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 are trained & ordained. The mission of the Center is to foster spiritual realization, while modeling personal, collective and environmental stewardship.
The Center offers meditation, retreats, residency & apprenticeship, with occasional talks, workshops and cultural events. Resident monks & volunteers steward public greenspace (green roofs & gardens).
In 1990, the Zen Center acquired an abandoned, historic site with buildings in full dilapidation. Since then a grass-roots effort has been underway. A former WWII dance and wedding hall is the meditation hall & monastic quarters, with a former speak-easy now its commercial kitchen & cafe. The adjacent three-story residency has 4 bedrooms and a loft apartment. The greenspace includes 2 green roofs, a reflection garden, and a public peace garden (bioretention) converted from vacant land, which is open 24/7. We welcome short & long term guests and/or students, by inquiry or airbnb. The Zen Center is directed by monks.
Monks retreat half of the year (spring/fall) to Cloud Mountain Hermitage, where students may join them on an 8 acre site on Lake Superior, in the Porcupine Mountains (The Western Upper Peninsula of Michigan). Retreats are held there each season. The Hermitage is a spacious 2 story cottage, with a lower level walkout. There is a wood fired sauna, walking paths, & unhindered views of the moon, stars & Big Lake.
Over the years, monks & students have supported the Center in various ways, including: a vegan local 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 & outreach service (Handy People).
We currently rely on the generosity of residency guests and patrons, and student donations. All donations are tax deductible.
MONKS
Our monastics work full time to support and take care of the Center, follow its schedule, and receive a modest allowance.
DHARMA STUDENTS, GUIDES & TEACHERS
Dharma Study is open to the public, by application, and is formally offered through summer & winter semesters. Over the course of study, Dharma Students may enter into formal apprenticeship with the monks to take precepts, or lay (non-monastic) ordination as a Dharma Guide or a Dharma Teacher. Monastic study is also available.
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.
