What is Zen ?

  
                  
                  Zen employs several simple techniques of formal practice
           and meditation that help direct the student towards a central
           question : "What am I ?" Athough this question seems shapeless,
           Zen has developed, over many centuries, a  practical and clearly 
           defined means of approaching it. Meditation, communal activity,
           and student-teacher dialogue are common to all Zen traditions. If
           there is an element of faith in Zen, it is faith that steadfast concen-
           tration on the question of self-nature will bring clarity and energy to
           everyday life. That ultimately, Zen practice will not focus on an isolat-
           ed "I" but on the whole real world.

           
                  The Chogye International Zen Center of New York was found-
            ed in 1975 by Zen Master Seung Sahn who is the first Korean
            Zen Master to live and teach in the West. Addressed by his 
            students as Dae Soen Sa Nim, he arrived in the United States
            in 1972 and established Zen Centers in the U.S. as well as
            Europe and Korea. These centers are linked together by an
            organization known as the Kwan Um School of Zen, which works
            to organize and schedule Dae Soen Sa Nim's efforts to teach
            Zen Buddhism  and to assist him in his other efforts in the direction
            of world peace.

    
                    The Zen Center offers daily practice which includes chanting,
             bowing, and sitting meditation, an extended sitting practice on
             Wednesday nights, monthly talks on Zen, and a regular Sunday
             evening Introduction to Zen Program. The Center also offers
             frequent retreats, workshops and one-day sitting intensives.