Retreat Reports

What might it be like to attend a Buddhist retreat? At the end of each of our retreats participants are asked, if they wish to do so, to submit a written retreat report. We are grateful to retreat participants for writing so honestly about their experiences on retreat. This gives us valuable help in understanding the retreat process. These reports also provide some insight into the difficulties and benefits of attending a Chan retreat. We publish some of these accounts anonymously in New Chan Forum.

The retreat reports are quite varied, most being in prose but some in poetry, some reporting on good experiences and some on the difficulties. Some comment on the retreat process and meditation experience, whereas others comment on the novelty of finding oneself in the unusual environment of a silent retreat, or on the self-confrontation which can occur on retreat.

We are linking the published reports on these pages so that you can read them here. This may be of general interest and may be particularly useful if you are considering attending one of our Chan (Chinese Zen) retreats and wonder what it may be like to spend time on retreat.

You may also refer to our journal New Chan Forum to read additional reports which have been published in more recent editions and not yet listed on this page.