Wonhyo Sunim – Inspiring yourself to practice

Inspiring Yourself to Practice              By the Korean Zen Master Wonhyo  This English translation and introduction were done by Won-myong Sunim and Mark Mueller  Inspiring Yourself to Practice was written by the Silla Monk Wonhyo (617-686). It consists of 706 characters, contained in one roll. In Korea, the text is one of the most important in [...]

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the oppression of rules, and a bit of silliness

Karmic affinity probably plays a role, but when I was first starting out, I was never attracted to the Theravadan tradition. In large part this was due to what I perceived as the strong, perhaps extreme, focus on the 250 precepts for monks (and 348 for nuns.) If I had to keep all of those [...]

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Saturday Sangha

To know when to stop, to know when you can get no further by your own action, this is the right beginning! – Chuang Tzu This blog, in its current form, has its origins in the friendships forged some years ago in a weekend Dharma study group that met at the Buddhist English Library in Seoul. [...]

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day trip to Kwang Myeong Seon Center

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 [...]

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Haein Temple to the Jiri Mountains

Traveling towards the Jiri Mountains, I had spent the last few nights at Haein Temple, but was down to my last six or seven thousand Won. (It would have been about eight US dollars in those days.) I’d wanted to travel like the monks of old, going where circumstances took me. So I left without taking any [...]

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Occupying the same time and place as others

There’s an odd fact about non-duality, for while we each have our separate roles and appearances, we also share a common connection. Obviously this isn’t a physical connection, but it’s there nonetheless, and we can experiment with it and try to apply it to our daily life. I’d like to ask our readers help with [...]

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A Buddhist Christian pilgrimage

A few weeks ago, on the Tricycle Community, I was delighted to see some pictures of HE Gregorios, of the Eastern Orthodox Church, and Sung-Jin Sunim, from the Jogye Order, together during the anniversary celebrations of the Eastern Orthodox Church in Korea, visiting a temple and drinking tea. As Jack, who so kindly posted the [...]

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What Drew Me to Buddhism: You Are What You See

To me, this is the true value of any religion or philosophy; how well it transforms individuals, and then, masses of those individuals, such that they are more peaceful, loving, kind, and open to learning and growth in all positive ways.

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Saving others, saving ourselves – part 2

Here’s one of my favorite folk tales from Korea, with a deep message about life and practice.      A traveler had spent the night at a guest house deep in the mountains of Korea. He was eager to start out early the next day and get across the mountain range before dark. There was a little snow falling [...]

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Bongeunsa and a thousand days of prayer

I first posted this on my now deleted personal website (‘Marcus’ Journal’) in September, 2009. Apologies to all those who have read this before. Founded in 794, I first went to Bongeunsa temple in 2002 and was amazed at such beauty in the centre of Gangnam. At that time I was in Korea with Dao, [...]

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