Customer Reviews

The Zen Monastic Experience

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Wow. Should have been a documentary as well. It took me into the existence of Korean Zen Monks. No pop psychology here. I was humbled at the notion of meditating for two weeks straight in one sitting and I respected more what it is to be a monk. It made me think of my childhood. When I was a little boy in Korea a renunciate came to my house to beg for rice to my mother's disdain. He wore a white tattered robe and I realize now what he was.

Living in this hectic modern world and having my illusions shattered over and over again made me realize how lucky I was to have seen a Buddha with my very eyes. I think I'll read this one again soon. Buddha Bless You. You know what I mean.

Below is an edited version of a critical book review for a class on Buddhism.

Professor Buswell's book is an engaging and fascinating portrait of Buddhist life in a Korean Seon temple long before it became common for us to see books and dharma talks by foreign Seon monks. His tale is as rollicking an adventure story as a tale of quiet mediation and disciplined scholarship could be. Reading his words we imagine the idealistic young man Buswell must have been, urgently holding his professor back in the halls after class to answer his eager questions, with firm purpose boarding a plane for Thailand where with a serious expression and a quick beating heart his head was shaved and he donned the robes of a monk. Then finding something missing setting out for a remote tete-a-tete, sharing his monk mentor with only one other as he diligently studied tracts on Buddhist philosophy written in Classical Chinese, then by chance and good fortune finding the spiritual home of his heart, Song'gwangsa, the `Sangha Jewel Temple'.

This book, in brief, is the story of Buswell's experience of Korean Buddhism, written in a style that manages to be both conversational and easily readable and yet academic and possessed of face and content validity at the same time. Buswell explains Seon Buddhism in Korea by explaining what he saw and experienced over five years at Song'gwangsa, including chapters on the temple itself, the daily work of monks and the different positions monks filled beyond working on meditation. This book serves as a more closely focused and Korean telling of the world that you can read about in Welch's "Practice of Chinese Buddhism". The sorts of tasks, the ways the monks meditate, even the ascetic practices that we heard about from Welch reappear here in a clearly told and highly reliable illustration of the mid to late 70s practices of Korean Seon monks.

It is very curious to think of the amazing success that Seon Buddhism has had with foreigners. Though Buswell was one of the early ones, or even the first, there are many monks who many years ago put on their robes, and unlike Buswell, have kept them on many more than five (or seven) years. It was Seung-san a famous Buddhist teacher who became the most active face of Seon to the outside world. Through temples and centers he established in America and Europe many non-Koreans got to experience Buddhism, Seon style, first hand. It's unsurprising to me but perhaps quite surprising to most Koreans that many of those interested in Seon went so far as to attend retreats in Korea, and some even ordained.

I am not convinced that becoming a monk is any more or less difficult for a foreigner than a Korean. However there is one thing I must admit, if a westerner is lazy and shiftless and unskilled and they want to find an easy life, they would never consider moving to Korea and putting on a cheongsam. Buswell in his evaluation of those who ordained for the wrong reasons states "...continued involvement in the monastic life may remold that motivation into an entirely exemplary one. Indeed, there is no way of predicting from a monk's background his ultimate success in the religious life." (pg 76). I hold to the idea, personally, that fate leads us where we are supposed to go. So, though it would not occur to a foreigner to use a temple as a back-up way of life, and it would occur to a Korean, it doesn't mean that any foreigner will be a better monk than his compatriots. If a (Korean) man becomes a monk, even though he thinks he's doing it to use the monastery as a safe escape from lay life, there is a reason, and he will fulfill some task or mission as a monk that he could not otherwise have carried out. Though Korean and foreign monks may ordain for different reasons, they are living the same life, can each find their own path to understanding and may help people in different, but equally legitimate, ways.

In fact, I have only two complaints about this book. The first complaint is that occasionally Buswell included Romanized Korean terms that were not special Buddhist vocabulary (using his spelling, for example kabang, and haroboji) but in the context of the book, where all other Romanized terms were specific to Buddhism, this could be confusing to a non-Korean speaker. I kept imagining someone saying to their friend "Those gray bags for monks are called `kabang'. I learned this from this book I just read!" The only other complaint is that the information in the book is in some respects dated. Though many things about life in temples has not changed, nor is it likely to change, there are constant trends and fads that effect the practice of the monks, and new issues that arise. When reading the book I felt regret that I couldn't go and talk about some aspects of the book with my monk friends because most of them hadn't even become novices yet when Buswell was a resident at Song'gwangsa.

Don't misunderstand me, though, I truly enjoyed this book. The best part about it for me actually (not withstanding kabang) was the fact that I learned useful new Korean terms, what I want to use as soon as I can is to ask my friends where they are in the Samigwa, Sajipgwa, Sagyogwa, and Daegyogwa system. I'm also happy to see terms like Dono Jeomsu and Dono Donsu written side by side, because this is not vocabulary I can find in my own dictionary, even though I am familiar with the terms in English, I've never been able to have a satisfying talk in Korean by trying to only explain what I meant without having confidence in the terminology I was using. I think that in terms of improving my own understanding of Korean Seon Buddhism it was this chapter (A Monk's Early Career) with the clear descriptions of the process that will provide the most benefit.

I would certainly refer this book to anyone interested in Korean Buddhism.

This is a comprehensive and direct account of the structure of practice at a contemporary Korean Zen monastery. Robert Buswell is a Buddhist academic teaching at the University of California who also spent five years as a Zen monk in Korea. Here he ties into the book what daily life and religious ritualistic practice is truly like while staying in a Zen monastery. This book should absolutely be read by everyone. Buswell draws on personal experience in this intriguing account of day-to-day Zen monastic practice. His depiction of the life of contemporary Zen monks practicing in Korea gives an original and thought provoking look at Zen from an insiders perspective. He covers truly everything one needs to know about Zen practice in a matter of fact way which can help clear up a Westerners possible misconceptions.

If you like this work, you will also like "A Glimpse of Nothingness" by Janwillem van de Wettering; an account of experiences had in an American Zen community. Also I cannot recommend enough the teachings of Zen master Seung Sahn, ie. The Compass of Zen, Only Don't Know, and Dropping Ashes on the Buddha. This is a great accent to such works.

This is quite a good overview of the stucture and workings of a large Korean Buddhist monastery and the culture of Buddhist monks in Korea. I don't think that anyone has written a more detailed description of the monk's culture or of the jobs in big monasteries. Parts of it are somewhat dated and there are differences between temples (and people) but for the most part it's pretty accurate. The author's stories about his experiences are also interesting. I didn't give it five stars because the book might seem a bit dry at times for some people.

This book is not easy. You have to really want to know more about Korean Zen (Son) to get through this one. There is a lot of Korean words, and, as another reviewer aptly commented, 'no pop psychology' that seems so common in these types of books. However, the time you spend will be well repaid. The author writes well, and does not romanticize his topic. He speaks from experience- something that, in any field, let alone Asian Studies, seems quite rare.

It has been some years since I read this book, bit I still remember it ag giving a very interesting insigth into the Korean monestary life. I would recomend it. Love, Juri.

Robert Buswell crafts the book "The Zen Monastic Experience" from a combination of research and personal experience in order to shed light on the monastic life and communities of Korea. He gives historic accounts and research interspersed with anecdotes from his own years spent as a monk in the Korean monastery Songgwang-sa. While this book may at first appear to be a written construct of Buswell's historical and ethnographic research, there is revealed an underlying motive to change contemporary Western views of Zen. Buswell uses Korean Buddhism as an example against typical Western thought on the topic, and states in his conclusion, "Modern Son monastic life in Korea therefore offers a valuable counterparadigm to the usual Western portrayals of Zen, an alternative vision that yields quite a different picture of the day-to-day reality of Zen religious experience from that to which we in the West have become accustomed" (Buswell 223). He spends the book explaining his research on the topic and giving a full view of everything about Korean monastic life. In his conclusion he shows some of the disparities between typical Western thought and the Buddhism he has showed in the preceding pages. He argues for a "reappraisal of Zen religious experience" (Buswell 217).

Buswell's combination of research and personal experience makes this book both profoundly informative and entertaining. For every description he gives of a Son practice or monastic tradition, he has a story to illustrate the point more fully. This makes the book suitable for many audiences; it provides the accurate ethnographic and historical research a scholar would require as well as the interesting personalities that would make the book great for even an everyday reader. For example, when describing the different administrative positions within the monasteries, he gives both detailed information about what the job entails as well as behind-the-scenes looks at the politics surrounding it. After describing the position of Abbot, he mentions that because of the heavy workload involved, the monks often have to "cajole someone into accepting the job" (Buswell 109). Later when talking about the intensive meditation week that is practiced during the winter retreat, he describes the occurrence through his own experience. He provides the reader with insight into not only the details of practice, but the effects it had on the practitioner. He says at the end of his talk about intensive meditation, "Then it really was quite remarkable how effective - even almost refreshing, in a bizarre sort of way - such intensive practice could be" (Buswell 189). It is this mixture of information and experience that makes the book so different and compelling to read.

It is precisely this strength that I believe leads to the major drawback of the work. Because he is mixing together several different sources of information, he ends up jumping from topic to topic with little organization. To be fair, strong organization would certainly be difficult in such a work, but the lack of coherency in places leads to confusion and slight frustration while reading. For example, he places the chapters involving administrative officers of the "Support Division" and involving the "Officers of the Meditation Compound" with several other chapters about relations with the laity, history, and practice in between. It was rather confusing to read because just when you thought you had learned about all of the different positions in the monastery, there was an entire chapter left to go. It also felt out of place to have the chapters about the actual monastic practice come before the listings of the different positions because those positions had already been mentioned several times before, and you almost had to skip ahead to find out more about them. This disorganization, however, was the only drawback to the book; overall I found the work extremely informative and enchanting to read.