History and Purpose

While she was in Japan, Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett, the founder of our Order (click here for more information), started a Newsletter to help people who studied with her keep in touch. It was called News from the Tiger’s Lair and it has been published ever since, growing with our Sangha such that it is now called The Journal of the Order of Buddhist Contemplatives. It is an international quarterly publication, incorporating its predecessors, the Journals of both Shasta Abbey and Throssel Hole Buddhist Abbey, as well as representing all the affiliated temples of the Order.

It serves to provide people studying Zen in our lineage and tradition a way to receive teaching, encouragement, and news of events around our various groups and temples. It also provides a sense of the wider community of trainees, as it contains contributions from both monks and householders, women and men, from all of the countries in which we have temples and groups.

Journal features

We try to include a balance of articles which have proven over the years to be of use to readers:

• Articles by senior monks on aspects of Dharma and daily training
• Articles by experienced lay trainees on living the Buddhist household life
• Articles by monastic and lay trainees on how they have approached practical problems in their practice
• New translations of classical Zen texts by Master such as Great Master Dōgen, the Japanese founder of Sōtō Zen
• Previously unpublished or hard to find material by Rev. Master Jiyu-Kennett
• Explanation of Buddhist terms, forms and iconography
• Encouraging accounts of how Zen training has touched people’s lives
• News from Temples throughout the Order