| Popular Buddhist monk and author Haemin Sunim / Yonhap |
Korean Zen Buddhism
By Park Han-sol
Haemin Sunim, 46, a Korean-born U.S. citizen, has sparked debate online after his upscale home located near Seoul's iconic Mount Nam and room with a scenic view were made public on a TV show last week. His 'privately owned' residence and his secular lifestyle have raised eyebrows as they were seen as the opposite of the philosophy he has preached in public over the past years ― non-possession.
An ensuing news report threw oil on the fire by claiming the Buddhist monk sold a building he owned to a temple allegedly under his real name Ju Bong-seok, raking in millions of won in profit.
The School for Broken Hearts, a nonprofit counseling center Haemin founded in 2015, has been under attack for offering programs that do not seem to align with Buddhist doctrine, including past life regression hypnosis, tarot card readings and even arranging blind dates.
Ven. Haemin became a celebrity Buddhist monk after his several books, including 'The Things You Can See Only When You Slow Down' (2012) and 'Love for Imperfect Things' (2016), made best-seller lists.
Together with his educational background ― he studied at U.C. Berkeley, Harvard and Princeton University Divinity School ― his frequent TV appearances and best-selling books made him a popular mentor for wounded souls. He has actively engaged with his fans through social media with over one million total followers.
With an increase in his media exposure, more of his personal side was revealed. His wealth and business acumen ― he was involved in the launch of meditation mobile app Kokkiri in 2019 ― have made the public suspicious about his integrity as a Buddhist monk.
Criticism mounted on the internet. One social media user wrote, 'Religious people are not trustworthy. Pastors, Buddhist monks. They all are corrupt.' Another wrote 'I knew he would be like that when he appeared on TV too often.'
Ven. Haemin's non-traditional teachings of Buddhism pitted him against fellow Buddhist monks.
Hyon Gak Sunim was born Paul J. Muenzen in 1964 to a family of devout Catholics in New Jersey, U.S.A. He was educated in literature, literary theory, and philosophy at Yale University (Class of 1987) and comparative religions at Harvard Divinity School, where. Hyon Gak Sunim, a Zen monk, was born Paul Muenzen in Rahway, New Jersey. Educated at Yale College and Harvard University, he was ordained a monk under Zen Master Seung Sahn in 1992 at Nam Hwa Sah Temple, the temple of the Sixth Patriarch, Guangzhou, People’s Republic of China. Compiled and edited by Hyon Gak Sunim. The Compass of Zen is a simple, exhaustive—and often hilarious—presentation of the essence of Zen by a modern Zen Master of considerable renown. In his many years of teaching throughout the world, the Korean-born Zen Master Seung Sahn has become known for his ability to cut to the heart of Buddhist.
| In a now-deleted Facebook post, another monk Hyon Gak Sunim criticizes Haemin, calling him 'a performer and an actor.' / Captured from Facebook |
Hyon Gak Sunim, a well-known American Buddhist monk and author of the 1999 best-seller 'From Harvard to Hwagyesa' who came to Korea in the late 1990s to practice Buddhism but later became disillusioned with the Jogye Order and moved to Europe in 2016, disparaged his fellow practitioner on Facebook.
'He is just an actor. He is a performer,' he said, adding that Haemin is simply a 'thief' and a 'parasite' who does not know Buddha's teachings at all and is simply selling them for his own benefit.
After facing backlash, Haemin Sunim issued an apology on social media, Sunday, announcing he will withdraw from all public activities and return to a monastic life.
'I repent to all those who were hurt and disappointed by this incident. From today, I will stop all current activities and return to the temple to study Buddha's teachings once more, devoting myself to prayer and practice,' he said.
Although Ven. Hyon Gak stated a day after Haemin's apology that he had a 70-minute telephone conversation 'full of love and mutual respect,' public criticism has not ceased regarding Haemin's qualification as a true monk due to his commercial, profit-seeking activities.
'I was baffled to see you as an individual who is vastly different from what I pictured as a Zen monk. People will become more easily angered (seeing your lifestyle), especially in these trying times. You would have at least stayed off of the public radar if you hadn't made that TV appearance,' one Internet user wrote.
Another stated, 'What you are doing certainly does not deserve criticism if we think of you as a businessman, but the problem is your status as a monk. This matters especially because your words of wisdom became more effective to the public in the first place due to your position.'
Park Gwang-seo, founder and representative of the nongovernmental organization Buddhist Solidarity for Reform, echoed this sentiment. 'His lifestyle as a monk is problematic,' he told The Korea Times. 'Many Buddhist monks withdraw from secular activities and focus on self-discipline and practice so that when they reach a certain level of maturity, they can begin to help others and society. But his nontraditional background of coming directly from the States after teaching religion without much monastic experience of practicing self-discipline does not quite align with that.'
Park went on to say that a monk living in a luxurious, scenic place without focusing on religious practices amid the current national housing crisis can frustrate people.
'Strictly speaking, monks should not possess their own property, but even when they do, especially in some cases of monks taking an 'unofficial break' in a home owned by them or their close ones, it's a hidden phenomenon away from the public eye. But in Haemin's case, it was blatantly obvious, which won't be viewed favorably.'
But some who defended Haemin emphasized he broke down the laymen's prejudice of what a monk should be and brought them a new understanding of Buddhism. 'Haemin is the only monk who became famous for writing best-sellers, doing lectures, creating a mobile app and engaging in social media while practicing Buddhism,' one social media user wrote.
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Hyon Gak [현각 / 玄覺 Hyeongak]
(born Paul J. Muenzen in 1964)
Hyon Gak Sunim
Hyon Gak Sunim was born Paul J. Muenzen in 1964 to a family of devout Catholics in New Jersey, U.S.A. He was educated in literature, literary theory, and philosophy at Yale University (Class of 1987) and comparative religions at Harvard Divinity School, where he received the degree of Master of Theological Studies in 1992.
Hyon Gak Sunim became a student of Zen Master Seung Sahn while studying in Cambridge, Mass., and lived for several years at the Cambridge Zen Center. He was ordained in 1992 in China, at the Temple of the Sixth Patriarch, on Chogye Mountain: he was the first Westerner to be ordained in the People’s Republic of China since the Communist Revolution. He has been doing training in various remote mountain places, including 3 intensive 100-day solo meditation retreats and some thirty-five 3-month intensive meditation retreats (“ango”). In August 2001, in a public ceremony at Hwa Gye Sah Temple, he was publicly tested in Dharma combat before an assembly of monks, and received “inka” (formal approval, and certification of teaching authorization) from Zen Master Seung Sahn, the 78th Patriarch in a lineage stretching back to Shakyamuni Buddha.
Zen Master Seung Sahn personally requested Hyon Gak Sunim to compile and edit several of his books, including, The Whole World is a Single Flower (1992), The Compass of Zen (1997), and Only Don’t Know (1999). Sunim published his Harvard Master’s thesis as Wanting Enlightenment is a Big Mistake (2006). He also translated the 500 year-old classic of Zen Master So Sahn, The Mirror of Zen (2006), into English.
Hyon Gak Sunim is also the author of the Korean mega-bestseller, Man Haeng: From Harvard to Hwa Gye Sah Temple (1999), a story of his path to the Way. The book is widely credited with leading a sudden revival in interest in Korean Zen Buddhism, especially among younger generation in Korea, where Buddhism had been in decline. He donated all of the royalties from this book to his Teacher, to aid in the construction of Mu Sang Sah International Zen Center. As a result of the great celebrity which this brought to Sunim, he cancelled the book’s publication when the original five-year contract ran out. He refuses to permit a re-edition of this book.
Hyon Gak Sunim Facebook
Sunim is also the editor or translator of several best-selling translations into Korean of Zen Master Seung Sahn’s English-language books.
The former Buddhist Chaplain at Harvard University, Hyon Gak Sumin has given public talks at Harvard University, Yale University, Oxford University, Columbia University, New York University, Brown University, Charles University (Prague), Universite de Paris, University of London, among many others, in addition to colleges, divinity schools, and countless temples throughout Korea.
After practicing for nearly 20 years in Korea, he is currently leading a group of meditators at a small Zen center he founded in Munich, Germany. He is also devoting himself to the study of Astanga Yoga, under the direction of Kristina Karitinou-Ireland.
Hyon Gak Sunim Wikipedia
PDF: The Ten Oxherding Pictures by Hyon Gak
Hyon Gak Sunim Germany
The mirror of zen : the classic guide to Buddhist practice by Zen master So Sahn
= Sǒsan Taesa, 1520-1604. Sǒn'ga kwigam [禪家龜鑑 Seongaguigam]
translated from the Chinese by Boep Joeng; translated from the Korean by Hyon Gak
Boston : Shambhala; [New York]: Distributed in the United States by Random House, 2006. 159 p.