Primary VolumeP 30 • Number 2 • int Summer 2013 2] residential training CO-GUIDING TEACHERS: ZEN MASTER BON HAENG (MARK HOUGHTON), NANCY HEDGPETH JDPSN 99 pound road cumberland ri 02864 • 401-658/1464 • director@ providencezen.org • www.providencezen.org LIVE AND PRACTICE AT THE KUSZ INTERNA- TIONAL HEAD TEMPLE IN A SUPPORTIVE COM- MUNITY OF DEDICATED ZEN STUDENTS. DAILY MEDITATION PRACTICE, INTERVIEWS WITH GUIDING AND VISITING TEACHERS, DHARMA TALKS, MONTHLY WEEKEND RETREATS, SUMMER AND WINTER INTENSIVES, AND NORTH AMERICA SANGHA WEEKENDS. LO- CATED ON 50 ACRES OF FORESTED GROUNDS. forretreat visiting rentals groups PZC Guest Stay Program designed to allow practitioners to stay at the Zen Center and experience community life for up to a three month period. Summer kyol che: July 6-Aug. 2 Winter Kyol Che: Jan. 4-April 4, Monthly Yong Maeng Jong Jin Retreats, KIDO Chanting Retreats, Christian Buddhist Retreats, Family Retreats ans Solo Retreats. PRIMARY POINT Summer 2013 Primary Point IN THIS ISSUE 99 Pound Road, Cumberland RI 02864-2726 U.S.A. Editor’s Note ............................................................................4 Telephone 401/658-1476 Wu Bong Dae Soen Sa Nim www.kwanumzen.org Zen Master Ji Kwang ..................................................................4 [email protected] online archives: Pure Love www.kwanumzen.org/teachers-and-teaching/ Zen Master Bon Shim.................................................................6 primary-point Still Helping You Published by the Kwan Um School of Zen, a nonprot reli- Zen Master Dae Bong .................................................................7 gious corporation. e founder, Zen Master Seung Sahn, 78th Patriarch in the Korean Chogye order, was the rst Korean Zen By Deok Hyeon Sunim: Master to live and teach in the West. In 1972, after teaching e Chants at the Funeral Ceremony ..................................8 in Korea and Japan for many years, he founded the Kwan Um sangha, which today has aliated groups around the world. He Tathagata ............................................................................9 gave transmission to Zen Masters, and inka (teaching author- Poem in Tribute to Wu Bong Dae Soen Sa Nim ................10 ity) to senior students called Ji Do Poep Sas (dharma masters). e Kwan Um School of Zen supports the worldwide teaching By Zen Master Wu Bong: schedule of the Zen Masters and Ji Do Poep Sas, assists the If We Stay Awake ..............................................................11 member Zen centers and groups in their growth, issues publi- cations on contemporary Zen practice, and supports dialogue Tomorrow Is Too Late ......................................................12 among religions. If you would like to become a member of the Master and Dog ................................................................13 School and receive Primary Point, see page 31. e circulation is 2,800 copies. is Kind of Vow ..............................................................14 e views expressed in Primary Point are not necessarily those Bodhisattva Bird ...............................................................18 of this journal or the Kwan Um School of Zen. e Attendant © 2013 Kwan Um School of Zen Sasha Rymar / Dorota Drążczyk ................................................18 Founding Teacher Crazy Zen Master [3 Zen Master Seung Sahn Sasha Rymar ............................................................................19 School Zen Master Zen Master Soeng Hyang Always in Front of You ............................................................19 Editor-in-Chief Zen Master Seung Sahn Ken Kessel JDPSN Caring for Us .........................................................................20 Guest Editor, Zen Master Wu Bong Memorial Issue Peter Voke Last Meeting Arne Schaefer JDPSN ...............................................................22 Editor for Europe Zen Master Ji Kwang Gratitude Editor for Asia Soo Hyang Lee .........................................................................22 Kathy Park Mind Cures ............................................................................23 Managing Editor Tamarind Jordan Poetry ....................................................................................25 Managing Editor for Europe Kwan Um School of Zen Centers ...............................28, 29, 30 Eduardo del Valle Pérez Membership in the Kwan Um School of Zen–America ...........31 Book Review Editor Judy Roitman JDPSN Layout and Design James Gouijn-Stook Content Editor Ben Gleason Proofreader Seon Joon Sunim Manufacturing Manager Eugene Lim Publishing Manager Paul Majchrzyk JDPSN Photography Elisabeth Illgen, Lubor Kosut, Peter Kosut, Arne Schaefer JDPSN, the family of Zen Master Wu Bong Cover: Elisabeth Illgen PRIMARY POINT Summer 2013 Editor’s Note n April 17 of this year, Zen Master Wu Bong suddenly died while leading a retreat in Paris. In the tradition of our founding teacher, Zen Master Seung Sahn, he spent his life as a teacher traveling and teaching, not set- tlingO permanently in any one place, and dedicating his activities to spreading the dharma. As the head teacher for the Kwan Um School of Zen in Europe, he shep- herded the growth of the school. His eorts persist in the owering of our school in Europe and the teaching activities of the Zen masters and Ji Do Poep Sas, who were so close to him and continue his works to guide the practice, made now more poignant by his death. We oer this issue as a tribute, compiled from around the world by the European sangha. It contains excerpts of his teachings and oerings by students and colleagues. In the Korean tradition, Zen masters who have died, as well as those over 60, are referred to by the title Dae Soen Sa Nim, which means "Great Zen Master." In recognition of the title conferred on him, we refer to him here as Wu Bong Dae Soen Sa Nim. May his example sharpen our own apprecia- tion of Zen practice as the great work of life and death. Wu Bong Dae Soen Sa Nim 4] Zen Master Ji Kwang search for a teacher, he went to a Tibetan lama, Tarthang Tulku, for one year to practice Tibetan Buddhism. While he was a student at Brown University in Provi- dence, he trained in Shim Gum Do and became a mas- ter in this martial art. In 1972, during his time at the university, he met Zen Master Sueng Sahn and became one of his rst students. In the same year he did his rst hundred-day solo retreat. He was 22 years old. Also he took ve precepts and received his Buddhist name, Poep Mu, which means Empty Dharma or No Dharma. In 1973 he graduated from Brown University with a bachelor’s degree in mathematics. Afterward he did more retreats, and in 1978, together with Zen Master Seung Sahn, he returned for the rst time to Europe—to Poland, his motherland—where from that time onward a sangha developed that grew and became the largest sangha in our ur dear Zen master, Wu Bong Dae Soen Sa Nim, European school. was born on June 22, 1950, in Wroclaw, Poland, In 1978 he did his second solo retreat in America. He into a Jewish family who suered through the suered poor health during that time because of the re- OGerman occupation during the Second World War. In stricted diet and very strong practice. 1964 the family decided to leave Europe and they emigrat- In 1984 he received inka from Zen Master Seung Sahn ed to the United States. and, despite still living in the United States, he became Jacob Perl, as he then was called, nished high school the principal supporter for the Polish sangha. From that in 1968. When he was 20 years old, in 1970, he started time onward he traveled frequently to Poland. practicing Zen with the famous Soto Zen teacher Suzuki In 1988 he married Grazyna, and soon afterward ad- Roshi at the San Francisco Zen Center. e questions of opted his son Nicholas, who was about 10 years old at the life and death were very urgent to him. Continuing his time. e next year his son Matthew was born. In 1992 PRIMARY POINT Summer 2013 PRIMARY POINT Summer 2013 he was ocially named the Euro- he gave transmission to two students pean head teacher by our founding and inka to seven students. teacher, Zen Master Seung Sahn. In 2008 he moved to Korea to In 1993 he received transmis- prepare himself to become a monk. sion from Zen Master Seung Sahn, In order to keep a place in Europe and was given the dharma name Wu he also maintained a residence at Bong, which means Universal Peak. the Berlin Zen Center, which from At that time he lived at Providence that time onward became his home Zen Center with his family, where in Europe. In 2009 he was ordained he was abbot for many years. Shortly as a Buddhist monk in Korea. afterward he moved to Paris with his Until the end of his life he con- family and established the Paris Zen tinued to guide and teach the Eu- Center, but still he had business in ropean sangha while also focusing the United States, so he travelled of- on teaching in Korea. He led several ten between the continents. Kyol Ches in Korea at Mu Sang Sa Between his inka and transmis- Temple, Hyang Choen Sa Temple, sion he was active teaching in Asia, Hwa Gye Sa Temple and Boep Hwa South Africa and America, but most Do Ryang. is last temple is that of his teaching work was in Europe. of his Korean student and friend In 2000 he gave his rst inka, to Deok Hyeon Sunim, and is where Mukyong (Roland Whrle-Chon). he lived since 2011. In 2006 he gave his rst transmis- Wu Bong Sunim left his body sion, to Zen Master Bon Shim (Alek- after a cardiac arrest on Wednesday, sandra Porter). In 2012 he gave his second transmission, April 17, 2013 at 1 p.m. while leading a Yong Maeng Jong to Zen Master Ji Kwang (Roland Whrle-Chon). In total Jin at the Paris Zen Center. ◆ [5 PRIMARY POINT Summer 2013 Pure Love Zen Master Bon Shim Speech given at the funeral ceremony, Paris, April 23, 2013. 6] t’s so hard to accept that our teacher is gone, while not On behalf of the European sangha—the whole sang- Iso long ago we were sitting, chanting, eating and laugh- ha—I really would like to thank our teacher so much for ing together.