Bo Mun was the first transmitted Western Dharma heir of Zen Master Seung Sahn, founder of the international Kwan Um School of Zen, an offshoot of the Korean Chogye Order. The Korean Buddhist tradition – and Seung Sahn’s and Bo Mun’s practice of it through the Su Doek Sa Mountain lineage – may be said to be characterized by inclusiveness, openness and the harmonization of diverse tenets, sects and practices found in ancient and contemporary modes of Buddhism. Bo Mun’s and Danan’s teaching styles and influences continue to reflect this diversity and unity.

Zen Master Bo Mun

Bo Mun studied koans with the late Japanese Rinzai Zen teacher Kyozan Joshu Sasaki for more than two decades. He also studied under the Soto Zen teachers Taizan Maezumi and Kobun Chino Otogawa, among others. He was a founding member of the Providence Zen Center, a resident teacher at the Cambridge Buddhist Association, and a guiding teacher of the Institute for Meditation and Psychotherapy. 

Danan, as a lay student, studied koans and sutras with Tenshin Reb Anderson, a lineage holder in the Soto Tradition of Shunryu Suzuki. He has also studied and practiced in retreat and sesshin settings with Tibetan, Vipassana, and Kwan Um School teachers, as well as with Joshu Sasaki, Martine and Stephen Batchelor, Guo Gu, and Mu Soeng.  He is a past director of Tallahassee Buddhist Community, Inc.