Establishing The Chogye International Zen Center in New York City

1975. Fifty-one years ago. A lifetime. Many lifetimes. The blink of an eye. 

 The 1970s were an intense time. After returning to New York City from studying in Europe, I was living in a fourth story walkup in the East Village. I’d finished a Masters program at CUNY and was taking my life in my hands daily, biking to a newspaper job in Rockefeller Center. Then I landed a job which allowed me to work from home. Suddenly I’d gained time and space for looking around and wondering about life. What did I want to do with my life? What was success? Happiness? Who was I?

I found my way to a Japanese zendo on the Upper East Side and started practicing zazen in the evenings. It was a truly beautiful zendo and as hushed a space as one could find in New York. I learned to sit without moving for long periods of time and to keep my eyes down. Still, despite the perfect aesthetics, something was missing. 

Then one day, I saw a a flyer tacked onto a wall announcing that a Korean Zen teacher would be speaking that week. It was an easy walk from my home to the undistinguished building on an undistinguished street. Inside, it wasn’t hushed and it wasn’t beautiful, but it was alive with energy. Zen Master Seung Sahn (Dae Soen Sa Nim) told amazing stories, looked straight into our eyes, answered questions and asked questions. There was laughter. It was the beginning of the dharma that has kept opening for me as I follow Soen Sa Nim’s teaching: “Only go straight, don’t know mind, for ten thousand years.”

 In the half dozen years after that Dharma Talk, I rode my bike to 20th Street, to Sun Ok Lee’s Dance studio on 16th Street, and then to 31st Street in the evenings for practice. For a period of time when financial difficulties led to a temporary shutdown, the front room of my fourth floor walkup on 7th St became the meditation hall. I don’t remember there being more than a small handful of friends and strangers who came on any given night to sit together, but it was packed to the rafters the night Soen Sa Nim trudged up the four flights of stairs and took his seat at the head of the room. It’s a precious memory from life in New York. 

 Soon after, there were some major changes. I met the man who I share my life with. We married at Providence Zen Center and moved there. Our son was born in 1983. Changing, changing! Through it all, Soen Sa Nim’s advice is always with me: “Only go straight, don’t know mind, for ten thousand years.”