Prior to starting my school, the Mind Light Way School of Zen, I lived at Shim Gwang Sa, a Zen Buddhist temple in the United States for 16 years. During this time I studied under the direct guidance of my teacher, Great Zen Master Chang Sik Kim, founder of the Zen and Martial Art School, Shim Gum Do. He was a successor of Great Zen Master Seung Sahn, who was a lineage holder from the Jogye order of Korean Zen and the founder of the Kwan Um International School of Zen. When I was recognized by my teacher as a Zen Master in 2014, I became the 80th teacher in my lineage which can be traced over thousands of years through Korea, China, and India all the way back to Buddha.  

My training in Zen was completely focused on the practical application of Buddha’s teachings to every moment of life. We practiced sitting meditation, chanted sutras, and we were taught koans as well as some history through my teacher’s dharma talks, but the training was primarily focused on practicing meditative focus on every activity we did at the temple.

I never felt as though my training lacked anything, but I did always have a genuine curiosity about the history of my lineage. As I started teaching in my own school, I became aware of a number of misconceptions about Zen that we have in contemporary culture and found that many of misconceptions arise from common academic misunderstandings of Zen history. This led me to examine historical records to see where these misinterpretations may have originated.

This blog came out of the research I have done. I hope you’ll enjoy it.