Winter 2015Int

Home , Cambridge Zen Center, Dae Kwang, Datsan Gunzechoinei, Joko Beck, Musangsa, The Compass of Zen

Primary VolumeP 31 • Number 3 • Winter 2015int

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POINT PRIMARY ® Primary Point 99 Pound Road, IN THIS ISSUE Cumberland RI 02864-2726 U.S.A. Telephone 401/658-1476 A Time of Complete Transformation www.kwanumzen.org Zen Master Seung Sahn...... 4 [email protected] With commentary by Jo Potter JDPSN online archives: Fresh Breeze Every Step www.kwanumzen.org/about-us/publications/ Gye Mun Sunim JDPS...... 6 primary-point/ That’s Not a Bad Business Deal, Yah? 6 Published by the Kwan Um School of Zen, a nonprofit reli- Zen Master Dae Kwan...... gious corporation. The founder, Zen Master Seung Sahn, 78th Patriarch in the Korean Chogye order, was the first Korean Zen Nothing That Is Not There and the Nothing That Is Master to live and teach in the West. In 1972, after teaching John Holland...... 7 in Korea and Japan for many years, he founded the Kwan Um sangha, which today has affiliated groups around the world. He Pilgrimage in China: A Trip to Jiu Hua Mountain...... 9 gave transmission to Zen Masters, and inka (teaching authority) to senior students called Ji Do Poep Sas (dharma masters). Book Excerpt: Who Is Singing in Chinese? The Kwan Um School of Zen supports the worldwide teaching David Peters...... 15 schedule of the Zen Masters and Ji Do Poep Sas, assists the member Zen centers and groups in their growth, issues publi- Book Review: The Hidden Lamp cations on contemporary Zen practice, and supports dialogue Barry Briggs JDPSN...... 18 among religions. If you would like to become a member of the School and receive Primary Point, see page 31. The circulation is 2,800 copies. Book Review: Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen Seon Joon Young...... 20 The views expressed in Primary Point are not necessarily those of this journal or the Kwan Um School of Zen. Poetry...... 24

Founding Teacher Dharma School Poems...... 26 Zen Master Seung Sahn Kwan Um School of Zen Centers...... 28, 29, 30 School Zen Master Zen Master Soeng Hyang Membership in the Kwan Um School of Zen–America...... 31 Editor-in-Chief Ken Kessel JDPSN Editor for Europe Zen Master Ji Kwang Editor for Asia Kathy Park Managing Editor Tamarind Jordan Managing Editor for Europe Eduardo del Valle Pérez Book Review Editor Judy Roitman JDPSN Layout and Design James Gouijn-Stook Content Editor Ben Gleason Proofreader Peter Voke Manufacturing Manager Eugene Lim Publishing Advisor Paul Majchrzyk JDPSN Cover: One of six devas (Buddhist deities) making an offering to the giant Tian Tan Buddha on Lantau Island, Hong Kong. Photo by Nick Gershberg.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 2]

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2014 Primary Point 99 Pound Road, IN THIS ISSUE Cumberland RI 02864-2726 U.S.A. Telephone 401/658-1476 A Time of Complete Transformation www.kwanumzen.org Zen Master Seung Sahn...... 4 [email protected] With commentary by Jo Potter JDPSN online archives: Fresh Breeze Every Step www.kwanumzen.org/about-us/publications/ Gye Mun Sunim JDPS...... 6 primary-point/ That’s Not a Bad Business Deal, Yah? 6 Published by the Kwan Um School of Zen, a nonprofit reli- Zen Master Dae Kwan...... gious corporation. The founder, Zen Master Seung Sahn, 78th Patriarch in the Korean Chogye order, was the first Korean Zen Nothing That Is Not There and the Nothing That Is Master to live and teach in the West. In 1972, after teaching John Holland...... 7 in Korea and Japan for many years, he founded the Kwan Um sangha, which today has affiliated groups around the world. He Pilgrimage in China: A Trip to Jiu Hua Mountain...... 9 gave transmission to Zen Masters, and inka (teaching authority) to senior students called Ji Do Poep Sas (dharma masters). Book Excerpt: Who Is Singing in Chinese? The Kwan Um School of Zen supports the worldwide teaching David Peters...... 15 schedule of the Zen Masters and Ji Do Poep Sas, assists the member Zen centers and groups in their growth, issues publi- Book Review: The Hidden Lamp cations on contemporary Zen practice, and supports dialogue Barry Briggs JDPSN...... 18 among religions. If you would like to become a member of the School and receive Primary Point, see page 31. The circulation is 2,800 copies. Book Review: Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen Seon Joon Young...... 20 The views expressed in Primary Point are not necessarily those of this journal or the Kwan Um School of Zen. Poetry...... 24

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 A Time of Complete Transformation

Zen Master Seung Sahn

Everything that happens in this world is correct. Things tions will appear. If you have no center, you will always go in cycles: spring, summer, fall, winter. Every year this have problems. Think of it like this: not much happens in cycle of seasons occurs. But there are longer cycles too, the winter months, the season of cold and ice. No leaves and this year is the beginning of both a 60-year and a 360- or flowers appear from the frozen ground. When spring year cycle. It is a very interesting time. comes, the ground thaws. Water goes into the soil and There is a very large insect called the cicada, which starts working. Everything erupts. The grass grows. Leaves grows very slowly inside a cocoon fastened to a tree. The appear and get bigger. Flowers appear. All the colors are transformation from cocoon to winged creature takes a changing. Everything is changing, quickly changing. long time, about 17 years, and is very difficult. During It’s the same in our minds, in our “inside” world as this time in the cocoon, the cicada’s internal body appears well as the “outside” world. During winter, for three or disrupted. The skin, the organs, the wings, all appear not four months everything stays the same, so we experience to be working. They aren’t no difficulty. In the spring moving. The body looks as if there are many changes, so it were confused and broken. our minds move and we expe- Then slowly the cocoon rience many doubts and prob- breaks open and the new lems. Just at this time of the body begins to appear. A wing end of an old set of 60-year 4] emerges, then a leg stretches and 360-year cycles and the forth. At first the cicada’s beginning of a new set, many movements are slow and dif- things are happening “inside.” ficult. It crawls out of the co- A strange, complicated mind coon and falls to the ground. is appearing. At this stage the cicada never Just now we need to prac- thinks about the sky or about tice more strongly and make flying—it only thinks about our direction clear. If you Photo: Sven Mahr how to get food, any kind of are not doing hard practice food. Sometimes it takes three or four hours between the or your direction is unclear, any kind of demon might time it leaves the cocoon and the time it is able to fly. But take you. When you die, you will not understand where this is a time of complete transformation. One moment it you go. What kind of hell will you go to? There are many tries to fly and it flies! kinds. If in this life you have killed many animals, when We are very worried about the future. How can we ever you die, these animals will appear to you saying, “Give fly? How can our wings possibly appear? How can we get me my life!” enough food? Many problems are appearing. If we buy a It is necessary to die every day, and every day to give business, we want to know if the future will be good for life. If in one day you die ten thousand times, you are ten sales or bad. So we have many worries. But human beings thousand times alive. This life is maybe 70 or 80 years are part of nature. Like the cicada, even if we have already long. Many things happen in one life. We think it is so emerged from our cocoon, it still takes time before we short, but to some beings, even one second is very long. understand how to stretch our wings out and fly. Finally Buddha went to heaven to save his mother. He only we will fly. stayed three days, but in this world, it was 90 days. Dur- There is always change, but changing means not ing this time the king missed the Buddha. He went to see changing. Moment to moment, everything is complete. the Buddha, expecting a dharma speech, but the Buddha Everything that happens is correct. If you are attached to was not there. The king was unhappy. His mind could name and form, it means that your thinking appears and not rest. So he invited a very good sculptor to make a gold disappears. If your thinking does not appear and disap- Buddha, and he put it on the Buddha’s seat. pear, everything is complete. If your center is not moving, Then the Buddha came back. He looked at the gold you will have no difficulty even though many new condi- Buddha—its face and his face were the same! The king ex-

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 plained, “We missed you, so we made this statue just like first patriarch of Zen. As the result of a “marriage” be- you and put it on your seat. Is this good or bad?” tween Vipassana-style Indian meditation and Chinese The Buddha said, “You understand form is emptiness, Taoism, Zen appeared. Now it has come to the West and emptiness is form. If you think this Buddha is truth, that what is already here? Christianity, Judaism and so forth. is me.” So Buddha statues appeared at that time.1 When Zen “gets married” to one of these traditions, a Just like that story, if your mind—your center—is new style of Buddhism will appear. strong with no thinking, then you already have infinite Perhaps there will be a woman matriarch and all dhar- time and infinite space. If you have thinking, then even ma transmission would go only from woman to woman. one hour can seem like many years. Sometimes our think- Why not? So everyone, you must create Western Bud- ing makes many years seem like only one second. So it’s dhism. Get enlightenment! important how strong your center is. In a changing time, In this new age time, a strong center is necessary. Are a time of beginnings, it’s very important to have a strong you clear, everyone? No? Then more hard training is nec- center. At this time, if your direction is clear, then the essary. Also, your direction must become clear. Why do beginning goes this way and that way. If you are not clear, you eat every day? Why do you study Zen? Why do you the future is not clear. sit? These are important questions. Some people say the end of the world is coming. But when an old age is finished, a new age appears. Human beings are part of the natural cycle, and this is a changing Notes 1. In the Avatamsaka Sutra, Buddha goes to the Tushita Heaven time for all species. This year is the beginning of the age to preach to his mother, Queen Maya, who has been reborn when women will control everything, just as men have there. Tradition has it that all Buddhas go to the Tushita Heaven up till now: the house, the family, politics, the economy. to preach to their mothers. He spends the entire rainy season Soon there will be many more women leading their coun- retreat there, 90 days, and then returns to Sankashya, which has tries. Women will become as strong as men, as it was become a Buddhist pilgrimage site. Although only three days thousands of years ago. This change from yang to yin has passed in Tushita Heaven, 90 days passed on earth. Before his already begun. return, he allowed himself to be seen by Anuruddha, his cousin, When Bodhidharma came to China, he became the who convened an assembly and had a statue made. [5

Commentary by Jo Potter JDPSN

It is astonishing to me how fresh and indeed been greatly inspired by this. But then I reflected how alive Zen Master Seung Sahn’s words still that I had already experienced a kind of matri- are, even though he has been gone for 10 years archy. I once lived in a well-known spiritual now. No matter how often I read his words, I community where all leadership positions where still feel as if I am reading them for the first time. held by the women. The women decided where In this dharma talk, Dae Soen Sa Nim cov- the buildings would be placed and the men put ers immense territory: cycles of seasons, cicadas, them there. Interestingly, the community went cocoons, transformation, our ability to confront to hell, not because the women were not ca- problematic life situations, constant changes, the pable but because neither the women nor the possible emergence of a new style of Buddhism men were practicing. We had lost clarity and our . . . all the way to the transformation from male centers were definitely not strong. Dae Soen Sa to female leadership in the political world of to- Nim inspired us to open our minds to any pos- day and the coming future. Indeed, he mentions sibility, even matriarchy. But any leap forward the possibility of matriarchs with dharma trans- can be reversed if clarity is lost. There is always mission from woman to woman. one more step. As I considered this last interesting possibil- Dae Soen Sa Nim emphasized what is needed ity, I remembered that Dae Soen Sa Nim was for this one more step: “Strong center is neces- one of the leading teachers who moved beyond sary! Direction must become clear!” This is defi- gender and could without hindrance freely con- nitely the heart of his talk. He gave us his heart template matriarchs and female leadership. I had in every possible way. ◆

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Fresh Breeze Every Step Gye Mun Sunim JDPS

One day before lunch, Zen Master Yao Shan hit the drum nal substance and was not bound by external forms. As in this himself. Following the beats of the drum, the novice monk Gao kong-an, a meal could have begun with a joyful dance. Why is held a bowl in his hand and danced into the dining hall. it necessary to perform the ritual meal chanting until the dishes Yao Shan put down the drumstick and asked, “Which section are cold before we eat? is this?” When Yao Shan asked “Which section is this?” he was actually Novice Gao replied, “The second section.” asking Gao, “At which level is your current expression?” Yao Shan asked, “Then, what is the first section?” “The second section” means the expression of the Novice Gao took up a scoop of rice and left, com- worldly truth. So, Yao Shan’s query “Then, what is ing as wind and going as smoke. the first section?” means “What is the expression of the first truth or ultimate truth?” Analysis and Appreciation Take a scoop of rice and leave. This is an ordinary Ah! Dancing into the dining hall for a meal. Nov- affair. That is the ultimate truth! There is no need ice Gao must be the first in Buddhist history to do to talk about it. Talking about it falls back into the so! There is an interesting story about Novice Gao. second or worldly truth. Why didn’t he take the monk’s precepts, remaining The beginning of Diamond Sutra says, “After tak- a novice monk instead? ing the meal, the Buddha kept his robe and bowl, When he first met Yao Shan, the Zen master washed his feet, and then sat in meditation.” In fact, asked him, “Where are you going?” the Diamond Sutra is already complete at this point. Gao said, “Going to Jiang Ling to take the full Whatever follows is just like the Chinese idiom, precepts.” “painting feet on a snake.” Out of compassion, the Yao Shan said, “What’s the purpose of taking the Buddha had to keep talking. precepts?” 6] The theme of today’s celebration is “Fresh Breeze Gao replied, “To be free of life and death.” Every Step.” Yao Shan said, “There is a person who is free of life and death What is “Fresh Breeze Every Step?” without taking the precepts. Do you know that?” KATZ! Gao said, “That being so, I don’t need to take the precepts!” Watch your step. Indeed, after his enlightenment, Novice Gao did not take the monk’s precepts! Reproduced from the September–October 2014 edition of the Zen Mirror, We can see that Novice Gao had completely returned to origi- a bimonthly newsletter of the Kwan Yin Chan Lin (Singapore Zen Center).

That’s Not a Bad Business Deal, Yah? Zen Master Dae Kwan

In 2003, Zen Master Dae Kwan visited Zen Master Seung Sahn Zen Master Dae Kwan said, “Then maybe I will sell Su Bong in Seoul. One time he said out loud, to no one in particular, “Much Zen Monastery, get lots of money, and give to you. Then you give pain! Much pain! My body have much pain!” us your pain!” Zen Master Seung Sahn only kept silent. “If we give Hearing this, Zen Master Dae Kwan said to him, “Sir, please give you all of this money, then what will you do with it?” Zen Master your pain to us. We want to take your pain.” Dae Kwan finally asked him. But Zen Master Seung Sahn only waved his hand in refusal. “I take your money, rent another Zen center, and save all beings “No, no, no, no, no! It’s enough only I experience this. Never give from suffering!” At these words, everybody burst out laughing. Zen to you—only I keep!” Master Seung Sahn also laughed and said, “That’s not a bad busi- But Zen Master Dae Kwan persisted, “No, sir. We want to take ness deal, yah?” your pain away!” Reproduced from the September–October 2014 edition of the Zen Mirror, “You cannot,” Zen Master Seung Sahn replied. “My pain is very a bimonthly newsletter of the Kwan Yin Chan Lin (Singapore Zen Center). expensive!” “My pain is so expensive, you cannot buy it!”

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Nothing That Is Not There and the Nothing That Is John Holland

In The Compass of Zen our founding teacher, Zen Master Seung Sahn, admonished us: You make your world. You make your time and your space. You also make the cause and effect that controls your life. All these things come from our minds. First, what is time? Past, present, and future do not exist. Where is the past? Where is the future? You cannot find them anywhere. Everybody knows this, and contents themselves with the belief that at least the present exists and is real. Yet if you even say that the present exists, it is just as great a delusion. Where is the present? Saying “present,” it’s already past. The moment you say that word—“Present!”—it has already become “past.” Your thinking makes [7 past, present, and future, so you have time . . . .

Our thinking also makes space because originally space, too, simply does not exist. America is here, and Korea is over there. America has north, south, east, and west; Korea also has north, south, east, and west. But America’s north, Photo: Barry Briggs JDPSN south, east, and west are different from Korea’s north, south, east, and west. “I am here. I have north, south, east, and west. When I disappear, where is my north, south, east, and west?” And yet we may recall Zen Master Seung Sahn’s presence in the kinetic memorial to him designed by the artist Mark Mendel facing North America’s nor’-nor’-west. The 8-foot-by-9-foot slab of granite, now set vertically upon a Virginia slate plinth, was once a well cover that for two hundred years kept the feet of families dry when they came to the well. Through the circular hole where once water was drawn we see an 8-foot stele: In emptiness the two are the same, And each holds the ten thousand things. The hole itself resembles taeguk, the symbol used in the South Korean flag that contains a balanced ying and yang. For some it may appear as an enso or the Zen Circle. Mark Mendel has embellished the rugged well-stone by limning it with a golden glass aura that dramatically catches sunlight or moonlight. It reminds us of the fiery aspect of our Founding Zen Master. On the opposite side Photo: Barry Briggs JDPSN

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 clear. This happened soon after Zen Master Soeng Hyang gave a dharma talk at the Zen South County Center in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, a year ago. When she met Mark there, he told her that he had read many books by Zen Master Seung Sahn and that he was a stonemason. She asked to visit his yard and saw the two stones. Mark has linked the stones with a narrow fieldstone pathway that resembles a mandala. Behind the stele, which reminds one of a pagoda, a more traditional Asian monument, are meditative trees. He believes that this monument is the most important artwork he has yet created. At the unveiling Mark quoted Shunryu Suzuki Ro- shi as describing some stones as alive, some as dead. These stones, Mark vouchsafes, are alive. Zen Master Seung Sahn selected the site for the nearby monastery because of the pond, hills and ridges surround- ing it. The flat space on which the memorial sits was re- cently created. The whole site is considered to have Kwan Seum Bosal energy, that is to say, soft energy. Photo: Barry Briggs JDPSN In front of the memorial the fieldstones embrace the steps that are like a brook of a dry garden that eventually of the stone, Mark invited Karin Sprague Stone Carvers to plunges with telluric energy into the pond below Dia- hand letter and gold leaf “only don’t know.” The hand- mond Hill Monastery and to the Providence Zen Center. some letters, as on the front of the monument, are each 5 It is purported that ki rides the wind and scatters, but is inches high in the style of Palatino Nova Sans. This type- retained when encountering water. The steps lead up to face was released in 2005 by the esteemed typographers the stupa. Ultimately, however, the steps are just steps. Hermann Zapf and Akira Kobayashi. Karin Sprague says 8] Thank you, Zen Master Soeng Hyang, for your per- that she chose this typeface because of its clarity—“Clear spicacity in obtaining the talent of Mark Mendel for this mind, clear mind—Don’t know.” memorial to Dae Soen Sa Nim. At the unveiling of the monument on August 2, 2014, at the Providence Zen Center, Mark Mendel said that he Note: The title of this piece comes from “The Snow Man” by had seen the spectacular well cover in Maine fifteen years Wallace Stevens. For Zen Master Seung Sahn’s admonishment ago. He purchased it for his stoneyard, where he also had to us, see The Compass of Zen, pages 89–91. The two-line quo- the stone that would become the stele. He liked the two tation is from Trust in Mind: The Hsin Shin Ming of Tseng Ts’an, stones so much that he put a high price on them, thus Third Patriarch of Zen, translated by Zen Master Hae Kwang managing to hold on to them until their purpose became (Stanley Lombardo). David Chadwick recounts the comment about alive and dead stones on page 344 in Crooked Cucumber: The Life and Zen Teaching of Shunryu Suzuki (1999). Reference to ki (qi) is from The Zangshu; or, Book of Burial by Guo Pu (276–324), translated by Stephen L. Field (2009; fengshuigate .com/zangshu.html).

John Holland is a long-time member of the Chogye International Center of New York. After training in the New Haven Zen Center, he became a dharma teacher in 1995. In 2008 he took the vows of a bodhisattva teacher. John has taught meditation at Union Theo- logical Seminary of New York, Colum- bia University, and for extended periods at the Institute of Omega for Holistic Studies, as well as at New York Chogyesa. For many years he was an active member of the Buddhist Council of New York. John was the coeditor of Don’t-Know Mind: The Spirit of Korean Zen and Elegant Failure: A Guide to Zen Koans, by Zen Master Wu Kwang. In addition to Zen, John also practices tai chi and bird-watching. Photo: Barry Briggs JDPSN

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Pilgrimage in China: A Trip to Jiu Hua Mountain

Editor’s Note: In April of 2014, a group of monastics and laypeople from our Asian sangha visited root temples from our Chinese heritage at Jiu Hua Mountain in China. The tour was documented in photographs by Teresa C. H. Tao, who was kind enough to share them with us, along with some captions about the sites. Visits to sites such as these have the feel of a pilgrimage, which is also part of the Zen tradition. We’ve asked Zen Master Ji Kwang, who has gone on pilgrimages in India and elsewhere, to say something about the spirit of pilgrimage. Mengxiao Wang and Guo Gu Yu provided translations of some of the calligraphies seen in the photos. I’ve chosen stories about encounters between the ancestors to add to some of the photographs. It may help us appreciate why these sites have been preserved and the reason for visiting them. When Dizang asked Fayen why Fayen was on a pilgrimage, Fayen said, “I don’t know.” Dizang responded, “Not knowing is most intimate.” May this essay help us become intimate with our ancestors.

Going for a Pilgrimage Zen Master Ji Kwang

Some years ago I experienced many inspiring days and spent many hours each day at the temple compound in [9 weeks together with my wife at Buddhist and Hindu a state full of peace, bliss and good feelings. pilgrimage sites in India, Nepal, Burma and Thailand. But why and how does visiting particular Buddhist I clearly remember how overhelming it was walking, places help us? India, China, Korea, Thailand and Ja- sitting and chanting at the Mahabodhi Temple in Bod- pan are full of temples and holy places. Do those lo- hgaya. We were touched by the energy of the place and cations indeed have special powers that benefit us as pilgrims? Here is a story dealing with this. Once a successful busi- nessman from China was about to leave for a business trip to a place in another part of his country. When his old mother heard about this, she immediately was reminded of a holy shrine near his destination, where bones from Buddha Shakyamuni were stored—at least this is what Buddhist people believed. So the mother asked her son to bring some relics from this place. The man went there, had a successful business trip, and only when he arrived back at his hometown he remembered his mother’s

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 wish. But alas, he had completely forgotten about the maybe old bones or teeth connected with old stories. relics. By chance he saw some bones from a dead dog at Is a pilgrimage just a sentimental deceit, brainwashing the side of the road near the railway station and picked and self-deception? them up, wrapped them in a nice cloth and went home. As the Avatamsaka Sutra says: Our mind makes ev- When he entered the house his mother immediately erything. If we believe in holiness, we see holiness. If asked him whether he had been able to bring some rel- we open ourselves to something we believe is special, it ics with him. He handed the beautifully wrapped bones becomes special. Then it is possible that this “special” to her; the old lady was overhelmed with joy and tears affects us, nourishes us, inspires us and generates a spe- were flowing down her cheeks. The same day she went cial experience. to a Buddhist shop and bought a small golden pagoda Zen Master Seung Sahn once said that Un Mun’s in which she placed the holy bones from Buddha and shit stick has already broken all temples. The message placed it prominently on her altar. Soon the neighbors is clear: don’t hold on to “special,” don’t attach to ho- and the whole village heard about the relics. They all liness, don’t even keep any ideas. Then everything is came to the house, did many bows and practiced there Buddha—even dog bones are Buddha. Our practice together in front of the altar. When the house became means to become clear, attain freedom and help all be- too small, they built a temple there with all the dona- ings. In this respect a pilgrimage tour may become a tions that appeared. Finally this place became a famous wonderful part of our practice. Everyone who has been pilgrimage site in the area. The old lady was very happy to Bodh Gaya or to famous temples in China or Korea and attained great enlightenment due to her persistent knows how much inspiration such a visit can induce. and intense practice in front of her altar with the holy We meet new comrades on the path, practice with full relics. She also helped and served all the pilgrims and endeavor and experience supportive energy. We get free spent time together with them like a great bodhisattva. from our situation, condition and opinions, and we at- There is no doubt about one thing: what we usu- tain “Sky is blue over the old pagoda.” ally find at pilgrimage sites are old stones and bricks, 10]

Photos and captions by Teresa C.H. Tao

Day 1, April 15, 2014 Day 2, April 16, 2014

Zen Master Dae Kwan (abbot of Su Bong Zen Monastery, Hong Thousand-Buddha Hall in the Third-Ancestor Temple, Qian Shan Kong) presented a gift to Ven. Zhong Zue (abbot of Da Jue Temple and County, An Hui Province. The calligraphy “Thousand Buddha Hall” Nan Quan Temple, China). The couplet reads: on the horizontal board was written by Mr. Zhao Puchu (1907– 2000), a religious and public leader who promoted cultural progress (Three days of self-cultivation—a jewel that lasts for thousands of years.) and religious tolerance in China. As president of the Communist Party ) of China, he supported the Buddhist Association of China. He was also (A hundred years worth of provisions—mere dust of a single day.) a renowned calligrapher.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Bai Sui Gong Temple, Jiu Hua Mountain. (Bai Sui means “a hun- [ 11 dred years old.”) Ven. Wu Xia’s corporeal body (mummy) is located inside. (Wu Xia means “flawless.”) The corporeal body (mummy) of Ven. Ren Yi, who was the abbot of Tong Hye Zen Temple, Jiu Hua Mountain. (The name Ren Yi literally means “humanity justice.”) (The Imperially Decreed Hall of Hundredfold Age.)

(The State-Protection Monastery of Ten Thousand Years.)

Five-Hundred-Arhat Hall on Jiu Hua Mountain. It is located right beside Bai Sui Gong Temple. After Shakyamuni Buddha entered Nirvana, the Venerable Mahakashyapa led 500 arhats to compile the Tripitaka (“Three Treasuries,” the Buddhist scriptural canon) at

The Sutra Hall of Hua Cheng Temple, Jiu Hua Mountain. the Seven-Leaf Cave.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Day 3, April 17, 2014

Jiu Hua Mountain Da Yuan Buddhist Culture Park. (Da Yuan Da Jue Temple, Jiu Hua Mountain. (Da Jue means “great enlight- means “great vow.”) Behind the gate is the 99-meter statue of the enment.”) The abbot is Ven. Zhong Zue. Earth Store Bodhisattva (aka Ji Jang Bosal).

Day 4, April 18, 2014

12]

Nan Quan Zen Temple ruins, Tong Ling city, An Hui Province. (Nan Quan means “south spring.”) The temple was named after Zen Master Nan Quan (aka Nam Cheon), best known as the pro- tagonist in the kong-an “Nam Cheon Kills a Cat.”

(Historical preservation site in the suburb of Tongling City.)

(Relics of the South Spring Temple.)

Zen Hall of Da Jue Temple, Jiu Hua Mountain.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Cave of the San Zu, Qian Shan County, An Hui Province. (San Zu Memorial Hall of the former abbot, Ven. Jin Hui at the Fourth- means “third ancestor.”) Ancestor Temple, Huang Mei County, Hu Bei Province. The left line reads: “Shen Kwang mind-to-mind transmission to Jiu Hua Mountain Da Yuan Buddhist Culture Park. (Da Yuan Sengcan.” (Shen Kwang is the Second Ancestor’s secular name. He is (The eight liberations and the six spiritual penetrations are the seal means “great vow.”) Behind the gate is the 99-meter statue of the more commonly known as Huike. Sengcan was the Third Ancestor.) of the mind-ground.) Earth Store Bodhisattva (aka Ji Jang Bosal). The right line reads: “Dharma transmission in the sacred site of Si Kong Mountain.” (The six paramitas and the myriad practices are perfected in [the Third Ancestor Sengcan’s Enlightenment mind’s] essence.) Day 4, April 18, 2014 A layman whose name is not known [who would later become Fourth Ancestor Daoxin’s Enlightenment Sengcan, the Third Ancestor] came to Huike and said, “My body The novice monk Daoxin, only fourteen years old, came to pay has been wracked by a terrible illness. I ask that you help me respect to Sengcan. absolve the transgression I’ve committed that has caused this.” Daoxin said, “I ask for the Master’s compassion. Please tell Huike said, “Bring me the transgression you’ve committed me of the gate of emancipation.” and I’ll absolve it.” Sengcan said, “Who has bound you?” The layman said, “I look for the transgression but I can’t find Daoxin said, “No one has bound me.” [13 it.” Sengcan said, “Then why are you seeking emancipation?”2 Huike said, “There, I’ve absolved your transgression. Now you should abide in Buddha, Dharma, and Sangha.”1

Nan Quan Zen Temple ruins, Tong Ling city, An Hui Province. (Nan Quan means “south spring.”) The temple was named after Zen Master Nan Quan (aka Nam Cheon), best known as the pro- The-Fifth Ancestor Temple, Huang Mei County, Hu Bei Province. tagonist in the kong-an “Nam Cheon Kills a Cat.” (Inheriting upward the single lineage of Bodhidharma.) (Historical preservation site in the suburb of Tongling City.) (Transmitting downward both lineages of Huineng and Shenxiu.) (Relics of the South Spring Temple.) Fifth Ancestor Hongren Legend has it that Hongren is the reincarnation of an ancient Dao- ist master who, as an old man, met Daoxin. Asking for the Dharma, he was told that he was too old to pass it along, and that he should seek him out in the next life. Subsequently born to a poor village woman, he was called the “No-Name Child” and was said to have all but seven of the marks of the Buddha. Daoxin encountered the child while walking to Huangmei. He asked the boy, “What is your name?” The boy answered, “I have a name, but it isn’t a permanent name.” Daoxin said, “What name is it?” The boy answered, “Bud- The abbot of the Fourth-Ancestor Temple, Ven. Ming Ji, gives a gift dha.” Daoxin said, “You don’t have a name?” The boy said, “It’s 3 to Zen Master Dae Bong. empty, so I don’t possess it.” PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 I replied, “Although people may be from the north or south, Buddha-Nature originally has no north or south. A barbarian may be different from the Ancestor physically, but there is no differ- ence in our Buddha-Nature.” He was going to speak further to me, but the presence of other disciples made him stop. He then ordered me to join the others to work. Then I said, “May I tell you, Venerable, that Prajna (transcen- dental Wisdom) often rises in my mind. When one does not stray from True Nature, that is called a ‘field of merit.’ Venerable, what work would you ask me to do?” “This barbarian is too bright,” he remarked. “Go to the stable and speak no more.” I then went to the rear of the monastery and was told by a lay brother to split firewood and pound rice. More than eight months later the Ancestor saw me one day and said, “I know your knowledge of Buddhism is very sound; but I have to refrain from speaking to you, because bad people may harm you. Do you understand?” The Sixth Ancestor’s working area, the Fifth Ancestor Temple, “Yes, Sir, I do. To avoid people taking notice of me, I dare not Huang Mei County, Hu Bei Province. go near you.”4

(The place where Huineng pounded rice.) Notes 1. From Andrew Ferguson, Zen’s Chinese Heritage (These are the relics of the Sixth Ancestor.) (Somerville, MA: Wisdom Publications, 2000), 21. 2. Ibid., 24. (Touching them is forbidden.) 3. Ibid., 27, 30. Sixth Ancestor 4. From Platform Sutra of the Sixth Patriarch, translated by I then went to pay homage to the Ancestor. He asked, “Where Dae Kwang Sunim and Dae Kwan Sunim (Hong Kong: 14] are you from and what do you want?” Su Bong Zen Monastery, 2007), 151–52. Please note I replied, “I am a commoner from Xinzhou in Guangdong. that in this quotation we have changed Patriarch to I have traveled far to pay my respects and ask for nothing but Ancestor, for consistency with the rest of this article. Buddhahood.” Dr. Teresa C. H. Tao works for the De- “You are a native of Guangdong, a barbarian? How can you partment of Geography at the Universi- expect to be a Buddha?” asked the Ancestor. ty of Hong Kong. She has practiced at Su Bong Zen Monastery for several years.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Book Excerpt: Who Is Singing in Chinese? Notes from a 100-Year Zen Retreat David Peters

Popular wisdom has it that Zen is some kind of “chill- pill.” Feeling tense, keyed up, stressed out? Plagued by sleepless nights and circling thoughts? Just take up meditation, turn off your thinking, and bask in feelings of tranquility and bliss. Or so the theory goes. If that was all there was to it, Zen might help, but it could hardly transform your life. It turns out that Zen has little in common with popping pills, but is a discipline more akin to running marathons, becoming a con- cert pianist, or swimming the Florida Straits to Cuba. Or more to the point: To emptying a shuttered house of all its contents and fixtures, making your way inside again and again, to carry out each shadowy item, one by one, and carefully place them on the lawn in the full light of day—every spoon, every sock, every nail, every dog hair. Oh yes, and the house is on fire. [15 This is hard to appreciate unless you have taken up the discipline yourself—and not so easy, even then. So much of our work in Zen seems to take place behind a curtain. Zen is interested in what lies beyond the curtain. In the beginning, of course, I had no inkling of any such thing. I only knew that I wanted whatever it was that these Zen people had. In those days our guiding teacher used to make the long drive from eastern Iowa to Madison a couple of evenings a month, to sit Zen with us and give kong-an interviews or a dharma talk. Bill Brown’s talks were not to be missed. They were warm, sweet, funny— like Bill himself—and for those of us new to this teaching, deeply encouraging. But this was Zen, so they could also be a bit baffling. One evening Bill gave a talk from which I recall only very good Zen teaching, maybe the best kind. a single point. He said, “Somehow you have to make this Our small self is all too willing to settle for a pill. Or practice real.” if not a pill, then perhaps a brief technical manual, with Somehow . . . Now let me just say, nobody wants to easy-to-follow, step-by-step instructions disclosing every hear that. You look at the man seated before you, wear- relevant detail of Buddhist practice and stipulating deliv- ing the teacher’s robe and kasa, turning the lacquered Zen ery of the promised goods—“enlightenment”(whatever stick in his hands. He has more than thirty years of Zen that means)—within a specified time frame. But the rem- practice under his belt and the honorific “Master” ap- edies we want may not be the ones we actually need. pended to his name. You have to think he knows his way Bill Brown’s “somehow” undercuts all of that. “Some- around this practice, knows his way around this mind. I how” is big, so much bigger than any remedy or instruc- remember thinking at the time: What the hell?! This is tion manual. In this vast “somehow” is everything we do lousy teaching! “Somehow” is not very long on specifics, not know, everything to which our small self remains you know? stubbornly oblivious. In this vast place of not knowing, But after many years of Zen practice, I feel that this is we are thrown back upon our own fathomless resources, (Continued on page 26)

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 A FRESH APPROACH TO ZEN The Teachings of Zen Master Man Gong. Translated and edited by Zen Master Dae Kwang, Hye Tong Sunim, and Kathy Park. Zen Master Man Gong (1872-1946) received transmission from Zen Master Kyong Ho, and is one of the truly towering figures in modern Korean Zen. He and his students played a central role in re-establishing the Buddhist tradition in Korea after centuries of suppression during the Chosan dynasty. Zen Master Man Gong was the grand teacher of Zen Master Seung Sahn. 56 pages. Kwan Um School of Zen. ISBN 962861015-5. $10.00 Don’t-Know Mind: The Spirit of Korean Zen. Zen Master Wu Kwang uses stories about Korean Zen Masters from Ma-tsu to Seung Sahn to present Zen teaching applicable to anyone’s life. 128 pages. Shambhala. ISBN 1-59030-110-2. $14.95 One Hundred Days of Solitude. The story of Zen Master Bon Yeon’s solo retreat is threaded through with Zen teaching and striking insights into the human mind when left to its own devices. 144 pages. Wisdom Publications. ISBN 0-86-171538-1. $14.95 Dropping Ashes on the Buddha: The Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn. Compiled and edited by Stephen Mitchell. A delightful, irreverent, and often hilarious record of interactions with Western students. 244 pages. Grove Press. ISBN 0-8021-3052-6. $14.00 Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake: Teachings of Zen Master Seung Sahn. Compiled and edited by Hyon Gak Sunim JDPS. Foreword by Jon Kabat-Zinn. 199 pages. Shambhala, 2006. ISBN 1-59030-340-7. $15.95 Only Don’t Know: Teaching Letters of Zen Master Seung Sahn. Issues of work, relationships, and suffering are dis- cussed as they relate to meditation practice. 230 pages. Shambhala, 1999. ISBN 1-57062-432-1. $16.95 Elegant Failure: A Guide to Zen Koans. Drawing on over 30 years of practice and teaching, Zen Master Wu Kwang has selected 22 cases from The Blue Cliff Recordand Wu-men-kuan that he finds deeply meaningful and helpful for meditation practice. In Elegant Failure, he provides a wealth of background information and personal anecdotes for each koan that help illuminate its meaning without detracting from its paradoxical nature. 256 pages. Rodmell Press, 2010. ISBN 1-93048-525-5. $16.95. Compass of Zen. Zen Master Seung Sahn. Compiled and edited by Hyon Gak Sunim JDPS. Simple, clear, and often hilarious presentation of the essential teachings of the main Buddhist traditions—culminating in Zen—by one of the 16] most beloved Zen Masters of our time. 394 pages. Shambhala, 1997. ISBN 1-57062-329-5. $24.95 Ten Gates: The Kong-an Teaching of Zen Master Seung Sahn. Zen Master Seung Sahn. Presents kong-an practice in action, through real interactions between the beloved Korean Zen Master and his students as they work via letters. 152 pages. Shambhala, 2007. ISBN 978-1-59030-417-4. $14.95 Open Mouth Already a Mistake: Talks by Zen Master Wu Kwang. Teaching of a Zen Master who is also a husband, father, practicing Gestalt therapist and musician. 238 pages. Primary Point Press, 1997. ISBN 0-942795-08-3. $18.95 The Whole World is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life. Zen Master Seung Sahn. The first kong-an collection to appear in many years; Christian, Taoist, and Buddhist sources. 267 pages. Tuttle, 1993. ISBN 0-8048- 1782-0. $22.95 Wake Up! On the Road with a Zen Master. An entertaining documentary that captures Zen Master Seung Sahn’s energy and presents the core of his teaching. 54 minutes. Primary Point Press, 1992. VHS: ISBN 0-942795-07-5. $30.00 DVD: ISBN 0-942795-14-8. $30.00 Chanting Instructional CD. The morning and evening bell chants, daily chants, plus special chanting. If you’re order- ing this CD to learn the chants, we suggest that you also order a copy of the chanting book if you don’t already have one. Primary Point Press ISBN 0-942795-13-X. $10.00. Chanting book: $12.00. The Whole World is a Single Flower: 365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life. Zen Master Seung Sahn. CD-ROM version for Mac and PC. Audio recordings of Zen Master Seung Sahn’s commentaries together with the full text of the kong-an collection. 2 discs. Primary Point Press, 2006. ISBN 0-942795-15-6. $30.00 Zen Buddhist Chanting CD. Chanting by Korean monk Hye Tong Sunim. Includes Thousand Eyes and Hands Sutra, Kwan Seum Bosal chanting, Sashi Maji chanting, Homage to the Three Jewels, The Four Mantras, and an extended version of Kwan Seum Bosal chanting. Primary Point Press ISBN 0-942795-16-4. $15.00 Perceive World Sound CD. Historic recording with Zen Master Seung Sahn of the morning and evening bell chants and the daily chants done at Kwan Um School Zen Centers. Primary Point Press ISBN 0-942795-12-1. $15.00

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PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Book Review

The Hidden Lamp Edited by Florence Caplow and Susan Moon Wisdom Publications, 2013 Review by Barry Briggs JDPSN

Imagine a favorite lamp. It sits next to a comfortable chair and provides light for reading and conversation. Perhaps it also creates a sense of home. And, if you’ve had the lamp for a while, it might also evoke feelings of continuity and heritage. Zen Buddhism, from its earliest days, has provided lamps to guide practitioners. These were known lamp records (teng-lu) and originated about 550 CE in the de- velopment of lists of eminent monks. Then, in the mid- 900s, the teachings of famous masters such as Linji and Joju were collected into “recording sayings” (yu-lu) so that practitioners could study their teachings. A few decades later, the first formal lamp records appeared. These works, known as “transmission of the lamp” collections (ch’uan teng-lu), gathered together selected sayings of respected 18] masters. Both ancient and modern kong-an collections depend on these lamp records. As Zen developed in the centuries after the T’ang Dy- nasty (618–907), the lamp records served several important functions. First, they distinguished “legitimate” Zen masters from various pretenders. Second, they offered criteria for recognizing a master. And, finally, they illumi- nated—and continue to illuminate—the intimate heart Of course, women practiced Zen in the old days. Of of Zen. course, some were equals of the great male teachers. But But the historical lamp records shone light only on the for the most part these women and their stories were mar- lineage of male masters and practitioners. Women were ginalized in the most prominent Chinese lineage charts almost completely absent. As Zen literature developed in and lamp records. These omissions have left women in the later Song period (960–1279), the lineage charts and the dark. It has denied them a place within the tradition, lamp records became more fragmented. And, coincident excluded them from authority, and has suggested—not with this fragmentation, stories of strong female practitio- very subtly—that illumination was not for them: women ners began to receive more attention. Odd, that. could not serve as bearers of the lamp. I first became aware of the limited attention given to Of course, our shared experience as modern Zen prac- women’s stories in 1992 when the Kwan Um School’s titioners tells us otherwise. We practice with, and are kong-an collection, The Whole World Is a Single Flower, guided by, women who manifest considerable wisdom, was published. As I read through the cases, I realized that compassion and generosity. These women are neither rare only a handful involved women; to be precise, nine of the nor isolated—they are the norm in virtually all Western 365 kong-ans include a woman as one of the actors. Later, Zen sanghas. So we might ask: Where is the lamp record as I looked into the Chinese lamp records (translated into that accurately reflects the role of women in Zen? With English), I realized that The Whole World Is a Single Flower the publication of The Hidden Lamp, that collection has actually was generous in its inclusion of cases involving arrived. women—such cases were exceedingly rare in the Chinese The Hidden Lamp gathers together one hundred sto- collections. In fact, I found only about fifty such cases ries of awakened women spanning the history of Bud- from the T’ang Dynasty—the period of Zen’s Chinese dhism. An essay by a modern female teacher accompanies flowering.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 each case, conclusively demonstrating the legitimacy of at every age, of the child, of the woman, and of women’s place in modern Buddhism. And, as with the old the man. But if what’s happening in this story lamp collections, the cases and commentaries illuminate isn’t love, including, dare I say, “sex,” then I’m a the way for all practitioners. monkey’s uncle. The commentators in The Hidden Lamp come primar- I once corresponded with James Green, translator of ily from the various Zen traditions (including some from The Recorded Sayings of Joshu, to see if this case’s original the Kwan Um School of Zen), but several teach in other Chinese contained any suggestion of sexuality. Green said Buddhist traditions. This diversity broadens the signifi- that the Chinese text did not, nor did it seem to him even cance of the primary cases, giving them a resonance that to point in that direction. I believe Schroeder’s commen- may surprise many readers. Although each commentator tary comes closer to the mark. A good lamp accurately offers her own perspective, the commentaries as a whole illuminates history. are personal and intimate, clear-eyed and honest, and Several of the cases come from the Korean Zen tradi- point directly at the great matter of Zen. tion, including this one: For example, one case features Charlotte Joko Beck (1917–2011), a dharma heir of Maezumi Roshi: One day a nun asked Manseong Sunim, “How do I cultivate the Way of the Buddha?” “No Joko Beck had finished a talk and asked if there cultivation,” answered Manseong. The nun per- were any questions. A young man raised his hand severed, “How, then, can I obtain release from and bluntly asked, “Are you enlightened?” Her birth and death?” “Who chains you to birth and response was immediate. Laughing, she said, “I death?” Manseong asked in return. hope I should never have such a thought!” In her commentary on this exchange, Barbara Rhodes Peg Syverson, who studied with Joko Beck, offers a explores the student-teacher relationship. She asks, “What commentary in which she notes, “He [the young man] if she [the nun] hadn’t had a teacher? Then what would was no doubt wondering: ‘Can this teacher really help me? she do? What did the Buddha do?” From this, Rhodes ex- Can I trust her?’” Syverson then reveals something deeply plores the importance of looking into the great questions intimate about her own work with Joko Beck. Early on, of life and death with unstoppable effort. For Rhodes, Beck asked what had brought her to Zen. After reflection, doubts and questions were “my ticket home.” She goes [19 Syverson said, “I just want to be a better mother for my on to write: son.” Beck then “tartly replied, ‘Well, that’s a story!’” Sy- verson describes how she then lost her bearings, as though The koan says at one point, “the nun perse- Beck “had suddenly tossed a pitcher of ice water in my vered.” That is exactly what we need to do face.” A good lamp shines light onto unseen places. . . . When student and teacher sit down together, Furyu Nancy Schroeder reflects on a well-known case the student speaks, the teacher listens; the teach- involving the great Chinese master, Zhaozhou (Joju): er speaks, the student listens . . . The Way has already appeared. One day Master Zhaozhou Congshen was outside the monastery and an old woman came Who chains you to birth and death? Look in along carrying a basket. He asked her, “Where the mirror, then go have a cup of tea. Only you are you going?” The old woman said, “I’m know if it’s hot or cold. going to steal Zhaozhou’s bamboo shoots.” A good lamp always reveals the essential matter. Zhaozhou asked, “What will you do if you run Many of the classical kong-an collections, such as The into Zhaozhou?” The old woman walked up to Blue Cliff Record and The Wu-Men Kuan, expand upon Zhaozhou and slapped him. the kong-ans themselves with introductory instructions, Schroeder’s commentary delves into the complexity of commentaries and verses. In this spirit, the editors of The this relationship Hidden Lamp have followed each of the commentaries Does Zhaozhou meet the old woman freshly with their own “pointers”—questions designed to stim- and openly? . . . not just this woman, this meet- ulate a deeper investigation of the cases. For me, these ing, this moment—all meetings, all moments, questions distracted from the heartfelt commentaries, but all women. They’ve known each other, loved other practitioners may find value in them. each other, slapped each other before . . . Despite its claim to a transmission “outside the scrip- tures,” Zen teaching has always depended on literary Schroeder then goes to the heart of the matter: sources and texts, especially the lamp records. Now, with We don’t see the word “love” used so often in the publication of The Hidden Lamp, women join as full the Dharma. In fact, there seems to be a fear of partners in the transmission of the lamp. May this light it. In particular, the body of it: the lovely body, shine brightly on all beings. ◆

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Book Review

Korean Buddhist Nuns and Laywomen: Hidden Histories, Enduring Vitality Edited by Cho Eun-su State University of New York Press, 2011 Review by Seon Joon Young

When Korean Buddhist Nuns and Lay- historical foundation for the current nuns’ women: Hidden Histories, Enduring Vital- community has always been there, simply ity, edited by Cho Eun-su, was published hidden beneath selective histories and ob- in 2011, I was excited to see an academic scured by what Cho calls the “most formi- book in English focused exclusively on the dable obstacle to our research of the near under-examined role of women in Korean past . . . Buddhist women and monastics’ Buddhism. own writings about their lives and religious Finding English-language material on practices are almost nonexistent.” Cho lo- Korean Buddhism can be difficult enough; cates this lack of firsthand accounts in Ko- what research has been done has focused on rean women’s own reticence and seclusion: two main areas: (1) major (male) figures of This absence [of material] is largely Korean Buddhism and their personal con- due to a widespread reaction of Ko- tribution to Korean Buddhist thought, and rean nuns in their personal attitudes 20] (2) overviews of Korean Buddhism in his- in which they developed common out- torical contexts, such as the series on Ko- looks on practice that had a significant rean Buddhism in Korea edited by Lewis impact on their presence in the histori- Lancaster and C.S. Yu. If we were to only cal record. Specifically, one of their key read about Korean Buddhism and never actually visit or coping mechanisms was to seclude themselves engage its complex and multifaceted world, our picture entirely from the outside world. . . . Because of Korean Buddhism would be at best misleading, and at Korean nuns in the past five hundred years ex- worst an ignorant erasure of half its contributing mem- perienced both the oppression of Buddhism and bers. This book proposes to begin the long process of re- the ideology of male primacy, later nuns seem to shaping our understanding of Korean Buddhist history have accepted the fact that seclusion was their by highlighting research on the lives of Korean Buddhist traditional, normative lifestyle. Determined to women. preserve such a tradition and to avoid revealing This is not an easy task, however. As Eun-su Cho her- their personal abilities, nuns have virtually quar- self notes in the introduction to Korean Buddhist Nuns antined themselves in their meditation rooms and Laywomen, one large reason why nuns—individu- and lecture halls in the mountains of Korea, ally or as a community—are not an object of study in even up to the present day. Hence, it is an urgent the same way as their male counterparts is because nuns task for researchers to document nuns’ achieve- are underrepresented in historical records. These include ments in modern Korean Buddhist history and the two major indigenous historical Korean works, the record oral interviews with elderly nuns before 12th-century History of the Three Kingdoms (Samguk Sagi) they die. and the 13th-century Memorabilia of the Three Kingdoms In large part, then, this book is a call to arms for those (Samguk Yusa), dynastic annals and epigraphic records, who study Buddhism: knowing that the lack of historical and firsthand narratives such as personal diaries. As a re- materials has skewed the present understanding of Ko- sult, when looking at Korea’s past as represented in the re- rean Buddhism, it is necessary to work toward two goals. maining material, nuns seem to have literally disappeared. Researchers need not only to rectify our view of the past Cho is quick to point out, however, that if the sangha through more careful examination of what materials we of nuns were as absent in actuality as they are textually, it have, but also record the materials that now and in the is unlikely that the strong and vibrant community of con- future will give an accurate account of the role of women temporary Korean nuns would exist as it does today. The

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Spring 2015 Seven-Day Yong Maeng Jong Jin with Guest Teacher Merrie Fraser, JDPSN March 22-29, 2015, Dodgeville, Wisconsin www.isthmus zencommunity.org / [email protected] / 608-221-3379

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 in contemporary Korean Buddhism. it was decades ago. Although thoroughly investigating Despite Cho’s urgent request for thorough ethno- this aspect of Korean monastic life and women is beyond graphic work focused on the lives and contributions of the scope of the book as a whole or any single chapter, women within the contemporary Buddhist community, still, given that it was published in 2011, I would have the two chapters focusing on the contemporary nuns’ liked to see some gesture toward the complex and shifting sangha are little more than overviews, rather than exam- landscape of Korean Buddhism for contemporary Korean ples of the kind of ethnographic work Cho insists is criti- women that was already evident by that time. cal to research. The first-person accounts that would have Pori Park’s chapter, “The Establishment of Buddhist made the material come to life are lacking, and in some Nunneries in Contemporary Korea,” gives a strong ac- instances the data is slightly out of date. count of the historical background on which Buddhist Cho’s chapter, “Female Buddhist Practice in Korea,” nunneries, including meditation temples (sonbang) and is an excellent introduction to the contemporary situa- doctrinal schools (kangwon) were founded. The Purifica- tion. She simply touches on some subjects, especially the tion Movement of the 1950s in Korea was one of the most Choseon era (1392–1897) and the establishment of spe- critical events of contemporary Korean Buddhist history. cific communities or temples, in part because other chap- Lasting from 1954 to 1970, the Purification Movement ters in the book cover much of the same material with was started by the celibate monastics of the Chogye Or- more depth. Cho’s brief biographies of some of the major der. They fought to remove noncelibate monks from the female figures during the Japanese colonial and postcolo- order and were ultimately successful, resulting in the cur- nial periods of the 20th century is particularly welcome rent division between the Chogye Order (which requires (as is Pori Park’s in her own chapter), because it brings his- celibacy of its monks) and the Taego Order (which does torical movements to a focus and grounds general social not require celibacy). Park does a good job of introduc- or religious trends in the people who lived them. ing the movement and broadly outlining its role in shap- Nuns such as Myori Pophui (1887–1974) and Man- ing the contemporary sangha. My reservations about her song (1897–1975) should be as well known as their male research come from knowing perhaps too much about contemporaries, and Cho’s chapter is a first step toward her subject, and being able to see where mere data or a accomplishing this. In addition to being a student and chronology of dates and important figures fails a com- 22] recognized dharma heir of the renowned monk and Zen plex and involved subject. I was a student-nun at Unmun Master Man Gong, Myori Pophui was responsible for Monastic College from 2008 to 2012, and noticed that making Zen practice as central to nuns’ spiritual train- although Park correctly notes the increase in the student- ing as it was to monks’ training. Mansong was another of nun population at Unmun Sa Temple between its estab- Man Gong’s students, and helped to build an important lishment as a nuns’ doctrinal school and 2008, she did not Zen centers for nuns, Taesong Am Hermitage in Pusan. note the dramatic and alarming decrease in the student The one weakness in Cho’s chapter is one that recurs in population from 2008 onward. Beginning with my class Pori Park’s chapter: when discussing the current situation at Unmun Sa, and the same incoming classes at the other for women in Korean Buddhism, the research and analy- nuns’ schools, the student-nun population decreased by ses already feel dated. Although Cho correctly highlights half or more. The picture that Park’s chapter and the book the remarkable and laudatory growth of the nuns’ sangha as a whole paints of the contemporary nuns’ sangha is one over the past 60 years and attempts a general explanation of past strength and projected growth, when the actuality of the factors that gave rise to that success, she does not is far more complex and not entirely positive. mention the challenges some of those very same factors Park also mentioned the standardization of the monas- now pose to the nuns’ sangha. In particular, the change tic curriculum by the Chogye Order in 1984. She does in women’s status in general Korean society, which at one not mention the Chogye Order’s most recent major over- point was the foundation on which nuns gained status haul of the curriculum, beginning in 2009 and fully im- and support, has now become a reason why women are plemented around 2011, which was controversial within unwilling to leave society for monastic life. the monastic sangha and inspired furious debates over the Like Cho, I can only speak from a subjective and an- purpose and substance of monastic education and the role ecdotal perspective and say that monastic life is difficult of monastics in society. Again, knowing these things from even under ideal circumstances, and social pressures and the inside, I felt that some recognition of the rapidly shift- environments exert influence on the growth and decline ing reality of the sangha was needed to round out the cur- of the monastic world. In the past six years we seem to rent history she presents, even while I appreciated having have reached a tipping point in which women sometimes the major aspects of nuns’ life over the past century put perceive monastic life as a step backward, in terms of per- into historical context and brought to a wider audience. sonal autonomy, status and economics. Compared to the The chapters focusing on historical figures or current life women can lead within Korean society, mo- periods and using literary material, court annals and epi- nastic life is no longer a space of freedom in the same way graphic material have a solid foundation in terms of the

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 methods used to examine the source materials and the The chapters by John Jorgensen and Jiyoung Jung are in- source materials themselves. I was glad to see that Gregory teresting for their exploration of Buddhism and women in Schopen’s pioneering treatment of Indian epigraphic ma- Choseon-era Korea. Thoroughly grounded in Neo-Confu- terial has made its way to analogous situations, like that cianism, the last dynasty of Korea established a religious and of Korea. Like Schopen, researchers in Korea are closely moral culture which continues to exert influence on Korea examining inscriptions on stelae in order to tease out his- to this day, and in looking back at its particularities we can tories that not have made it into official histories or other better understand its legacy. In “Marginalized and Silenced: recorded materials. Young Mi Kim, in her chapter “Male Buddhist Nuns of the Choseon Period,” Jorgensen’s analysis Son Masters’ Views on Female Disciples in Later Koryo,” of individual histories through court records and popular ga- puts this method to good use. She closely examines stelae zettes illustrates the ways in which Buddhist nuns were, in his inscriptions as well as letters and other records from the words, “marginalized and silenced” by Choseon policies and Koryo period (918–1392) to challenge the historically enforced cultural norms. Jung’s chapter provides a nice bal- prevalent belief that women cannot attain awakening in ance to Jorgensen’s by examining the “alternate spaces” Bud- a female body, but must be reborn in a male body first. dhist nuns found outside of the oppressive Confucian rule of (This view is still common among nuns and women in the Choseon. Her challenge to established understandings of South Korea today, and the aspiration to be reborn as a women in Choseon society is refreshing: man forms part of the repentance ceremony that aspiring We may ask whether all women living under this novice nuns do each night during ordination training.) Confucian ideology [of proscribed subordinate re- She makes a careful analysis of a major master from the lationships] actually succumbed to these require- late Koryo, National Preceptor Chin’gak Hyesim, to show ments and lived as wives and mothers of sons in how his support of his own female students’ efforts toward contentment. . . . It is true that numerous restric- awakening was a result of his belief in the full spiritual cations on the activities of women outside the home pacity of women. Chin’gak (1178–1234) was the student were legislated during the Choseon period. . . . Yet of the great 12th century master Chinul, whose synthesis I wonder if we should view these many restrictions of sutra and meditation into a unified path of practice not as proof that women led primarily domestic and awakening became the standard approach to train- lives, but as evidence that so few women in fact ing in Korean Buddhism. As Chinul’s student, Chin’gak submitted willingly to a life restricted to the do- [23 inherited Chinul’s teachings and his role as a leader of the mestic sphere. There is a need for scholarship to go sangha. The attitudes of Zen masters from 900 years ago beyond generalized descriptions of Choseon wom- are deeply relevant today, given that there are still men en and to focus specifically on the detailed context, and women who hold that enlightenment is impossible in process, and contents of Confucianization. a female body. To combat a belief with roots sunk as deep Her chapter, “Buddhist Nuns and Alternative Spaces,” in tradition as this, we must bring history and tradition to does go beyond generalized descriptions. If Jorgensen’s bear upon it, and Kim’s chapter is one step in this process. chapter uses the records and materials remaining to us to Heung-sik Heo’s comparative look at two teachers in describe the severely limited sphere in which Buddhist nuns “Two Female Masters of Two Eras” is also an important operated, Jung manages to use the same materials to point step in shifting the inertia of a male-centered history of to the impossibility of absolute control, giving some hint as Korean Buddhism. Heo’s examination of two female mas- to how Buddhist nuns and women managed to maintain ters, Chinhye (1255–1324) and Chongyu (1717–1782), themselves with the “enduring vitality” of the book’s title. is crucial not only because it brings to light relatively Ultimately, this book is a welcome first step toward unknown biographies, but also because in the telling of more mature research into the lives and continuing role those biographies we get a sense of different social situ- of Buddhist women in Korea. In particular, it is my hope ations for women in different eras and some of the ten- that scholars heed Cho Eun-su’s call for rigorous efforts sions at play in the lives of women, especially those from to record the living history that still exists in the memo- eminent families (in the case of Master Chinhye). Both ries and lives of the oldest members of the Korean nuns’ Chinhye and Chongyu were nuns, but Chinhye was from sangha and the lay community. Korean Buddhist Nuns and a prominent noble family of the Koryo, whereas Chongyu Laywomen is an important book for anyone interested in was from a common family during the Choseon. The dif- gaining a more complete understanding of Korean Bud- ferences in both time and status allow Heo to examine dhism, past, present and future. multiple aspects related to women, nuns and Buddhism at the same time. Heo also avoids the easy narrative and Seon Joon Young was a nun in the Chogye Order includes the problems inherent to the particular materials of Korean Buddhism from 2005 to 2012. She has served as an advisor for Buddhist life at Yale Uni- he used, namely memorial stelae and tomb inscriptions, versity and is currently a candidate for a master’s in his analysis of these two figures. His analysis is the more of divinity at Harvard Divinity School, where she nuanced and responsible as a result. studies Buddhist ministry.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Poetry Buddha’s Enlightenment Day Poem Barry Briggs JDPSN December 7, 2013

Days came and went, and the Buddha never moved. Around, Around, Around Mara, with his armies and daughters, came and went, 10-Year Memorial Poem for Zen Master Seung and the Buddha never moved. Sahn The morning star came and went, and the Buddha never moved. Ken Kessel JDPSN Traveling around India for 35 years, Birth man, sick man, old-age man, death man the Buddha never moved. Which one is the true you?1 But the whole world comes and goes non-stop Two empty hands teaching and enlightenment is never separate from this. In the ten directions So . . . a big mistake. And the six realms 2 The iron girl dances across the waves. For 55 years The cloud boy floats motionless in the sky. Who knows where 3 How do we go beyond the mistake of movement You are now? and stillness? Lofty Mountain KATZ! Pierces heaven and earth Universe explodes4 24] The gold Buddha sits unmoving on the altar. 5 Clouds of incense float through the air. (All Together): KATZ! Happy Buddha’s Enlightenment Day! Endless blue sky Somewhere someone is thirsty What can you do?6 Commentary: Wu Bong Sa, Autumn 2013 The first time I saw you The last time I saw you Ja An JDPSN Who sees who see what? (Bogumila Malinowska) Clear, clear White snow in winter. Blue sky in summer. At the End of the Road in the Garden Home where whole Europe’s Don’t know was born: Deep, deep Silence inside green trees, songs of birds, Notes dance of squirrels 1. Why make birth, death and true? Still, there’s something to teach. Paid by all Colors of Pain 2. No time. No space. No teaching. No poem. No problem. Thousands of hours up and down looking for this very 3. Never mind the Zen master. Where is his attendant? If you find moment the attendant, you can find the Zen master. Deep silence slowly swallows and digests Everybody 4. Aigo! Aigo! Whose dream is this? Anger 5. Now you’re talking! Desire Ignorance 6. Sentient beings are numberless. Stillness Home Great hope for many in the Future Where does this Clear, deep silence come from? Where will it go? KATZ! Colorful leaves moving by Golden Autumn Wind warming up and feeding the Earth

August 21, 2013 London

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Buddha’s Birthday Poem 2014 Zen Master Bon Hae

The baby walks! 7 steps, no waiting, each step a flower/field of flowers/universe/multiverse. Pavilions springing up and flowers always flowers springing up raining down (who can keep up with this) Within each pavilion a Buddha. Within each flower a Buddha. Within each moment a Buddha. In all the vast Mahayana sky: Buddha! Buddha Buddha Buddha Buddha × 27 × 1,000 and I’ll raise you several powers . . . Little chubby-faced gold-diapered miracle baby 7 steps— yes, you got it! You always had it! You never lost it! (wait, that’s us) (wait, what is this “got”/who is there to get anything & what is there to get) Oh, and dead mother. [25 Please do not forget dead mother. Do not forget dead mother/elephant dreams/ bloodless exit = entry from a bloodless hole in a bloodless side. And always a convenient tree appearing—what a trope! “This very body is” what? whose? where is it going? & for whom? Complete complete always complete & never ending.

Photo: Barry Briggs JDPSN

Notes 6. Wait that’s us: One version of what baby Buddha said upon being 1. The baby walks: When Siddhartha Gautama Shakyamuni was born and taking his seven steps: “In the heavens above and the born, he immediately took, according to some sources, seven steps earth beneath only I am holy.” (Which makes sense if all beings are north and spoke (see note 6 below); other sources say he took seven Buddha. Also, see note 11 below.) steps in each of the four cardinal directions and spoke. 7. Dead mother: His mother Queen Maya died seven days after 2. Each step a flower . . . Pavilions . . .: In each of his footsteps giving birth. a lotus flower bloomed. In the more elaborate Mahayana sutras, 8. Elephant dreams: She dreamed that a white elephant’s tusks on auspicious occasions flowers and jewels cover everything and pierced her side to impregnate her. rain down from the heavens, upon innumerable pavilions in 9. Bloodless exit . . .: Baby Buddha sprung from his mother’s side— innumerable worlds, with Buddhas in every one. no vaginal delivery or even Caesarian section for him. 3. Buddha Buddha Buddha Buddha × 27 × 1000 . . .: 4 × 27 is 108, 10. Convenient tree . . . trope: About to give birth while on the road and then there is the fondness for ridiculously large numbers found to deliver in her parents’s house, Queen Maya grabbed onto a sala in many Sanskrit Buddhist texts. (Ancient Indians loved number tree. Her son attained enlightenment under the bodhi tree. (You can theory). think of this as the helpful tree trope.) 4. Gold-diapered: the standard baby Buddha statue. 11. “This very body is”: Hakuin’s “Song of Zazen” ends: “This very 5. You got it . . .: One version of what Buddha said when he body is the body of the Buddha.” awakened—all beings have this Buddha nature but they don’t know 12. Complete: Another version of what Buddha said when he or remember or believe it. awakened—how wonderful, each thing in itself is already complete.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Note Providence Zen Center has been holding a monthly Dharma School for children on Sunday mornings since 2010. The school teaches Zen practice and tradition as well as promoting a sense of community with the children and families. Near this past Easter, the children had an egg hunt. Mina, one of the organizers, came up with the idea of hiding words inside the eggs. Afterward, the children got together in two teams and composed these poems.

Dharma School Poem 1 Zen Buddha has awesome kids Flowers dance with trees Hunt wet dirty eggs Love big blue birds Parents shout very loudly Dharma School Poem 2 Calmy water swiftly moves quickly to pagoda. Clouds grow standing silently. Silly friends hug garden. Meditation look funny. Bow is cool looking. Bright blue sky has fast whispering winds. Kids search for bright colored eggs covered in green leaves Photo: Barry Briggs JDPSN

26] (Continued from page 15) our True Self and deepest potentiality. as both the hammer and the nail, with the power to trans- Of course nobody wants to hear that. Because this form our lives and the lives of those around us. “somehow” also contains the hard spiritual truth for grown- Then the burning house stands transfigured. We may be ups: Zen is entirely up to you. No one can do it for you. startled to find the shutters gone, great tree limbs in full leaf Oh, to be sure, Zen teachers can give practice pointers, jutting over the windowsills and into vacant rooms, and all offer encouraging words or a stern rebuke, poke and prod the interior doors blown open. Or maybe the roof suddenly you along through the long years of kong-an practice, goes missing, leaving nothing but blue sky overhead. Or maybe even keep you from blundering into the weeds. the four walls topple outward, like the sides of a flattened And your fellow practitioners can provide their love, ca- cardboard box, with nothing but green fields extending in maraderie, and support. every direction. Then all of those items so laboriously car- But sooner or later, by one means or another, you have ried out of the house and placed on the lawn are entirely be- to wedge your foot in the door and make your way into side the point. Or better still, they can be put to new uses. the shuttered, smoldering house of the mind. It is yours Who Is Singing in Chinese? Notes from a 100-Year Zen Retreat alone, after all. Only you can grope your way along its by David Peters will be available Summer, 2014, from Fire- dreary corridors and pry open the bolted doors. Only you throat Press and from online and main street book vendors. can climb into its stifling attics and descend into its crum- www.firethroatpress.com. bling cellars. “Somehow” means that it will not be enough Dave Peters is abbot and senior dharma teacher of the Isth- to merely read about it, talk about it, or think about it. mus Zen Community in Madison, Wis- “Somehow” means that you will actually have to do it. consin. Dave began practice in the Kwan Let’s suppose that we do just that. Even if, in the be- Um School of Zen in 1997 with Zen ginning, we are only seeking a remedy for what ails us, Master Dae Kwang and William Brown some kind of pill. Then “make this practice real” means JDPSN and in 2007 received bodhisattva take it personally. Take it to heart, make it your own. Not teacher precepts from guiding teacher in the sense of having Zen your own way—far from it! Thomas Pastor JDPSN (now Zen Mas- But by making Zen practice part of your life in such a way ter Ji Haeng). Dave was employed for 26 that it takes on a life of its own. Then Zen is no longer years by a Wisconsin-based insurance held at arm’s length, a hammer taken up to pound down company until his retirement in 2013. He and his wife Marilyn a particular nail; no, eventually it lets us realize ourselves make their home in Fitchburg, Wisconsin.

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015

The Kwan Um School of Zen

99 Pound Road, Cumberland, Rhode Island 02864-2726 USA [email protected] • www.kwanumzen.org For the most current list of centers and web addresses, please visit www.kwanumzen.org/centers

Florida Maine Oklahoma Americas Cypress Tree Zen Center Northern Light Zen Center Red Earth Zen Center South America Ken Kessel JDPSN Buk Kwang Soen Won Zen Master Bon Hae Buenos Aires Kwan Um Group 647 McDonnell Drive Zen Master Soeng Hyang Windsong Innerspace c/o Dorota Maldrzykowska Tallahassee, FL 32310 202 Meadow Road 2201 NW I-44 Service Road & Tomas Rautenstrauch [email protected] Topsham, ME 04086 Oklahoma City, OK 73112 Av. Caseros 490 4H 405-248-7480 Gateless Gate Zen Center 207/729-6013 C115 2AAN Capital Federal [email protected] [email protected] Buenos Aires, Argentina Ken Kessel JDPSN Pennsylvania +54 11 43 07 26 80 P.O. Box 12114 Massachusetts Zen Group of Pittsburgh [email protected] Gainesville, FL 32604 Cambridge Zen Center 352/336-1517 Dae Gak Sa Tim Lerch JDPSN Alaska [email protected] Zen Master Bon Yeon 125 1/2 Harvard Avenue Cold Mountain Zen Center Pittsburgh, PA 15213 Orlando Zen Center 199 Auburn Street Zen Master Bon Soeng Cambridge, MA 02139 412/491-9185 c/o Cary de Wit Ken Kessel JDPSN Office 617/576-3229 Rhode Island P.O. Box 82109 c/o Claudia Schippert Fax 617/576-3224 Providence Zen Center Fairbanks, AK 99708 515 S. Crystal Lake Drive [email protected] Hong Poep Won 907/378-6657 Orlando, FL 32803 Head Temple, North America [email protected] 407/897-3685 Cape Cod Zen Center [email protected] Zen Master Bon Yeon Zen Master Bon Haeng Arizona Nancy Hedgpeth JDPSN South Florida Zen Center 169 North Main Street Myung Wol Zen Center 99 Pound Road Zen Master Wu Kwang South Yarmouth, MA 02664 Merrie Fraser JDPSN Cumberland, RI 02864 7110 SW 182nd Way 508-760-1814 P.O. Box 11084 401/658-1464 Southwest Ranches, FL capecodzencenter Scottsdale, AZ 85271-1084 @yahoo.com [email protected] 480/947-6101 33331 954/263-4653 Open Meadow Zen Group Washington Arkansas southfloridazengroup@gmail. Zen Master Bon Haeng Ocean Light Zen Center Little Rock Zen Group com 212 Marrett Road Hye Kwang Sa Zen Master Hae Kwang Tim Lerch JDPSN Illinois Lexington, MA 02421 1516 W. 3rd. St. 9269 California Ave. SE Dharma Flower Zen Center 781/652-8303 Little Rock, AR 72201 Seattle, WA 98136 Zen Master Hae Kwang [email protected] 28] 501/661-1669 [email protected] [email protected] 861 Clay Street Mexico Woodstock, IL 60098 Mexico City Zen Centre Wisconsin Morning Star Zen Center 815/236-2511 Jo Potter JDPSN Great Lake Zen Center Zen Master Hae Kwang [email protected] Tajín #617-1 Dae Ho Soen Won 1599 Halsell Road Zen Master Dae Kwang Ten Directions Zen Community Colonia Narvarte Fayetteville, AR 72701-3902 828 East Locust Street Zen Master Soeng Hyang Mexico Distrito Federal 479/530-1098 Milwaukee, WI 53212 c/o Margaret McKenzie C.P. 03300, Mexico [email protected] [email protected] P.O. Box 2261 +52 555 6051489 California Glen Ellyn, IL 60138 [email protected] Isthmus Zen Community Dharma Zen Center margaretmckenzie@sbcglobal. Nevada Thom Pastor JDPSN Paul Park JDPSN net Zen Center of Las Vegas c/o Ron Heinrich 1025 South Cloverdale Indiana Dae Myong Sa 890 West Wingra Dr. Avenue Madison, WI 53715 Indianapolis Zen Center Thom Pastor JDPSN Los Angeles, CA 90019 info@ Lincoln Rhodes JDPSN 2461 E. Harmon Avenue 323/934-0330 Las Vegas, NV 89121 isthmuszencommunity.org [email protected] 3703 North Washington Blvd. 702/293-4222 Empty Gate Zen Center Indianapolis, IN 46205 [email protected] Gong Mun Sa 317/921-9902 New Mexico Asia Zen Master Bon Soeng [email protected] Deming Zen Center Seung Sahn International 2200 Parker Street Zen Center Kansas Zen Master Bon Hae Berkeley, CA 94704 Mu Sang Sa Kansas Zen Center 575/545-4665 510/845-8565 Head Temple, Asia Nam Pung Sa [email protected] [email protected] Zen Master Dae Bong Zen Master Bon Hae New York Zen Master Dae Jin Connecticut 1423 New York Street Chogye International Zen Center Chungnam, Gyeryong-city New Haven Zen Center Lawrence, KS 66044 of New York Eomsa-myon, Hyangjeok- Mu Gak Sa [email protected] Zen Master Wu Kwang sankil 129 Ken Kessel JDPSN 400 East 14th Street, Apt. 2E Prairyerth Zen Center South Korea (321-935) 193 Mansfield Street New York, NY 10009 Lincoln Rhodes JDPSN Office +82 42 841 6084 New Haven, CT 06511 212/353-0461 c/o Rebecca Otte Fax +82 42 841 1202 203/787-0912 [email protected] [email protected] 8000 SW 23rd Street [email protected] Topeka, KS 66614 Three Treasures Zen Center Hoeh Beng Zen Center Delaware 785/224-4678 of Oneonta Zen Master Dae Bong Delaware Valley Zen Center Zen Master Wu Kwang Tallgrass Zen Center 18-A Jalan Raja Bot José Ramírez JDPSN 14 Wayman Drive Lincoln Rhodes JDPSN 50300 Kuala Lumpur, P.O. Box 240 Otego, NY 13825 P.O. Box 304 Malaysia Newark, DE 19714 607/988-7966 Alma, KS 66401 +60 3292 9839 302/533-8819 [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] Fax +60 3292 9925 [email protected]

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Pengerang International Prague Zen Group Cologne (Köln) Zen Group Zen Center Europe & Israel Soeng Kwang Sa Zen Master Ji Kwang Kwan Yin Chan Lin Austria Head Temple, Czech Republic c/o Hean-Joo Chung Gye Mun Sunim JDPS Kwan Um School of Zen Vienna Zen Master Bon Shim MAINDO Akademie Lot 109 Telok Ramunia Jo Potter JDPSN Zen centrum školy Kwan Um Maarweg 141 81620 Pengerang Johor, Kwan Um Zen Schule Zen Praha 50825 Köln. Germany Malaysia Zentrum Kwan Um, Shambala center, 49 1777156558 (Michael +60 7 826 4848 Kaiserstraße 44-46, 2nd floor, Varsavska 13, Chung) [email protected] Apt.8 Prague 2, 120 00, Czech [email protected] Singapore Zen Center Vienna 1070, Austria Republic Kwan Yin Chan Lin Meditation Dresden Zen Center +43 680 55 396 11 +420 728 836 211 (Vera Oh Sahn Sa Center (Knud Rosenmayr) Hrusova) Gye Mun Sunim JDPS Arne Schaefer JDPSN [email protected] [email protected] No. 21, Lorong 25 Geylang Louisenstraße 15 Singapore 388299 Belgium Vrážné Zen Center 010 99 Dresden, Germany +65 6392 0265 Brussels Zen Center Jo Potter JDPSN +49 176 7008 2636 (Ronny Fax +65 6392 4256 Head Temple, Belgium c/o Vrážné Zen Center Herzog) [email protected] Zen Master Ji Kwang Vrážné 3 [email protected] Su Bong Zen Monastery Rue de I’Oiselet. 16A Jevíčko 569 43, Czech www.kwanumzen.de/dresden 1080 Molenbeek Gak Su Temple International Zen Republic Hamburg Zen Group Brussels, Belgium Center +420 608 169 042 (Jiři Arne Schaefer JDPSN +32 497 596 659 Zen Master Dae Kwan Hazlbauer) c/o Shambhala (Koen Vermeulen) 32 Leighton Road [email protected] Meditationszentrum 5/F Starlight Hse [email protected] Zlín Zen Group Hansastrasse 19 Causeway Bay, Hong Kong, Antwerp Zen Group Oleg Suk JDPSN 20149 Hamburg China Zen Master Ji Kwang Zen group Kwan Um ve Zlíně Germany +852 2891 9315 Rue de I’Oiselet. 16A Lhotka 44 +49 (0) 179 466 2706 (Sung Fax +852 2575 0093 Cogels Osylei 20 763 02 Zlín -Yon Lee) [email protected] 2600 Berchem Czech Republic [email protected] +32 496 38 14 13 +420 739 672 032 (Kamila (Hilde Vets) Great Britain Karlíková) London Zen Centre Australia [email protected] Brisbane [email protected] Ja An Sa Czech Republic Zen Master Dae Jin France Head Temple, Great Britain Brno Zen Center 27 Bredden Street Paris Zen Center Ja An JDPSN (Bogumila Dae Gak Sa Chapel Hill Saja Hoo Soen Won Malinowska) Oleg Šuk JDPSN [29 Brisbane QLD 4069, Head Temple, France Ilex House, Crouch Hill Zenové centrum školy Kwan Australia Zen Master Bon Shim Holly Park Um v Brně +61 407 821 081 Centre Parisien de Zen Kwan London N4 4BY, Great Výletní 7 (Hae Kwang–Frank Storey) Um Britain 62300 Brno, Czech Republic [email protected] 35 Rue de Lyon +44 207 502 6786 +420 775 988 882 (Ondráš Gold Coast 1 75012 Paris, France +44 774 297 9050 Přibyla) Zen Master Dae Jin + 33 613 798 328 (Eanjo [email protected] 23 Sundance Way [email protected] Kim) The Peak Zen Group Runaway Bay QLD 4210, České Budějovice Zen Group [email protected] Zen Master Ji Kwang Australia Zen Master Bon Shim Won Mun Sangha Zen Group c/o Kubong-Sa +61 402 289 923 (Julie-Bup c/o Vít Erban Zen Master Bon Shim Matlock Bath, The Peak Wol) Krajinská 384/40a 19 Grande Rue District goldcoastzengroup@hotmail. 370 01 České Budějovice com 45360 Pierrefitte-ès-bois, Great Britain Czech Republic France +44 1629 580392 (Peter Gold Coast 2 +420 774 123 974 (Vít + 33 601-762-384 (Philippe Voke) Zen Master Dae Jin Erban) Potyralla) [email protected] (Retreat Centre) ceskebudejovice@ 102 Bonogin Road kwanumzen.cz Germany Hungary Mudgeeraba QLD 4213, Bad Bramstedt Zen Group Baja KUSZ Group Gold Coast, Australia Liberec Zen Group Arne Schaefer JDPSN Jo Potter JDPSN +61 402 289 923 (Julie-Bup Zen Master Bon Shim Warnemünde-Ring 19 +36 30 4670677 (Major Wol) Tovaryšský vrch 258/1 245767 Bad Bramstedt, Tamás) +61 437 070 897 (Kathy Liberec 46001, Czech Germany [email protected] Brackenridge-Bup Hwa) Republic +49 419 2306 8360 (Uwe [email protected] +420602 636 386 (Zdeněk Budapest KUSZ Zen Group Schmidt) Jo Potter JDPSN Juračka) bad-bramstedt@kwanumzen. [email protected] +36 70 457 0486 (Tamás de Mészáros) South Africa Olomouc Zen Group Berlin Zen Center [email protected] Jung Shim Zen Group Oleg Šuk JDPSN Zen Master Dae Bong Chong Hye Sa Zen group školy Kwan Um v Szeged KUSZ Zen Group P.O. Box 690 European Head Temple Olomouci Jo Potter JDPSN Wilderness 6560 Muchak JDPSN +36 30 5864090 Republic of South Africa c/o Petr Klásek Gottschedstraße 4 P. Bezruče 4 (Kasza Péter) +27 823 773 280 (Gerry) 13357 Berlin, Germany [email protected] [email protected] 783 35 Horka nad Moravou +49 304 660 5090 Czech Republic [email protected] +420 603 449 959 (Petr Klásek) [email protected]

PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015 Šakiai Zen Center Szczecin Zen Group Veliky Novgorod Zen Center Israel Son Kwang Sa Zen Master Bon Shim Zen Master Dae Jin Haifa Zen Group Andrzej Piotrowski JDPSN c/o Dariusz Pozusiński ulitsa Bolshaya Moskovskaya Zen Master Ji Kwang Šakių KC, Nepriklausomybės ul. Bazarowa 5/12 86, kv. 30 c/o Ofer Cohn 7/7 71-614 Szczecin, Poland Veliky Novgorod Borochov St. # 14 LT-71122 Šakiai, Lithuania +48 508 431 216 (Dariusz Russia 173000 Kyriat Tivon, Israel +370 686 56392 (Vytautas Pozusiński) +79816016567 (Myong Gong +972 527 460 544 (Ofer Smirnovas) [email protected] Sunim) Cohn) smirnovas.vytautas@gmail. [email protected] [email protected] Toruń Zen Group com Andrzej Piotrowski JDPSN Slovakia Hod Hasharon Zen Center Vilnius Zen Center c/o Piotr Iwanicki Bratislava Zen Center Zen Master Ji Kwang Ko Bong Sa ul. Prosta 28/5 Myo San Sa c/o Rowena Gill Head Temple, Lithuania 87-100 Toruń, Poland Head Temple, Slovakia 16a Ha Tchelet Street Andrzej Piotrowski JDPSN +48 609 696 060 Oleg Suk JDPSN 45264 Hod Hasharon, Israel Mokyklos 21A torunskagrupazen@gmail. c/o Peter Košút, +972 54 4831122 (Rowena LT-08413 Vilnius, Lithuania com Hanulova 5 Gill) 841 01 Bratislava, Slovakia +370 675 16008 (Modestas Wałbrzych Zen Group [email protected] +421 905 368 368 (Ľubor Kazlauskas) Zen Master Bon Shim Pardes-Hanna-Karkur Zen Group Košút) [email protected] c/o Marek Elżbieciak Zen Master Ji Kwang [email protected] Poland ul. T. Chałubińskiego 17/2 c/o Boaz Franklin Gdańsk Zen Center 58-301 Wałbrzych, Poland Košice Zen Center 15 Beit El St. Zen Master Bon Shim [email protected] (Marek Sin Dzong Sa Pardes Hanna 33087, Israel Lipowa 9 Elżbieciak) Oleg Suk JDPSN +972 54 6522812 (Boaz 81-702 Sopot, Poland c/o Dušan Silváši Warsaw Zen Center Franklin) +48 698458603 (Jacek Letná 43 Do Am Sa [email protected] Wachulewicz) 040 01 Košice, Slovakia Head Temple, Poland Ramat Gan Zen Group [email protected] +421 903 134 137 (Dušan Andrzej Piotrowski JDPS Zen Master Ji Kwang Silváši) Katowice Zen Center ul. Małowiejska 22/24 c/o Alex Lurye [email protected] Zen Master Bon Shim 04-962 Warszawa–Falenica, Tzanhanim st. 6/6 c/o Waldemar Pawlik Poland Spain Givataim, Israel ul. 3 maja 38/22 +48 609 566 986 (Malgosia Barcelona Zen Center +972524464949 (Alex Lurye) 40-097 Katowice, Poland Gabryel) Zen Master Bon Shim [email protected] +48 501 430 062 (Waldemar [email protected] Bori Centro Zen Tel Aviv Zen group Pawlik) c/o Bárbara Pardo Warsaw Zen Group 30] Zen Master Ji Kwang [email protected] c/Beates 8, 3º, 2ª Zen Master Bon Shim +972 54 9472290 08003 Barcelona, Spain Kraków Zen Center ul. Dąbrowskiego 1/2 +972 54 7289466 +34 655033018 (Bárbara Pardo) Do Miong Sa Warszawa Mokotow, Poland (Yael Bar Levy) [email protected] Zen Master Bon Shim +48 691 256 668 (Piots [email protected] Palma Zen Center ul. Stradomska 17/4 Giers) Head Temple, Spain Latvia 31-068 Kraków; Poland zen_na_brackiej@poczta. Jo Potter JDPSN Jurmala Zen Group +48 530 677 081 (Slawek onet.pl Kwan Ji Sa Golanski) Centro Zen Palma Wrocław Zen Group Oleg Šuk JDPSN [email protected] Plaza Bisbe Berenguer Zen Master Bon Shim c/o Tatjana Tračevska de Palou nº 1, 1º, 2ª Lódz Zen Center Poland Raina street, 83 07003 Palma de Mallorca Andrzej Piotrowski JDPS +48 726 624 411 (Karol LV-2016, Jurmala, Latvia Illes Balears, Spain Lodzki Osrodek Zen Bazgier) +371 29191137 (Tatjana +34 686 382 210 (Tolo ul. Piotrkowska 93 m 14 [email protected] Cantarellas) Tračevska) 90-423 Lodz, Poland [email protected] Russia [email protected] +48 509 241 097 (Igor Saint Petersburg Zen Center Riga Zen Group Piniński) Dae Hwa Soen Won Oleg Šuk JDPSN [email protected] Head Temple, Russia c/o Inga Konosonoka [email protected] Zen Master Dae Jin Nīcgales iela 19-15 Płock Zen Group The Buddhistic Temple in LV-1035, Rīga, Latvia Zen Master Bon Shim Saint Petersburg +37192733256 (Inga Prison Groups ul. Antoninów 1 Kwan Um School of Zen Konosonoka) 09-520 Łąck, Poland Datsan Gunzechoinei Arizona State Prison Florence [email protected] +48 607 317 084 (Alicja Primorsky pr. 91 East Unit Lithuania Pełkowska) 197374 Saint Petersburg, Lowell Correctional Institution, Kaunas Zen Center [email protected] Russia Florida Kam No Sa [email protected] Andrzej Piotrowski JDPSN Rzeszów Zen Group Lowell Annex, Florida Zen Master Bon Shim c/o Tomas Stonis Rostov Zen Group Florida Women’s Reception Verkiu 25c c/o Artur Sikora Oleg Suk JDPSN Center, Florida ul. Plac Wolności 2/205 c/o Leonid Kosmynin LT-44466 Kaunas, Lithuania Concord is Northeast Correctional Rzeszów, Poland +370 601 56350 Bashkirskaya Ulitsa, d.4A, Center, Massachusetts +48 797 019 351 kv.20 +370 698 29299 Roslindale Pre-Release Center, [email protected] (Artur Sikora) 344068 Rostov-on-Don, [email protected] Russia Massachusetts Klaipeda Zen Group +7 904 504 2111 (Leonid MCI Shirley, Massachusetts Andrzej Piotrowski JDPSN Kosmynin) c/o Linas Svirinas [email protected] Klaipeda, Lithuania +370 600 00370 (Linas Svirinas) [email protected] PRIMARY POINT Winter 2015

Join Our Sangha Today!

The Kwan Um School of Zen

The heart of the Kwan Um School of Zen is our practice. Zen Master Seung Sahn very simply taught “Don’t Know”. This means in each moment we open unconditionally to all that presents itself to us. By doing this, our innate wisdom and compassion will naturally breathe and flow into our lives.

The Zen centers of the Kwan Um School of Zen around the world offer training in Zen meditation through instruction, daily morning and evening meditation practice, public talks, teaching interviews, retreats, workshops, and community living. Our programs are open to anyone regardless of previous experience.

The School’s purpose is to make this practice of Zen as accessible as possible. It is our wish to help human beings find their true direction and we vow and to save all beings from suffering.

Becoming a Member in North America

Your membership in a participating center or group makes you a part of the Kwan Um School of Zen sangha (Buddhist Community). Your dues help support teaching activities on local, national, and international levels. Membership benefits include discounted rates at all retreats and workshops at KUSZ member Zen centers and a subscription to Primary Point Magazine. (In other parts of the world, contact your local affiliated Zen center or regional head temple.)

------To set up a monthly membership with your credit card, visit kwanumzen.org and select “Donations & Membership”

1. Please choose a North American Zen Center (see preceding pages). If you are not located near a Zen Center, you may become a member of the head temple, Providence Zen Center. ______

2. Please indicate a membership level and choose payment schedule a. Family _____ $420 yearly ______$105 quarterly b. Individual _____ $300 yearly ______$75 quarterly c. Student/Senior (65+) _____ $180 yearly ______$45 quarterly

3. Please print your contact information Name ______Address ______City ______State ______Zip______Phone ______Email______For Family Memberships, please give up to 5 names to include in your membership. ______

Send to: Membership: Kwan Um School of Zen, 99 Pound Road, Cumberland, RI 02864 If you have any questions, contact the office at 401-658-1476 or email us at [email protected] Dh armaCraf t s THE CATALOG OF MEDITATION SUPPLIES

since 1979

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meditation cushions

incense

bells & gongs

statues

home furnishings 32] contemplative garden jewelry & gifts

Discounts for the Kwan Um Community

on Meditation Cushions Chugpis, Cedar Malas

and more

Online Orders Only Request a Catalog View discounts at: 866.339.4198 dharmacrafts.com/kwanum Key Code PPA

PRIMARY POINT Spring 2013