Whole World is a Single Flower 1996

It was about 9 pm on Monday September 30th, 1996 when I stepped into line for Korean Air Lines flight 15 headed for Hong Kong via Seoul, Korea. I began planning to go on this particular trip sometime back in 1994 after speaking with some of the sangha members who had visited China with Dae Soen Sa Nim in 1993. This was to be the 4th Triennial “The Whole World is a Single Flower Conference” at Nam Wah Sa “South China Temple” which was built by Hui Neng, the 6th Patriarch. The temple is located just outside of the city of Shaoguan in Southern China. We would also have the opportunity to visit Un Mun Sa, the temple originally built by Un Mun (Ch: Yunmen) in a neighboring province. Since my early days of involvement with Zen it had always been a dream to visit China and the opportunity of visiting ancient temples with the Founding teacher of our school was more than the fulfillment of that dream. By 1 am on Tuesday morning I had met up with the small contingent traveling from Los Angeles.

I received a phone call on my cell phone while waiting for the flight to depart from LAX. It was my son who called to inform me that I was a grandfather. The information was bittersweet, because I would never get to see this baby who was adopted the next day. My son and his girlfriend decided they were too young to raise a child. He was 18 and she only 17 years old. Several of the people waiting for the flight were from Los Angeles and a few had arrived from locations in the Central US. One of the people I met that night has become a close friend and business associate. After a 3-year wait the flight took off at 1:15 am.

Our flight landed in Seoul, Korea where the Los Angeles travelers had the opportunity to meet up with the other group of American’s arriving from the East Coast. We all meandered around the Seoul International Airport for the 2-hour layover and some of us socialized over some very expensive coffee while introductions were made and old friendships were renewed. By this time our group had grown to seventeen. I had really expected a much larger turnout, but later came to enjoy the intimacy of this small group. Eventually we boarded our flight for Hong Kong and a little over 3 hours later the plane made a very dramatic banking maneuver between some high-rise buildings and landed at Hong Kong Airport.

The bus ride to Wanchai, which was where our hotel was located, was quite interesting in that we saw many interesting things. Our tour guide, Zen Master Dae Kwang was exceptionally informative and managed to make the trip fun and enjoyable. Hong Kong is a very intriguing city; everyone seemed poised for some radical changes as it was being prepared to be given back to the Chinese by the end of that year. This edge of uncertainty made the city truly alive and grounded in the present; it is truly a melting pot of cultures. The streets are crowded, the buildings are tall, and about 30 percent of the city appears to be under reconstruction. With the crowds, the traffic and hustle and bustle of this fast growing metropolis, I was surprised at how safe the city actually is. We spent the next day and a half wandering through shops, riding buses, ferries and trains, sightseeing and eating some of the best food I have ever experienced.

The Hong Kong Sangha members were the most memorable and proved invaluable in our unsuccessful attempts at trying to barter for better deals or in finding a good restaurant to visit. This group proved to this tired old American what the true meaning of together action was. All of our Hong Kong hosts were tireless in their efforts to assist us and make our visit a most pleasant event.

One highlight of our stay in Hong Kong was morning practice at Su Bong Zen Monastery. The walk to the center through Hong Kong in predawn was probably an event few people ever have an opportunity to experience. After practice, Zen Master Dae Kwang led us through a few of the local parks where the older resident’s of Hong Kong were practicing Tai Chi as well as playing soccer. We received some strange looks from the locals as we marched single file through the back streets and cul de sacs of Hong Kong’s innermost communities.

At 5 am on Friday morning we assembled outside the Empire Hotel and boarded our bus that would take us to the border town of Shenzhen. At Shenzhen we processed through Chinese Customs and finally entered the Peoples Republic of China. The bus then took us through Shenzhen to the train station where we would ride the train 6 and half hours north to the City of Shaoguan. The train ride was electric, almost like going back one hundred years to a bygone era, and the scenery was the most dramatic I think I have ever seen. All the paintings and stories you have ever heard about China’s beauty and spender don’t add up to the actual experience.

Arriving at the Shaoguan train station was like a scene out of “Casablanca.” The lighting was a muted blue and rather dim to Western standards. But the feeling and the experience transported me to another world which exists beyond my own present idea of life and community, beyond my levels of comfort that exist in this mundane repetitive world I have come to accept as my universe. I was challenged to question my ideas. To put down my opinion at how things ought to be and just allow things to be. Yvonne Padilla, a fellow traveler and sangha member from Los Angeles asked me if I’d go for a walk with her around the town. It was late, maybe 11pm, the city was rather seedy looking and dark and no one else was up to leaving the Hotel, but I swallowed my fears and decided to go on this walk with her. I can’t say I was comfortable, we attracted a lot of attention from the locals; however, I will never forget my feelings nor the sights and the people we encountered that evening. China is a world away from America. Even though a lot of the younger people were wearing jeans and DKNY T-shirts, their manner and way of relating to one another was totally alien to me. I have spent six years of my life living in Europe and thought I understood foreign culture, but this shattered many of my illusions that night. It is quite different when you are the minority, suffice it say it was humbling.