the way.

　　 The process has clear links to psychotherapy which is not surprising as Berner based it in a joint consideration of the dokusan and the Western co-counseling method.　I have seen intense personal blockage, shyness and neurotic preoccupations dramatically shifted in individuals who have attended several such events.　It follows that the relation between the theory underpinning Zen retreat and psychotherapy is a matter of great interest in the post-Freudian West (Crook 1990, 1997, In press. Crook and Fontana 1989 Pickering 1997) and may become of wider interest as the globalisation of Western values continues to spread.

Interdependence and the Ecological Crisis

　　In bringing Chan to Europe Master Sheng-yen offers an ancient, less contentious, thread soundly based in Dharma and meditative experience and with unimpeachable authority.　The prime features of his presentation are: complete anchorage in Buddhism while accepting the natural influence of Chinese culture on the tradition, especially Taoism; a balanced position with respect to the “subitism” of Koan work and the “gradualism” of Silent Illumination; a progressive set of meditation practices graded to suit practitioners of all degrees of experience; a strict retreat structure with formal interviews and traditional rituals but with an emphasis on relaxed effort, tolerance of diverse abilities and humour; and last but by no means least, instruction on meditative practice related to and informed by examination of the main themes in the Dharma, anattan, anicca, pratiitya samutpaada, the Heart Suutra, Maadhyamaka, the psychological basis in Tathaagatagarbha, the significance of Hui-neng’s teaching, and the recorded sayings of great Chan masters including both Hung-Chi and Ta-hui.　His public analyses of texts are often particularly illuminating.　In this Chan package many of the implicit problems in European Zen are very fully addressed.

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　　 Yet there is an important aspect of Chan which he has yet to share fully with us.　Although he has lectured on this subject to small groups in New York, so far as I am aware he has yet to present it in a seven day retreat.　The Avata.msaka Suutra is a backbone to much of Chan thinking but few European practitioners are aware of its profound meaning nor of the Chinese philosophical system of Hua-yen that is derived from it.　In the USA some academics, writers on engaged Buddhism, and one or two masters have begun to focus on this system and it potential impact on the relationship between Buddhist and Western thought.

　　 Hua-yen is a way beyond the negativism or nihilism of which outsiders sometimes accuse Buddhism and also a way beyond the problems inherent in the concept of “emptiness” which Chan practitioners inevitably encounter.　Hua-yen does a marvellous job in providing a positive image of Buddhism to which the present generation may comfortably relate and does so without contradicting the emptiness perspective that lies at the root of the Buddhist vision.　It relates well to many problematical issues concerning the environment and interconnected global problems and it could well become a philosophy underwriting the perspectives of those troubled by the need for an “engaged Buddhism” (Jones 1989, 1993).

　　 Many who read the Heart Suutra for the first time are puzzled by the key lines “Form is Emptiness.　Emptiness is Form”, and there has been a tendency to concentrate on the first of these two lines without returning along the second.　Hua-yen provides that all important returning perspective.

　　 The “Avata.msaka” is a vast compendium of Buddhist teachings originating in India but achieving its main impact in China.　Thomas Cleary has completed the mammoth task of translating it into English (1993).　Hua-yen abstracts from this multilayered compendium philosophical principles that are the chief focus of my interest here (Chang 1972).　We may introduce these briefly by considering a few basic propositions.

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　　 1. First we must recall what “emptiness” is empty of ── namely inherent existence.　No apparent thing set before our senses has permanent being in the world for everything is transient, subject to impermanence.　Attachment to any object must therefore necessarily lead to distress especially if that object is oneself or any attribute of oneself such as good fortune, health, youth, wealth, a Mercedes etc.　Yet an absence of inherent existence does not imply a “void” or non-existence as such.　All events are mutually co-determining in a progressive cycle of complexification and degeneration.　This is the principle of the co-dependent arising of phenomena.　Emptiness (`suunyataa) is such (Tathaagata).　One could say that the universe is like a river rather than like a rock.　It continually flows and one can never enter the same stream twice.