JasonUnbound

My favorite monk

Our dear old friend Myong Haeng Sunim just passed through Berkeley on a brief US tour. In the photo to the right, he & Jiwon smile as they prepare to enjoy some decadent western brunch food. (And if you were an American living in Korea for 11 years--most of the time on a monastic diet-- you too would be drooling over stuffed french toast, yes?)

We've been friends since we shared a house in Ithaca in 1991-92. And after I moved to Korea to teach English, I wrote encouraging him to come join me. He did...and he's still there!

He started out, like me, as an English teacher and frequent Buddhist temple visitor. Over time, his practice deepened, until eventually he crossed the rubicon, renounced his worldly possessions, and became an ordained Buddhist monk. His practice as a monk has been intensive: for the past few years, he has spent three months each summer and each winter in silent retreat, with each day a regimented exercise of meditation and chanting beginning at 3am. He has also done a "three steps, one bow" circumambulation of Kye Ryong San mountain in Korea, a feat of remarkable endurance which he has written about here.

Next month, after he returns to Korea, he will begin a full year of silence. I was a bit worried when he told me this, but he assures me his master will be checking in on his mental health frequently. I might visit him at his temple in the mountains of central Korea at some point during the year, just to sit with him for a while. I could talk to him, and he could gesture and write notes, but since his purpose is to have as few outside thoughts as possible, it'd be best if we could just sit together.

Myong Haeng Sunim was a classics major at Cornell, so even if he weren't a humble monk, he'd probably be wary of being anyone's hero. But that's how I feel sometimes.