Hwagye-sa vs. Hanguk-sa: Dharma Smackdown

So I went to Hwagye-sa this afternoon. It's a temple in the northern part of Seoul that's popular with foreigners. The temple grounds are actually rather modest (especially if you compare them with the romantic grandeur of a temple like Haein-sa, near Taegu); the gukjae seonwon (International Zen Center) holds its ch'am-seon (zazen) sessions on the temple's top floor.

I didn't come to Hwagye-sa as a complete tyro. I'd had some experience with ch'am-seon in the States, having attended sessions at Hanguk-sa (a.k.a. the American Zen College), a Korean temple in Germantown, Maryland, about an hour by car from my hometown of Alexandria, Virginia. I was curious to see what procedural variations would pop up, how the atmosphere would be the same or different. So here's a comparison of the superficial aspects of ch'am-seon at two Korean temples.

Hanguk-sa: ch'am-seon for Westerners is on Saturdays, from 9AM to 11AM, followed by a Q&A-style dharma talk that usually runs 90 minutes
Hwagye-sa: ch'am-seon for foreigners is on Sundays, from 1PM to about 3PM, followed by a Q&A-style dharma talk that, today, ran about 90 minutes.

Hanguk-sa: You sit 40 minutes, do walking meditation for about 2 minutes; sit 40; walk 2; sit 40, for a total of 120 minutes' seated meditation.
Hwagye-sa: You sit 30 minutes, do walking meditation for about 10 minutes; sit 30; walk 10; sit 30, for a total of 90 minutes' seated meditation.

Hanguk-sa: Immediately following meditation, the members chant the Four Vows (in English). They go downstairs for the dharma talk and chant the entire Heart Sutra (English) before the talk. After the talk, they chant the Four Vows again.
Hwagye-sa: Immediately following meditation, there's no chanting. The pillows are rearranged into concentric semicircles in preparation for the dharma talk. After the talk, housekeeping announcements are made (like in a Christian church), including the standard request for donations. Chanting of the Heart Sutra at the end of the dharma talk-- much more rapid chant cadence than at Hanguk-sa.

Hanguk-sa: the abbot, Master Shin Go Seong, leads the seated and walking meditation (during which he carries a massive, gunshot-sounding chukpi, or wooden clacker for marking time and phases in the meditative exercise). He gives the dharma talk as well. It's a small temple, and I think he's the only monk with competence in English.
Hwagye-sa: the meditation, seated and walking, was led by Kwong Haeng sunim (monk, brother), an African-American monk who hails from Boston and has experience with Japanese Zen. The dharma talk, however, was given by none other than the hugely famous Hyon Gak sunim, a white American who wrote a best-selling (in Korea) chronicle about his spiritual journey titled Man Haeng: From Harvard to Hwagye-sa. Hyon Gak speaks fluent, if accented, Korean. His English accent lets you know right away he's a New Yawka. (UPDATE, January 27, 2011: He's actually from New Joisey. Guess I don't know my accents as well as I thought.)

Both Master Shin and Hyon Gak sunim are given to bizarre pronouncements. Perhaps the most bizarre thing I heard from Master Shin was an anecdote he told us about how some suspicious folks tried to barge into the temple back in the 70s, claiming to be police. They refused to show a warrant, "So I somersaulted away from the door and got my gun," Master Shin said with an evil grin, "then I went back to the door, but they were gone!" His students were nonplussed. "You have a gun?" a couple of them asked. "Don't worry!" Master Shin cackled. "My gun gives life; it doesn't give death!"

Today, Hyon Gak sunim attempted, as many Zen monks are wont to do, an illustration from physics to support a point he was making about the empty nature of reality. Unfortunately, he made reference to "Newton's First Law of Thermodynamics," which is a dicey remark at best (heh).

In all, I came away with the impression that Master Shin is more of a traditionalist than I assumed. He obviously runs a tighter ship than they do at Hwagye-sa: at Hwagye-sa, late arrivals trickled in one, even two hours late. This is inadmissible at Maryland's Hanguk-sa, where a large sign grouches, "Don't come late!" Master Shin also demands longer seated meditation from his students, but this is only a minor detail in the Zen way of thinking. On the other hand, Hyon Gak sunim's native fluency in English made his dharma talks both more understandable and more enjoyable, at least today. Master Shin, despite almost 40 years in the States, still speaks in rather broken English (though his immense cheerfulness often overcomes the language barrier).

We sat in ranks today at Hwagye-sa. In Master Shin's seon won (zendo), people sit facing outward, looking at either a wall or a window (I hate to admit this, but I always try to get a window). So far as I know, Master Shin doesn't use the kong-an (koan) method of training; in fact, his style reminds me strongly of Japanese Soto Zen, where shikantaza, "just sitting," is vitally important. At Hwagye-sa, they do kong-an training, but it occurs in the evening, around dinnertime.

Conclusion? I don't know. Hwagye-sa has its charms, especially if the dharma talks are always this lively. My initial feeling (which may change!) is that Hanguk-sa, in Germantown, Maryland, did a great job of giving me a basic foundation, and may in fact be a better, stricter temple. But I plan on hitting Hwagye-sa every week, so we'll see how things go.

Ah, yes: I should mention that ch'am-seon is always easier when you're accompanied by beautiful women, as was my privilege today.