"Zen Master Seung Sahn"

Summary by Jena Knudsen. Edited by Mark Unno 2/25/2002.

The Zen Master Seung Sahn has been largely accredited with introducing Korean Zen to the West, and for this reason has been referred to as the "Korean Bodhidharma" in his homeland.

As a teenager, he was involved in Korea's movement of independence from Japan and was college-educated. Inspired by the Diamond Sutra, which finally eased the mental turmoil he felt over his country's trouble, Seung Sahn was ordained as a novice Zen Buddhist monk at the Magok-sa temple in 1948.

Early in his experience as a monk, he went on a three-month retreat where he underwent extreme physical mortification. He experienced hallucinations and had continual doubts about whether or not to continue with the retreat. One particular hallucination and an out-of-body experience, both of which took place within the last week, led him to finally realize his oneness with all of reality.

Returning to the Magok-sa Zen community, Seung Sahn worked in the kitchen and continued to receive a Zen education, practicing meditation, reading, and observing the masters at "Dharma combat." His reputation grew after he was declared enlightened by the Zen Master Chun Song, and he continued to display proficiency in his ability to correctly answer any koan directed to him. He received Inka, the seal recognizing a Zen student's awakening by three Zen masters. He then went to see Ko Bong, a Master who had previously visited Magok-sa and was considered one of the most brilliant Zen masters of the day. After an intense period of questions and answers, Ko Bong determined that Seung Sahn was worthy of the transmission of the Dharma. Seung Sahn became the 78^th patriarch of that particular line on January 25, 1950, at the age of twenty-two. He had solved the finally koan, "The cat bowl is broken, and the mouse eats the cat food."

In the course of the next ten years, Sahn was a captain in the army (he was drafted when the Korean War broke out), an abbot of a temple outside of Seoul, and the founder of the United Buddhism Association (a lay community). He served on the Board of Directors for the Chogye Order, taught at a Zen university, and established temples in Japan and Hong Kong for Koreans.

In 1971, he heard about an American interest in Zen and went there to teach. He started a small Zen Meditation Center in Province, Rhode Island, which became very popular. The Zen he brought to America had a reputation for being down-to-earth and accessible. He encouraged communal living among his students and corresponded with them frequently by mail. He focused largely on the importance of attaining "don't know mind," reminding his students that meditation was about more than "fixing your body."

In the mid-1980s, Sahn opened the Diamond Hill Zen Monastery, also in Rhode Island. The first of its kind outside of Korea, it had two full three-month retreats within one year.

Sahn passed on the Inka seal to several of his American students, enabling them to teach and spread the practice themselves. Now his teachings continue to spread in the West even after he is no longer actively teaching.