Beautiful short film on Western Zen Monk, Hyun Gak Sunim

[sittingzen]

Hello Friends,

Forgive me if this was posted already previously. "The Mirror of Zen" is a beautiful short film documenting a week in the life of Hyun Gak Sunim. I will allow the gorgeous footage to speak for itself.

A brief synopsis: The subject of this unusual film, Hyon Gak Sunim, allowed filmmakers to follow his daily living and teaching activities for a week as he met with students and organized his daily activities. Sunim is widely recognized as one of the most influential Zen monks in modern Korean Buddhist history, a graduate of Yale and Harvard who entered the monastic life in 1992 and has done over 20 years of intensive Zen training in the ancient Zen temples of Korea. His enlightenment was certified ("inka") in a public ceremony in 2001 by his teacher, the legendary Zen Master Seung Sahn (1927-2004).

Gassho,

Lu

[Kaishin]

Thank you for sharing!

[Myosha]

Zen is a really good thing.


Gassho,
Edward

[Rich]

Thanks. Some of his talks are on YouTube.

[Jundo]

Thank you for sharing, Lu. I was able to attend some talks and sittings some years ago with Hyun Gak Sunim, and felt him sincere and authentic, the real deal. He is charming, funny and engaging too, and I love hearing the Dharma with a New Jersey-Korean accent.

Boy, I wonder what would happen if a film maker followed me around and added a musical score? I very much doubt they could capture such pretty, romantic images of me. (Perhaps a close up of my plumber's butt crack as I change the litter in the cat box, all to the tune of the Monkee's Daydream Believer. Much editing would be involved, and much film left on the cutting room floor. ).

I just came back from Korea. Most Zen in Korea (Christianity is much more widespread in South Korea than Buddhism, by the way) is a Rinzai/Linji Tradition centered on Koan Zazen, as was Master Seung Sahn and the Kwan Um School. In turn, the Kwan Um school is very different in some important ways from maintream Korean Zen, with much more of an emphasis on lay folks sitting Zazen and some other things. (I was also surprised to see at the end of the film that Hyun Gak Sunim has now left the Kwan Um formally. I wonder about his reasons, and I think he did not really go far). And all is somewhat different from Soto Zen in Japan, in the West and here at Treeleaf. As I always say ...

... Precisely the same, yet often quite different. Sometimes very very different, but just just the same.

Gassho, J

[Jundo]

Different but the same, yet all delicious ... much as the Monkees are the Monkees, while Imawano is Imawano ...

The late great Kiyoshiro Imawano ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KfAZRkKm5kM

... the the kinda what they are Charan Po Ratan ...

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SnfJ7uEhvkc

[Ishin]

Nice video. Reality TV worth watching.

Jundo all I can say to the Korean Monkey remake is.. wow.

Gassho,
C

[Jundo]

Nice video. Reality TV worth watching.

Jundo all I can say to the Korean Monkey remake is.. wow.

Gassho,
C

Japanese Monkey remake. And they are not "remakes". It just is what it is. Same song, different, all luscious.

[Ishin]

Yes My bad! I posted before you wrote who the artist's were.

It certainly IS..

[Joyo]

Thank you for posting. Beautiful footage! I couldn't help but wonder, as I was watching it, how similar videos would look from fellow Treeleafers. Jundo would obviously be cleaning litter boxes , and I'm sure we'd all have our similar, mundane tasks, that really are special and sacred.

Gassho,
Treena

[Mp]

Thank you Lu, very nice.

Gassho
Shingen

[Genshin]

Beautiful video Lu. I liked the way the film centered on the ordinary day to day stuff. Thanks for sharing.

Gassho
Matt

[Myozan Kodo]

His enlightenment was certified ("inka") in a public ceremony in 2001

Beautiful images. Thanks for sharing the film.

I always wondered, did Gotama have a certificate? How do we know he wasn't a fake?

Gassho
Myozan

PS: Jundo: I'm sure we could make you look as cool. We got Hans!

[Hans]

Hello,

thank you for sharing this visual gem. Shot on a Canon 5d Mark III (which is only fitting since it is about Buddhism...Canon is named after our beloved Kanzeon/GuanYin). If I ever win the lottery, that's the camera I'll buy

Gassho,

Hans Chudo Mongen

[sittingzen]

I am so thrilled everyone enjoyed the short film. The filmmaker captured the essence of the practice so well with each frame, "This moment....This moment...This moment.."

Jundo, I can visualize the director scanning into ultra-slow, crystal clear, wide-shot of you from behind, with your computer in front of you sharing the Dharma, your hands moving slowly in the air as you emphasize..

_/\_