Lee won-il, Sunmudo Zen Master was a big inspiration for my move to Gyeongju.

When we’d first met at Golgusa Temple in Gyeongju in December 2007, I was surprised to learn he wasn’t a monk.  After my initial Sunmudo experience, a Korean Zen Buddhist Martial Art and path to enlightenment taught at Golgusa Temple, I was intent on returning for serious study.  As impossible as it seemed, after only a month my wishes came true.  A job teaching at Gyeongju University offer meant I’d be able to move to Gyeongju and study Sunmudo.

 After three weeks upon my arrival, the sad news that Master Lee would be leaving for Seoul was indeed surprising if not somewhat disappointing.  Thus my first lesson of attachment was about to begin.  Miraculously, I realized my move to Gyeongju was not contingent on his being there; nor was my happiness.  So I studied and survived the loss of my inspiration and teacher.  However, the absence of his presence could be felt by all nonetheless.  He came to a point in his life to further his Buddhist studies in an effort to still plaguing life questions in search of happiness.

Six months later in August 2008, I was on my way to visit Master Lee in Seoul, fill my soul with performance and art at The Fringe Festival and buy a digital camera with tentative plans to sleep at a hostel. What I got in lieu of my plans was completely unexpected.

We sat in the Taiwanese Temple café where Master Lee teaches Sunmudo catching up. “How are you”, I asked, “I’m haaappppy”, he replied.  “Three months ago I became a monk and I’ve never been happier”.  “Wow”, was all that escaped from my lips, but I wasn’t in the least surprised, he was always a monk to me.

The head monk of Seon-won-sa thought the same and accepted him to train to full monk hood under his tutelage.  Master Lee ordained as a monk goes by his spiritual name, Kak-Be.

I asked if I could possibly stay the night at his Temple.  He quickly phoned the head monk with the reply that I was welcome. Kak-Be was excited about introducing me to his teacher and head monk.  He felt all foreigners should have the experience of meeting him for the simple reason his teaching was clear and simple.

Seon-won-sa is a small temple at Kang buk gu Su yoo-dong in Seoul, from the outside it’s not a typical Korean Temple.  We walked in and were greeted by a monk, then taken to the kitchen where I was introduced to Seo-jin, the head monk and offered something to drink, a beer perhaps?  Did I hear right? 

I don’t like beer all that much and declined the offer.  I preferred red wine.  Master Lee’s wife quickly left the room and came back with a bottle of good quality French red wine she’d been saving for an occasion.  She opened it and poured some for all in small glasses. I’d already known that Master Lee had a wife and two children and was about to find that most if not all the monks living at Seon-won-sa were married with children. This temple was a special place, a progressive place, a place where monk-hood could be gotten without extreme sacrifice; my interest was piqued. 

They explained that Buddha’s original teaching said nothing of celibacy and that happiness is important.  So if a little red wine or a beer makes you happy, isn’t that what counts?  I’d always felt between “a rock and a hard place” myself.  While I wanted to commit to a spiritual and holy practice I didn’t want to sacrifice aspects of life I found enjoyable and thought, “I may have found a jewel here in the back streets of Seoul”.

We sat around a table with three monks dressed in simple grey tee shirts and sweat pants, not robes.  Along with their wives, we all sipped red wine while becoming acquainted before getting to the “Questions of life”.  As I wasn’t prepared for my “one question”, I improvised and allowed the conversation to flow, go where it wanted to. 

It was surprisingly relaxed despite the fact the head monk didn’t speak English save a word or two to make clearer his meaning.  Master Lee did the translating and invited me to have a translated conversation with Seo-jin the next day when a fluent English speaker would be present.

Seo-jin is a likable, approachable man, a monk without airs, kind of like a true friend. There was no struggle due to language. We communicated.  Seo-jin spoke, I listened to his gist.  I spoke, he listened and got me, finally stating he believed I’d be a good Buddhist student should I want to study Buddhism.

“My ability for happiness can reach the highest highs while my potential for sadness can reach the lowest lows”, I told him, thinking he’d dub me as manic with a need for balance.  To my surprise, he responded, “The height of happiness is as high as the highest mountains and the lows of sadness are as deep as the deepest valleys, one must experience them to know life.  So, I’m not crazy, I thought, now this is interesting.

Seo-jin took a deep interest in my overall heath with concern and compassion. I found his own wife recently passed due to exhaustion, something I’m currently experiencing myself.  I bid everyone goodnight and went to sleep awaking at 4:00 for chanting and meditation in the temple, then had breakfast with everyone. Seo-jin looked into my eyes and hands that morning, “There’s nothing wrong with you, you’re just tired.  You need to sleep”.

I wandered around Seoul that entire day intent on filling my soul with art and performance, which never came about.  I returned to the temple that night catching the end of Seo-jin’s Buddhist class held in the kitchen where a room full of people were seated around a table asking questions, taking notes and listening to him speak.  It was focused yet casual.  At the close of class, Lee Go Eun, or Maya Lee, as she introduced herself to me was to translate an hour-long private session with the head monk for me.

Maya Lee majored in Buddhist Studies at a Seoul University, because as she put it, “I wanted to know the truth”.  After her studies she worked at Golgusa Temple in Gyeongju, where she met Master Lee and one of the other Seon-wan-sa resident monks who urged her to meet with the head monk at Seo-wan-sa. 

“What is Buddhism?”, Maya asked the head monk who replied,  “I am here now”. 

“It was truth simply put”, Maya explained when I asked what made her decide to study at Seo-wan-sa.

Master Lee, Seo-jin, Maya Lee and I sat around a table in a private room and began the session, an intensive one and a half hours.  The head monk looked straight into my eyes when he spoke Korean, his speech passionate and clear, and asked: 

What do you want?   He lead me to conclude absolute bottom line what I’d wanted out of life.  Of the multitude of options and choices that had been mulling around in my head, I was certainly surprised they no longer had any validity.  If I could choose only one, then it was simply “to be happy”, how that was to come about didn’t matter.

“I can help you find happiness, if that’s what you want”, he replied.  I was in awe at the depth Seo-jin was willing to go with me, fulfilling my need for intensive clarity.  After the session was over, we talked about the possibility to study at the Temple. 

Maya and I left the room, Kak-Be returned excited with the news that Seo-jin would accept me as a student.  The factors blocking the possibility of studying with Seo-jin is hard to overcome as the limits of language is a disheartening reality. 

Kak-Be suggested Maya Lee translate the classes, a huge task and commitment.  “Perhaps in the future, as I’m quite busy”, she replied.  I suggested we just wait and see what solutions would come up, as it didn’t seem reality would budge at the moment unless I could speed learn Korean. 

The next morning I awoke and joined the Sunday temple service filled with members perched on simple brown cushions listening to the head monk dressed in a starched sheer billowy silver gray robe speaking expressively for an hour while using a whiteboard to diagram and drive his point. I understood nothing and sat in silence, half meditating trying to absorb his words using other faculties. As we all know, language is essentially limited and can never fully communicate one’s experience.

As to studying Buddhism at Seo-wan-sa, everything changes, it has to, so who knows, perhaps the future will afford me a way.  I have faith, that all will turn out, as it should.

I left Seo-wan-sa on day three inspired and infected by Kak-ba’s happiness and enthusiasm and the head monk’s compassion, knowledge, expression of beauty and clarity of thought.  Simply put, there was an energetic exchange not bound by words. 

That is communication.

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia: Golgulsa Temple

Golgulsa (Stone Buddha Temple) is located 20 km east of the ancient Silla Dynasty capital city of Gyeongju in Southeastern Korea. In the Golgulsa temple area can be found the oldest historical Buddhist ruins on Mt. Hamwol and the only cave temple in Korea.
The original temple was built out of solid rock during the 6th century by Saint Kwang Yoo and his companions, Buddhist monks from India. This temple contains a sculptured Maya Tathagata Buddha (Buddha was known as the “Tathagata”; his mother was “Maya Devi”) and twelve rock caves.

With a glorious 11 days off from teaching during the Christmas holidays, I decided to do a “Temple Stay” and chose Golgusa because of the “Sunmudo” training. I hopped on the bus at Tongyeong bus terminal to Gyeongju, took a local bus from there and walked the 15 minute walk to the temple on Christmas day. My first impression was of two monks riding horseback that asked in English “Are you here for the Temple stay?”, I dragged my tiny koffer to the top of the winding road which lead to a few traditional Korean Pagoda type buildings colorfully painted, went to the office and was welcomed by a young Welsh woman, Kayte who explained how it all worked and assigned me to a room. I would be sharing a room with a Korean teacher who lived there year round, who spoke a bit of English. The sleeping arrangements were in Korean traditional style, sleeping directly on a heated floor. I arrived just in time for a vegetarian dinner where the women and men sat separately from each other with the instruction that one must only take the food they can eat…they don’t throw unfinished food in the trash. Well, I thought this a fair and conscientious request as I too dislike wasting food.

The food was simple vegetarian and not overly chili spiced as is usual in Korea…always rice, kim-chee, other green vegetables, tofu, beans, porridge, noodles, soup. You can eat as much as you want but keep in mind that there is 19:00 Sunmudo training after a 5:30 dinner.

Afterwards, you have a bit of free time, then chanting at 18:30 and training at 19:00.
After training more free time, lights out at 22:00. However, my roommate stayed up late working on her computer preparing for teaching work the next day. Yes, there was a computer, printer and video camera capturing video in the room while I was there, which was somewhat bothersome by the second day as I came to the temple to escape the work environment. She explained that the monks didn’t really like the idea of her electronic equipment but allowed it because she had been there almost a year. In any case, I moved to another room in another building, and was completely alone…but I had peace and was free from electrical intrusion.

At 4:00 am a Monk goes around waking everyone up by clapping together a bamboo stick reverberating the message to wake up. I’m surprised at the ease at which I woke up everyone morning. The first morning I did have a cup of instant coffee from the machines that are on the grounds, yet in all honesty it was a drop of coffee and probably more psychological that I stayed awake. 4:30 Chanting is mandatory for all temple stay people in the main shrine led by the Monks, then at 5:00 sitting Zen Meditation and Walking Meditation at 5:30. Afterwards, you have 30 minutes before breakfast is served which is very similar to dinner, then about an hour and a half free time before training, so I’d just hop back into bed and rest.
At 8:30 there is 90 minutes of Sunmudo training. Without having any background on Sunmudo other than it a Martial Art form created by the Monks, practiced since forever and kept a secret until recent years, I really didn’t know what to expect.
Sunmudo background information is taken from:

http://www.parandeul.co.kr/sun_overview.htm

The Formal name of Sunmudo is Buddhism Gum Gang Young Gwan. It is a training method to extinguish worldly pains and attain enlightenment. The characteristic of this training is the harmonization of the mind and body united with breathing. The trainers adopt Zen as a way of life.
Sunmudo is the Sun (Zen) martial art handed down from generation to generation by Buddhist families from the time when Buddha was alive 2,544 years ago. Sunmudo came to Korea during the early years of the Shilla Kingdom (57 B.C.-A.D.936) And influenced Hwarangdo. Hwarang which means the flower of youth referred to the units of elite warriors, drawn from ruling class families. The Zen martial art was then handed on to monk soldiers during the Goryo Kingdom (918-1392). Until the Gabo Kyongjang or Reform of 1894 during the Joseon Kingdom (1392-1910).
Buddhist monks were encouraged to practice the Zen martial art. However, it was neglected as the modernization of the country began to proceed in late 19th century. The Most Venerable Yang Ik Sunim, a monk at Bomosa temple revived the art by systematizing it. Then, the Venerable Jeok Un Sunim, a monk at Golgulsa temple worked to popularize it in the 1970s. The name, Sunmudo was given to the Zen martial art by Jeok Un Sunim in 1984. ‘Sun’, is the way to attain an intuitive illumination of mind and spirit through meditation. ‘Mu’ means “martial” and ‘Do’ means”way”.
Those who practice Sunmudo say one can attain a higher state of mind through both movement of body and spiritual calm. Non-Buddhists tend to think of Sunmudo purely as a martial art, but it is in fact a way to practice Zen.

My thoughts on Sunmudo:
It was “home”. Let me explain. My background as a dancer with intensive training for most of my early life, until I moved to Germany in 1993 was akin to Sunmudo. The most intensive part of my training was a two year program at Alvin Aliey Dance Theatre School, where I had 12 classes a week. Prior to that and afterwards I took free classes of my choice, a Summer dance program at Duke University, and various intensives in New York City at Martha Grahma School, May O’ Donnel, Lynn Simonson and more. Modern dance is rooted in Martial Arts, esoteric and ancient dance forms, which I had a lot of exposure to. My early years was totally immearsed in Ballet, Modern, Jazz and African dance, eventually working in small companies but landing a career in Musical Theatre, which took off in Germany. However, my real strength was singing and acting, and it was in Germany that I stopped being a “dancer”. The theatre I was fortunately employed by for five years operated in an old german opera house style and not in the up and coming Musical Theatre style that had just begun to jell in Germany at that time. The singers were separate from the dance ensemble and from the actors. For me this meant that my dancing skills were not up to par as a dancer in Theatre Des Westen’s eyes. I was never a ballet dancer and that was their barometer for excellance. On the few instances where I had the chance to do my thing in the company “Jazz” class, I remember the choreographer saying, “Now, I see the real Svetlana dancing with passion and drive”. I wasn’t able to show that in his chorography as his style was based in ballet and some type of weird free form crap, that had no soul. But, I was noticed for my voice and entertainer abilities so it was a blessing in disguise as I began to focus on those skills and was cast in roles, not main oones as my german was also not up to par and felt it never would be. Prior to Germany, I had worked in the U.S. and Japan and was cast in main roles. It’s all good because it created who I am today. But, I did experience a huge period of grief not being able to get good dancing parts where I could shine… and as well there wasn’t any decent dance training in Berlin other than Ballet and Modern and I was a Jazz dancer and street dancer (early hip hop).
That’s when I discovered Yoga and quickly found myself obsessed with it with the added spiritual aspect, taking class everyday, finding I had an edge with my dance training. Maybe I couldn’t be a “Concert dancer” but I was a “Yogini”.
I became so involved in Yoga that I worked at the Berlin Sivananda Ashram, making soup on Sundays, doing Karma Yoga five days a week and following a Swami around learning about Yoga. I chanted, meditated, studied a bit of Ayurveda, barely smoked cigs, no alcohol, my boyfriend also joined me on my journey. I really noticed and understood how meditation was possible only as a result of properly taking care of your body, what you put in it, excercising and balancing both body and mind. I looked forward to the end of class meditation because I was ready, I was free and open. I’d been to other Sivananda Ashram’s in the Bahamas, California, NYC and later tried other kinds of yoga, Ashtanga, Iyengar, flow, Bikram, etc. in Los Angeles, San Francisco & Berlin.

By 2003 my yoga study trickled to none, moving to Encinitas, California in 2004, I began again with Ashtanga full time and felt whole again, then moved up to San Francisco went back to college and hardly had time for yoga but studied meditation and psychic training for six months. I missed the physicality of yoga..I needed complete immersion not a class here and there. Doing yoga on my own was not the same as being in a room of like minded people, it was like church to me. From 2005 until the present I had no real immersion other than trickles here and there, survival took place of my spiritual quest. As a result, since my move to Korea, I had noticed a real decline in my body and mind. Living in Tongyeong is easy, everything I need is in a four block radius. I’m used to hustling around a city, walking, riding my bike everywhere and now I’d become a potato. I enrolled in an Aerobics class for a month and quickly got bored of arbitrary movements to silly electronic music, so I began doing yoga on my own, taking a yoga mat out by the sea, doing my thing..it was good, but it wasn’t church. I meditated often, but I couldn’t get the yoga thing going on my own regularly and realized I needed the spiritual aspect of training, that physical exercise alone was a disconnect…a spiritual connection was dire. So, I joined an English bible studies group in a Korean Pentecostal church.
I’d always wanted to read, learn and discuss the bible and found it interesting. Soon befriended people of the Church and sang at their Christmas Eve function. I’d also been to a Korean Episcopalian Church led by a Phillpino Minister when I first arrived but left as I didn’t feel a connection. Last night, I spent my first New Year’s Eve ever at the Pentecostal Church, it was quite strange not knowing when it was midnight…However, I feel good about spending Christmas Eve till New Year’s Eve in spiritual environments. But, I must say that although I’ve always had a deep connection with Jesus since a child, I prefer my experience at the Golgusa Temple with its ancient worship traditions that connects the body with mind. That Sunmudo, which is a combination of Meditation, Yoga, Tai Chi, Qi Gong and Martial arts is a way to achieve spiritual enlightenment by use of the body seems tailor made for my spiritual needs.

While at Golgusa, I had no expectations and didn’t pride myself at any prior meditation experience. I was only interested in breathing, eating and sleeping in a peaceful spiritual environment. While meditating I wasn’t having any profound experiences and just concentrated on the “doing”. After having tea with the Sunmudo Master, he said “Buddism is not about knowing, but about doing”. This made me feel I was on the right track and did have an interesting, and enlightening meditation experience. I had a sort of vision during one sitting, where I saw three Korean words, thought it a bit strange at the time and forgot about it until I remembered it again and asked a Korean woman what the words meant. She said it meant nothing. So I asked what each individual word meant and it was clear to me that it meant something. I decided to discuss it with the Master who surprisingly said what I had experienced wasn’t all that strange. Another instructor pulled me aside and explained to me in detail what he thought it meant, which was in accordance not to what I thought it meant at first, but on a deeper level with an issue I’d been working on for quite a while..and got an answer to a question I’d been praying to Jesus about.

Now does this mean I don’t believe in Jesus? No, not at all. See, at first when I was sitting in Zen Meditation, I felt a blankness and was a bit confused because when I meditate I do so with Jesus in mind. And I thought, okay here I am in a Buddist Temple, I can’t pray to Jesus can I? So, I didn’t, but I didn’t pray to Buddha either. I simply did the Buddhist way, to connect, to clear, to calm, to be. I’ve only read a little about the Buddhist way and it just makes sense. It’s the philosophy, way of life and Buddha nature that attracts me. I love the words of Jesus and who I pray to, I just don’t care much for Church. It’s like God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit is in me wherever I go and thus, don’t need a place of worship because I have a strong connection. Buddhism helps balance my earthy life and otherworldly aspects of my person because it’s rooted in esoteric teaching which is in tune with my true nature. And frankly I’m somewhat turned off by the Christian teachings and methods. Having tea with the Sunmudo Master everyday at 11:00 was quite special, he glowed from within, took his time when answering a question, as if taking in information melding it with his own with a resulting answer that was both simple and profound. Answers that inspire you to see a different perspective. His first question to us all, where we were from, at my turn was complicated: born in Germany, lived in France, grew up in the U.S., lived in Europe for 11 years and travelling about the last few years. His response, “Oh, you come from Earth” Next person he asked, “What planet do you come from?” Well, he had me then. There was a group of young challenged males who were beautiful and sweet, familes on a Buddhist vacation and a few foreigners. That we all spent the time together as one was very special as well.
I’ve asked questions at Church with answers that stipulated the tension between society norm verses the “way” as quoted from the Bible. Hearing stories on how “I was saved and found Jesus”, using terms like “the fear of God”…I just don’t feel good about the terminology. I believe Jesus loves us all and we shouldn’t fear God.