Our Teachers

Master Sunim was born in South Korea and entered Songkwang-sa Buddhist Monastery at the age of twenty, where he became a disciple of Zen Master Ku San Sunim. After ten years of training in Zen Meditation halls, he spent six more years in rigorous practice alone in hermitages in remote mountain areas. There he followed a raw food diet, eating what the mountains made available. One early spring day while sitting in the Zen hall suddenly all this doubts were resolved and he wrote the following song of enlightenment:

While Sunim's primary teaching focus is Zen, he also stresses the importance of protecting and balancing one's physical health and energy through Toaist practices. He teaches that through consistent trainin in Zen and Sun-do, one can personally experience results, and emphasizes that one should practice for oneself and obtain this personal experience. Only then can one directly understand this path to awakening.

During his years in the hermitage Sunim met and trained for ten years under Taoist Master Chong San. In 1982 Sunim was given sanction as a Taoist master. He later taught in Switzerland and throughout North America and is now the resident teacher at the Sixth Patriarch Zen Center in Berkeley.

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