Su Bong (; January 7, 1943—July 17, 1994) was a Soen Sa Nim in the

Kwan Um School of Zen The Kwan Um School of Zen (관음선종회,觀音禪宗會) (KUSZ) is an international school of zen centers and groups founded in 1983 by Zen Master Seung Sahn. The school's international head temple is located at the Providence Zen Center in ...

, the designated heir of Seung Sahn's lineage. Of both

Korean Korean may refer to: People and culture * Koreans, people from the Korean peninsula or of Korean descent * Korean culture * Korean language **Korean alphabet, known as Hangul or Korean **Korean dialects **See also: North–South differences in t ...

and

Chinese Chinese may refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people identified with China, through nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **Han Chinese, East Asian ethnic group native to China. **'' Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic ...

heritage,Batchelor, 222 he was born in

Kona, Hawaii Kailua-Kona is an unincorporated community and census-designated place (CDP) in Hawaii County, Hawaii, United States. It is most commonly referred to simply as Kona (a name it shares with the district to which it belongs), but also as Kona To ...

. Su Bong began his practice with Seung Sahn in 1974, helping to establish many Zen groups and temples for the lineage in the years that followed. In 1981 he received inka from Seung Sahn, making him a Ji Do Poep Sa Nim (JDPSN) in the lineage and, in 1983, he was ordained a

sunim ''Seunim'' is the Korean title for a Buddhist monk or Buddhist nun. It is considered respectful to refer to senior monks or nuns in Korea as ''Kun seunim''. In most Korean temples, a middle-aged monk assumes the role of a ''juji seunim'', who se ...

and given the

Buddhist name A Dharma name is a new name acquired during both lay and monastic Buddhist initiation rituals in Mahayana Buddhism and monastic ordination in Theravada Buddhism (where it is more proper to call it Dhamma or Sangha name). The name is tradition ...

Mu Deun

He received

Dharma transmission In Chan and Zen Buddhism, dharma transmission is a custom in which a person is established as a "successor in an unbroken lineage of teachers and disciples, a spiritual 'bloodline' ('' kechimyaku'') theoretically traced back to the Buddha him ...

on October 11, 1992. On July 17, 1994, Su Bong died of unknown causes at a retreat while conducting kong-an interviews in

Hong Kong Hong Kong)., Legally Hong Kong, China in international treaties and organizations. is a special administrative region of China. With 7.5 million residents in a territory, Hong Kong is the fourth most densely populated region in the wor ...

.Obituary Today the Kwan Um School of Zen has a practice center in his name located in

and name
Su Bong Zen Monastery

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Su Bong Zen Monastery
Seon Buddhist monks Kwan Um School of Zen 1943 births 1994 deaths American Zen Buddhists American people of Chinese descent American people of Korean descent 20th-century Buddhist monks {{Buddhism-bio-stub

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