01/21/2026
For several years, I lived as a lay practitioner, a novice among Bhikkhunīs in a temple in Yongin, South Korea. Life there was shaped not by doctrine but by rhythm: bells before dawn, the slow arc of bows, the quiet teaching of shared silence. Lessons without words—still carrying me.
It was there I met my soul-friend, a Korean Jindo puppy born at another temple. I named him Brownie. He moved through halls, gardens, mountain paths, absorbing calm as naturally as sunlight. He belonged not to me, but to the life of practice itself.
One year ago today, 1/21/2025, Brownie left this life. Sudden, clear. For twenty-one days he drank only water. Still, each day, he walked. Through our neighbor's farm fields, step by step, breath by breath, as if completing a final circumambulation. Presence as teaching. Leaving as lesson.
Recently, I drove from North Carolina to Blythewood, South Carolina, carrying his ashes, offering gratitude to the Venerables. Had he lived, Brownie certainly would have come on this journey to see familiar faces and robes.
Few in the United States have seen a Venerable. I have. Some wonder—half in jest, half in disbelief—if I have lived this life before: born here in the USA, raised among many faiths, yet finding my way to a Korean temple. In that life, such thoughts are ordinary. Lifetimes unfold; affinities ripen.
On the roadside in Blythewood, I bowed, ashes at my side. The Venerables stopped. Few words, ceremony. Only recognition.
To receive blessings of merit is extraordinary.
To be seen—truly seen—is rarer still.
Compassion, immediate and embodied, not abstract or ritual.
Long stretches of the path can feel solitary: walking, bowing, unnoticed.
And yet in that moment, silence spoke—loud as temple drums, clear as the pre-dawn bell.
The universe remembering itself.
Om.
The land settled.
So did the mind.
Many in body.
One in mind.
In Seon, the truest teaching appears not in words, but in meeting: eyes meeting, intention recognized without explanation.
Grief and gratitude bowed together. The path did not vanish—it revealed itself.
Hearts resting, briefly, completely, in peace.
Thank you.
감사합니다.
Sādhu, sādhu, sādhu.
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