History
Seung Sahn Soen Sa Nim first arrived in the United States in 1972, where he lived in Providence, Rhode Island and worked at a Korean-owned laundromat. Not long after, students from nearby Brown University began coming to him for instruction. This resulted in the opening of the Providence Zen Center in 1972. At the time of his arrival in America, Seung Sahn's teachings were different than many of his Japanese predecessors who had taught Zen to Americans. During the early days he did not place a strong emphasis on sitting practice, which is the core of most Japanese traditions of Zen. It was through the urging of some of his first students, some who had practiced in Japanese schools previously, that Seung Sahn came to place a stronger emphasis on sitting meditation.
In 1974 Seung Sahn began founding more Zen centers in the United States—his school still yet to be established—beginning with Dharma Zen Center in Los Angeles, California—a place where laypeople and the ordained could practice and live together. That following year he went on to found the Chogye International Zen Center of New York City, and then in 1977 Empty Gate Zen Center. Meanwhile, in 1979, the Providence Zen Center moved from its location in Providence to its current space in Cumberland, RI. The Kwan Um School of Zen was founded in 1983 and—unlike more traditional practice in Korea—Seung Sahn allowed the laity in the lineage to wear the robe of a Buddhist monk. Celibacy was not required, and the rituals of the school are unique. For instance: although the Kwan Um School does utilize traditional Seon, Ch'an and Japanese Zen ritual, elements of their practice also closely resemble rituals found often in Pure Land and Huayen traditions. In 1986, along with a former student and Dharma heir Dae Gak, Seung Sahn founded a retreat center in Clay City, Kentucky called Furnace Mountain—the temple name being Kwan Se Um San Ji Sah (or, Perceive World Sound High Ground Temple). The center functions independent of the Kwan Um organization today.
In Somerset West of South Africa, the Kwan Um School of Zen once had the largest following of Zen practitioners in the area with their former Dharma Centre (though today the center acts independent of the Kwan Um organization). Founded in 1982 by Heila Downey (a former student of Philip Kapleau), the center had for many years acted as an informal affiliate of the Rochester Zen Center in Rochester, New York. In 1989 Dharma Centre began embracing the practices of the Kwan um School of Zen. Heila Downey herself was made a Ji Do Poep Sa Nim, granting her authority to teach within the Kwan Um School of Zen. According to Michel Clasquin in the book Westward Dharma: Buddhism Beyond Asia, "There are other Zen groups in South Africa, notably in Johannesburg, but the Dharma Centre, now headquartered in the town of Robertson, is clearly the leading Zen-based organization. The institutional support it receives from the Kwan Um organization means that it is able to import teachers with relative ease. However, it should be noted that in a suburban satellite center in Cape Town, the Dharma Centre has been forced by popular demand to reinstitute a weekly meditation session shorn of all ritual, much as things were before 1989." Per Dharma Centre's own website, "With changing times, our practice and teaching has evolved to express a style in harmony with our African heritage resulting in our resignation from the Kwan Um School of Zen." Regardless of this resignation, the center does demonstrate a continuing respect for the teachings of Seung Sahn by stating, "As the African Dharma continues to develop and grow, Zen Master Seung Sahn's legacy and teaching will continue to sustain and encourage us in the never-ending quest of 'Who am I' and 'How May I Help You?'"
The Kwan Um School of Zen also has one of only a few Zen centers located in Israel with their Tel Aviv Zen Center, led by Revital Dan. It is one of only three Kwan Um School Zen centers in Israel, with its history linked to trips by Seung Sahn to Israel in the 1990s to teach Zen at various "alternative health centers." According to Lionel Obadia, "Revital Dan, currently heading the TAZC, followed back to Korea and trained in the monastic style of retreat. Back in Israel with her Dharma-teacher degree, she founded a Zen group. The opening ceremony of the TAZC took place in January 1999. The activities of the Kwan Um School have received widespread media coverage and the number of attendees is increasing." The other two centers in Israel practicing in the KUSZ are the Hasharon Zen Center and the Ramat Gan Zen Group.
Read more about this topic: Kwan Um School Of Zen
Famous quotes containing the word history:
“Tell me of the height of the mountains of the moon, or of the diameter of space, and I may believe you, but of the secret history of the Almighty, and I shall pronounce thee mad.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“In every election in American history both parties have their clichés. The party that has the clichés that ring true wins.”
—Newt Gingrich (b. 1943)
“There has never been in history another such culture as the Western civilization M a culture which has practiced the belief that the physical and social environment of man is subject to rational manipulation and that history is subject to the will and action of man; whereas central to the traditional cultures of the rivals of Western civilization, those of Africa and Asia, is a belief that it is environment that dominates man.”
—Ishmael Reed (b. 1938)