Author: Chong Go Sunim

I recently returned from a stay near one of the oldest extent temples in Korea, Magok Sa. It’s near Kongju, in South Chung Chong Province, and if you’re nearby, be sure to stop in.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I recently returned from a new(ish) continuing education program that’s been instituted within the Jogye Order. They’re now offering nearly fifty 3 day classes throughout the year, covering topics from managing temples to social welfare projects to counseling skills. Everyone’s now required to take one class a year, but I’ve taken two so far, and that seems to be the norm. This is quite a nice step up for the Jogye Order, where these kinds of skills tended to be learned or passed along in a fairly haphazard fashion.

This was all done at a new training center set up near Ma-gok Temple, in South Chung Chong Province. And by “near,” I mean a five minute walk!

This photo always touches something deep inside me. I think there are many things that apply to both people here. In allowing her picture to be taken like this, I also suspect that Kun Sunim thought there was something very deep and special about Abraham Lincoln. It was taken around 1995 when our center near Washington DC opened. (Generally she very grudging about having her picture taken, and we usually had to ambush her!)

I’m currently working on the introduction for a collection of Dharma songs, but some of the songs are so beautiful and profound that it’s hard for me to know where to begin. Anything I write about them seems shallow by comparison. Sometimes all I can do is exhale and say “thank you.”  

At the center of our vast
and completely empty mind,
there is an eternal spark.

With this spark
I quietly light the sublime lantern
that so faithfully guides me.
I’ll take this lantern
and spread it’s light
all over the world,
sharing its boundless compassion
with all I meet.

This one mind,
deep and deep,
so deep,
so profound and mysterious,
within this is the truth of “embracing everything,”
within this one mind
flows the sweet water
that can truly save all beings,
the water that has the power of all the sincere tears ever cried.
I’ll drink deeply of this spring water,

and no longer be caught by life and death,
and together with all beings,
I’ll take the path of this truth
that transcends all fixed forms and ideas.

–Daehaeng Kun Sunim

For the last several years, my Dharma brothers have been working on building a new Dharma Hall. I’m quite proud of them both because they’ve been doing such an incredible job, and because they’ve been waiting untill they have all of the money necessary before starting each phase. (No borrowing money!) It’s taken seven or eight years now, (I can’t remember), but the work is nearing completion. They’re just finishing the painting and artwork, and the next step will be installing the flooring and then the Buddha statue. Here are some photos I took yesterday; click on the images to see a larger version.

Temples in Korea will often have a “founder’s altar” on the left side of the Dharma Hall. Sometimes this to honor the founder of the temple, and sometimes it’s to honor a great teacher of the temple. In our case, it’s both. This is the altar that was installed a couple of days ago in our Dharma Hall.  I was a bit surprised by the modern style of the design, but I like its clean lines. (Unfortunately, the low light makes this photo look a bit washed out. This is just to the left of the main altar. Tomorrow I’ll  try to add a picture of both.)

 

EDIT: Here’s a photo of the Founder’s altar in relation to the front of the Dharma Hall.

This past Monday (July 9) was the 49th day memorial service for Daehaeng Kun Sunim. Traditionally, these services are to help the spirit of the dead move on, to help free them from what they may be caught up in. But for an awakened being, it is more truly a memorial service for those of us who miss her.  It was a rather public ceremony, with many sunims and laypeople visiting to pay their respects. (Click on the images to see a larger version.)

 

 

One of the very first Buddhist texts I read explained how the idea of “I” or “Me” is just a composite, just a shadow that arises from the interaction of the material world and our senses.  It’s always changing, coming and going, and yet we can build up such desire, hope, and anger based upon this. And yet, if we just let go of this “I” and “Me”, all of those things just pass by, unable to find a place to glom onto. Perhaps this is why letting go like this, or bowing, leaves my heart feeling like it’s been washed clean.

I love this image of “self” as the ghost of a thousand sharp-edged pieces of garbage!

from Wired magazine.

Here’s another spectacular Dharma song that gives me goosebumps every time I hear it. (Click on the link below to listen to it being sung by our choir at the Dharma song festival last autumn.)

You and I as One

Even a small, ignored weed
is also myself.
There’s not a single thing
that isn’t my shape,
that’s not my life.
Evolving over a billion lives,
I had no idea
that my shape was also there within others,
that others’ shape was also my shape.

That shape is also my shape,
that shape is my shape….
Trying not to see them as separate,
trying not to see them as separate,
finally becoming one,
finally becoming one,
they all become Bodhisattvas,
I too become a Bodhisattva,
become a Bodhisattva.