SEOUL (UCAN) -- A Korean-born Maryknoll priest recognized as an "honorary" Seon (Zen) Master maintains that Seon is a way of praying rather than a religion, and Jesus was a "grand Seon master."

According to Father Kim Alfonso Hak-boum, who has been learning and practicing Seon meditation in Japan and Korea since the mid-1990s, Seon can also be an effective tool for inculturation and interreligious dialogue.

Maryknoll Father Kim Alfonso Hak-boum

In an interview with UCA News, Father Kim says that Christianity can be inculturated through Seon practice, especially in East Asia where many people regard the religion as "foreign." He also asserts that Jesus was a grand Seon master in that he maintained the state of being enlightened all the time through deep prayer and unity with God.

Father Kim was born in 1961 in Seoul. He migrated with his family to Argentina when he was 10, and to the United States six years later.

After receiving a bachelor's degree and then a master's in physics from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., he joined the Maryknoll Fathers and Brothers in 1990. He was introduced to Seon while in pastoral training in Kyoto, Japan, 1993-1996. He was ordained a Maryknoll priest in 1997, and then served as a parish priest for Kyoto diocese until 2001.

In 2002, Father Kim was certified in India to teach yoga. A U.S. citizen, he served 2003-2007 as Catholic representative from the United States in the World Conference of Religions for Peace (WCRP). During that time, he was also a Maryknoll vocation director.

The interview UCA News conducted with Father Kim in late July while he was on a visit in Seoul follows:

UCA NEWS: You have degrees in physics but you chose to be a priest. Why?

FATHER KIM ALFONSO HAK-BOUM: I had a weak heart since I was a kid and had to have a heart operation when I was 16. Then I prayed sincerely that if God saves my life I will become a priest. I couldn't get this out of my head even when my girlfriend and I talked about getting married. I did not believe God would abandon me even if I broke the promise, but I kept it nonetheless.

How did you learn about Seon?

After I joined Maryknoll, I went to Kyoto, Japan, for pastoral training from 1993 to 1996. My spiritual director taught me how to combine Seon meditation with Christian prayer. We did it as morning and evening prayer for one month.

That was the first time I got to know about Seon. It was a very precious experience for me. Due to the sudden death of that senior Maryknoll priest, however, I couldn't continue to practice it.

I complained to God about his death but it was no use. I decided to practice alone. After a few months, I realized Seon practice cannot be successful by depending only on books, without a teacher or guide. Fortunately, I could resume Seon meditation (with Japanese Seon masters in Buddhist temples) while serving as a parish priest for several years (in Kyoto).

Isn't combining Christian prayer with Seon meditation religious syncretism?

When I lead a retreat, I recommend that participants contemplate a phrase from the Bible while practicing breathing. Through concentrating on the phrase and seeking "who I am" endlessly at the same time, they go deep into their heart, where they meet their "self." If they "accept" their self, they get power to "empty" themselves and fill this emptiness with God.

But this is a very difficult process, especially for beginners who easily lose concentration. They should go back to focusing on their breathing.

The biblical phrase and Seon meditation do not conflict with each other. Rather, this leads to the experience of unity with God. If someone is afraid of this, it means they don't have a deep experience of God. They are afraid because they don't really know such deep prayer.

It has nothing to do with syncretism. Rather, it is a way of practical interreligious dialogue, finding the commonality between Christianity and others -- in this case, Seon meditation or prayer.

You are aware that the Vatican and the local Church are very concerned about relativism and syncretism.

I am well aware of that. But I am convinced that Seon is very helpful to my prayer and faith in God, so I don't worry. Last April, I led a 10-day retreat in Los Angeles (United States) in which some 60 Korean nuns took part. Their reactions were very positive. I told them they must experience God's love and power by themselves. It is quite difficult to describe God's love in human words. Seon practice leads us to a deep experience in silence, not words.

Isn't Seon a Buddhist denomination? Why do you practice it continuously?

Yes, it is a Buddhist denomination. But on a practical level, it is a way of praying. In the early Church's tradition, there were the Desert Fathers who practiced deep meditation like Seon, imitating Jesus' words and deeds. But we have lost such a tradition today. It is good for us to forget the prejudice that Seon belongs only to Buddhism.

I believe Jesus himself was a grand Seon master. He was the enlightened and the enlightener. Through deep prayer, he could empty his "self" and fill it entirely with God. Jesus knew such unity with God and lived it by being always enlightened through deep prayer. We can also be a Seon master like Jesus.

I practice it continuously simply because I want to pray deeply, so that I can experience God more intimately. That led me to become an "honorary" Seon master last year.

Can you elaborate about becoming a Seon master?

I stayed at Songgwang-sa Temple, a historic Buddhist temple in Korea, during my six-month sabbatical leave. I joined a Buddhist winter meditation retreat there for three months. After total silence in the retreat, I told the monks I want a deeper level of meditation. They recommended I meet the grand Seon master, Hwalan, living in a small hermitage on a mountain a few kilometers from the temple.

I met him twice and told him who I was and what I wanted. When I met him the second time, he conducted a brief "initiation" in which he laid his hands on my head and touched my shoulders and hands. After that, he wrote Chinese words on two sheets of paper as a "certification" for Seon master.

Surprised at what happened when I met with Hwalan, the monks told me it was a very special case they never heard before. They said the grand Seon master officially recognized me as a Seon master, so they should call me a Seon master. But I am a Catholic priest, so they call me an "honorary" Seon master.

Do you think Seon can help inculturate the Church in Asia?

Very much, especially the Church in East Asia. The Church in Asia has not yet been rooted in its soil. In fact, the Church has become "Romanized" in its way of thinking, language and liturgy.

East Asians are familiar with the image of silence, emptiness and nothingness that are all in the Seon tradition. To those Asians, God is emptiness itself in total silence where, paradoxically, God fills it.

East Asian Christians can feel God as great emptiness, which is peace and light, at a deep level. Through Seon meditation, therefore, they can go to a deeper level where they closely experience God.

We have to take the fixed image of God, residing "somewhere out there" in heaven, out of the box. To inculturate God's image, experiencing God inside us is more recommendable for Asians.

You also practice yoga. Is it different from Seon? What do they all mean to you as a Catholic priest?

Thanks to the great help and support of Indian Jesuit Father Michael Amaladoss, I went to India and practiced yoga in Chennai 2000-2001. Though the Indian government did not extend my visa, fortunately I could finish studying Kundalini (energy) Yoga and healing yoga, two different kinds of yoga, and got certification to teach yoga.

Briefly speaking, yoga focuses on chakra (energy centers in the body) for meditation, while Seon usually uses a critical phrase for meditation. Both help me get into deep prayer through meditation.

Yoga and Seon practices promote interreligious dialogue. If one wants to dialogue with other religions, one should first know one's own religion well, and then make an effort to know other religions.

As an executive council member of the World Conference of Religions for Peace from 2003 to 2007, I realized that laypeople, not clergymen, should lead interreligious dialogue today. The role of clergymen like me is to help or support laypeople to have genuine dialogue among religions -- not by many words but practicing each other's prayer.

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