1997 - Bodhisattva Teacher John Holland

Some Memories    

Zen Master Wu Kwang appeared startled by my emergence in New York as a Dharma Teacher in 1997. We had met several years earlier when he was the Guiding Teacher to the New Haven Zen Center. Later with grace he accepted my editing of his magnum opus, Elegant Failure: A Guide to Zen Koans*  (just read the praise of it.), and Don’t-Know Mind: The Spirit of Korean Zen…. I shall always be grateful to him for his vibrant teaching (and that of the other teachers at Chogye International Zen Center of New York     ), as well as his conducting the One Hundred Days ceremony after my son’s death…. For many years Matt Keeler Ji Do Poep Sa Nim was resident at 400 East 14th Street. As you know he is a very fine musician. Painful as it must have been for him, he did his best to help me with my weekly rendition of the Evening Bell Chant. I still have the chromatic pitch key he urged me to purchase. Now I lead weekly meditation at a senior center without benefit of the Evening Bell Chant…. I used to be Guest Master at CIZC.

*     Zen Master Wu Kwang agreed to begin his introduction with a quotation from Walt Whitman’s Song of Myself.