New member Eric

Hi I am Eric or Yan Li,
I went to Throsel Hole priory a few times, in the early 80's I was quite taken with it until I read those three books was it "Wild Swans?" Having studied the Surangama Sutra it was obvious to me something was very seriously wrong there.
Then I read about Bill Pickard & went to Cornwall to meet him. Mike & Karon Hughes were there they ordained me as a Buddhist with Bill & I sat on retreats with them. Soon after inspired greatly, I went to Hong Kong & ordained as a Monk in the Family of Xu Yun. Bill was a great fan of him, he wrote to me in Hong Kong often and after when I dis-robed and returned to the UK until the time he died 5 years ago. All the letters and an his account with JK are on back issues of the New Chan Forum magazine of the Western Chan Fellowship. Bill left me many Buddhist mementos including a hand written book & the 3 silk transmit ion certificates, and his bowing mat, some of which I sent back to Throssel Hole for their collection.
I am very grateful to JK for starting me on the life long love affair I have with Zen /|\

Eric, just a quick hello and welcome to the forum -- thanks for joining us.

I hope it's all right with you that I move your first post to its own thread under "Introductions", in order to give it more visibility. (When you see the new thread, if you want a different title for it just let me know & I'll change it.)


cheers,

Lise

Thank you Lise /\

Lovely to see you here Eric

Eric is quite a character everyone, he is a pure Romany when I first met him he was travelling in a horse and cart, his friend Alex traveled with him in his Romany style caravan.He had read about Bill, and on the strength of that he came to Cornwall to find him. He was inspired as he said to practice meditation and traveled to China, and Japan as he said.
Alex stayed on in Cornwall till he died a few years ago still in his wagon.
Bill had traveled himself with Romany people and could speak some of the language,so was very pleased that Eric was inspired to practice Buddhism. As I said earlier welcome Eric