1-day Zen Retreat in Berkeley, CA

[Smile]

This guy is really good...

http://www.zenhall.org/Pages/events.html

[sean]

I've seen you post his link on HT before and I've been meaning to check him out. I think I'll pre-register for this retreat. Thanks for posting.

 

Sean

[Cameron]

Cool! See Max, I told you Sean would check it out for us and give us a report!

 

Sean, Max says this dude is enlightened. You know if Max says someone is enlightened it's worth checking. Especially since it's your own backyard.

[sean]

Via Zenhall.org

 

"Master Sunim was born in South Korea and entered Songkwang-sa Buddhist Monastery at the age of twenty, where he became a disciple of Zen Master Ku San Sunim. After ten years of training in Zen Meditation halls, he spent six more years in rigorous practice alone in hermitages in remote mountain areas. There he followed a raw food diet, eating what the mountains made available. One early spring day while sitting in the Zen hall suddenly all his doubts were resolved and he wrote the following song of enlightenment:

 

Even existing dharmas must be discarded,

So how can we cling to Dharmas which don't exist!

Ah ha! Futilely the Ancients busily pursued

enlightenment, then departed.

The countenance, existing of its own accord

I wonder who named it buddha or sentient being?

Even one true Dharma cannot survive.

Outside the window, the cherry tree

is singing this news.

 

While Sunim's primary teaching focus is Zen, he also stresses the importance of protecting and balancing one's physical health and energy through Taoist practices. He teaches that through consistent training in Zen and Sun-do, one can personally experience results, and emphasizes that one should practice for oneself and obtain this personal experience. Only then can one directly understand this path to awakening.

 

During his years in the hermitage Sunim met and trained for ten years under Taoist Master Chong San. In 1982 Sunim was given sanction as a Taoist master. He later taught in Switzerland and throughout North America. Acknowledged as one of the great zen masters of his generation, he is the Abbot of the Sixth Patriarch Temple in Seoul, Korea, and the Sixth Patriarch Zen Center in Berkeley, CA. He is the author of "The Unasked Question," which was published in Korea in 2003, and is currently being translated into English."

 

Impressive. Trunk talks about Sun-do sometimes. This touches on a recent conversation about Zen teachers rarely discussing qi. It's great to see Zen teachers with an understanding of Taoist practices who are willing to address internal energy like this.

 

Sean

[thelerner]

Some teach, some practice and sun do.

 

From a completely shallow point of view I'm impressed that the retreat is so cheap and includes a buffet lunch.

 

When you look at so many of the sites advertising just above here you tend to see a pattern of Enlightenment Now! a $600 value available for 3 payments of $69.95

 

Its refreshing to see such a prestigous man available for just $49.95. To its credit you often see Zen temples offering sitting at bargain prices, ofcourse all they offer is silence and a mat, perhaps a few drops of dharma, but then what else can a seeker ask for.

 

For those cheap bums looking for a free course of guided meditations influenced by Rawn Clark who was greatly influenced by Franz Bardon. His Self Healing Archaeous series is fascinating. Truth be told I've only done the first Center of Stillness Meditation and Archaeous I.

 

The Center of stillness meditation is reminscent of Taoist practice of sealing the senses. The Archaeous series is Fusion oriented in a non taoist way. Visualizing sections of the body in terms of the 4 elements.

 

For those interested here is the site. http://www.abardoncompanion.com/MP3-Links.html The meditations download fast because they are already zipped. Each has a 5 minute introduction. Very worth listening to.

 

His Bardon Companion ebook is free and excellent. It compliments William Mistes free interpretation of Bardons Initiation Into Hermetics nicely.

 

Michael