Wake Up and Laugh!

Mr Park could often be seen around the main office at the Anyang Hanmaum Seon Center. He was quite a tall, big-boned man, probably close to 190cm tall (6’2~3″), and yet radiated warmth and friendliness. It seemed like he had always been at the center, and had, in fact, been helping Daehaeng Kun Sunim since the mid 1970s. He passed away in January, 2018, and his wife passed away only a few weeks later. This  interview appeared in the May/June 2006 issue (#27) of Hanmaum Journal.

If you visit the Anyang Hanmaum Seon Center, there is a chance you’ll see Mr. Jae Won Park(박재원). He has known Kun Sunim for many decades, and been a member of the Seon Center from it’s early years. In addition to taking care of all kinds of large and small jobs for the Seon Center, he also used to have many important roles in the Buddhist community and larger society of Korea. Here is his story.

Hanmaum Journal: How did you come to meet Daehaeng Kun Sunim?

I first met her through my association with Tanho Sunim [Tanho Sunim was also a disciple of Hanam Sunim, and was considered one of the foremost scholars of modern Korea -translator]. I’d met Tanho Sunim in the mid-1960’s and later had formed a group to help support his teaching and vision. He and Kun Sunim were very good friends, so on one of his visits, I went along and met Kun Sunim. That’s how I first met her, and eventually, in April of 1976, I had been appointed as senior adviser to Hanmaum Seon Center.

For many years I’ve wondered about that karmic affinity that led me to meet Daehaeng Kun Sunim. Her path has been so different from that of a worldly person like me. In my heart she’s closer to me than my own parents were; what kind of connection must there be to cause this? How much strength and hope must I have gotten from her in my past lives that I would neglect everything else to help take care of the Seon Center? I’ve thought often about how meeting her gave me such strength and why it was such a turning point in my life.

Continue reading “The Early History of Hanmaum Seon Center, as told by Park Jae Won” →

Without eyes,
keep watching and watching,
diligently watching.

눈이 없어 관하고 관하고 또 부지런하오리니

Are you remembering to recite these? 🙂 The thing I love about reciting these is that it gives us a perspective and an idea for a level of practice that we may not have achieved on our own yet, but as we recite and listen to these, some deep within responds and goes “Yes!”

With the wisdom of the eye that’s not an eye,
please look after me and guide me to the one mind of all Buddhas.

부처님의 마음과 내 마음이 둘 아니게 인도하여
눈 아닌 눈의 지혜로 두루 이루어 살피고 살피소서.

https://gum.co/NObam (Gumroad – an online storage site that sells ebooks and audiobooks for us)
https://books2read.com/u/mZaWRR (links to some of the major online bookstores, including the Apple store and Kobo.)

So, some fun news for 2021 — we’ve published the Vietnamese ebook edition of “No River to Cross”!

A wonderful translator did this Vietnamese edition of “No River to Cross,” and we’ve been eager to get this out. The paper edition is out in Korea, but due to a number of factors (see below) it’s not easy to get it to other countries. Also, some of the major online bookstores don’t currently support Vietnamese, but there are some major sites that do (Kobo, Apple, etc), and we’ve put the ebook on sale on a website we use called Gumroad. (They also sell other ebook versions of Kun Sunim’s books, as well as the audiobook edition of “My Heart is a Golden Buddha.”)

We have a nice paper edition (with this same cover) for sale in Korea, but it’s hard to get this to people outside of Korea. Covid has ended regular parcel mail and airmail leaving Korea, so books have to be sent by express, registered mail (EMS, FEDEX, DHL) with is quite expensive, or by sea, which is only an option for a few countries and can take 1-3 months.

Please guide me so that my mind becomes one with the mind of all Buddhas.

부처님의 마음과 내 마음이 둘 아니게 인도하여

Hearing the sounds of our reciting,
may the one mind of all Buddhas and Bodhisattvas look after us.

(우리들의 염(念)하는 소리 온 누리에 퍼지나니) 살피소서.

This is kind of an interesting verse, and a bit unexpected here. How do all realms hear us? Not through our voices, but through our hearts, through the connections we make with our foundation. That, I suspect, it the sound that is heard throughout all realms.

The sounds of our reciting spread throughout all realms.

우리들의 염(念)하는 소리 온 누리에 퍼지나니 살피소서.

Well! This turned out to be quite an auspicious post for the first day of the new year!

I particularly like the photo, because it reminds us that a quietly flowing mind is not the same thing as a quiet body. We work at returning everything to our foundation, and (once we realize it) try to let go of the things we’re caught up in, but we do this while taking care of the things in our life.

With a quietly flowing mind,
I will become one with my foundation.

고요한 마음으로 이루오리다.

All things arising or disappearing, coming or going
are done through the foundation.

오고 감이 근본에 있어

If I ever got a tattoo, this would be it!

Like quietly flowing water,
may my heart always flow towards one mind.

고요한 물 흐름과 같이 제 마음을 한마음으로 이끌어 주옵소서.