This will probably be the best one hour spent in your life.
I advise you to just listen to the main lecture part of Hyon Gak Sunim from 7 minutes into the podcast to about 1 hour 8 minutes out of this 2-hour podcast. All other parts are just nonsensical and counterproductive questions from the audience and a musical introductory ceremony.
Currently an American monk active in Germany.
He is a German-American born into a Catholic family. His maternal family is said to be Irish. He went to a Catholic private high school and experienced spiritual wandering and eventually entered Yale University to major in philosophy and literature. At this time, he became fascinated by Arthur Schopenhauer and Romantic poets. Along with Mu Ryang and Chong An, he is a well-known foreign monk who converted to Korean Buddhism.
When he heard the news that his close cousin died in a car accident during his teenage years, he became aware of the issues of life and death and suffering. He attended Yale University, where his parents graduated, and participated in the student movement, studied philosophy, and went on an exchange program in Europe.
Hyon Gak himself later recalled this time and said that he thought that there might have been a connection between Buddhism and Arthur Schopenhauer's later philosophy.
In 1989, he received an acceptance letter from Harvard University and worked at a Wall Street law firm to earn tuition, but he felt despair at the life of Wall Street, a typical materialistic society, and decided to commit suicide.
However, he was about to jump off the Brooklyn Bridge when he met a beggar by chance and was reborn and changed his mind. Since he was planning to commit suicide anyway, he gave all his money to the beggar, and the beggar said, "Do you know what day it is today? Today is your birthday. You will understand when you think about what I said later."
Hyon Gak said that he thought that perhaps the beggar was an incarnation of Avalokitesvara Bodhisattva.
Later, while studying comparative philosophy at Harvard, his Japanese professor at the time recommended that he attend Seung-Sahn's lecture at Harvard, which led to his connection with Korean Buddhism. The next day, he visited the Cambridge Zen Center and began learning basics such as Zen meditation.
He eventually took a leave of absence from Harvard and visited Korea in 1990 to practice in earnest. After a 90-day retreat at Shinwonsa Temple in Gyeryongsan Mountain (계룡산 신원사), he returned to Korea and continued his studies, but in 1992, Paul Münzen received an ordination ceremony with Seung-san right next to the body of the Sixth Patriarch Hui-neng, who is enshrined in the main hall of Nanhua Temple in Jogyesan Mountain, China, and officially became a monk. One unique fact here is that the ordination ceremony took place at Nanhua Temple in China.
In Korea, Hyeon Gak became famous in the late 1990s with the KBS Sunday Special 2-part series Manhaeng (만행) and soon became even more famous with the book he published, "Manhaeng (萬行) - From Harvard to Hwagyesa.".
He emphasizes the original nature of truth that is not confined by language and thoughts. Truth or enlightenment is something that can be experienced, not explained. The idea that all things are one and that we should not discriminate between them with our minds is also a concept he frequently mentions.
He believes that all religious teachings converge into one.
