Seon Master Dae Haeng

---

 

Seon Master Dae Haeng is the spiritual head and founder of all HanMaUm Seon (Zen) Centers of the Chogye Order of Korean Buddhism worldwide. From a surprisingly early age, she was concerned with finding the answer to the fundamental question of who we are, where we come from, and where we are going. After more than 12 years of asceticism and spiritual practice in the mountains she returned to society to share her realization. Her teaching emphasizes everyday Seon which can be practiced every day regardless of people's environment or situation. As she often says, "Just as a tree cannot exist without its roots for support, we humans cannot exist by ignoring our own roots."

By relying on our True Nature within ourselves rather than on outside forms, names or images, we can arrive at the ultimate inter-connected HanMaUm (One Mind) and One Body of all living beings.

 

Traditionally, there are several steps in becoming a Buddhist monk or nun (in Korean, both are called 'sunim'). A person wanting to become a monk or nun must first go to a temple and ask to be accepted. After a waiting period of a few months, one's hair is shaved off and he or she then receives the Buddhist precepts. The person then goes through a period as a postulant, or trainee, during which time he or she studies the basics as well as anything prescribed by his or her teacher. At the end of the training period and after having mastered the basics, the prospective monk or nun is ordained as a sunim. At this point, one's individual practice becomes the focus of each sunim. This is when the sunim directs his or her sincere efforts toward attaining enlightenment.

 

In Dae Haeng Sunim's case, however, this process was reversed. Sunim's family was one of high ranking military officers, and her father was an officer in the court of the last emperor of the Choson dynasty. Their status ensured the family's wealth from the beginning, but by the time of sunim's birth in 1926, their situation was precarious.

 

Imperial Japan's efforts to colonize Korea led to the military occupation of Korea which, beginning in 1905, grew progressively more cruel and suffocating. Her father, unable to sit by while this happened, was deeply involved in the resistance movement. As a result, when sunim was six years old, the Japanese military government took their house, all their belongings, and the remaining lands they owned, and they were forced to flee with only the clothes they were wearing. They fled to Seoul and lived in a mud hut, eating only what they could receive by begging.

 

The relentless tightening of the Japanese stranglehold on Korea, the collapse of the Korean court, and the pitiful situation of his family all caused her father overwhelming despair and frustration. For some reason, he poured out all of his anger and frustration onto sunim, his youngest daughter. In his eyes, nothing she did was right. Unable to understand why this was happening, and wanting to protect her mother, who always tried to protect sunim from her father, sunim began to sleep in the mountains at night, from the age of six.

 

Before the age of ten, she had one question about life. "Who created us so that some are poor, some are rich, and some are sick and some are healthy? Why was I born like this among these people?¡± Such a question or inquiry is a very simple one, however not so common for a person at such a young age. There was one event that took place in her youth which had a large effect on the rest of her life.

One day, she suddenly felt, along with impassioned tears roused from the bottom of her heart, the reverberating of the sound 'appa!¡&hibar;('Dad' in English) deep inside. Dad!, the word which she was never able to utter even to her own father. (From this experience sunim came to not believe in an outer physical 'Dad' any longer. She understood that the true owner and maker of the external physical self was 'Dad', the father of the mind.) 'Dad, why can't I meet you? Dad, why did you make me this way?¡&hibar; For days and days she would call 'Dad¡&hibar; out of a longing to meet him.

In this process, she heard an answer from within. 'You must die in order to see me. You must die in order to see me.' The echo within continued - 'you must die in order to see me.¡&hibar;After deep consideration, she firmly decided to die. For many days she went without eating, only seeking 'Dad' within. But any attempt to commit suicide was not successful because of her mother's emotional plea. After yet another failed attempted suicide by taking poison, she decided on another path. "I will go to someplace secluded and die cleanly, and finally see my 'Dad.'"

 

Her footsteps lead her to a cliff overlooking the river. While staring down at the river, she lost her sense of self and stood still for hours. Finally, there came a moment in which the hwadu (perceptual puzzle, 'koan' in Japanese) resolved itself. The river was the 'Dad' and the form reflected on the river was also 'Dad.' 'Aha! It is not by throwing away the physical body that one sees Dad! Dad exists in that river and also within me. Now, I will try to see Dad within me.'

The year after Korea was liberated from imperial Japanese forces, sunim decided to leave home permanently. One summer day, she went into the mountains. From that day on, for twelve years, she traversed throughout the mountainous regions of Kyonggi and Kangwon Provinces, practicing severe asceticism. She would sleep near graveyards or ditches filled with leaves and eat unknown plants and fruits. She would only contemplate 'Dad' and would not concern herself with the condition of her body.

There were many occasions when she found herself on the brink of death due to severe starvation and danger, but she held on to her firm belief: 'there is a Dad who made me, and so whether I live or die is up toDad.¡&hibar; During one especially harsh winter, after spending a few days in a sand ditch near a frozen river and as she climbed up to the ridge of a mountain, the experience of a new world unfolded. She, the sky, the land, and the trees were all filled with a very serene and tranquil light. This was none other than the Self at one with all the trees and the wilderness.

When her footsteps reached a Buddhist monastery in Kangwon Province, she met one of the most renowned Seon (Zen) Masters of the Chogye Order and asked him for his teachings. The Seon Master replied, "You can only see yourself after dying." The Seon Master eventually transmitted his
teachings to her, and gave her a new name. 'Dae Haeng' means 'great action,' an appropriate and prophetic choice.

 

After 12 years of asceticism, she finally decided to embark on a mission to devote herself to teaching and helping people who are suffering. She settled on Mt. Chiyak in Kangwon Province where she began to come into contact with those who are in need. After that, sunim moved to the Anyang area and founded Han-Ma-Um Seon Center, where she has stayed ever since.

Today it is the headquarters for the 13 branch temples in Korea, and plays an advisory role to the eight overseas branches that have been founded since then. Dae Haeng Sunim directs these temples, and in
addition to the more than 100 sunims who are her disciples, over 50 thousand lay members also consider her their spiritual leader. Dae Haeng Sunim resides at the Anyang center, where she gives public Dharma talks on the first and third Sundays of every month. She devotes part of every day to meeting those followers who come to her with special problems, or questions regarding practice. Although far more people now come than it is possible for her to meet, somehow she always manages to meet those people who truly need to see her.

Dae Haeng Sunim has said the following about her practice: "I never practiced to become something or somebody. I never knew if my path was the genuine Way ('do' in Korean; 'Tao' in Chinese). I was only concerned with getting to know who I was. Nobody ever taught me the teachings of the Buddha. I never knew such teachings existed. I only wanted to know who the owner or the actual doer was, who made me the way I am. I was earnest in my sole efforts to find out who the owner of such actions and thoughts was and in that process, I came to know It."

 

"I never had thoughts about wanting to be a monk/nun or to understand the teachings so that I myself would be able to teach people one day. Such thoughts I never entertained while I was rigorously engaged in spiritual practice and clinging on to It. After realizing the Dharma, the law, the teaching, I realized that Buddha's compassion and kindness had reached even someone like me. This understanding brought tears to my eyes out of deep gratitude. In response to such thoughtfulness and compassion, even if I were to become powdered dust, I wish everyone Enlightenment - to find the Genuine 'I'."

top