The Kwan Um School of Zen (관음선종회) (KUSZ) is an international school of zen centers and groups founded in 1983 by Zen Master Seung Sahn. The school's international head temple is located at the Providence Zen Center in Cumberland, Rhode Island, which was founded in 1972 shortly after Seung Sahn first came to the United States. The Kwan Um style of Buddhist practice combines ritual common both to Korean Buddhism as well as Rinzai school of Zen, and their morning and evening services include elements of Huayan and Pure Land Buddhism. While the Kwan Um Zen School comes under the banner of the Jogye Order of Korean Seon, the school has been adapted by Seung Sahn to the needs of Westerners. According to James Ishmael Ford, the Kwan Um School of Zen is the largest Zen school in the Western world.
History
Seung Sahn first arrived in the United States in 1972, where he lived in Providence, Rhode Island and worked at a Korean-owned laundromat, repairing washing machines to financially support himself. Not long after, students from nearby Brown University began coming to him for instruction. This resulted in the opening of the Providence Zen Center in 1972.
In 1974, prior to the official creation of the school, Seung Sahn founded Dharma Zen Center in Los Angeles, a place where laypeople could practice without leaving their urban lives, and regardless of their background. In that same year, Cambridge Zen Center was also started. The following year, Seung Sahn founded the Chogye International Zen Center of New York City, and then in 1977 Empty Gate Zen Center in Berkeley, California.
In 1979, the Providence Zen Center moved from its location in Providence to its current space in Cumberland, Rhode Island. The Kwan Um School of Zen was founded in 1983, and in July of that year, construction began on a Korean-style zen monastery on the grounds of Providence Zen Center. Opening ceremonies for the monastery were held in July 1984. By the summer of 1984, there were four zen centers and three additional zen groups in Poland.
By the time of Seung Sahn's death in 2004, he had established nearly 40 zen centers.
The Kwan Um School of Zen has one of only a few Zen centers located in Israel with their Tel Aviv Zen Center, led by Revital Dan. It is one of only four Kwan Um School Zen centers in Israel, with its history linked to trips by Seung Sahn to Israel in the 1990s to teach at various alternative medicine centers. According to Lionel Obadia, "Revital Dan, currently heading the TAZC, followed Seung Sahn back to Korea and trained in the monastic style of retreat. Back in Israel with her Dharma-teacher degree, she founded a Zen group. The opening ceremony of the TAZC took place in January 1999. The activities of the Kwan Um School have received widespread media coverage and the number of attendees is increasing." The other three centers in Israel practicing in the KUSZ are the Hasharon Zen Center, the Ramat Gan Zen Group and the Pardes Hanna Zen Centre.
Characteristics
According to the book Religion and Public Life in the Pacific Northwest edited by Patricia O'Connell Killen and Mark Silk, As Mu Soeng indicates, one of the key tenets to practice is what Seung Sahn often called "together action." Many members actually live in the zen centers, and one of the rules is that personal biases must be set aside for the good of the community.
At the time of his arrival in America, Seung Sahn's teachings were different from many Japanese Zen Masters who had arrived in the United States to teach Zen Buddhism to Americans. During the early days he did not place a strong emphasis on seated meditation, which is the core of most Japanese traditions of Zen, but rather on Koans. It was through the urging of some of his first students, some of whom had practiced in Japanese schools previously, that Seung Sahn came to place a stronger emphasis on sitting meditation. In addition to seated meditation, chanting and prostrations are very important forms of meditation for the school, aimed at clearing the mind of students.