Essays

It's never the worst by Seongjeon

I recently met an acquaintance whom I had not seen in quite a while. She no longer had the young face that I remembered. Hers was the rough face of an urchin, a vagabond, and looking at her left me with a peculiar feeling. She did not have the look of an ordinary person. I asked her what she had been doing with her life. She said she had been traveling all over the world and studying Buddhism, noting that it had already been over ten years that ..# 2006.07.07

Why are Ananda, Vasubandhu, Asvaghosa and Nagarjuna included among the Patriarchs of Seon? by Woncheol

If you look closely at the Lineage of Dharma Transmission of the Seon school, one peculiarity catches the eye. From Ananda, to Vasubandhu, Asvaghosa and Nagarjuna, the Seon lineage includes a number of persons who seem incongruent with the image of the majority of Seon patriarchs. Are they included as patriarchs without regard to their own intentions? If they were to be reborn now and saw the records of Dharma Transmission, I really wonder how t..# 2006.07.03

[Counseling] How to live and survive in our society? by Seogwang

As a college student, the most important goal in reality is to learn and practice for future job after the graduation. Although anyone can choose and change his or her job at any time, it is not easy in actual reality. For most people, what they do for living has critical impact on their happiness and success throughout their whole life. Working for a living is not temporal, but it is a whole lifetime’s work. Therefore, in order to choose a ri..# 2006.06.26

Identity Crisis by Sumi Loundon

"You know the world's messed up when the best golfer is black [Tiger Woods], and the best rapper is white [Eminem]," quipped the basketball great Charles Barkley. Barkley taps into something important about how it is becoming harder to assume that race, country, and identity are as closely aligned as they were even twenty years ago. A friend of mine who was born and raised in Korea is now going to school here in America. He recently met and deci..# 2006.06.16

The Art of Meditation by Martine Batchelor

Meditation can be practised in two main ways: either by stopping and cultivating concentration and enquiry in a systematic way using the tools of awareness: breath, sensations, sounds, thoughts and meditative questioning; or by paying attention to life moment to moment without grasping as we go about our days. Both methods are needed for the cultivation of meditation to become an art. The first method helps us to become peaceful, still and brigh..# 2006.06.14

The Sound of a Bamboo Clapper by Seongjeon

I received a call from a fellow monk who just completed a three-month retreat and is off for some rambling meditation. His pleasant voice said he will stop by and visit me on his way. At that instant, I nostalgically thought of a pair of white rubber shoes neatly placed on a step-stone before the door and longed for the sound of the bamboo clapper announcing the start of meditation. I thought of the quietude of my mind whenever I turned back to ..# 2006.06.08

The Offering Remarks on the Buddha’s Birthday by Pohae Dobum

Written by the Ven. Dobum Sunim, the President of the Sangha Association of Korean American Sangha in East Coast # 2006.06.01

The Seon and Doctrinal Schools as Represented by Mahakasyapa and Ananda by Woncheol

The Mahkasyapa and Ananda that we know and recognize today reflect the values of the Seon schools that emerged much later, and are therefore different from the two who lived at the time of the Buddha. In fact, the current depictions of many people who appeared throughout history are a reflection of the expectations and prejudices of those who followed, rather than accurate descriptions. In the early days when the Doctrinal school had gained much..# 2006.05.30

The Titmouse's Nest by Beopjeong

Some days ago, listening to the "ttok, ttok, ttok" sound from outside my window, I found myself as if lost in a trance. On the way out to water the tree I had been tending, I finally became aware of what had been making that noise. I saw a titmouse flying out from an opening of the stove chimney. It appeared that the titmouse was building a nest in there. The titmouse, unlike other birds, doesn't really hide its nest very much. If a pl..# 2006.05.25

What is the True Last Word? by Dorim Beopjeon

Dharma Talk for the 2550 (2006) Summer Retreat by Seon Master Dorim Beopjeon Patriarch of the Jogye Order# 2006.05.17