For every three years, the International Kwan Um School of Zen organizes the Whole World Single Flower (WWSF) Conference, with the purpose of gathering students and teachers from all over the world, to come and practice together.
In the past years, the WWSF conference has taken place in Poland, Singapore, Korea, America, China. And, this year it took place in India. Every time, the WWSF Conference took place with a together trip so that the students can travel together.
The trips serve to open up our mind to see and learn from others, to get out of our comfort zones, and our own territories of the Known.
With a complete Don't Know Mind, the international team started to work on this trip 2 years ago. At last, the 2011 WWSF Conference took place in India on the 25 October 2011 at the Korean Temple in Lumbini, the birth place of Buddha.
3 Groups of Students: one International, one Korean and one Singaporean came with their different travel schedule, all gathered together at the Lumbini Korean Temple for the Conference.
In fact, the Whole World Single Flower did not just take shape in the form of a Conference, but the Flower blossomed along the journey of ours following the footsteps of Buddha.
The Sangha chanted the Heart Sutra, Great Dhanari over the Ganges River, early in the morning, while the Sun was rising. Like the Ganges River, our mind had no clean or dirty, holy or not holy, dead or alive, high or low. The River took everything, nurtured everything without discrimination.
In Silence, we were on the water, watching the rising sun. In Harmony, the Sangha from all over the world just chanted the Heart Sutra, the Great Dharani 100 percent.
With a Don't Know Mind, the International Sangha started this journey of following the footsteps of the Buddha.
The Whole World Single Flower appeared when we were chanting to the deers at Deer Park where Buddha gave the Teaching on the 8 Noble Paths, the way to Happiness and Well-being.
The Whole World Single Flower appeared when we sat under the Bodhi Tree in Bodhgaya, when we chanted around the MahaBodhi Temple, when we walked in meditation in the Garden of Bodhgaya.
The Whole World Single Flower took place in Vulture Peak where we walked up in silence under the starry night. We listened to Dharma Talk, we meditated and calmed our mind. (With also a few big Monkeys joining us, snatching our breakfast box!)
The Whole World Single Flower appeared in Kushinarga where the whole Sangha has made a donation to the School Children sponsored by the Vietnamese Temple. We offered not only the materials, but our chanting, and our love to the 400 children in Kushinagar.
The Whole World Single Flower took place along the Bus Ride, when we shared with everyone our experience, and mostly our gratitude.
The Whole World Single Flower appeared when we were giving fertilizer to mother earth in the Toilet of Nature. (How free and no boundary!)
The Whole World Single Flower appeared when the Hong Kong Sangha offered the song, 'Friend' (in Cantonese) to everyone at the WWSF conference. (Even though we did not know each others in the beginning, now our hearts are so close to each others.)
The Whole World Single Flower appeared when everyone in the Sangha felt the presence of each others, bonded like a family.
After all, the Whole World Single Flower appeared, as Zen Master Seung Sahn would say, when we cut off our thinking.
This time, in India, the Whole World Single Flower did not appear in the Talk, but in the Walk!
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