Our Teachers
Zen Master Seung Sahn Haeng Won (Dae Soen Sa Nim) was the first Korean Zen master to teach in the West.
He was born in 1927 in south Pyeong An Province in what is now North Korea. After World War II and Korea’s liberation from Japanese occupation, he was disillusioned with politics and academic studies as a way to attain truth. He went to the mountains, did an arduous 100-day solo retreat chanting the Great Dharani, got enlightenment and later received Dharma transmission from the late Zen Master Ko Bong, the most famous Zen master of his time. Zen Master Seung Sahn was 22 years old.
After five years in the army, he served as chairman of the committee to reform the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism and was abbot of five temples in Seoul. He spent nine years teaching in Japan, founding temples in Tokyo and Hong Kong. In 1972 he travelled to America with no money and no English, and supported himself for a few months by repairing washing machines in a laundromat in Providence, Rhode Island. It wasn’t long before he met some Brown University students, who would come by his small apartment to ask him questions about life and Zen practice. From these beginnings the Providence Zen Center was formed, and the international Kwan Um School of Zen was thereby established with over 100 Zen centers, temples and groups now worldwide, continuing to practice with his teachings. He built Musangsa in Gyeryong Mountain in 2000 in South Korea, making it the head temple of the Kwan Um School of Zen in Asia.
Zen Master Seung Sahn entered Nirvana on November 30, 2004, at Hwa Gye Sah temple in Seoul. He died peacefully surrounded by his students. He was 77 years old and his monk age was 56 years. He is the 78th Patriarch in his lineage of Zen masters in Korea.
Kwan Um Seoul Zen Group
Teachers
Andrzej Stec_Oh Jin JDPSN
After receiving a Masters of Architecture in his native Poland, he met the late Zen Master Seung Sahn at a university Dharma talk in his home town of Gdansk.
He became his student and began practicing Zen in 1981. He received inka (teaching authority) from Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1998 and has been teaching in Europe, United States and Asia ever since.
Stec JPDSN developed Mantra Walk, emphasizing practice that integrates with an active daily life to develop our wisdom and to maintain optimal health in mind and body.
Together with his wife, Kathy Park (Il Hwa) JDPSN, he is the co-guiding teacher of the Kwan Um Seoul Zen Group and the Kwan Um Daejeon Zen Group.
Kathy Park_Il Hwa JDPSN
Kathy Park JDPSN began practicing Zen in 1999 and has lived at the Cambridge Zen Center and Providence Zen Center in the U.S., Su Bong Zen Monastery in Hong Kong and at Musangsa in Korea, where she participated in several 90-day kyol che retreats.
She has served as director of the Cambridge Zen Center during which she helped establish the Harvard Women’s Center Meditation Group and the Harvard Zen Buddhist Group. She is currently administrative director at Musangsa and the co-ordinator of the International Initiative Project for the Kwan Um School of Zen.
Park JDPSN received inka from Zen master Dae Bong at Musangsa in Korea in 2016. She lives in Korea with her husband Andrzej Stec JDPSN and together, are co-guiding teachers of the Kwan Um Seoul Zen Group and Kwan Um Daejeon Zen Group.
Kathy Park_Il Hwa JDPSN
Kathy Park JDPSN began practicing Zen in 1999 and has lived at the Cambridge Zen Center and Providence Zen Center in the U.S., Su Bong Zen Monastery in Hong Kong and at Musangsa in Korea, where she participated in several 90-day kyol che retreats.
She has served as director of the Cambridge Zen Center during which she helped establish the Harvard Women’s Center Meditation Group and the Harvard Zen Buddhist Group. She is currently administrative director at Musangsa and the co-ordinator of the International Initiative Project for the Kwan Um School of Zen.
Park JDPSN received inka from Zen master Dae Bong at Musangsa in Korea in 2016. She lives in Korea with her husband Andrzej Stec JDPSN and together, are co-guiding teachers of the Kwan Um Seoul Zen Group and Kwan Um Daejeon Zen Group.
