So Shim Sa at Dongguk University

On Sunday August 7th, So Shim Sa was honored to receive a delegation of a group of Dongguk University students led by Professor Cho Il Hwan. The group consisted of seven Buddhist monks and two students who are currently completing their degrees in Buddhist Studies at Dongguk University in Gyeonju, South Korea. The group was made up of those select few who qualified for the 2011 scholarship program. The scholarship prorgram, sponsored by Prof. Cho was an 8-week intensive English language course conducted at Columbia University interspersed with weekly trips to 10 Buddhist Temples. One of the 10 temples visited was So Shim Sa. Upon return to Korea the scholarship students were required to compile a 60 page booklet about their most impressive experience. So Shim Sa clearly left a lasting impression and was given 13 pages complete with a transcript of an interview with Ven. Il-Cho Bobsanim, the Ven. Monks of So Shim Sa and the scholarship group. The article entitled 소심사의 미국스님들 (So Shim Sa's American Monks) was written by Ven. Sang-Min.

Words about words

In the near future, we’ll talk about chanting. But I thought it appropriate to first talk about words. Words can be fun, like a toy, we can play with them. “I went to a diner the other day, and order the chicken catastrophe, and eggs overwhelming.   The chicken was so undercooked that it walked down to the end of the counter and tried to beat up my cup of coffee. The coffee wasn't strong enough to defend itself. ” (paraphrased from a Tom Waits song.) Words are tools, descriptive tools. A group of us gets together, and we agree on the meaning of the word and we agree that this thing (word) is going to point to that thing that is the real article. I’m holding up a cup right now. I’m drinking “water”. I’m drinking “aqua”. I’m drinking “mool”, I’m drinking “woda”. Regardless of the word for water, in Spanish, Korean or Polish, the word itself just points to a thing. After all, we cannot drink the word “water”. Like a finger pointing to the moon. Don't get stuck on the finger or ...

Founder's Day 2023 (Abbot's Address)

I have, from time to time, on the rarest of occasions, been accused of being...verbose. I know! I was as shocked then as you are now. So, we are in imminent danger of the lunch getting cold. Yet, I don’t have the words (imagine that!) to express how fortunate we are to be in the mere presence of a Dosa. This is the stuff we each have to stick our head through the mystical curtain of mystery to glimpse. So, we won’t go there now. I thought to myself… if I absolutely had to, choose a single quality of IlCho Dosanim that I would want to highlight. What would that be? And of course, we go through the usual list: wisdom, compassion, knowledge, patience, etc. Yet, as much as all of these are true, today they won’t do. And so, I went on, sifting through and I think I found it. So here it is, the single most impressive quality of Il-Cho Dosanim, for me….expressed in a single word… succinct. Succinct. Never have I met someone who can distill the esoteric and the complexities of our human condit...

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