User:Kimballamram/Template Ku San Su Nim

Songwangsa Temple under the guidance of Ku San Su Nim (1909-1983) was the first temple in Korea to have western monastics ordain in the Korean tradition. In 1973, Ku San Su Nim came to the United States to give a series of dharma talks. In California he presided over the opening of Sambosa temple which was founded by a layman who was a friend of his Han Shan Lee. Ku San Su Nim had become abbott of Songwangsa in 1967 after the death of his teacher Hyo Bong Su Nim (1888-1966). Ku San Su Nim returned to Korea with one young American Kim Queenault who would become the the first westerner to ordain in the Korean monastic tradition taking the name Hyon Jo Su Nim. Others that would ordain included Larry Martin (Hyon Song Su Nim), Robert Busswell(Hye Myong Su Nim) and Martine Bachellor who was the first woman to ordain becoming Song Il Su Nim. Over time, a separate compound was created within Songwangsa just for the western monastics as their numbers began to grow called the Bul Il Seon Won. In 1976, the western monks published a book entitled Nine Mountains which was the English translation of Ku San's name. This was the first time that Ku San Su Nim's dharma talks had been published in English. Ku San Su Nim continued to attract more foreign monastics as at the time that was the only place in Korea were they could practice.. They would sit kyol che, the traditional three month retreat every winter and summer. Ku San became an advocate for his western monastics in a time when when other monks wee skeptical of their motivations to practice. As Kusan's health worsened at the end of his life, many of his monastics wanted to have one last kyol che with him. He died in December of 1983 seated in meditation posture. He left no western dharma heirs but in the ensuing years. other westerns have come to Songwangsa to practice.Ku San Su Nim was of the sudden enlightement, gradual cultivation way of practice as opposed to Sung Chol Su Nim who was of the sudden enlightenment instant cultivation.

Ku San Su Nim was a Korean monk who lived from 1909 to 1983 and was the first Korean monk to accept foreign students as monastics and have them train at his Temple Songgwang Sa in the traditional manor. Kusan Su Nim was born in Namwon a small city in North Cholla province in 1909 Buswel The Korean Monastic Experience p64. In his youth he studied Chinese classics at the local Confucian academy ibid. After school he became a barber and also helped out on the family farm during the harvest time. ibid. When he was 26, he came down with a serious illness that no doctor could cure. He decided to do a one hundred day chanting retreat at Chiri Mountain reciting the Tibetan mantra of O Mani Padme Hum.hoping that the bodhisatva of compassion would come to his aid. ibid. After he had completed this his illness had been cured.He was now committed to Buddhism and went to Songwang Sa to meet Hyo Bong Su Nim {1888-1966] who would become his teacher.ibid. Although he had studied in a Confucian academy he actually had little interest in the study of academic buddhism instead he wanted to focus on meditation practice in this case of Joju's Mu the hwadu This also led him to do solo meditation practice in an isolated hermitage and to avoid other monks whom he thought were engaging in frivolous practices in the meditation hall. ibid p65. In 1943. after several years of intensive practice he had his first partial breakthrough.He described this experience in a series of lectures to the foreign monastics during the winter retreat of 197677. ibid p65. At that time he was also leading a very ascetic life subsisting solely on the donations in order to provide for the small community of monks that he was supporting.ibid p65. There was a certain monk Peop Chun Su Nim who practiced hard both day and nightOne day the two monks went into town to have lunch at the home of a laywoman During the meal cooked rice had been served however Peop Chun Su Nim had done periods of intensive practice on Chiri Mountain in which he ad abstained from cooked foods instead subsisting on dried pine nuts. This proved to be too much for him and he became very ill. Attempts were made to find a doctor to attend to Peop Chun Su Nim there seemed little hope of getting him to Teagu the nearest big city in time to have an operation.ibid p66. As he was being helped back to the laywoman house Peop Chun Su Nim leaned his head towards Ku San Su Nim and said in distress ' please practice earnestly and endeavor to ferry me across to nirvana" This gave Ku san Su Nim the impetus to practice for the rest of his life.ibid p66. During the next several years, Ku san Su Nim devoted himself to intensive practice first in meditation halls and later in remote hermitages. p44 the Way of Korean Zen. His effort was so focused that there were times that he lost track of things going on outside the hermitage. During one such time he had been in meditation for fifteen days straight during which some birds had come and started to pick the stuffing out of his winter coat.ibid p45. With the outbreak of the Korean War Have In Sa where he was staying was overun by the Communist forces and all the monks were taken prisoner.Ku San Su Nim and Hyo Bong Su Nim managed to escape to the region around Pusan where the UN forces were in control, initially staying at a temple called Un Gok Sa. Hyo Bong Su Nim had settled at Kum Jong Sa and it was there that Ku San Su Nim received the first formal confirmation of his understanding. ibid p46. Now Ku San Su Nim had more administrative responsibilities as welt the Buddhist community in Korea. The Chogye Order was being reenergized after the Korean War He founded Mil Have Sa temple and was abbot there from 1954 to 1957. He was also the chief inspector for the National Sangha headquarters in Seoul and head of monastic affairs in the Cholla Namdo province. He split his time between these three jobs However he still wanted to continue his meditation practice so he resigned his positions and went off to Pao Gun hermitage to do intensive solo practice After being there for three years he had another awakening and reported back to Hyo Bong Su Nim who then gave him full dharma transmission. ibid p47. Ku San Su Nim came out of retreat in 1962and accepted the position of abbot at Tong Hwa Sa where Hyo Bong Su Nim was currently the teacher.He remained there for four years and also went to a Buddhist conference in Sri Lanka visiting Buddhist sites in India, Nepal, and Southeast Asia. Hyo Bong Su Nim died that September and the next year Ku San Su Nim moved to Songwang Sa and in 1969 became the teacher there.ibid p48. That same year, Songwang Sa had become a chongnim a temple that incorporated chanting meditation and sutra study all on temple grounds. ibid p48. In 1973 Ku San Su Nim made his first visit to the United States to open a temple in Carmel, California Sam Bo Sa and he returned to Korea with his first western student. This was the beginning of the foreign sangha at Songgwang Sa. This was a learning experience for both the Western and Korean monastics alike as the Westerners had to learn Korean and Classical Chinese in order to read the sutras and communicate in a tradition that was a thousand years old and the Koreans came into contact with people from a culture that valued individuality and initiative. Thousand Peaks p199 This growing monastic community came to be known as the Bul Il Seon Won in which close to fifty foreign monastics came to study with Ku San Su Nim over the next eleven years. He also continued to travel to the US founding Korea Sa the first overseas branch temple of Songgwang Sa in Los Angeles in 1980. In 1982, he lectured in Europe and opened a temple in Geneva. The Way of Korean Zen p50. At the behest of his Western monastics the book Nine Mountains was published in 1976 which contains his dharma talks that were translated from Korean by three of his students.ibid p49 Ku San Su Nim passed away in 1983 after being in poor health for a few years. He left behind no successors but several of his Western students convey his teachings through their academic careers as they have returned to lay life.