Author: Ox Herder

On Saturday, Chong Go Sunim picked up my family and me to go for a drive out to the Kwang Myeong Seon Center.

Along the way, we made a detour to visit the Mok-a Wood Museum. It’s owned by the man who carved the amazing work at the main hall in Hanmaum and there are wonderful samples of his work as well as historical pieces he’s collected, including antique statues, malas, some very old monk’s robes, and other items associated with temple life.

The grounds were scattered with Buddhas, Bodhisattvas, and even an image of Maria. It was a nice space, even the heavy, hot air felt a little fresher. On the way out, we passed some Nanking cherry bushes. I didn’t know about these before but my wife said they used to grow everywhere when she was younger. They used to sneak into their neighbor’s garden to pick them on the way to school.

After a few missed exits, a couple wrong turns, and a stop in a potter’s district for lunch, we made our way to Kwang Myeong Seon Center.

Since the head temple of Hanmaum is a nuns’ temple, Kwang Myeong is a place for the monks to stay. It also has a large cemetery where devotees can have their ashes placed. Chong Go Sunim pointed out the large pole with a round light on top that is lit throughout the night and can be seen from any place in the cemetery, its purpose it to give a light for the spirits to center themselves upon.

Behind the Dharma Hall, there is a huge meditation hall under construction. I always enjoy exploring temples that are under construction,  the fresh smell of the massive beams, the intricate joints, not yet covered in paint. I was especial impressed by the large copper lotus on the roof supporting the Hanmaum style  pagoda.

We continued passed the hall, up a stone stairway, the Mountain Grandfather (Spirit) Shrine. These small shrines are usually found at the back of Korea temple complexes, and are evidence of the ancient Shamanic traditions that  Korean Buddhism mixed with along the way.

The grounds around the shrine were particularly lovely, with flowers, well-groomed bushes, and a small spring fed fountain that we drank from. As we sat, Chong Go Sunim pointed to a painting above the door of the shrine. It was of a  tiger, almost the size of the hut that it sat before, with a small pair of shoes under it chest. When Dae Haeng Kun Sunim was staying in the mountains, the tiger would come at night to keep her shoes warm.  Apparently, a monk from the temple above was bringing some food one morning, when he came across the tiger. He took one look and fainted on the spot!

Although I don’t have the karmic affinity required to be a monk at this time/in this life, I’m grateful for the opportunities I’ve had, in Korea, to spend time with and even grow close to a few monks. The three monks I’ve come to know the most are from three very different cultures and backgrounds, and I’ve learned many different things from them. Although driving around the country at the speed of sound with my Korean monk friend, I was usually praying for my own life more than for others, he gave me a good glimpse into the reality of such a life. With Chong Go Sunim, it’s very comfortable coming from a similar culture. There are fewer barriers and talking about things feels very genuine. I think what I realize the most when I spend time with Chong Go Sunim, or most other monks, is that I still have a lot to learn… Sometimes it seems like the longer I practice, the more I realize I don’t know!

That’s about all I have to share for now, I hope you enjoy the photos!

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>photo gallery link<

One of the more influential aspects of my childhood was having three sisters. For the most part, they wanted a brother about as much as a cat wants fleas. For a long time, I couldn’t do anything right by my sisters. As we grew older, grievances grew increasingly pettier. I vaguely remember, around the age of ten, asking my mother if I could have a sex-change. I didn’t have a complete concept of what it meant, but I knew it would make my sisters like me!

Eventually, there was a big turning point. Although, at times, I admittedly was rather irritating, I realized that the more contributing factor was that they were also seriously irritable! Although, that realization didn’t directly change the situation, it did help me deal with it, which, in turn, helped resolve many things, internally and externally. As I matured more, I learned to remind myself of this also when I was feeling irritated or frustrated by something or someone.

-Is this annoying or am I just letting myself be annoyed?

There’s only one side of that I can truly act upon.

Form here is only emptiness, emptiness only form.

Form is no other than emptiness, emptiness no other than form.

-the Heart Sutra

During a trip to Thailand, I bought ‘A Brief History of Time’, by Stephen Hawking. Like the best Dharma books, it was written with the intention of being understood by any common layperson but also must be read several times for it to really sink in. One of the many interesting things I learned is that matter is constantly appearing and disappearing in space, out of apparently nothing. Particles and their corresponding anti-particles, arise for a moment, then, nearly immediately, collide back together into nonbeing.

Although at the time that Stephen Hawking wrote the book, he was only 95% sure that black-holes existed, he supposed that as these particles and antiparticles arose just on the edge of black-holes, one of them would be hauled into the black-hole, allowing the other to continue its existence, becoming the seed of form.

What does this mean for my practice? Well, probably nothing… but it does interest me that an ancient Buddhist text, which reads almost like a dream, would be echoed well over a thousand years later in contemporary theoretical physics.

The appearance of all Buddhas and Patriarchs in this world can be liked to waves arising suddenly on a windless ocean.

-Zen Master So Sahn

Similarly, as the Buddha sat in meditation, he was able to focus his awareness so acutely that he actually experienced his form on a subatomic level. He saw that everything is pulsing, appearing and disappearing countless times each moment. I think this experience helped him realize the extent of our impermanence. Thousands of times a second we regenerate. Thousands of times a second we’re given the chance to start all over. Personally, I find this very encouraging!

Again, this time about twenty-five hundred years later, science and technology caught up to Prajna Wisdom and built a scanning electron microscope that could observe the inside of an atom. Each time they focussed in on a particle, it seemed to melt into pulsing waves of rhythm and revealed an even smaller particle, which in turn, did the same.

Of what is the body made? It is made of emptiness and rhythm. At the ultimate heart of the body, at the heart of the world, there is no solidity. Once again, there is only the dance. At the unimaginable heart of the atom, the compact nucleus, we have found no solid object, but rather a dynamic pattern of tightly confined energy vibrating perhaps 1022 times a second: a dance…

-George Leonard

Trying to wrap my head around Buddhism (what it is, exactly) is a very slow and ongoing process. What I find helpful is finding the similarities between all the different types of Buddhisms and not worrying too much about the differences.

I also find the simplest explanations the most helpful. In the Dhammapada, the Buddha sums up the teachings in three simple lines,

To avoid all evil, to cultivate good, and to purify one’s mind – this is the teaching of the Buddhas.

(Dhammapada 183.)

They are definitely challenges for many of us to follow, myself included, but seeing it put so simply gives me hope that I can do it!

The first time I visited the Hanmaum website, I was struck with a similar lesson, bare and simple,

The goal of Buddhism is to see things as they truly are.

I’m not sure that it has the same effect on others that it had on me, but it literally made me stop for a moment. It struck me in several different ways at once…  It made me realize that I don’t see things as they truly are, it also made me realize, “Here is someone who does see things as they are. It’s possible for all of us to see the same.”

The journey of opening my eyes has been mixed with pleasure, pain, and learning not to get hung up on either. It took a lot to look at the “joys” in my life and to realize the underlying suffering attached to them. The more I look, the more I see, the more I let go, the more I’m able to gradually see a third layer, one of pure, independent happiness, seeing things the way they truly are.

A few months ago, a friend visited me from Daegu. In our discussions, the topic of letting go came up. She told me she’d been thinking a lot about “letting go” lately and making an effort to practice it.

I grabbed No River to Cross from my row of books and said, “Here… you can take this”

It was the easiest time I’ve ever had letting go of a book!