Detroit Zen Center
a living tradition
HISTORY, LINEAGE; SITE & MISSION
Founded in 1990 by Zen Monk Hwalson Sunim, the Detroit Zen Center is a spiritual branch of Sudeok-sa Temple in Korea -- founded around 530AD -- where DZC monks trained & ordained. The mission of the Center is to share the essence of Zen as an ecology-based lifestyle that includes meditation, retreat, manual work, art, mentorship, fellowship, & environmental stewardship.
In 1990, monks & volunteers began a grass roots renovation of our abandoned yet historic site, with buildings in full dilapidation. The work continues. A former WWII dance and wedding hall is the meditation hall & retreat center, with a former speak-easy now a commercial kitchen & cafe. The adjacent three-story residency has 4 bedrooms and a loft apartment. The site has 2 green roofs, public bioretention gardens (a converted vacant lot). We house short & long term guests. The Zen Center is directed by volunteer monks and students. Monks live half the year (spring/fall) at Cloud Mountain Hermitage, where students join them for retreats on a 9 acre site on Lake Superior, in the Porcupine Mountains (Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan).
Over the years, monks have operated various businesses to support the Center including: a vegan food distribution business, bulk food store & cafe (Living Zen Organics), a program to assist single, low-income mothers with housing & home ownership (Our Homes), and a neighborhood home repair service (Handy People). We currently are supported through donations, residency, retreats & groups that use Cloud Mountain Hermitage during spring/summer. All donations are tax deductible.
MONKS
Our monastics work full time to support and take care of the Center, steward its schedule, programs, residency, buildings & grounds, and receive a modest allowance.
DHARMA STUDENTS, GUIDES & TEACHERS
Dharma Students & Teachers study with the monks. Anyone may apply after attending a Sunday Newcomer Meditation and scheduling tea with the Abbot. Dharma Students are guided through retreats & personal study, and may eventually take formal precepts, become lay Dharma Teachers, or enter a monastic path.
PATRONS
Patrons support the Center by contributing time, money or goods.
Our Abbot,
Myungju Sunim (주지,명주스님)
Myungju is a Zen Buddhist monk (nun), who became a novice in 1998, and ordained in 2004 at Sudeoksa Temple, Korea. She serves as Abbot of the Detroit Zen Center & its Cloud Mountain Hermitage, where she continues to study with her root teacher, Hwalson Sunim. She has trained extensively in monasteries in America, Korea, and with Sasaki Roshi on Mt. Baldy. She teaches through Sunday workshops, talks & retreats in Detroit & Ontonagon, MI.
With a blue-collar zen approach – in the spirit of early zen communities – she & fellow students cook, clean & do other manual work to support themselves & the Center.
Hwalson Sunim founded the Detroit Zen Center in 1990. Hwalson is his ordination name; Sunim is the title given a monk in the Korean tradition.
Born in 1941 in Detroit, Sunim was a high school teacher in the City. He served as a peacekeeper during the 1967 uprising, & left soon after. He was a professor of sociology at Penn State, then at McMaster University & the Ontario government, in Toronto. He met his first Zen teacher, Samu Sunim, and became a monk and full time apprentice with him in 1975. He then become a carpenter as a means to practice and support building Temples under his teacher. They formed People's Carpentry, & built first the Zen Buddhist Temple of Toronto, then Ann Arbor. In 1984 he entered full time training in Korea as a disciple of Master Wondam, at Sudeoksa Temple. In 1990 Wondam directed him back to the US to teach. He arrived in Detroit with $50 and a backpack, and put his training & carpentry skills to use to inspire our grassroots Zen Center into being.
Hwalson Sunim offers tea meetings, but limits formal teaching to retreats. He works closely with his dharma students and full time students.
Dharma Teachers
Jingwang first came to a Sunday beginner meditation at the Detroit Zen Center in March of 2005. Over the course of the next 8 years he came to study at the Zen Center several days each week, and participated in dozens of retreats and helped with the major renovation projects at the cente as part of his training under Master Hwalson Sunim. He was ordained as a lay Dharma Teacher in 2013.
As a father, a husband, a civil engineer, and a talented musician, Jingwang relates to Zen as a way of life, integrating it into his daily routines, while showing up and supporting the community at the DZC however he can. His loyalty, generosity and dedication for nearly 20 years has been instrumental in the Detroit Zen Center being here. Jingwang continues his study, and now hosts & participate in workshops, retreats, meditation, work projects, & private study.
Haesan walked through the gate of the Detroit Zen Center out of a sense of curiosity, but also a desire for spiritual purpose in September of 2016. Having made a connection with the teachings and teachers, he became a Dharma student under Master Hwalson Sunim and head monk, Myungju Sunim, and began showing up for nearly every volunteer day, event, meditation and retreat for the next few years.
In 2019 along with his teachers, he visited Korea and our home temple Sudeoksa, and spent time with Korea’s living Zen Masters. This experience deepened his connection, and he entered Dharma Teacher training. He feels honored to have received lay ordination as a Dharma Teacher in August, 2024 with Hwalson Sunim as his preceptor. Haesan continues to host and participate in Zen workshops, retreats and meditation while continuing study with his teachers. Haesan lives in Detroit, and in addition to his formal zen study, he works as a personal trainer, working primarily with the elderly population. He is also a licensed massage therapist.
Our Community
Moving from I to We is at the heart of of zen study.
