Songs to help us move forward

Here at the Seon Center, we have a lot of Dharma songs. (Koreans *love* to sing, lol.) These are essentially short Dharma talks set to music. They were usually poems spontaneously given during Dharma talks by Daehaeng Kun Sunim, and then later set to music. (Sometimes they had a few changes to them to fit the music, but the composers got Kun Sunim’s approval on those.)

These get sung all the time. After Dharma talks, after dedications, at closing ceremonies for weekend retreats, you name it, they get sung, lol. But one place we use them is as part of memorial ceremonies, because at their core, these songs are teachings. Aside from being really good teachings, I admire them because they are such a clever way of helping people to learn important points. As we sing these, we’re repeating them over and over, and the meanings and implications percolate down within us.

Here is one of my favorites that we use as part of the memorial ceremonies.