Tradition

Zen Master Seung Sahn

The Founding Teacher of our School was the Korean Zen Master Seung Sahn, who was called Dae Soen Sa Nim (Great Honored Zen Teacher) by his students. He was the 78th Patriarch in his line of Dharma transmission in the Chogye order of Korean Buddhism, and founded temples in Japan and Hong Kong.  In 1972 he came to the United States and started what became the Providence Zen Center, the first center in what is now the Kwan Um School.  His books include Ten Gates, The Compass of Zen, Dropping Ashes on the Buddha, Only Don't Know and The Whole World is a Single Flower - 365 Kong-ans for Everyday Life.

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Dae Soen Sa Nim gave Dharma transmission to Zen Masters and "inka" - teaching authority - to senior students called Ji Do Poep Sa Nims (Guides to the Way, or Dharma Masters).

Zen Master Wu Bong

Zen Master Wu Bong (Jacob Perl) is the head teacher of the Kwan Um School of Zen of Europe.
Before meeting Zen Master Seung Sahn and becoming his first American student in 1972, he practiced with Suzuki Roshi at the San Francisco Zen Center, and spent a year practicing with Tarthang Tulku at the Tibetan Nyingmapa Meditation Center in Berkeley, California.  He was born in Poland, and speaks Polish fluently. In 1978 he helped Zen Master Seung Sahn establish the first Zen center in Poland.  In 1984 he was given teaching authority and soon thereafter started to teach regularly in the United States and Europe.  He has a degree in mathematics from Brown University, Rhode Island, USA.  He is based at the Berlin Zen Center, when in Europe.

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Zen Master Ji Kwang

Ji Kwang SSN (Zen Master Roland Wöhrle-Chon) was born in 1960 in Germany.  He studied Philosophy and Psychology in Bonn, Berlin and Madurai, India, where he had his first contact with yoga and meditation. Together with his wife, Muchak JDPSN, he established the Zen Center in Berlin and the Kwan Um School of Zen of Germany in 1990.  He received inka in February 2000 and Dharma Transmission in April 2012.  Ji Kwang SSN has a Ph.D. in Psychology.  After living in Korea for seven years, he now works as a social scientist in Berlin and is the guiding teacher of Kwan Um Zen groups in Germany, Austria and Great Britain.  He is married and has two children.

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Last updated 19.5.2012