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1975 - Zen Master Wu Kwang
(Richard Shrobe)
I met Zen Master Seung Sahn for the first time in the summer of 1975, a few months after the Zen Center opening ceremony had occurred. He was leading a retreat at the Cambridge Zen Center. I had two interviews with him at that retreat. He told me that he had a center in New York and that I could practice there. When I got back to New York, I attended evening practice at the Zen Center which was then on East 20th Street, just west of Park Avenue South.
There were only three of us that evening, me and two men who were living at the Zen Center. One of them was Linc Rhodes who later became a Ji Do Poep Sa Nim. After practice they invited me to stay for tea. Over tea, I told them of my former involvement with Integral Yoga Institute for approximately the prior ten years. I also shared that I had been the head of Teacher Training there and held other positions of responsibility. I said I would come to the Zen Center for practice, but I did not want any formal responsibilities.
Years later when I was the Guiding Teacher at Chogye and Linc was invited to lead a retreat for us as guest teacher, he would share this story of our first meeting.