Won Buddhism Dharma Talks

Through her thoughtful and gentle reflection of a year at its end, Rev. WonGong of the North Carolina Temple honors the grace of the many sentient beings who have shared her life’s path, as well as the spacious moments she experienced in meditation and the tangible world. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

In this fascinating dharma talk, Rev. ZiYoung deftly compares the push and pull of magnets to the push and pull of our discriminating mind. Our judgments act like magnets that grasp and repel people and ideas; and when we release these polarized forces, our mind opens into all-embracing freedom, and our suffering ends. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

As we enter the last days of the year, Rev. WonGong invites us to explore the joys of simplified living. With clear thought and by example, she shows us that when we declutter our living spaces and our minds, we can follow in the footsteps of sages and teachers who released what entangled them and found freedom. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

With keen observation, Won Buddhist practitioner, Nate Jackson (Won JaySon), points out how an imbalance of the spiritual and material in our lives blocks our ability to be at peace with ourselves and the world. His journey writing a dharma talk is an invitation to join him on a journey of self-compassion - a medicine that can free us to release our self-critical mind. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.or...

Member's Talk by Kim Jones (Won Joong Shim)Nov/28/2021 https://wonbuddhismnyc.org/

Rev. WonGong of the North Carolina Temple begins this prayerful meditation on gratitude with a reflection on Ven. SeungSan, a leader of Won Buddhism in Korea, who passed a few days ago. Deep gratitude for fellow beings extends not only to those we venerate, but also those who challenge us. Rev. WonGong reminds us that, "We are what we think, we are what we say, we are what we chant." https://www.w...

Rev. WonGong of the North Carolina Temple shares the profound message we see in falling autumn leaves, that of "…drop, release, let go." People are like autumn leaves, individual and unique, yet all subject to the swirling winds of cause and effect. Like falling leaves we can let go and "go with the flow" of life. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

In this talk, Paula Sims (Won ShimJin) of the North Carolina Temple, takes us on a gentle journey in which she shares with us how prayer and gratitude has shaped her spiritual life. Paula describes how true prayer is much more than words, and how one-pointedness of mind developed through prayer can help us savor the joyfulness of gratitude. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org Talk References: The Princi...

In this guided meditation, Rev. WonGong of the North Carolina Temple both elaborates upon, and also focuses the mind, to become aware of the Fourfold Grace here and now. http://wonscripture.org/Main/SubIndex/jungjun020201 Join her in surrendering to this grace which is so pervasive, like oxygen, that it may be under the radar in the midst of the busy and distracted now. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.o...

In this delightful dharma talk, Rev. WonGong So explores the topic, "a mind that responds but does not abide anywhere." Through the versatile lenses of poetry, stories, Buddhist teachings, and wifi settings, she turns something that might seem esoteric into an accessible subject for contemplation. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

On this beautiful November day in the month of gratitude, Rev. WonGong of the North Carolina Temple leads a guided meditation of gratitude, healing and peace. You are invited to sit quietly with our universal dharma community, resting in the still point of this present moment with the mantra, "I am grateful. All is grace." https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

Dharma Talk by Rev. Dosung Yoo (Nov 07, 2011) https://wondharmacenter.org/

Dharma Talk by Rev. Grace Song (Nov/07/2021) wonbuddhismnyc.org

With a full heart Rev. WonGong expresses her deep gratitude for those who sustain the North Carolina Temple through monthly donations. She details how this community has been supported by hard-earned funds that came from minimum wage and odd jobs, to her intention to invest in the future by creating an endowment. Please consider making a contribution here: https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

Rev. WonGong of the North Carolina Temple gives us an open and honest assessment of the quality of her own practice in this dharma talk. She has come to realize that measuring one's meditation practice can be as simple as observing just how many thoughts cary our minds away (the fewer the better). Rev. WonGong presents practical ways we can achieve a good quality meditation practice. https://www.w...

Member's Talk by Douglas Conkling @ Won Dharma Center October 17, 2021 https://wondharmacenter.org/

Rebecca Kameny (Won Hee), a member of the North Carolina Temple, explores the human experience of disappointment and how it can block us from experiencing equanimity. Using thoughtful examples, she shows how the Threefold Practice can help us navigate our way out of the tangle of disappointments we sometimes create for ourselves. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org

Rev. WonGong of the North Carolina Temple explains how the healthiest tree in the garden, an Arborvitae, is the one that is close to a water tap. Proximity to a popular resource insures this evergreen gets lots of loving attention, and it flourishes because of this. Temple practitioners can likewise nourish each other by meeting together, calling or texting. "We are one, we are whole." https://www...

In her Dharma talk, Rev. ZiYoung, Kyomunim at the North Carolina Temple, reflects on Buddhadharma in everyday life and discovers that Buddhadharma already 'is' everyday life! We can recognize this fact by "Requiting the Graces with One Mind" as explained by Master Daesan. Rev. ZiYoung gives us personal examples of what it means to requite graces and come to see, for ourselves, the inherent wholene...

Pete Warshaw (Won JeeHo), a member of the North Carolina Temple, discusses the reasons for and path taken in updating Won Buddhism's entry in Wikipedia (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Won_Buddhism). Pete emphasizes that updating and clarifying this important resource is a community effort, and he also reminds us that many current practitioners were introduced to Won Buddhism through small windows i...

Desi Adams (Won JaIn), a visiting practitioner from the Philadelphia Temple, shares her experience engaging in a very personal aspiration, one with which so many of us can relate, which is refraining from interrupting others when they are speaking. Changing habits is not a trivial process. Desi found wisdom in The Scripture of the Founding Master, Chapter Three: Practice, verse 30 (http://wonscrip...

Brain Adams (Won SungDeok), a visiting practitioner from the Philadelphia Temple, shares his experience with chanting in the Won Buddhist tradition. His initial apprehension melted away during a retreat when he discovered what he calls "…the sincerity of whole-hearted chanting." Brian's chanting practice really took off, however, when a Kyomunim suggested he chant from his "Dan Jeon" ("Dantian" 단...

In a very personal reflection of her own experience dealing with the possibility of being a Covid carrier herself, Rev. WonGong expands upon this one single contemporary fear, to discriminatory thoughts in general, their genesis, and practice for resolving thoughts that smother love and compassion for others. Compassion is innate to human beings, but obscured by "…fear, anxiety, and insecurity, to...

Lara Olson (Won LaSon) investigates her own day-to-day experience recognizing judgmental thought so easily engaged in erroneously labeling other people. This mind may actually be reflecting the nurturer and nature of the observer in a way familiar to the person actively exercising the discriminating mind. Lara provides tips on revealing the underlying ego that informs this judgmental mind. https:/...

Visiting Reverend Shaun Song (Won SiJoong), details his journey toward true nature in this vulnerable and relatable message that brings hope to all of us in our path to self understanding and enlightenment. Mentors and situations are everywhere lighting the way when we look at what this reflected light reveals. https://www.wonbuddhismnc.org/